fellin' good again

Last nights training was great. I haven't felt good about training for a while now, but finally got that 'good' feeling about my kendo again, even managed to land a half decent dou cut.

Training started with seme practice. I really liked it. Really helps with the foot work and makes you feel like you're moving your whole body from your hips. Hard to explain but feels right when you do it. A little embarassing at times though, when I went up against a girl... 3 girls in a row in fact! To practice the seme technique, you have to shove the shinai right into your partners chest... erm, yeah.

Menstuke... For the past 3 weeks now from what I can remember, I have been first to get my men on at each training! hehe... possibly due to the absence of a certain very fast men putter onnerer. I was a bit to hasty last night though, because during the training I had to step out and fix it because my tenugui was coming down a bit too much.

We did the usualy kirikaeshi, kihon in a line of 4 thing. During kirikaeshi, I feel like my cuts are getting a bit smaller than what they were, especially when I'm going flat out. I need to readdress this and maybe just slow it down just a bit to get bigger cuts.

We then did some uchikomi geiko. The whole class just formed one long line along the length of the basketball court. This is considered a small class... I remember a time when a full class wasn't even this big. Anyway, uchikomi geiko, 2x5 cuts, 2x7 cuts, then 2x9 cuts. Good work out. Felt like I had a decent constant attacking spirit but I might try to work on my technique more during uchikomi in the future. I really feel like I have gotten myself into a groove of not quite right technique while trying to improve my 'spirit'.

Onto jigeiko. Must be like mortein to flys cos there was quite a few drop outs at this point. Can't remember too much. Just that the last one was quite enjoyable. Went up against the ex pres and actually scored against him... once. Got a kote nuki men cut. This is my favourite waza. I remember back to when I first started jigeiko all those years ago... and the first time I ever scored against anyone during jigeiko was by this waza... and I hadn't even learnt it yet... and it was against Pai Mei!!! thats enough boasting. But I always like to reflect upon that moment when I go up against someone who's better than me, it lets me know that I can score against anyone.

back to basics

Hit the jackpot last night, the two most senior members of the club before I left (circa 2001) were training last night, and one of them is now a sensei! He doesn't usually train with us because he has started his own club now. I didn't really notice it in the warmup, but as soon as mokuso was over and we did our usual rei, he called menstuke. From that moment I had noticed something very different from what I had remembered him. He seems so much more like... a sensei now. Its hard to describe but its like he's got a whole new aura about him which received my quiet admiration. You must get that when you level up to godan. Anyway, I was kinda in two minds about training with him. On one hand I was really happy to see him train with us and actually take the class. The last time I trained with him, he lined up on the student side... at the head of the line, and now he's on the sensei side! On the other hand, I feel like my kendo has been going down hill of late, so I was kinda ashamed to show him where my kendo is at right now. But because he is there, I tried to give my best. *just as an afterthought, perhaps my kendo has been going down due to the absence of sensei*

Anyway, training was very interesting because 'B' sensei structures the class different to what we're used to. First up just did some kihon practice, where the juniors were always paired to a senior kendoka (no multiple people in a line, just 1 long line of 2 facing each other). Sensei went through something quite basic, and something that I actually thought I had a hold of, ki ken tai no ichi (which kinda translates to spirit, sword and body as one). The point that was emphasised was that the right foot should stomp as the sword makes contact. Now I thought I had this, but as it turns out, I don't. More on this late. But to practice this, we kinda did a fishing rod thing with our shinai and our right foot. Hard to explain. Anyway, onto uchikomi geiko, then the juniors stepped out and we did kakari geiko. I don't think my partners were cutting straight enough, because there wasn't as much taiatari as I thought there would be. Then finally ai kakari geiko, now there was more taiatari. You get lots more cuts in this way. I managed to get 3 cuts in there somewhere, kote-men hiki men combo... Not as tiring as I thought, but we didn't do it for long.. only about 10 seconds each.

