Too much spirit...
Went to training last night after no kendo for a whole week! Man, warmup was tougher than usual. I should start some other fitness exercise, like swimming or jogging... nah, too cold. Should try to ride my bike on the weekends when its not raining.
Anyway, training. I'm happy with the spirit I show (or what I think is spirit) during training, but I think its coming at the cost of technique. I focus too much on giving everything I have which doesn't allow me to think about what I'm doing. But still, its good to know I have plenty in the tank even though I think I'm out. Had uchikomi geiko last night, about 3-4 rounds of it back to back, ie, no waiting in a line to catch my breath. By the last round, I was pretty much wasted, but still gave everything I had left. Surprised myself. Almost lost my voice, so I just kiai'ed louder to compensate. Well at this point, the technical aspects of my kendo were in automatic pilot so I couldn't think of anything to focus on.
Class split into two. Time to catch my breath. Some kihon practice. A couple of comments given to me; follow through straight... my men cuts are going towards the right a bit, and don't reach out. I was reaching out too much for kote cuts (why the hell do I even need to reach out? its the closest cut!). We also did tsuki practice. Personally, I don't like to practice it, cos it makes me wanna do during jigeiko, especially to people who like to fight at chikama! Well, during one of the sets of tsuki, I went up against the club captain (not really the captain, but he's the highest ranking kendoka after sensei... I think). Well I was cutting first (2 sets of 3 cuts each) and for some reason, during each set, I'd hit, hit then miss. It felt like plaing the pokies... one liberty bell... two libterty bells... doh! I mean, woohoo... (hehe)Anyway, so I thought two misses out of 6 aint bad. But then on my opponents' last set, he got me really good... on my clavicle! Man, that stung. Its nicely bruised up now and he must of peeled off some skin cos there's little bits of scabs in there too! Man I love kendo! But in an unfathomable display of generosity, 'Pai Mei' gave me the slightest of nods (hehe). The nod was definitely returned.
On to jigeiko. I pretty much got my ass kicked, but I was happy to make a couple of ippon cuts myself. Hopefully these weren't just openings from my sempai. Had about 5 rounds of jigeiko all up. One of them was with a female kendoka. Now I have nothing against female kendoka, there are a couple of them I really admire. But when I went up against this girl... I just had to giggle to myself a bit. She's just got the cutest kiai ever! Although, I had here during our kihon practice and her kiai for her dou cut was a bit scary. It was quite soft, but you can definitely sense her intent to kill in that kiai. Kinda like a muffled vicious growl (but thats not doing it justice). However, during jigeiko, well... some of the kiai was just like a loudish mouse squealing (and I should know, I've killed enough of them). Well on the last jigeiko, I had the reigning club junior champion. Can't remember much because by this time I was knackered. But with about 1 minute to go, I decided to go all out and give him some of my kakari geiko. Hehehe, didn't know I had it in me. I might try this more often, to give me more confidence for any shiai match where I feel tired. I gave him about 5 cuts in quick succession and wanted to give a few more, but I got to tsuba serai and was like 'fuck'... hehe, he laughed at me too... then kirikaeshi, sweet! Again, I gave it everything but still felt like my technique was failing me.
I think I need to have some balance between 'spirit' and technique during training if I am to improve.
Anyway, training. I'm happy with the spirit I show (or what I think is spirit) during training, but I think its coming at the cost of technique. I focus too much on giving everything I have which doesn't allow me to think about what I'm doing. But still, its good to know I have plenty in the tank even though I think I'm out. Had uchikomi geiko last night, about 3-4 rounds of it back to back, ie, no waiting in a line to catch my breath. By the last round, I was pretty much wasted, but still gave everything I had left. Surprised myself. Almost lost my voice, so I just kiai'ed louder to compensate. Well at this point, the technical aspects of my kendo were in automatic pilot so I couldn't think of anything to focus on.
Class split into two. Time to catch my breath. Some kihon practice. A couple of comments given to me; follow through straight... my men cuts are going towards the right a bit, and don't reach out. I was reaching out too much for kote cuts (why the hell do I even need to reach out? its the closest cut!). We also did tsuki practice. Personally, I don't like to practice it, cos it makes me wanna do during jigeiko, especially to people who like to fight at chikama! Well, during one of the sets of tsuki, I went up against the club captain (not really the captain, but he's the highest ranking kendoka after sensei... I think). Well I was cutting first (2 sets of 3 cuts each) and for some reason, during each set, I'd hit, hit then miss. It felt like plaing the pokies... one liberty bell... two libterty bells... doh! I mean, woohoo... (hehe)Anyway, so I thought two misses out of 6 aint bad. But then on my opponents' last set, he got me really good... on my clavicle! Man, that stung. Its nicely bruised up now and he must of peeled off some skin cos there's little bits of scabs in there too! Man I love kendo! But in an unfathomable display of generosity, 'Pai Mei' gave me the slightest of nods (hehe). The nod was definitely returned.
On to jigeiko. I pretty much got my ass kicked, but I was happy to make a couple of ippon cuts myself. Hopefully these weren't just openings from my sempai. Had about 5 rounds of jigeiko all up. One of them was with a female kendoka. Now I have nothing against female kendoka, there are a couple of them I really admire. But when I went up against this girl... I just had to giggle to myself a bit. She's just got the cutest kiai ever! Although, I had here during our kihon practice and her kiai for her dou cut was a bit scary. It was quite soft, but you can definitely sense her intent to kill in that kiai. Kinda like a muffled vicious growl (but thats not doing it justice). However, during jigeiko, well... some of the kiai was just like a loudish mouse squealing (and I should know, I've killed enough of them). Well on the last jigeiko, I had the reigning club junior champion. Can't remember much because by this time I was knackered. But with about 1 minute to go, I decided to go all out and give him some of my kakari geiko. Hehehe, didn't know I had it in me. I might try this more often, to give me more confidence for any shiai match where I feel tired. I gave him about 5 cuts in quick succession and wanted to give a few more, but I got to tsuba serai and was like 'fuck'... hehe, he laughed at me too... then kirikaeshi, sweet! Again, I gave it everything but still felt like my technique was failing me.
I think I need to have some balance between 'spirit' and technique during training if I am to improve.
posted by Son at 4:39 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home