Sensei's sensei visit
Hmm, the class last night seemed to have grown from last week. People must be finishing off their exams… Damn. I was hoping it would get smaller.
However, we did get a bonus in the very special guest that came. He’s Australia’s first (and only I think) 7th dan kendoka, and he was Yakov sensei’s sensei!!! To quote Yakov sensei ‘You’ll be getting it straight from the horses mouth’. I had always wondered who taught Yakov so it was a real privilege to have him train with us. Recently I’ve been noticing how ‘beautiful’ Yakov’s kendo is. It seems so effortless. Its like the difference between my kendo and his is like the difference between a baby trying to walk and an adult walking. Hmm, perhaps not the best analogy, but yeah, when I saw Fennessy sensei’s kendo, it seemed ever more effortless. He seems to move slowly but his cuts are quite snappy. It was a joy to watch. I hope he gets to visit us more often.
Started off with the usual kiri kaeshi and kihon. Tried to work my way up to doing the kirikaeshi quite briskly, so that I was puffed out by the time we started doing kihon. I think I’m getting better with the impact of my men cuts but it seems that my kote cuts are still a bit weak. I feel like I have to just be a bit more careful about that, because kote cuts can hurt when done wrong. For the dou cuts, I seem to be moving to the right a bit too early. Fennessy sensei noted that people were moving to the side but the proper way to do it is to cut straight and make the impact before moving to the side.
Moving on, the focus for last night was nidan and sandan waza (multiple cuts). We pretty much did all combo’s of double cuts, kote men, kote dou, men dou, men men. I think the key to it is to make that first cut the best cut you can do. When relating to a real sparring match, you don’t really go in for the cut thinking I’ll do nidan waza, you go in purely for that one cut, however, for whatever reason, if it doesn’t come off, then you can still go for another cut, especially if going for the first cut led to an opening, eg, if you go for men and your opponent blocks, it leaves dou open. Another important thing to remember is the distance of the cuts. Its very important that you adjust your step so that you cut with the monouchi. No use trying to do a full step cut when your opponent is at chikama.
Then had jigeiko. I was lucky enough to fight the two visitors from kenshikan and mumeishi. The mumeishi visitor gave me some really good advice. He noticed that I was holding strong centre with my kensen but he didn’t feel any ‘pressure’ from me. He advised me to use my shinai to gauge my opponents reactions, and to do that, I need to vary the pressure of my shinai against his. If I just maintain the same pressure to hold centre, I become predictable. Will try this out at the next training.
I also fought Hiro which was fun. I was expecting him to kick my ass as usual, however, I noticed that he swung his shinai from side to side in a rather rhythmic motion, so I tried to pick up the start of that motion and scored a kote on him. He was quite shocked, and maybe a bit disappointed in himself, but I was quite happy that I can be that dynamic during a fight and pick up on my opponents idiosyncratic motions and exploit them.
All in all it was a fun training, I felt like I still had a lot in the tank, even though I tried to go all out from the beginning. I still don’t know what it is that makes me feel this way or gives me that energy, perhaps it was that muffin for breakfast, hmmm. Looking forward to the next training.
However, we did get a bonus in the very special guest that came. He’s Australia’s first (and only I think) 7th dan kendoka, and he was Yakov sensei’s sensei!!! To quote Yakov sensei ‘You’ll be getting it straight from the horses mouth’. I had always wondered who taught Yakov so it was a real privilege to have him train with us. Recently I’ve been noticing how ‘beautiful’ Yakov’s kendo is. It seems so effortless. Its like the difference between my kendo and his is like the difference between a baby trying to walk and an adult walking. Hmm, perhaps not the best analogy, but yeah, when I saw Fennessy sensei’s kendo, it seemed ever more effortless. He seems to move slowly but his cuts are quite snappy. It was a joy to watch. I hope he gets to visit us more often.
Started off with the usual kiri kaeshi and kihon. Tried to work my way up to doing the kirikaeshi quite briskly, so that I was puffed out by the time we started doing kihon. I think I’m getting better with the impact of my men cuts but it seems that my kote cuts are still a bit weak. I feel like I have to just be a bit more careful about that, because kote cuts can hurt when done wrong. For the dou cuts, I seem to be moving to the right a bit too early. Fennessy sensei noted that people were moving to the side but the proper way to do it is to cut straight and make the impact before moving to the side.
Moving on, the focus for last night was nidan and sandan waza (multiple cuts). We pretty much did all combo’s of double cuts, kote men, kote dou, men dou, men men. I think the key to it is to make that first cut the best cut you can do. When relating to a real sparring match, you don’t really go in for the cut thinking I’ll do nidan waza, you go in purely for that one cut, however, for whatever reason, if it doesn’t come off, then you can still go for another cut, especially if going for the first cut led to an opening, eg, if you go for men and your opponent blocks, it leaves dou open. Another important thing to remember is the distance of the cuts. Its very important that you adjust your step so that you cut with the monouchi. No use trying to do a full step cut when your opponent is at chikama.
Then had jigeiko. I was lucky enough to fight the two visitors from kenshikan and mumeishi. The mumeishi visitor gave me some really good advice. He noticed that I was holding strong centre with my kensen but he didn’t feel any ‘pressure’ from me. He advised me to use my shinai to gauge my opponents reactions, and to do that, I need to vary the pressure of my shinai against his. If I just maintain the same pressure to hold centre, I become predictable. Will try this out at the next training.
I also fought Hiro which was fun. I was expecting him to kick my ass as usual, however, I noticed that he swung his shinai from side to side in a rather rhythmic motion, so I tried to pick up the start of that motion and scored a kote on him. He was quite shocked, and maybe a bit disappointed in himself, but I was quite happy that I can be that dynamic during a fight and pick up on my opponents idiosyncratic motions and exploit them.
All in all it was a fun training, I felt like I still had a lot in the tank, even though I tried to go all out from the beginning. I still don’t know what it is that makes me feel this way or gives me that energy, perhaps it was that muffin for breakfast, hmmm. Looking forward to the next training.
posted by Son at 4:05 pm
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