A Beginner's Point of View 618-619

Day 618:

In Iaido class, I finished 3 sets of kata and then did a few spare kata. I focused on the 12th kata because I need more saya-biki.

In Kendo we started with suburi and then men-tsuke. We had 2 beginners, so it was an easy day. We did kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, doh-ouchi, kote-men-ouchi, and ji-geiko. One of our beginners had his first day in full bogu.

Day 619:

In Iaido class, it was one of the most humid days ever. I was sweating so much just from kata. I had a moment of weakness from the humidity. Still, I finished 4 sets of kata. New record! Not even rushing.

In Kendo class, I decided to pace myself instead of pushing myself. We did suburi and okuri-ashi. Our newest student joined us up to this point. Afterwards, he went off to practice with one of our sensei.

We practiced kihon-waza and some kote-men-ouchi. From there, sensei taught us about how to make the kote-men-ouchi into a quicker waza. You strike kote when you raise up for fumi-komi and strike men when you stomp down. I was actually pretty good at it. I just think of kote-men as skipping-stone. We then practiced kote-suriage-men, which was easier then I remember doing it when I was a few ranks lower. We finished with kiri-kaeshi.