A Beginner's Point of View 580-581

Day 581:

Today was really hot and humid. It really does not feel good to exercise today. Still, I did 2.75 sets of Iaido. I was a little wobbly on my feet. I should be a little slower. We have a new student today and Sensei showed him some elementary cuts.

In Kendo, I stepped into suburi and was winded already. I pushed on and did men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, uchikomi-geiko, keiko, and doh-ouchi. We had a Guest Sensei today, who is a sandan. After waza, we had rotating practice matches. I got some advice in not using full-sized fumi-komi or else risk running into my opponent, especially if they are just as tall as myself.

Day 582:

In Iaido class, Sensei spent time teaching the new student the twelfth kata. He likes to start with the final kata because it’s the simplest. I did 2.75 sets of kata again, like a trend. The humidity really makes me unwell. Today I tried to fix my metsuke and grip my iaito when backing up with a firm right hand instead of the loose right hand.

Today we had a huge Kendo class. As big as the class ever was when I started years ago. I was asked to be in the dan line to help train the students. The student formed lines and waited their turns. When the repetitions were done, the dans would rotate to be more efficient. I got lots of time to recover my stamina from the humidty. Still, after rotating two full lines we got to practice against the senior-most student in the line. That was good. We did kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, doh-ouchi, and uchikomi-geiko. I really did my best to demonstrate best Kendo when it was my turn to practice.

One of the students, who was ready to test for shodan, announced it was his birthday. Our dojo has the tradition of hotseat keiko with the who dojo when that happens. It was about 12 opponents without a break. He finished and even fought evenly with Sensei at the end.

Day 582.5 Tournament:

Putting on our tournament is always a fun affair. I was put in charge of Court B again. I knew what I was doing and we did our job swiftly. When it was my turn to fight, I had two matches. I lost the first match to someone who was seemingly my mirror. He was as fast as me. He baited like me. We circled together. He was just a little more accurate than me, so he got two points. My second opponent was slower than me, I out moved and got two points. I did not advance but I put forth a good effort. At the end of the day we had our team match. I was put into Taisho position to fight the other ‘captain’. This was to let our other people fight the people in the middle. I fought against a yandan. It was easily predictable but I was able to push my opponent to bring his best effort. I even got to strike two good doh-ouchi against him. Too bad he was able to strike my men before my doh strikes.