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.