Believe
Pai Mei was absent from this morning's training session, but in his place we had Ben sensei! woot! Again, I got there a bit late. Don't know why but I couldn't get much sleep last night, and the sleep that I did get happened to coincide with my alarm clock.
Anyway, people were just finishing off their warmups as I got in. Got myself ready and took both my shinais out. Decided to do a quick warmup with double shinais. Hmm, harder than I'd thought. Did about 60 suburi then 20 hayasuburi. Nice and warmed up.
Now I don't usually do this, because I haven't really been told the ettiquette regarding it, but I saw a couple of the seniors do it so I did it too. After my warmup, I knelt down in seiza and did mokuso myself for a bit. Then bowed to the kamiza before I went into men. hmm, too shy to ask in the forums.
There was a junior that was there and he was really struggling with his tenugui and men so I helped him out. Hmm, he's doesn't seem too bright, but I tried to help him best I could. I'm not much of an instructor anyway. In the end, I pretty much just did it for him so that I could join the others. Did 1 kirikaeshi to warm up before Ben sensei started teaching the waza for the day.
Today Ben went through some ouji waza techniques. First was debana men. A couple of different situations that you can use it. First is when your opponent is rocking back and forth in a rhythmic way. If they do this, then the time to cut is when most/all of their weight is on the front foot, because they can't launch an attack themselves without weight on the back foot. So motadachi rocks back and forth and the person doing the cut picks his/her own timing. That was quite fun.
Next is when your opponent is pushing forward. Can't be bothered explaining, but you cut men as the motadachi is pushing forward (damn, why can't I be more articulate).
This was then followed with a response to that debana men cut, which is a nuki dou cut. Man my dou cuts suck. I'm still twisting my torso during the cut. Need to maintain good posture, or at least figure out why my body thinks that its better to twist.
Well onto jigeiko.
I had jigeiko with Ben sensei! The first time ever I think. To start I think he was trying to see if I'd learnt any of the waza and gave me the openings. First up he rocked back and forth, and to my surprise, I pretty much cut him on the second rock forward! We then did some seme-ing at each other, and I got to practice doing cuts just as he seme-ed. Hmm, after a bit we went into proper sparring. At least thats how I saw it. He may have just been toying with me the whole time. I also noticed that he kinda did what Yakov sensei did to me, which is kinda open the shinai to have men open to sucker me in so that he can do ouji waza. Again, I was up to the challenge to try and 'beat' his ploy. I think I got him once, can't really remember. I just really enjoyed it. I've found that I find it easier to fight people of higher rank, mainly because they don't just go in and cut blindly, but actually fight using their kensen, ie, only cutting when they know there is an opening, rather than blindly.
The only other thing that was memorable about this morning was during my fight with Vinnci. Hehe, at one point, she gave out a good strong kiai, which I responded with my own strong kiai, which she responded with a bit of a whimper and stepped back, hehe. The look on her face was priceless, and so I just had to chuckle a bit. She was a bit pissed off at me for laughing at her, but to me, its gotta be the cutest thing I'd ever witnessed during jigeiko.
Again, tonight, I went rock climbing, with Pei, and my other climbing friend also showed up. Well Pei seems to be improving quite a bit. Easily climbed all the climbs up to grade 11. Struggled on the grade 12 again, but did quite well on a 13 (damn, I should be worrying now). She didn't get to the top of it though, but it was a good effort.
Well for myself, again I took it easy and didn't want to try too hard and show off in front of my new climbing buddy. Did mainly high teens. Finally climbed that 16 that was bugging me. Couldn't do it clean but I know how to do it now so I should do it next time. What really surprised me was that I decided to try a 22 climb. The place was quite crowded last night, and it was one of the few that was available, so I just did it anyway. I doubted that I'd climb it clean so I told Pei to expect me to fall quite a bit. But yeah, I managed to do it clean! Although for most of the climb, I felt like I was always on the verge of falling off, but somehow I managed to stick it. I think this is something that is really hindering my progress, both in climbing and in kendo, my lack of self belief. Especially in kendo, where I think I give up a bit too easily when I go against someone I think is better, and I seem to always bow to acknowledge their cuts, but always doubting my own cuts. I think I'll try some more 20+ climbs next week, just to challenge myself again. And always give my all in jigeiko, ie, always push myself so that I'm teetering on the edge of my endurance/stamina.
