Conditioning update:

The new daily(-ish) routine is a 6 minute plank (1:30 each front, side, side, front), 5 minute plank (1 minute forward, :30 each right/left arm/leg up, :30 each diagonal arms up, 1 minute front).

Hip rotations (10@), hand-to-walk (5x), calf stretch(10@), elbow-instep to shins(5@), backwards lunge with a twist(10@), lateral lunge (5@), and sumo squat to stand (10@).

Fitness ball with T, W, L, followed by butt thrusts (10, 10 each leg, 20) and extension/adduction (10@).

70 dipping suburi, 70 lunge suburi.

The goal is to build up to 100 and increaese efficiently so I can do this on off days in the morning.

Today ended up being less keiko than I would have hoped, as regular keiko was truncated to make way for team-based shiaigeiko.  I was exhausted very quickly.  In shiai, as senpo, I managed to hikiwake one of my younger rivals despite his shodachi kote with a hiki-do that came from nowhere.  I’m surprisingly good at that, and feel good because Sensei did award that point to me as well.  Still, I do need to better modulate the kiai, saving it for an explosion for ippon.

So the chin abrasion is finally healed. Tonight was lots of kata practice, in preparation still for shinsa. The main thing I learned was on kodachi sanbonme, the names for the three distinct but continuous motions: suriage, suriotoshi, surikomi. The only other notable moment was during keiko when one of the kohai who’s frighteningly good was roughing me up, much to my annoyance, as exiting tsubazeriai with heavy hands so as to knock my tsuba into tsuki is hardly endearing. Anyway, I bore it and took ippon with ura-harai kote.

Being shinsa season and all, the last half hour and then fifteen extra minutes were devoted to shinsa practice and commentary.  The only thing I haven’t written about before in detail is what Sensei calls, “kurai-dori”–winning by coming from a superior position, as if you’re the CEO of a company and the opponent is applying for a job.  This sort of dignity and domination is winning before striking.  I guess I’ve felt something like it before in shiaigeiko against opponents who were clearly kohai–a loud kiai and then just seme until they attack, confident in victory.  The tricky thing is that being at the same dojo against the same opponents most of the time it’s too easy to get into patterns and think too much about how to create specific counters, which is not a terribly hopeless thing but still somehow short of the ideal reaction–too much planning, thinking.  Still, I can think of a couple points I’ve gotten in shiai due to thinking.  So it’s worth considering more carefully.

Tonight turned unexpectedly into shiai, which was fine, I guess, since I managed to win my match with a clean men straight out of sonkyo.  I really should worry less, though, about winning and losing, but it’s difficult to not care when everyone is watching–it’s somehow easier in actual competition.  Other than that, I had a few good kote in kihongeiko because I was all loose…  And I had some pretty great kote-nuki-men.

Today’s shiaigeiko was more of a seminar for shimpan than anything else, though I guess it was fun doing things to provide them with training experiences, such as losing my shinai (did I knock out a lamp?) and unnecessary roughness.  It was odd too because though in practice it was just mostly unbearable, the faux-shiai practice felt better, perhaps just because I was only up against kohai but still had to consciously change things up against opponents, mostly some misete fakes in order to open up a kote for some opponents who kept on blocking their men too much.  I guess I do need to work on confidence first, and greater variety and unpredictability–numerous sensei have remarked on my “honesty” or tendency to hit in the same pattern over and over again.

Tonight was lots of kata with plenty of lessons, including nayashi-irezuki and guts, but then for some reason we had an extra half-hour of bonusgeiko, which is all well and good except tomorrow there will be an extra-long practice although shiai themed.  Tonight was quite hot and I need to do better with big straight snappy waza as opposed to my tendency toward swoopy crooked nonsense.  I could probably put more power in my tanden though, although I think the conditioning is slowly starting to pay off.

I was definitely very apprehensive today when it came to approaching my six shiai-geiko matches, and shiai sensei indeed scolded me after for my lack of observation.  Mostly I was afraid of losing to my juniors, which I didn’t do, though I ended up tying them, which is not much better.  Overall, I went 2-1-3, but I need to observe more and not rush in as much, even though it’s shiai.  Keep up the pressure, tone down the attacks…

Meanwhile, Sensei in his overview speech likens kendo to shooting a rifle.  Unclear if this helps me, but the point is that when shooting a rifle, one must line up the wooden stock against something, firmly.  The left leg is like this wooden stock, and must be turned inward to face the opponent, not all pigeon-toed, which would be like lining up the rifle against one’s chest.  Off of that foundation the strikes come out straight.

Tonight’s first thirty minutes were very encouraging, but the following two hours of shiaigeiko were less than enthralling, mostly because I was never on-deck.  But that’s all right, as Thursday will be my day to shine or dim.

Today was sweatily unbearable, though Westchester-Sensei showed up to put us through his usual rapid paces, but I was deprived on two occasions of running the gauntlet of Sensei. I was somewhat more aggressive today, but should probably keep in mind Hayashi-Sensei’s advice–30 seconds of kiseme before shodachi…