Day 174:
Sensei was back from Iaido camp in high spirits. We did several rounds of kiri-kaeshi, followed by several rounds of one-step men and one-step kote. Occasionally, we would perform oji-waza as our partner did one-step drills on us, sometimes we let them hit. After we were all exhausted, he asked if anyone was still ‘strong’. When no one spoke up, he picked a person and then placed him in the center of the dojo. The rest of us would form a line and continuously attack him using a single attack. He would counter-attack after we started our attack. Once the line ended, he turned around and we immediately attacked again, giving him no rest. This happened for a few full lines and then the next person would rotate into the middle. We did this until everyone had been in the middle. Sensei even took a few turns being in the middle to sharpen his skills.
I had to take a break to catch my breath. We did a couple rounds of keiko and a few more oji-waza drills, including an interesting drill Sensei invented. He would stand still and claim his spot. We would then strike men, slam doh to take his spot and then hiki-men or hiki-kote. We would repeat this over and over until Sensei was satisfied.
I was almost ready to stop for the evening and rest when Sensei called for kata. I love kata. My partner and I were told to practice the first kata over and over and receive specific instruction to make it more perfect. We must have performed each role a couple of dozen times for each of us, but still it was valuable advice. I learned that when I am motivated to do kata, I grip my bokken too tightly, resulting in bulging forearms, which makes the movement too stiff.
Day 175:
Today was a day more for technique that hard work. We did start off with a few rounds of kiri-kaeshi, one-step men, and one-step kote. However, we spent time on one-step doh and oji-waza for the same. We also spent time practicing tsuki and the oji-waza associated with it.
We stopped earlier than usual in order to spend a lot of time on practicing kata number one. I love kata. However, I learned today that my kata isn’t nearly as nice as it should be. I take too big steps going forward, thus putting myself right in the path of my opponent’s bokken. I also do not perform the shidachi’s counter properly. I keep swinging the bokken backwards instead of stabbing it straight up. I take too big a step going forward after the winning cut into left jodan. This keeps us too close when we finish. This probably also makes us off-center for each kata. I need to work on those things.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 172-173
Day 172:
I’m back to class after being sick all last week. It’s great to be back in uniform. As Sensei was dismissing the beginner class, he called myself and another student up before the class. He had received our certificates from the Kendo Federation declaring both of us at the rank of Ni-Kyu (2-Kyu). Sensei made it a point to relate to the class about our accomplishments during our testing. My classmate had successfully performed a pair of doh strikes, including a men-kaeshi-doh strike that was perfect. I had performed several perfect men strikes and nearly accomplished a perfect kote-men. The class all clapped for us.
Class started out the same way we’ve been doing it for a while. We did kiri-kaeshi and one-step men. This led into more drills about oji-waza. We practiced men-suriage-men and kote-suriage-men. We also practiced tsuki and tsuki-suriage-men. I’m still very nervous about performing tsuki, I tend only to touch rather than tap. We finished class by having two rounds of keiko and then kata.
I love kata. I got paired with someone I’ve never practiced kata with before. He’s very experienced at it, but hasn’t done kata in a long time. We practiced the first five kata in sequence. I needed a refresher on the fourth and fifth kata. In the fourth kata, the uchidachi moves into hasso with left foot forward. The shidachi moves into waki with left foot forward. This is the opening setup which keeps me confused. I mix up roles. In the fifth kata, the uchidachi moves into left jodan while the the shidachi simply alters his chudan kamae to threaten the kote. After the counter strike, the shidachi traces the bokken down the nose of the uchidachi and then moves backwards into left jodan and then backwards into chudan. Then the pair moves three steps towards the uchidachi.
Day 173:
Today Sensei was at an Iaido seminar and couldn’t teach the class. One of his colleagues took over the basic and advanced classes. He had a more free-form approach to Kendo. He asked us what we would like to learn. We were at a loss to decide what to learn, so we just asked for some kata at the end of class. We started off with kiri-kaeshi and one-step men drills.
