A Beginner's Point of View 588-589

Day 588:

In Iaido class, I was really distracted. I focused on my kata and almost finished all twelve kata for a full three sets. I was only one kata away and I kept thinking about other things.

In Kendo class, it was cooler than expected. We did suburi, kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, and then some shodan waza. We started with step-men, step-kote, and ji-geiko. We were trying to bring up the class from kyu ranks to dan ranks.

Day 589:

Today was really hot. It was 95 degrees and the heat index was 105 degrees. There were multiple warnings of heat exhaustion. However, our class today had two advantages. The air conditioning was actually working for once, so the temperature was only 82 degrees inside. The other thing was that there were lots of students here today. I was in the receiving line for multiple students in each line. I still got to perform waza practice but had plenty of time to catch my breath and cool down between sets. This is the way to practice Kendo on hot days. Good workout but not feeling poorly from overheating.

Suburi, kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, and kakari-geiko was done quickly with one rotation each. After that it was birthday hotseat. One of my friends was having a birthday later in the week, so we all took turns gauntlet-style for short keiko. Even the new students practiced waza on him. It was a good day.