Then the interesting part... the seniors did waza practice, but without any set waza. Can't remember what it was called, but you basically get to practice whatever you want. For me it was just kihon dou onegashimasu. I still can't cut dou to save my life so I need to practice it. It just wasn't connecting properly on each cut... just couldn't figure it out. I was trying different things but to no avail. Then I went up against sensei. He did harai kote on me... man almost took my hand off! Anyway, I did kihon dou again, and he commented that I was stomping before I made contact with the dou... DOH! He said I got better on the last cut but still marginally made contact after the stomp. Arigatou gozaimashita. Anyway, I did feel like my dou cut was getting better so this stomp thing might be the key to why I suck at it. Anyway, something for me to work on from now.

Onto jigeiko. I was lacking a constant attacking spirit. Luckily, I had a partner to show me this. He would just go nuts with crazy combos when he saw that I let my guard down. We were a bit tight for space last night so I guess I may have just been a bit more consious about the space. Anyway, halfway through jigeiko, one of the juniors asked me to practice. So we just did some kihon cuts. Again, I went back to doing dou cuts. But while I was practicing, a bit of a line kinda formed by some juniors to practice with me. So yeah, I practiced with all of them. It was good to help them out and get some kihon practice for myself, but I really wanted to go against sensei. I'm sure he's got shitloads of wise words to impart on me. Hopefully he is there on wednesday.

Also, during jigeiko, I noticed that my friend was sitting in the stalls. She wanted to check out kendo because she wants to try a japanese martial art. She just came back from Japan and loved it so much and now wants to try and maintain some sort of connection. Anyway, at the time I was sparring with 'V' (for vendetta) and jokingly said to him 'don't make me look bad'... and so he took it kinda seriously and really hammed it up. hehe. couldn't really concentrate after that.

Immune to bruising

I think I might be immune to bruising. I got whacked really good on the forearm just above the kote last night. At the time it was quite red and swollen, so I thought 'hmm, this is gonna bruise quite nicely'. But when I work up this morning, there was nothing there. A couple of purple dots, but thats about it. Now I can go get those adamantium bone upgrades cos I know I can heal fast enough to survive it.

Anyway, exams aren't quite over yet cos I think last nights training had even less than monday nights training, but a few old faces turned up who haven't been there for a while. They're too softcore if you ask me. I don't even have exams and I still turn up to all the trainings!

There weren't any senior people around at the start so the most senior people that were there were hesitant to take the warmup. In the end, 'A' took it and I think it was his first time. Good effort. Always hard first time. I'm still too hesitant to do it even though a few of the other suggested that I do it, but hey, I'm outranked by others there... and just a warning, if I take it, I'll take it to the max! 1000 suburi... for each set of cuts! hehe.

For our usual training, I was motadachi. I think I was too focussed on being a good motadachi and I didn't really do good kendo. Trying to choose what to open for uchikomi geiko is tough! In the end, I think I just came up with a pattern and pretty much just stuck with it. Something like men, kote, dou, kote-men, men. BORING... and BAD motadachi. I'll leave that for someone else next time.

Anyway, on to jigeiko. For the past few weeks, I feel like I've just been going through the motions at training. Lost some enthusiasm I guess. Need someway to get it back. There will be a shiai (competition) in about 3 weeks so I guess thats something to aim at. I wanna try and jigeiko with all the hard nuts at the club to get into gear. Its just a shame that not many of them show up, and also because we do the rotational jigeiko so you can't really choose who to do jigeiko with. Its fine to do jigeiko with someone less skilled though, but at the moment I feel like I want to get my ass kicked.

...

funny faces

Got to training REALLY early yesterday, it was only about 5pm but there were already people there. Every time I go to training I get this weird feeling that I'm gonna be the only one there. Kinda like the dream where you go to school naked, except here, I'm the only one going to training, in full keikogi and there's no other kendoka around.