Soon, our guest instructor began to notice things about us. He asked if we had ever trained in sashi-waza. We said we had not learned it formally, just informally. So he taught us slowly about sashi-men and sashi-kote. It means a smaller swing, not bringing the shinai over our heads. For sashi-men, we do not rotate our shoulders. Instead we bend our elbows until the shinai taps our men-gane, then step forward and swing down. This is not the correct final form, but it teaches us not to swing our arms up. Then we refine it to lift our arms just barely and bring them down quickly. It is a much faster waza than oh-men, but harder to score points alone. You must be very decisive. We did the same for sashi-kote.
We also reinforced the idea with a drill where a student would receive oh-men from the class one at a time and respond with sashi-men. Once the class had taken their turn, the next person would rotate in the receiving position. We did this for much of the class. Then we had three keiko matches at the end.
Then came kata. I love kata. I paired off with a partner close to my rank and we practiced the first three kata under the watch of our guest instructor. He told us that for the ik-kyu and ni-kyu ranks, it is more important that we learn to bow in properly than our overall form. It is looked for that we place our hands in front of our tare as flat as we can without touching it in front, not off to the side. Also, when we bow to shomen and each other, we must bow slowly, not in a hurry. I remember that uchidachi must keep the spacing between the two partners, but I learned that stepping to keep spacing is bad. You must twist your wrists up or down to keep the bokken tips touching, rather than your feet.
I’m back to class after being sick all last week. It’s great to be back in uniform. As Sensei was dismissing the beginner class, he called myself and another student up before the class. He had received our certificates from the Kendo Federation declaring both of us at the rank of Ni-Kyu (2-Kyu). Sensei made it a point to relate to the class about our accomplishments during our testing. My classmate had successfully performed a pair of doh strikes, including a men-kaeshi-doh strike that was perfect. I had performed several perfect men strikes and nearly accomplished a perfect kote-men. The class all clapped for us.
Class started out the same way we’ve been doing it for a while. We did kiri-kaeshi and one-step men. This led into more drills about oji-waza. We practiced men-suriage-men and kote-suriage-men. We also practiced tsuki and tsuki-suriage-men. I’m still very nervous about performing tsuki, I tend only to touch rather than tap. We finished class by having two rounds of keiko and then kata.
I love kata. I got paired with someone I’ve never practiced kata with before. He’s very experienced at it, but hasn’t done kata in a long time. We practiced the first five kata in sequence. I needed a refresher on the fourth and fifth kata. In the fourth kata, the uchidachi moves into hasso with left foot forward. The shidachi moves into waki with left foot forward. This is the opening setup which keeps me confused. I mix up roles. In the fifth kata, the uchidachi moves into left jodan while the the shidachi simply alters his chudan kamae to threaten the kote. After the counter strike, the shidachi traces the bokken down the nose of the uchidachi and then moves backwards into left jodan and then backwards into chudan. Then the pair moves three steps towards the uchidachi.
Day 173:
Today Sensei was at an Iaido seminar and couldn’t teach the class. One of his colleagues took over the basic and advanced classes. He had a more free-form approach to Kendo. He asked us what we would like to learn. We were at a loss to decide what to learn, so we just asked for some kata at the end of class. We started off with kiri-kaeshi and one-step men drills.
Soon, our guest instructor began to notice things about us. He asked if we had ever trained in sashi-waza. We said we had not learned it formally, just informally. So he taught us slowly about sashi-men and sashi-kote. It means a smaller swing, not bringing the shinai over our heads. For sashi-men, we do not rotate our shoulders. Instead we bend our elbows until the shinai taps our men-gane, then step forward and swing down. This is not the correct final form, but it teaches us not to swing our arms up. Then we refine it to lift our arms just barely and bring them down quickly. It is a much faster waza than oh-men, but harder to score points alone. You must be very decisive. We did the same for sashi-kote.
