Game of Dice

Got to training kinda late again last night, but rushed to get my gear on so I didn’t miss out on the warm-ups. Instead of a circle we managed a dodecagon. I reckon we’d get a hexagon by next week.

I lost the race to menstuke again last night because my chin rag fell out as I was putting on my men. Damn. I’m sure if I had kept a tally I’d be way in front of anyone… ie Pei…

Did the usual kirikaeshi and kihon. Then a lot of harai waza practice. Harai men on the omote, harai men on the ura side and harai kote on the ura side. Tried to get more a of ‘J’ shape to my harai as it has been commented in the past that my harai was lacking any oomph, ie. it was too straight up and down. I needed more of a sideways movement to move my opponents shinai. Anyway, we did a lot it. Then did sets of it, ie, 3 harai men on the omote then 3 on the ura side. Harai kote men, etc. all the while building up the speed at which we do the cuts too. I liked it. I treated the fast cuts like it was jigeiko, ie. not just rushing in to do it, but trying to apply pressure then cutting. I think I just need to get some consistency now. A couple of my harai kote cuts felt really really good. Like it was just a degote cut, but with a harai thrown in. However, not all of them are like that. I think I just need to get some consistency in my kendo in general, even fitness wise. Last Wednesday I felt really good, yet on Monday I felt completely shit. I don’t think its just nutrition or the weather either. Gotta learn to focus more.

Anyway, we did uchikomi, and quite a bit of it too. Had 4 motdachi. Did it slow and big at first but built up the speed. At the end we did it kakari style. The whole training seemed to fit in nicely. For the uchikomi and kakari, I got through it ok, but still didn’t feel 100% of what I can do. At one point, Hiro (motadachi) was pushing me during my follow through, so yeah, I’m going to be working on that from now. A few weeks ago, I felt my follow through was quite good, but may have something to do with my busted right ankle that I can’t seem to go as fast anymore. Been wearing the heal protector but its not much of an ankle support… well I guess its better than nothing.

We then did jigeiko. Spoke to Tony after training and he mentioned that you can’t get better unless you play with the big boys. Well I guess I was lucky last night cos I got to fight against Michael, Tom and Andrew. Apart from Hiro and Josh, they were the most senior guys around. Pai Mei wasn’t at training because his wife has a bun in the oven… I very much doubt he reads this and I hope to god that he doesn’t but yeah, congrats to Pai Mei.

Anyway, I fought Mike first up. I think he’s improved quite a bit since I fought him at the start of the year. I remember he used to go backwards quite a bit. He then improved that to moving backwards but still in an attacking frame of mind. And he’s now improved more because he doesn’t seem to move back anymore, but rather forwards, and always applying the pressure. I wish I had some tangible improvements like that so I can gauge how much I’ve learnt.

Then Tom. Hehe. I felt like doing shiai style against Tom, so I tried to show strong kiai. I remember being scared of Tom at the beginning of the year. We he fights he’s quite aggressive, but as soon as he lowers that shinai he’s a really nice guy. I think out of all the people in the club, Tom has the biggest difference between Kendo mode and normal mode, and I think that’s why he’s so good at kendo, he’s like the incredible hulk, hehe. Anyway, I only landed 1 nice cut on him. He was suckering me to cut kote so he can do nuki men, but my kote was too quick for him, hehe. He still kicked my butt though. He was getting a lot of men cuts on me. Somehow, just before he cuts, he moves to his right, and just as I’m adjusting my body to realign my centre he goes for the cut… Hmm, a bit dodgy but well I need to learn to maintain that centre. Anyway, this action led to me doing a few air cuts where his men would have been.

Then Andrew. Again, he’s a rock. Hold strong centre, cuts very straight and direct. I seem to have this habit of twisting my body after I cut, so a few times I crashed into him from side on against his straight on. Hit my right arm on his mengane at one point, but luckily didn’t get my elbow, otherwise I’d be real sore. Don’t remember much of the fight, just that I didn’t have that constant attacking spirit as I did last week, I was doing more reactive kendo than proactive kendo. He caught me sleeping a couple of times at tsubazeriai and did hiki men cuts on me. Blah, need to find out why I felt so good last week so that I try to achieve it consciously rather than just show up at training and roll the dice.

Anyway, I’m in the B team for the Mumeishi comp coming up. In the team is Hiro, myself and Kev Wu. The other team has Josh, Russel and Alex. On paper we seem to have weaker teams than last year, however, last year were both all kyu teams. We have at least a dan grade in each team this year. Doesn’t really matter though. I’m looking to enjoy this comp and try to do the best I can. Lets hope I can roll double 6's for the event.