Quite a small group training today. Less than 30 all up. Had an old sempai train last night who doesn't come often enough in my opinion. But really glad to see him back whenever he is at training. Always got useful advice to give. I saw him in the change rooms with a couple of the juniors, and he was correcting the way had their keikogi on... so I just quietly did the same hoping that no one noticed that I didn't do it right either. Apparently, the little 'tie' on the outside of the gi is supposed to be horizontal. I always had it kinda 45 degrees.

Anyway, training wasn't too vigorous cos I still felt like I had heaps more energy to expend. Just did the usual kirikaeshi, kihon and uchikomi. Had quite a few rounds of the uchikomi but I still had heaps in the tank. I should be motadachi so that I get more of a work out. They get to uchikomi, kakari and aikakari! Anyway, after this we just did kata. I know the first 5 now. Did it with X who I'd never done kata with before. Man I was trying soooo hard to not crack up and laugh. His serious face is sooo funny. Its kinda quite serious, though it also looks cute at the same time, hahahaha. Man, that was priceless. He didn't know kata 5 so I taught him, its quite easy. With the other kata, I'm still have issues with distancing. Especially kata 3 and 4. At the end of it, we all did it formally, shomeni rei.... then nervous giggle broke out into laughter. Man I felt like such a dick, hehe, but the look on his face!!! mental note, never do kata with him again! I managed to compose myself and get through it.

not the way...

I've noticed this in a couple of the junior kendoka, but one of them has been irking me for a few weeks now with his attitude.

It started a few weeks ago, while we were practicing against a motadachi and he was in my line. He'd done his set of cuts (I think it was kiri kaeshi) and the senior motadachi gave him some advice. I don't know what was said, but he basically came back to the line saying 'He did the same thing!' (about the motadachi). So I assume the motadachi gave him some advice that he thought he didn't deserve, and that he thought he was doing whatever it was correctly, or at least the way the motadachi did it. So I did the round and tried to watch the senior and the junior (although from different perspectives since I had to be motadachi for the senior). And yeah, there was a big difference. But thats not the issue. The issue is that the junior kendoka didn't appreciate the help of the senior. Hell I even appreciate any advice from people who are lower ranked than I am (not that there are many), but yeah, people give you advice because they want to help you, not just to tell you that you are shit! This kinda got on my nerves but I let it slide that time and didn't say anything.

A couple of weeks later, I was helping with the juniors after the class had split (cf previous post). Again, I saw a couple of things that this particular junior was doing wrong, so after the class was over, I had a short chat to him about it and tried to give him some advice... it was really basic shit, something like cut straight kote, and not from the side... his reply was, 'Yeah, I was cutting straight blah blah blah...' It may not be as bad as it sounds written here, but still... I think he's got the wrong attitude towards his seniors.

Then yesterday at training, during seiretsu, I noticed that he'd lined up in front of people that were his seniors... now thats quite a faux pas. When I rejoined the club at the start of the year, I knew for sure that there'd be some people ranked lower than me, even though I'm only 5th kyu. But I made sure that I'd always line up at the end of the line, out of respect because I probably would have been seen as a guest that time, and even now, I don't feel totally ingrained into the club like the other senior members so I still line up at the end with all the seniors in front of me (unless a friendly senior feels like I'm a sempai and lines up behind me ;)). Anyway, so after training I saw him downstairs, so I thought I'd give another try at educating him about dojo ettiquette, and told him that he shouldn't line up in front of people who are his seniors. He basically told me that 'well some of the seniors just dawdled so It's not his fault that he's in front in the line'. Man that gave me the shits. I felt like this guy had no respect at all.

Anyway, this was just a bit of rant to try and fish for comments. Anyone who was at training should know who I'm talking about... so don't ask me who it is.

The wobble head

I actually made it to training on time last night... First time in a while.

Still working on my kamae, making sure that I have my left leg straight and right knee a bit bent.

We started with some ashi sabaki (footwork). Just ayumi ashi and okuri ashi along the width of the dojo. Nothing exciting.

