A Beginner's Point of View 519-520

Day 519:

The instructors have brought us a new way to train. They say we need to understand how to react to others pressure. We did a new set of drills.

We did kiri-kaeshi all the way down the length of the dojo and back. We approached our opponent using okuri-ashi and then strike men, kote, and then doh. The motodachi did a drill to approach us with ayumi-ashi until we were in issoku-ittou-no-maai.

We then did some more advanced drills of suriage-men when the motodachi steps into maai. We then did some kakari-geiko and then a new way. We did kakari-geiko with the receiver ‘resisting’. Resisting means stepping away, dodging, and lightly blocking. I liked resisting. I was pretty good at it. I wasn’t bad at striking a resisting opponent, either. We finished with ji-geiko. I didn’t have to step out once.

Day 520:

We started with the new kiri-kaeshi. I don’t like it much since it’s awkward to know when to stop together. We did men-ouchi normally, with okuri-ashi, and motodachi ayumi-ashi. We practiced men-debana-kote and kote-suriage-men to sharpen our technique. We then repeated the kakari-geiko and kakari-geiko with resistance.

We finished with ji-geiko and kata. In kata, I practiced the first five with a student and then I did six and seven with sensei. Sensei said that my six and seven has improved. I remembered to not rush through the footwork and turn my body to the left as shidachi in seven.