Tsuki from jodan?

I forgot to mention in my last post, but on Monday, the club armourer found my old zekken! Woot! Always good to have people know who you are, and now I get to save the 25 bucks that would have went to getting a new zekken.

Anyway, yesterdays training was run pretty much like Monday's training. Most of it was taken up doing shinai geiko with the new class. Some of them were quite bad with their technique. I'm trying to remember back to when I was still new to kendo... hmm, I couldn't have been that bad could I? Anyway, everything was going smoothly. Towards the end, I had a couple of good jigeiko's with a couple of guys that were around my level. Then I had jigeiko with this girl. I remember the first time I did jigeiko with her. I had thanked her after the training for that time and she told me that she had 'fun'. I was quite flattered, but still kinda feels weird when someone says they had fun when you're trying to beat the crap out of them. But yeah, I remember it was quite fun, nothing too serious, like I would get with some of the very senior guys. Anyway, everything was going 'fun' this time until my tsuki incident. Now, as a kyu grade, I'm not allowed to tsuki. I learnt my lesson last time when I tried it and missed, so I vowed never to tsuki again. So what happened this time was, I had just done a hiki-men on this girl, and was going backwards in jodan kamae. As I was going back, I saw an opening on her men, so I went for it, and thats when it all came apart. I did a katate men but was too far away, so it didn't land. However, my one handed tenouchi is quite weak, so the kensen went down quite far, ie. down to the tsuki part of the men (I keep forgetting what its called), and since I was moving forward, my shinai made contact with her between her tsuki and her dou. I can tell straight away that she was hurt. Man, the look in her eye just made me want to quit kendo right there. I think she thought that I tried to tsuki her on purpose and thats why she reacted a bit, but I promised her that I didn't, especially since I was at jodan-no kamae. I copped a similar hit last week or the week before and took it proudly, everyone accepts that you'll get hit every now and then. She actually went for a hiki dou on me which hit my elbow earlier on during the jigeiko and I have a nice purple patch to show for it. Anyway, I felt really bad about it and appologised profusely. Don't think I can do jigeiko at 100% against her anymore, or maybe any other girl for that matter. Ah well... I do hope we can still have our 'fun' jigeiko's together though. They're the type of jigeiko that I get to do and actually think about what I'm doing. When I go against higher grades, I tend to just do my best and not think about my technique, but then thats when I get into trouble and start doing all sorts of weird shit, like the previously mentioned super jumping men cuts.

P.S. actually, there is one girl that I can go 100% at anytime, in fact, I'd have to go 200% to even make it worth her while to jigeiko with me... too bad she doesn't train at my club anymore.

Super Jumping Men waza?

My kendo sucks!

Yesterday's practice was mostly taken up with helping the beginners practice hitting an armoured target. This and the warm up took most of the 2 hours.

Anyway, going on to the main point of this post, I have somehow developed a jumping style men cut that goes up instead of going forward. I had a very tall opponent so that may have had something to do with it. Or maybe its because I changed the balance in my kamae a bit. I used to have the weight distributed between my left and right foot as 30 and 70%, but last night, I tried doing it 50-50, so more weight on my left foot than usual. So thus when I launch for a cut, I'm not leaning forward as much so I kinda went straight up... Really weird feeling, and completely wrong. After a few of these cuts, my opponent advised me to use my hara, which I did, and it worked when I actually thought about using my hara, but then I let it go from my mind only to find that I reverted back to the jumping cut. So from now on, during kihon practice, I really need to push from my 'hara' and not push from my feet, ie. when cutting, think of the hara forcing me forward, and not the left foot.

Apart from that, jigeiko was 'normal' with my other opponents. I need to think about my kendo more during jigeiko. Most of the time I seem to not remember what I did, unless it was really really really really ridiculously obvious, just like the example above.

...

Rock Climbing

Went to the rock climbing gym on Friday after a 5 month break from climbing. Got back into the easier climbs (up to grade 15 aus) quite well, but struggled on the harder climbs. I was climbing low 20's before I stopped. Personal best was a 22 which I did clean a few times. Didn't manage to do it this time, but I did leave it to the end, by which time my forearms were starting to give and the joints in the fingers started getting sore. All in all, not a bad way to get back into it. I was going almost every week for about 6-7 months. Probably won't go as often now, maybe only every fortnight. Kendo seems to take most of my energy anyway, though I find both to be equally challenging and enjoyable. I lean towards climbing a bit though, because its just you and the rock... ie. no other person to try and psyche out.

Saw a few of the regulars at the climbing gym. I only really talked to a handful of them when I was regular, one of whom was actually there that night. I like watching her climb. She doesn't have much strength so she focusses on technique. I tend to be able to get away with some bad technique and just kinda power my way through some of the climbs. Being quite skinny and only weighing ~65kg also helps. Should do more bouldering to learn different moves. Seemed to have lost all my technique during my hiatus. I seemed to just focus on staying close to the wall and using my legs more. Still using my arms and hands a bit too much. Which is probably why I hurt my wrist. Never had a problem before, but since starting kendo, I have been getting some sharp stinging pains in my wrist. This was further exacerbated when I was climbing. Should get it checked out. I've seen some people use wrist protectors... might need to invest in one. I've tried to track the injury back to where it really started. I remember at one kendo training that this one guy was hitting my kote quite hard (and incorrectly). I tried to correct him by telling him to use his tenouchi to stop the cut just a bit further up from what he was doing but to no avail. He continued to do it incorrectly... f*king cunt. I got the feeling he may have been doing it on purpose. Anyway, he doesn't train regularly anyway, so its not too hard to avoid him.

