A Beginner's Point of View 525-526

Day 525:

Today we worked on getting maai for men strike down well. Drills included kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, okuri-ashi-men, seme-men, seme-men-men, and then ai-ouchi-men. We finished with an invigorating round of four-person-kakari-geiko.

We did some kata afterwards. I practiced the first five kata with a student. He did well. I think he would have passed. I had forgotten which type of jodan was needed for the fifth kata on the uchidachi side. It turns out to be left jodan. The uchidachi needs to be careful in attacking to straighten the attack for the shidachi.

Day 526:

Today was more instructional for form and techinique. We did kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, and then ji-geiko using only men strikes. That’s new. Then we did kote-ouchi and then ji-geiko using only men or kote. We then did doh-ouchi and then ji-geiko like normal. We then concentrated on oji-waza. Kote-men-ouchi, seme-men, seme-men-debana-kote, and seme-kote-suriage-men. We finished with some three-person-kakari-geiko.

We finished with some kata. I practiced the first seven kata with another shodan. I learned that we need some precision work. For myself, I have two errors. First, I need to not jump back as uchidachi. That just makes the shidachi too far away. Also, my footwork as uchidachi in the seventh kata is wrong. It’s two steps forward for the initial cut and then slide the left foot back as you aim for the shidachi and a Kendo step backwards to pull the shidachi up.