We also reinforced the idea with a drill where a student would receive oh-men from the class one at a time and respond with sashi-men. Once the class had taken their turn, the next person would rotate in the receiving position. We did this for much of the class. Then we had three keiko matches at the end.
Then came kata. I love kata. I paired off with a partner close to my rank and we practiced the first three kata under the watch of our guest instructor. He told us that for the ik-kyu and ni-kyu ranks, it is more important that we learn to bow in properly than our overall form. It is looked for that we place our hands in front of our tare as flat as we can without touching it in front, not off to the side. Also, when we bow to shomen and each other, we must bow slowly, not in a hurry. I remember that uchidachi must keep the spacing between the two partners, but I learned that stepping to keep spacing is bad. You must twist your wrists up or down to keep the bokken tips touching, rather than your feet.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 170-171
Day 170:
No class today as I am sick from travel.
Day 171:
No class today as I am sick from travel.
No class today as I am sick from travel.
Day 171:
No class today as I am sick from travel.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 168-169
Day 168:
Tonight, Sensei gave the class over to the most senior student. Himself, he was not in bogu. He claimed not to want to further a small injury and was content to let others strike him and he would move the shinai to block whatever target. I frankly don’t like that idea. A couple of times I would clip him and feel badly. He would just smile and laugh. He said he learned not to underestimate students again. We worked extra hard again.
We did kiri-kaeshi, one-step men, one-step kote-one step doh. Over and over and over again. I felt my breath leave me. I felt my heart pound hard. I was tired, but I kept going. I know my limits. We practiced men-hiki-men several times to build up endurance. At the end of it all, I felt as if I were going to drop to the ground.
However, as luck would have it, we switched to tsuki practice. I do not like tsuki at all, however, it was a good chance to work on something that wouldn’t push my endurance. So I worked on tsuki while I recovered my breath and calmed my heart. My first tsuki I received was too hard and I felt like I was choking. After a moment, I was all right. My partner apologized and finished the drill softly. When I did the drill, he complimented me on how accurately I did tsuki.
After recovering, we did a few rounds of keiko. I felt as if I had no energy or water in my body. However, I knew that to be an illusion. I instead commanded my body to move faster and it obeyed. There was a kind of calmness and serenity as I moved and struck. My limbs seemed numb, but fluid. I actually hit several very good debana-kote over and over as well as hiki-men during keiko. We did one last round of kiri-kaeshi to finish class.
Day 169:
No class today as I am getting ready to fly out on vacation. I need to go to bed early to wake up on time.
Tonight, Sensei gave the class over to the most senior student. Himself, he was not in bogu. He claimed not to want to further a small injury and was content to let others strike him and he would move the shinai to block whatever target. I frankly don’t like that idea. A couple of times I would clip him and feel badly. He would just smile and laugh. He said he learned not to underestimate students again. We worked extra hard again.
We did kiri-kaeshi, one-step men, one-step kote-one step doh. Over and over and over again. I felt my breath leave me. I felt my heart pound hard. I was tired, but I kept going. I know my limits. We practiced men-hiki-men several times to build up endurance. At the end of it all, I felt as if I were going to drop to the ground.
However, as luck would have it, we switched to tsuki practice. I do not like tsuki at all, however, it was a good chance to work on something that wouldn’t push my endurance. So I worked on tsuki while I recovered my breath and calmed my heart. My first tsuki I received was too hard and I felt like I was choking. After a moment, I was all right. My partner apologized and finished the drill softly. When I did the drill, he complimented me on how accurately I did tsuki.
After recovering, we did a few rounds of keiko. I felt as if I had no energy or water in my body. However, I knew that to be an illusion. I instead commanded my body to move faster and it obeyed. There was a kind of calmness and serenity as I moved and struck. My limbs seemed numb, but fluid. I actually hit several very good debana-kote over and over as well as hiki-men during keiko. We did one last round of kiri-kaeshi to finish class.