Anyway, looking forward to kendo tomorrow.

Seme

Hmm, I'm decided to keep this blog as a diary of my kendo progress, seeing how its really the only thing that really interests me at the moment. I'm also into rock climbing, but thats kinda part time now.

Anyway, I've seen a few kendo blogs and it seems like a good way to keep record of one's progress on a very long road.

So yeah, I went to kendo not feeling the best the other day. For some reason I was just feeling a bit more tired than usual, and sweeping the floor seems to really sap my energy, but someone's gotta do it. Being probably the most junior member of those who wear armour, that makes it me by default. Anyway, I started feeling better as we did the warm up. Seems like my fitness is somewhere near its peak (though that peak ain't too high) 'cos I feel quite good by the time we do hayasuburi (skipping cuts). I wish someone would make us do more, or do it faster, just so that I can push myself a bit more. this doesn't look likely though, since the beginners course has joined us in the warm up, and most of them can't do 10 of these cuts, let alone the 40 that we normally do. Ah, how I wish my had my own little dojo in the back yard like Mr Miyagi has.

Well the warm up was followed up with some kihon (basic) practice, with footwork and shinai geiko practice. All a bit ho hum, but good to practice any way. Once we got into full armour, we did more kihon, though this time we got to practice tsuki thrusts. Always fun. I seem to miss to the left or right when I try a full blown thrust. Must be using too much right hand or something, gotta ask someone about that. I received a really good full blown thrust which actually missed a bit below the target, giving a nice bruise right on the chest. Too bad I can't really show that one off.

On to jigeiko. First couple were quite fun. Seemed to be using my seme effectively, or so I thought. The first jigeiko was quite good. Was able to use my seme to push my opponent back and actually draw a cut. I was so surprised and returned a kaeshi do (apparently very hard to do properly) which didn't quite hit properly. But good to know I have those reflexes. I just continued with a whole bunch of seme-shikake men/kote cuts. My opponent commented after that my zanshin was too shit, but in a nicer way, which it is. Really need to work on believing in my cuts. The last guy I had for jigeiko was ranked much higher, shodan I think, I don't really know anyone's rank now, but not that it really matters. Anyway, I realised how shit my seme actually shit. I was like waves crashing onto a stone wall. So no seme meant no forced openings, so I decided to just try and rush in... only to get my ass kicked. This guy was quite fast and just practice debana cuts on me. I don't think I even landed any of my cuts on him.

So the lesson learnt today? My seme is shit and needs to be worked on. Probably need to use my feet better. Last week I focused on using my feet and did quite well. Didn't really focus on that this week, so thats probably the problem. Anyway, looking forward to the next training.

Kendo tonight

Still procrastinating on that damn report. Too busy thinking about kendo I guess. I've really gotten into the spirit of it now after a 4 year hiatus. It was quite tough during the first couple of weeks back, being unfit and all. Felt like everyone was out to get me then, maybe I'm just paranoid, but the hits did seem harder than they should be for a while then. Maybe I just needed to get used to it again. Not getting any bruises anymore, which is kinda sad. I always loved to show them off. I had a really nice deep purple patch on the right hand for a few days, but doesn't look like thats gonna happen again. I'm not quite up to the standard I was before, but I guess I'm getting there. Really want to get into a competition soon to see how I go, but there aren't that many kendo comps thoughout the year. The ones that are held are generally towards the end of the year, so I guess I'll just have to wait.

Not many people still there from when I trained there last, only a couple of the senior people who are really dedicated try to make it after work. I'm glad the highest ranked kendoka (Kendo player) is still there. I always looked to achieve kendo at his level. There used to be another Japanese guy who trained at the club way back when who was awesome, but he's back in Japan now, which is a shame. Was always friendly and helpful.

Bored as Hell

Hmm, my first post... Don't know what to say really. I only signed up for this thing because I thought I needed to in order to post a comment on my friends blog. That was 15 mins of my life gone right there... I guess the time I'm wasting now is just from the accumulated interest from opening this blog account. I didn't even know what I blog was until a few weeks ago. I mean, who the hell sits down and writes a whole bunch of shit for some other loser to sit down and read? (looks at myself) hmm

Well I'm sitting in my office and was just looking of ways to procrastinate. I have a report due in tomorrow, which was due about 2 weeks ago, but due to some miscommunication, I didn't submit it until a week ago... So why am I still working on it? Because what I submitted was crap. Man I'm never gonna learn. Thats what I get for getting away with it so often. About a year and a half ago, I submitted my first draft of my honours thesis the day before it was due! I guess I just need to crap my dacks to get any work done. Even right now, I'm contemplating leaving this thing and going home and hope that it just gets done by tomorrow. Well enough procrastinating, I better get back to work...