Mentsuke, and I was the first to get up! hehe... Only because a certain other kendoka was not training who usually beats me. But hey, I'll take the wins when they come. I even did a bit of a strut, hehe, but hopefully no one noticed.

Then the usual kirikaeshi, kihon and uchikomi practice. One thing to note while I was doing kiri kaeshi, my motadachi didn't have the correct angle on his shinai while receiving, so I think that he thought my cuts weren't on target because my shinai didn't connect with his too well, so on the second pass, he left his shinai down so that I can cut his men, only to find that I was right on target... hehe, was quite proud of myself actually, and quite surprised at the precision on that set. I can still see it in my mind now, his men kinda just bounced from side to side each time I cut. Now I have a reference in which to compare my kiri kaeshi from now on.

Onto kihon. For the life of me, I can't do a good kihon dou cut. I tried to slow my cut down to get the movements correct but can't seem to get it right. I remember I used to be able to get a decent cut, but I just can't remember how I did it. Very frustrating. Need to do some dou suburi cuts.

Class splits, some hiki waza. A bit different to what we've been doing it, where the person doing the initial men cut also does the hiki cut. Instead, we have one person doing the initial men cut and the other person doing the hiki cut. I quite like this, even though I didn't do it quite well. Kinda reminds me of bouncing metal ball thing some people have on their desks. I couldn't really do it that well on some people because they weren't really bumping into me hard enough, but I tried to adjust. Still fun...

Then jigeiko. Which is a free practice session, techinically not a sparring session, but generally people do spar during jigeiko. Ok, off my high horse now...

First up I have a japanese guy. I hadn't ever sparred with him before, but figured he'd kick my ass. I managed to get what I thought was 1 ippon on him, but mostly he scored on me. One thing I noticed is that I still pause in between cuts. I had a chat to him after wards and he (in his broken english) was saying something about jigeiko not being that important, and that uchikomi and kakari are more important as training methods. He also mentioned something about being able to continually cut, ie constantly attacking. So yeah, so add to my goals 'continually attack during jigeiko without those breaks'. Had two more jigeiko but not much to say cos I didn't really give much. Was just working on my kamae and my seme. Trying to see what would make my opponents go back or attack.

Well thats about it. Looking forward to friday's morning training.

Forearm conditioning

Went rock climbing last night with my new french friend at Cliffhanger in Altona.

Had much more fun than last week. I find that the climbs are more technical compared to Hardrock which are more strength based.

Anyway, got back into it all pretty well. Was climbing mainly 15's to 19's (and also a 21 which is one of my favourite climbs). Didn't really try any harder than this cos I didn't wanna show off in front of my new friend. She's a pretty good climber. She's got better technique than me. But she wasn't feeling too well which hindered her climbing which is understandable. I tried to pick climbs that she'd like based on what she'd already told me about her climbing experience. The first few climbs were right on the money as she thoroughly enjoyed then. Then I picked on of my favourite climbs. Its only rated 16 but kinda tough on the forearms. Its the hex/totem pole one if anyone reading has been to cliffhanger. I've done it clean a few times but the last few times I had tried, I didn't quite make it. When I tried it last night, I focussed on getting good footholds and the climb seemed so much easier than what I remembered from last time. At the height of my climbing prowess when I was going every week, I had managed to climb it clean twice in a row. It really gives my forearms a good workout. Hopefully this will improve my tenouchi for kendo. Anyway, my new french friend will be travelling around Australia for the next 2 months so I don't think I'll be climbing for a while. Ah well. I'm going to try to make it to Friday morning kendo trainings from now on anyway, so that should give me enough exercise each week. Apparently, going to training during the peak of exam season makes me hardcore... even that I don't have any exams, but I'll take that mantle nonetheless.

nothing like the smell of kote in the morning...

Finally made it to my first friday morning training today... but about that later...