Day 169:
No class today as I am getting ready to fly out on vacation. I need to go to bed early to wake up on time.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 166-167
Day 166:
Today I was the highest ranking person in the class, so I led the entire class, not just in warm-ups. I did lead us in stretches and suburi. We did a ton of shomen-suburi because Sensei would go around to all of the newer students and give them a target to strike and practice on.
At the end of warm-ups, everyone in bogu would dress up and be targets for the class, except me. While the others would put on their bogu, I led the others in performing shomen strike across the floor, turn around and across the floor. We did this over and over. When the senior students put on their bogu, they allowed the newer students to strike them on the men as they advanced and once on the other side of the room, while they backed up.
We did this over and over until Sensei called for me to demonstrate a good men strike and pass through. I did this for the benefit of the others and then assigned everyone into lines for rotation. I watched the students as they went through drills, looking for anyone doing it completely wrongly. They seemed to slightly improve as I watched so I kept quiet. Once the class was over, I led the class in the bowing out ceremony.
I did not stick around for advanced class today because I worked all last weekend on midnight shifts and got very little sleep. I’m exhausted and need to rest. Maybe next time I’ll come for advanced class.
Day 167:
Today Sensei was content to work us to death. We did a near-endless routine of kiri-kaeshi. After that, we would work up to a complicated sequence again.
We would practice one-step men. Then we would practice hiki-kote. Then we strung them together into a men-hiki-kote-men drill. Sensei is a big fan of one-step drills. We kept doing one-step men and one-step kote over and over.
The new thing today was all of the tsuki practice. We drilled to try out two-handed tsuki and even one-handed tsuki. I really did not like performing tsuki, because so much can go wrong that would injure your partner. Still, I did the drill carefully. Doing one-handed tuski is like striking men from left jodan. You let go with your right hand and pull your right hand to your waist, covering doh target. This act makes the one-handed tsuki more accurate by rotating your shoulders in the counter-direction that they roll when you thrust your left arm forward. We finished class by having three rounds of keiko.
Today I was the highest ranking person in the class, so I led the entire class, not just in warm-ups. I did lead us in stretches and suburi. We did a ton of shomen-suburi because Sensei would go around to all of the newer students and give them a target to strike and practice on.
At the end of warm-ups, everyone in bogu would dress up and be targets for the class, except me. While the others would put on their bogu, I led the others in performing shomen strike across the floor, turn around and across the floor. We did this over and over. When the senior students put on their bogu, they allowed the newer students to strike them on the men as they advanced and once on the other side of the room, while they backed up.
We did this over and over until Sensei called for me to demonstrate a good men strike and pass through. I did this for the benefit of the others and then assigned everyone into lines for rotation. I watched the students as they went through drills, looking for anyone doing it completely wrongly. They seemed to slightly improve as I watched so I kept quiet. Once the class was over, I led the class in the bowing out ceremony.
I did not stick around for advanced class today because I worked all last weekend on midnight shifts and got very little sleep. I’m exhausted and need to rest. Maybe next time I’ll come for advanced class.
Day 167:
Today Sensei was content to work us to death. We did a near-endless routine of kiri-kaeshi. After that, we would work up to a complicated sequence again.
We would practice one-step men. Then we would practice hiki-kote. Then we strung them together into a men-hiki-kote-men drill. Sensei is a big fan of one-step drills. We kept doing one-step men and one-step kote over and over.
The new thing today was all of the tsuki practice. We drilled to try out two-handed tsuki and even one-handed tsuki. I really did not like performing tsuki, because so much can go wrong that would injure your partner. Still, I did the drill carefully. Doing one-handed tuski is like striking men from left jodan. You let go with your right hand and pull your right hand to your waist, covering doh target. This act makes the one-handed tsuki more accurate by rotating your shoulders in the counter-direction that they roll when you thrust your left arm forward. We finished class by having three rounds of keiko.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 164-165
Day 164:
Today was another day dedicated to hiki-waza. We did a few rounds of kiri-kaeshi slowly, concentrating on accuracy rather than speed. Then we did more hiki-waza drills.
