Proper maai
I bought a chokuto style shinai last week and finally got a chance to test drive it last night. Hmm, hard to say what the difference was compared to a dobari style. Seems slightly more unwieldly but might be that I'm just not used to it yet. It has a normal round style handle too, which is different to my dobari shinai which is oval handled, so that might add to the difference. But overall, not as much different as I was expecting. I might use one for half the training and the other one for the other half to try and get a better comparison, but otherwise, the moral of this is, a shinai is a shinai....
So onto last nights training. Went straight into men and practiced kirikaeshi with the beginners. The pattern: 1 senior motadachi against 1 low ranked kendoka in armour + 2 non-armour kendoka. I was the low ranked kendoka in armour. So yeah, straight into practising kirikaeshi. We were supposed to do it slow and accurate to show the beginners the correct technique, but I kinda went all out on my first couple of goes. Sensei then stopped us and told us to slow down, which I did. Going slower gave me a chance to try and stretch out my kiai for a bit longer. So this went on for a while, we then went onto kihon geiko, with 4 men, 4 kote and 4 dou cuts each. We then went onto uchikomi geiko for a few rounds. By this time I was getting really tired, the kirikaeshi's really took it out of me. Luckily, sensei stopped us and got all the motadachi to do uchikomi geiko with each other, so everyone else had a bit of a rest.
Good thing too because after that was jigeiko. Had a really good solid 5 rounds of jigeiko, mostly with more senior kendoka (only 1 of them was with a low rank). But yeah, really good workout.
Before I start, I want to mention that in the past several weeks, I've noticed that a few people like to get in close at kamae. This kinda annoyed me cos I prefer fighting at issoku itto no maai. Anyway, the first guy I had jigeiko with is pretty good. He's won some kyu grade shiai's before so I knew he can kick some ass. Can't remember landing any really good cuts on him though. Tried kaeshi dou a couple times but didn't really land the dou cut nicely to call it ippon. So at the end of it he walked up to me to give me some advice... and told me that.. yeah.. you're a bit too close, try fighting from a bit further away! Man, I just felt like Homer Simpson and though Doh!
Second jigeiko was much anticipated... It was with the girl that I mentioned previously (the one that I'd have to go 200% at her). I actually started out as a beginner at the same time she did... so many years ago. She's gotten quite good now and has achieved nidan whilst I'm still a lowly 5th kyu since I haven't trained for so many years. She's quite short so she's always scoring kaeshi dou on me. I tried to get her to cut my men just so that I can't kaeshi dou back, but she didn't take the bait. I remember when we were beginners, her men cut used to be quite big (still is) and slow (not so slow now) that I was able to do nuki dou on her back then. Ah, how times have changed.
The next jigeiko was a bit of a blur. Can't remember scoring any decent cuts. My oppenent seems too fast. She seems to like to cut just as I'm turning around after my follow through. A few people have done this to me now. I have to get that fixed. I did kinda remedy it by doing a block as I turn around, but this is bad form. Should be ready to cut as I'm turning around.
Next was another girl... the lower ranked one. Not much to write about except, that on one cut, I went for kote (it landed) then tried to follow it up with men, but she put her shinai back to the centre and I managed to tsuki myself... under the tsuki! No bruise to show for it though. She immediately asked if I was ok, and I said yes, but just as I was trying to get back to kamae, the pain kinda hit me again, so I had to stop for a few seconds. Kinda funny; 'yeah, I'm right...errr give me a second' hehe.
Then jigeiko with another high ranked guy. He's previously done quite well in shiai's too. I really had to bring my game to cut this guy, but by this time I was really tired. I managed to get 1 good kote cut in which he acknowledged, but the other cuts were just him letting me cut. I think he sensed I was tired and let me cut him to get me to practice. I remember he got a couple of really good degote cuts on me. Don't know how he did it. I should have asked him. Maybe I have a 'tell' for my men cuts that he's spotted. But yeah, I got my kote cut in after a couple of these degote cuts. Good to see that I can actually learn during jigeiko and not just blindly go in a try to cut.
So yeah, all in all, a really good session.
So onto last nights training. Went straight into men and practiced kirikaeshi with the beginners. The pattern: 1 senior motadachi against 1 low ranked kendoka in armour + 2 non-armour kendoka. I was the low ranked kendoka in armour. So yeah, straight into practising kirikaeshi. We were supposed to do it slow and accurate to show the beginners the correct technique, but I kinda went all out on my first couple of goes. Sensei then stopped us and told us to slow down, which I did. Going slower gave me a chance to try and stretch out my kiai for a bit longer. So this went on for a while, we then went onto kihon geiko, with 4 men, 4 kote and 4 dou cuts each. We then went onto uchikomi geiko for a few rounds. By this time I was getting really tired, the kirikaeshi's really took it out of me. Luckily, sensei stopped us and got all the motadachi to do uchikomi geiko with each other, so everyone else had a bit of a rest.
Good thing too because after that was jigeiko. Had a really good solid 5 rounds of jigeiko, mostly with more senior kendoka (only 1 of them was with a low rank). But yeah, really good workout.
Before I start, I want to mention that in the past several weeks, I've noticed that a few people like to get in close at kamae. This kinda annoyed me cos I prefer fighting at issoku itto no maai. Anyway, the first guy I had jigeiko with is pretty good. He's won some kyu grade shiai's before so I knew he can kick some ass. Can't remember landing any really good cuts on him though. Tried kaeshi dou a couple times but didn't really land the dou cut nicely to call it ippon. So at the end of it he walked up to me to give me some advice... and told me that.. yeah.. you're a bit too close, try fighting from a bit further away! Man, I just felt like Homer Simpson and though Doh!
Second jigeiko was much anticipated... It was with the girl that I mentioned previously (the one that I'd have to go 200% at her). I actually started out as a beginner at the same time she did... so many years ago. She's gotten quite good now and has achieved nidan whilst I'm still a lowly 5th kyu since I haven't trained for so many years. She's quite short so she's always scoring kaeshi dou on me. I tried to get her to cut my men just so that I can't kaeshi dou back, but she didn't take the bait. I remember when we were beginners, her men cut used to be quite big (still is) and slow (not so slow now) that I was able to do nuki dou on her back then. Ah, how times have changed.
The next jigeiko was a bit of a blur. Can't remember scoring any decent cuts. My oppenent seems too fast. She seems to like to cut just as I'm turning around after my follow through. A few people have done this to me now. I have to get that fixed. I did kinda remedy it by doing a block as I turn around, but this is bad form. Should be ready to cut as I'm turning around.
Next was another girl... the lower ranked one. Not much to write about except, that on one cut, I went for kote (it landed) then tried to follow it up with men, but she put her shinai back to the centre and I managed to tsuki myself... under the tsuki! No bruise to show for it though. She immediately asked if I was ok, and I said yes, but just as I was trying to get back to kamae, the pain kinda hit me again, so I had to stop for a few seconds. Kinda funny; 'yeah, I'm right...errr give me a second' hehe.
Then jigeiko with another high ranked guy. He's previously done quite well in shiai's too. I really had to bring my game to cut this guy, but by this time I was really tired. I managed to get 1 good kote cut in which he acknowledged, but the other cuts were just him letting me cut. I think he sensed I was tired and let me cut him to get me to practice. I remember he got a couple of really good degote cuts on me. Don't know how he did it. I should have asked him. Maybe I have a 'tell' for my men cuts that he's spotted. But yeah, I got my kote cut in after a couple of these degote cuts. Good to see that I can actually learn during jigeiko and not just blindly go in a try to cut.
So yeah, all in all, a really good session.
posted by Son at 11:35 am
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