A Beginner's Point of View 672-673

Day 672:

In Iaido, I was worried about my back. I went carefully but powered through two sets and ten kata. Afterwards, Sensei wanted to have the class go over the final five kata together. That was the end of class. My back feels okay.

In Kendo class, both sensei decided that the class needed time to practice kata. It was decided that half of the class should be decided to focus on kata so I was asked to lead an intense class. To me, intense means lots of repetition. So, we did 5-7-9 of repetitions of kihon, ai-kote-men, uchikomi-geiko, and kote-men. We finished with a single kiri-kaeshi and I had to allow the student in the out spot to practice on me at the end.

I love kata. I got to practice the first seven kata as shidachi. Then we did the shoto kata. We had some trouble from not doing the kata for a while. In the eighth kata, I have to remember that I’m in an exaggerated stance. Very exaggerated like a classic gunfighter stance where my right should is very far forward. In the ninth kata, I am in chudan and must remember to step forward to close space. In the tenth kata, I am in geidan and must step forward during the uchidachi’s attack on my doh. Turning the elbow in both ninth and tenth katas in important to visually show I did it.

Day 673:

In Iaido, I performed one and a half full sets of kata before Sensei decided to have us perform stretches together as a class. We did walking lunges across the floor and then we practiced two sets of the four-way cutting drill. I did have a question to him about the horizontal cut going into the vertical cut in the eleventh kata. I mentioned that others at the seminar were whirling their blades fast, seemingly almost out of control. He mentioned that the scenario is that the opponent is constantly stepping back so you need to keeping attacking without pause. We also talked after class about waki-gamae as a stance. I have apparently been doing it wrong for years and NOBODY has been calling me out on it, not even sensei. I’ve passed three kata-based Kendo exams with wrong footwork. Ugh. You need to turn your back foot only 45 degrees off center and NOT point it backwards like I’ve been doing.

In Kendo class, the other nidan was here today, so it was his turn to teach the class. We did suri-ashi drills, kihon, the harai-kote pressure trick, kakari-geiko, and finished with rounds of ji-geiko.