We started off at tsuba-zeriai and performed hiki-men. Then after that we increased the drill to hiki-men-men. Then we switched to hiki-kote-men. This one was hard. The shifting balance on our feet kept throwing us off going from backwards to forwards. Occasionally, we would counterattack to keep our partners fresh and fluid.
At the end of class, we did kata. I love kata. My partner and I practiced the first three kata over and over, switching roles between uchidachi and shidachi. We walked through all of the steps over and over, getting better at the movements. This was another in hopefully a long series of kata practices to prepare us for our next promotional testing.
Day 165:
We kept practicing various hiki-waza. A visitor from Michigan was here. He says he’s moved to the area and wants to find a dojo to belong to. We did extra rounds of kiri-kaeshi and then moved into working up to an advanced waza.
First we would start in tsuba-zeriai and then strike hiki-men or hiki-kote. The next step to the drill is to do one-step men and then continue with hiki-kote. Finally, we would practice men-hiki-kote-men over and over. This lends itself to teaching us to keep attacking continuously rather than attack-stop-attack-stop-attack-stop.
By the end of class, my heart was pounding hard again. After a couple of keiko and drills of haya-suburi, I had to stop. I watched the others finish with more drills. I was exhausted.
Today was another day dedicated to hiki-waza. We did a few rounds of kiri-kaeshi slowly, concentrating on accuracy rather than speed. Then we did more hiki-waza drills.
We started off at tsuba-zeriai and performed hiki-men. Then after that we increased the drill to hiki-men-men. Then we switched to hiki-kote-men. This one was hard. The shifting balance on our feet kept throwing us off going from backwards to forwards. Occasionally, we would counterattack to keep our partners fresh and fluid.
At the end of class, we did kata. I love kata. My partner and I practiced the first three kata over and over, switching roles between uchidachi and shidachi. We walked through all of the steps over and over, getting better at the movements. This was another in hopefully a long series of kata practices to prepare us for our next promotional testing.
Day 165:
We kept practicing various hiki-waza. A visitor from Michigan was here. He says he’s moved to the area and wants to find a dojo to belong to. We did extra rounds of kiri-kaeshi and then moved into working up to an advanced waza.
First we would start in tsuba-zeriai and then strike hiki-men or hiki-kote. The next step to the drill is to do one-step men and then continue with hiki-kote. Finally, we would practice men-hiki-kote-men over and over. This lends itself to teaching us to keep attacking continuously rather than attack-stop-attack-stop-attack-stop.
By the end of class, my heart was pounding hard again. After a couple of keiko and drills of haya-suburi, I had to stop. I watched the others finish with more drills. I was exhausted.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
A Beginner's Point of View 162-163
Day 162:
Today was a day of good, solid work. We did many round of kiri-kaeshi to get in shape. One of our students borrowed a set of bogu owned by the club. He was frustrated because he felt very clumsy. It was hard not to laugh because we all felt the same way when we first wore our bogu.
After kiri-kaeshi, Sensei gave us many lectures during the class. He would explain the proper technique for striking a target with the shinai. He explained the motions of raising and lowering the shinai for men, kote, and doh strike. We would then use two lines to practice various waza on each other. We included waza start from tsuba-zeriai, such as hiki-men and hiki-doh.
We also practiced harai-men and also a more subtle way to open up kote. Instead of striking the opponent’s shinai, you slide into it and nudge it aside. It sounds a lot easier than it is to do. Sensei encouraged us to experiment and try different techniques to open up our opponents.
We also had a short keiko where I faced off against a shodan. I got in a few good strikes against him. I just need to remember to keep taking center and not just look like I’m taking center.