Anyway, people were just finishing off their warmups as I got in. Got myself ready and took both my shinais out. Decided to do a quick warmup with double shinais. Hmm, harder than I'd thought. Did about 60 suburi then 20 hayasuburi. Nice and warmed up.
Now I don't usually do this, because I haven't really been told the ettiquette regarding it, but I saw a couple of the seniors do it so I did it too. After my warmup, I knelt down in seiza and did mokuso myself for a bit. Then bowed to the kamiza before I went into men. hmm, too shy to ask in the forums.
There was a junior that was there and he was really struggling with his tenugui and men so I helped him out. Hmm, he's doesn't seem too bright, but I tried to help him best I could. I'm not much of an instructor anyway. In the end, I pretty much just did it for him so that I could join the others. Did 1 kirikaeshi to warm up before Ben sensei started teaching the waza for the day.
Today Ben went through some ouji waza techniques. First was debana men. A couple of different situations that you can use it. First is when your opponent is rocking back and forth in a rhythmic way. If they do this, then the time to cut is when most/all of their weight is on the front foot, because they can't launch an attack themselves without weight on the back foot. So motadachi rocks back and forth and the person doing the cut picks his/her own timing. That was quite fun.
Next is when your opponent is pushing forward. Can't be bothered explaining, but you cut men as the motadachi is pushing forward (damn, why can't I be more articulate).
This was then followed with a response to that debana men cut, which is a nuki dou cut. Man my dou cuts suck. I'm still twisting my torso during the cut. Need to maintain good posture, or at least figure out why my body thinks that its better to twist.
Well onto jigeiko.
I had jigeiko with Ben sensei! The first time ever I think. To start I think he was trying to see if I'd learnt any of the waza and gave me the openings. First up he rocked back and forth, and to my surprise, I pretty much cut him on the second rock forward! We then did some seme-ing at each other, and I got to practice doing cuts just as he seme-ed. Hmm, after a bit we went into proper sparring. At least thats how I saw it. He may have just been toying with me the whole time. I also noticed that he kinda did what Yakov sensei did to me, which is kinda open the shinai to have men open to sucker me in so that he can do ouji waza. Again, I was up to the challenge to try and 'beat' his ploy. I think I got him once, can't really remember. I just really enjoyed it. I've found that I find it easier to fight people of higher rank, mainly because they don't just go in and cut blindly, but actually fight using their kensen, ie, only cutting when they know there is an opening, rather than blindly.
The only other thing that was memorable about this morning was during my fight with Vinnci. Hehe, at one point, she gave out a good strong kiai, which I responded with my own strong kiai, which she responded with a bit of a whimper and stepped back, hehe. The look on her face was priceless, and so I just had to chuckle a bit. She was a bit pissed off at me for laughing at her, but to me, its gotta be the cutest thing I'd ever witnessed during jigeiko.
Again, tonight, I went rock climbing, with Pei, and my other climbing friend also showed up. Well Pei seems to be improving quite a bit. Easily climbed all the climbs up to grade 11. Struggled on the grade 12 again, but did quite well on a 13 (damn, I should be worrying now). She didn't get to the top of it though, but it was a good effort.
Well for myself, again I took it easy and didn't want to try too hard and show off in front of my new climbing buddy. Did mainly high teens. Finally climbed that 16 that was bugging me. Couldn't do it clean but I know how to do it now so I should do it next time. What really surprised me was that I decided to try a 22 climb. The place was quite crowded last night, and it was one of the few that was available, so I just did it anyway. I doubted that I'd climb it clean so I told Pei to expect me to fall quite a bit. But yeah, I managed to do it clean! Although for most of the climb, I felt like I was always on the verge of falling off, but somehow I managed to stick it. I think this is something that is really hindering my progress, both in climbing and in kendo, my lack of self belief. Especially in kendo, where I think I give up a bit too easily when I go against someone I think is better, and I seem to always bow to acknowledge their cuts, but always doubting my own cuts. I think I'll try some more 20+ climbs next week, just to challenge myself again. And always give my all in jigeiko, ie, always push myself so that I'm teetering on the edge of my endurance/stamina.
posted by Son at 1:26 am
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