Cobra Kai

Took the warmup again last night. Quite a small class, only about 20 people.

Had Ben sensei take us for the training. Just the usual kirikaeshi, kihon, uchikomi then kakari geiko.
Things to note:

• When doing uchikomi/kakari geiko, you should feel the power coming from your lower body, not your arms, so you should try to make your cuts lighter and focus on your hips.
• When doing suburi, the 2 small fingers on your left hand remain tight on the shinai throughout the cut, so you don’t loosen them at the top of your cut. You should also do big swings, and avoid being ‘hit’ on the head with the back of the shinai.
• Before class, started, he emphasised that we should all look the same in kendo, ie, we shouldn’t adorn ourself with jewellery, or other shit to make yourself stand out. I think he may have been referring to ‘Chuck Norris’ and his home made name tag. It kinda looked stupid when I first saw it. Its got his first name large and bold, and his surname smaller just beneath. I asked him why he felt he needed it, and ‘he’ gave ‘me’ a lecture about how its about showing respect. Bleh. This from a guy who decided to wear a headband to training, and a black hakama and gi (Cobra Kai style).

We then did some waza practice were we nominated the waza we wanted to practice. Its like free waza practice. I practiced mainly dou cuts, since I still can’t really cut it right. Tried different things, but my cuts still seemed shit. Can’t get a good whack to my cuts. Also tried kaeshi dou, and men hiki men to show one of the juniors how to do it.

Then did free jigeiko. Fought Kah Hong I think first up. He was dancing around a bit, so I told him to relax. Just reiterated what Ben sensei told us on Friday morning, how we should keep that constant attacking energy in our mind, but with our body, we should be more relaxed and not waste energy.

I then fought Josh and his nito set. Hehe, fun!!! I actually managed to cut him a few times. I found that I had to just go in straight, and vary my timing to cut in order to avoid a deflection from his short sword. Even if he tapped my shinai with it, I’d go off centre and he’d smack me with his long sword. At one point, he scored two men cuts on me in quick succession, so I figured I’ll try to change something, so I went into jodan kamae. I think he flinched a bit, so I went for a men cut. Went all wrong, and didn’t feel right. I don’t even know how to do a one handed men cut, nor do I know the footwork. Well back to chudan for me.

Then fought Melva. She wanted to practice debana men during the waza practice, so I tried to be a bit accommodating. She lamented that her cuts were too slow, and that faster people would cut her, but I don’t think you really need to be ultra fast. I advised her that to do debana cuts, you kinda have to cut before you opponent cuts, ie, you ‘feel’ that they are about to cut, so you go for it before they do, and they can’t react because they are already in the process of making their own cut, if that makes sense. Or you can try to make them do a cut and cut them before they actually cut. So its more about picking the opportunity than speed.

After I finished with Melva, I asked Ryo to spar with me. I never fought him before (as he is a visitor from Kenshikan) so I thought it would be good to see his style. When we got up, he immediately opened for me to cut men. Huh?... ok, I went for men, and he tried kaeshi dou on me. Ok… After that I still kinda went for cuts that he opened for me to sucker me in, but I’d try different things to try and get the cut. I managed to get a couple of cuts in. One was a kote nuki men, which wasn’t that great; it didn’t have oomph, and landed a bit too close. I also got a good men cut on him that he acknowledged but I can’t remember how I did it. Must have just beaten him against him ouji waza’s.

Class ends and I had to make the dojo steward calls. I think I got them all right, or at least I should have. Been listening carefully at the past couple of trainings, so from what I gather these are the calls:

Start of training:

Seiretsu (call to line up)
Chakuza (kneel down)
Ki o stuke
Mokuso (with and emphasis on the ‘Sooooo’)
‘Clap’
Joseki ni… rei
Sensei ni… rei

At the end of training:

Seiretsu
Chakuza
Men tore (to take off men and kote)
Ki o stuke
Mokuso
‘Clap’
Sensei ni… rei
Joseki ni… rei
Otagai ni… rei (bow to each other)