Firstly, on Wednesday's training... kinda hardcore, but in small doses. After the class split from doing the usual kiri kaeshi, kihon and uchikomi geiko, we went straight into jigeiko. Can't remember much about it, except I was focussed on correcting my kamae as mentioned previously, and also trying to cut straight through, rather than trying to go a bit to the right. Must have been working cos a couple of times, my kensen hit the bottom of my opponent's shinai. Also, my kamase does feel better now, however, my feet seem to be more apart. I used to have my left toes just behind my right heel, but now its about 10-15 cms behind... don't know if thats good or not, but it accomodates my straight left leg/bent right knee kamae. It also feels better when I launch for a cut. I hope this is the right thing to do.

Well, this morning, I got to the dojo about 30mins late so I hurried to put my gear on. As soon as I got it all on and was about to start a warmup, 'Pai Mei' calls out '10mins for jigeiko!'. Damn! I thought it was supposed to finish at 9! So I figured I get some good jigeiko practice in, but alas, our dear sempai had to leave a bit early... I managed to get one jigeiko for about 5 mins which didn't feel right because I wasn't properly warmed up. Anyway, after he left, we just did some kata. Did kihon kendo kata 1,2 and 3. Then went to practice nihon kendo kata. I spent this time teaching one of the juniors kata no. 3. Kinda hard to teach him by myself but managed to get through it. In the end, we did it a couple of times but he kinda mucked up the uchidachi footwork... which everyone does anyway unless you're high kyu grade, so a pretty good effort.

Anyway, after a few people left so I just planned on doing some suburi, as there were no 'senior' people around to babysit us. One of the juniors suggested that we do shinai geiko, but I thought we weren't 'allowed' to, but he assures me that the juniors have done it as long as a senior person is around (looking at me) hehe. Well don't know if it was kocher but I'm gonna claim ignorance on this one (cf my title). Did some 1on1 cuts, then the 5 of us decided to practice multiple cuts, hehe... 2 cuts... then 3 cuts... 4 cuts! kinda fun, but not like having 20 people line up. Well ended up being only 4 of us, so we did 3 cut sets. Then through twice (6 cuts). I managed to do it in 1 kiai. I can get more cuts in if I didn't have to turn around. We should practice this kinda thing more... well I want to anyway, still aiming to do kiri kaeshi in 1 kiai. One of the juniors then asked if we would be motadachi for him to continuously go through, hehe. I lost count of how many he did but it was quite a few. I suggested trying to do it in 1 kiai, but he wanted quantity over quality, bah... juniors... a kendoka craves not these things...

So yeah, not much of a work out, but I'm probably better for it. Heading off to rock climbing soon so I don't want to be too wasted by then.

Back... and to the left...

First up, went rock climbing last friday. Went to the climbing gym in Nunawading. I don't like it as much as cliffhanger in Altona. Most of the climbs seem too similar. On the main walls, the climbs go kinda straight up, and near the top, there's a bit of a roof to get over. Kinda makes things boring, especially, since I'm not that good a climber, so I can't really do the different climbs on the same wall. I can climb up to grade 20, but seemed like that most of the climbs were like below 12 or greater than 20. Not too many in my bracker of experience. Anyway, it was still good. The best I did was a level 20 which I couldn't do clean. The first bit of it had some overhang which I couldn't get over without using a couple of the other holds. Anyway, it was still good. Should be going to Cliffhanger this Friday, so I'm looking forward to it.

Well back to kendo. Got stabbed in the right arm last monday and didn't really think anything of it then, but the bruise is still with me today! Most of the time, my kendo brusises heal within about 3 days. This must've had some extra poke in it.

I'm really starting to think that our most senior member has a tsuki fetish. Once the class split today, it was straight into tsuki practice, hehe. Kept it nice and tight today so that I wouldn't miss (which I didn't). Then went onto uchmikomi practice with a kakari feel to it. Can't really be bothered trying to explain, but suffice to say, it was tiring. By the end I was stuffed.