At the end of class, that very shodan was part of a new drill. He pulled out his nito swords and gave us lessons on how nito players would strike us. It was just like fighting one of my old sempai before he moved away. Sensei also instructed us on how to strike a nito player on the kote. Left kote is a target in nito since it is a stance other than chudan-no-kamae. We also learned that yoko-men would be the best way to strike the men on a nito player.
Day 163:
The focus of today’s class was hiki strikes. We started off with a slightly different kiri-kaeshi drill. Sensei wanted us to do the strikes slowly, but snap our wrists at the end of the swing. This would give us the popping sound and flex our wrists to get our bodies to feel a good strike.
We did all sorts of different hiki drills today. We started with regular hiki strikes. From tsuba-zeriai, we practiced performing hiki-men, then hiki-kote, and then hiki-doh. Then we added an introduction step to the drill by striking men, and then performing the drill. We did men-hiki-men, then men-kiki-kote, and then men-hiki-doh. Then we added a finishing step to the basic drill. We did hiki-men-men, then kiki-kote-men, and then hiki-doh-men.
Sensei gave us lectures about not stopping our bodies or minds. Our minds have to keep moving no matter what. Then, finally we added all the steps together into an interesting combination. It was kote-hiki-doh-men. This drill is a lot harder than it sounds.
When doing hiki-doh, you tend to want to move back quickly, but when you need to strike men afterwards your balance is awkward. Every other time I performed the kote-hiki-doh-men drill, my feet were slipping on the floor. I need to find a balance between speed and control.
Today was a day of good, solid work. We did many round of kiri-kaeshi to get in shape. One of our students borrowed a set of bogu owned by the club. He was frustrated because he felt very clumsy. It was hard not to laugh because we all felt the same way when we first wore our bogu.
After kiri-kaeshi, Sensei gave us many lectures during the class. He would explain the proper technique for striking a target with the shinai. He explained the motions of raising and lowering the shinai for men, kote, and doh strike. We would then use two lines to practice various waza on each other. We included waza start from tsuba-zeriai, such as hiki-men and hiki-doh.
We also practiced harai-men and also a more subtle way to open up kote. Instead of striking the opponent’s shinai, you slide into it and nudge it aside. It sounds a lot easier than it is to do. Sensei encouraged us to experiment and try different techniques to open up our opponents.
We also had a short keiko where I faced off against a shodan. I got in a few good strikes against him. I just need to remember to keep taking center and not just look like I’m taking center.
At the end of class, that very shodan was part of a new drill. He pulled out his nito swords and gave us lessons on how nito players would strike us. It was just like fighting one of my old sempai before he moved away. Sensei also instructed us on how to strike a nito player on the kote. Left kote is a target in nito since it is a stance other than chudan-no-kamae. We also learned that yoko-men would be the best way to strike the men on a nito player.
Day 163:
The focus of today’s class was hiki strikes. We started off with a slightly different kiri-kaeshi drill. Sensei wanted us to do the strikes slowly, but snap our wrists at the end of the swing. This would give us the popping sound and flex our wrists to get our bodies to feel a good strike.
We did all sorts of different hiki drills today. We started with regular hiki strikes. From tsuba-zeriai, we practiced performing hiki-men, then hiki-kote, and then hiki-doh. Then we added an introduction step to the drill by striking men, and then performing the drill. We did men-hiki-men, then men-kiki-kote, and then men-hiki-doh. Then we added a finishing step to the basic drill. We did hiki-men-men, then kiki-kote-men, and then hiki-doh-men.
Sensei gave us lectures about not stopping our bodies or minds. Our minds have to keep moving no matter what. Then, finally we added all the steps together into an interesting combination. It was kote-hiki-doh-men. This drill is a lot harder than it sounds.
When doing hiki-doh, you tend to want to move back quickly, but when you need to strike men afterwards your balance is awkward. Every other time I performed the kote-hiki-doh-men drill, my feet were slipping on the floor. I need to find a balance between speed and control.
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