Onto jigeiko. It was proper jigeiko instead of the rotational jigeiko we normally do. I had to step out as it started to fix my dou himo. When that was done, I waited to spar with our most senior sempai. Did a bit of mitori (watching?) keiko until I saw a lone kendoka waiting for a partner, so I went against him instead. Was trying to correct my kamae. I realise over the weekend that I have my right leg straight, and my left leg is bent a bit, which is wrong as it should be the other way around. Was trying to do this pretty much the whole training session, especially during the kihon and uchikomi practice. I really want to correct this because I think it relates to my inability to push off from the hips. Anyway, we sparred for a while, and he got a couple of cuts on me I thought. Then I called ippon shobu. We did a couple of taps, then I went for men and BANG. Got him without him getting me. Can't remember exactly what happened, but before that we were always getting ai-men. Can't remember why he didn't get me though, but I took the point.

Then I went back to waiting to go against 'Pai Mei' (I shall call him this for any future reference. I kinda already reffered to him as Pai Mei recently when he tsuki-ed me and missed. Maybe thats why he's got a fetish for it, because he feels like he can't do it perfect yet). Didn't really watch anyone while I was waiting cos I wanted to psyche myself up because I din't want to have a poor showing. Kinda redundant in the end cos he made me look like I wasn't giving everything... Anyway, he just seems so much faster than me. As soon as he tried to cut me, I would try to cut him back only to have him whack me on the head. I also tried some debana men cuts but that didn't really work either cos he stuck his shinai in the centre for me to tsuki myself. Anyway, he called ippon shobu and got my men after a couple of tries. Then gave me some advice. He noticed that I was kinda cutting on the side, ie to my right (his left). I must cut down the centre. No chance of my cuts slipping off, and also, going to the side just opens me up... thats why he pretty much always scored on me, cos he was cutting straight down the centre.

Now working on correcting my kamae and cutting straight.

Dario sei sempre in retardo

Came late to training again yesterday. All because of a stupid netball game.

Anyway, missed the warmup completely but at least I had my dou and tare on properly by the time seiretzu was called. Luckily we did kata first up. I was kinda knackered from the netball games. This gave me a little bit of leeway to warmup a bit and stretch out a little. Practiced the first 4 kata. I guess I'm getting a bit better. Still have trouble with the footwork for kata 3 as the uchidachi. After the intial cut, uchidachi must take a step back with right foot, then left foot.... then (realises he is defeated) takes another step back with the left foot, then right foot then left foot. I can't seem to get the rythym right for the two left foot steps in a row. Can't really practice alone because I don't know how much to step back. Plus with an opponent, you have to adjust your timing with theirs. Hmm, maybe this is why I can't get it right. My own timing is probably a bit too slow, so when I'm against an opponent, I have to rush it and thus mess up the timing.... going away to practice alone...

Well... after I finish this post. Not much more to say though really. Just followed kata practice with some kirikaeshi and then the class split in half (seniors/juniors). I was aching to join the juniors and take it easy, but something inside told me to just do it and stay with the seniors. Hmmm... why why why?

Did some uchikomi geiko first up. 5 cuts each. 6 cuts each. 7 cuts each. 8 cuts each. Sempai: 'OK... now 9 cuts each!'.... my cuts were quite pathetic. Need to learn how to focus when I'm tired... really tired. I should try to get a video of myself when I'm in this state too. I wanna see my technique at its rawest, ie. when I'm totally not thinking about it because I'm dead tired. Anyway, this was followed by jigeiko. Got my ass kicked. Don't think I scored any good cuts. I tried to keep my spirits up though trying to relax and conserve energy for my cuts. Didn't try too many cuts either. Tried to bide my time and create openings. Don't think I was too successful though. I wish I can reflect upon it more, but can't seem to remember too much about it. Ah well.

Was going to try and wake up early enough for tomorrows morning training, but I'm going rock climbing in the evening. Better save my energy. Might try to go next week. Most people should be busy studying for exams so I might get some concentrated help from my sempais. Until then...