The skeptic in me wonder about how much my budget equipment has inhibited my progress:
My men is loose in the chin and Sensei said years ago it’s too large and so perhaps, just perhaps, my monomi is misaligned.
My kote are a replacement pair and if they do not quite fit I may not achieve non-fish-killing tenouchi.
My doh is too wide now that I’ve lost weight, like Rob points out–I have outgrown the cauldron.
My tare is frayed.
I missed a couple practices, but I realized that some things are more important than practice, and as obsessed between getting new equipment and training like crazy for sandan shinsa next June, I can take a breather once in a while. Kendo is meant to enjoyed too.
Meanwhile, Sensei tonight remarked to me that my tenouchi is too much. I should imagine holding goldfish. He says the way I strike, everytime I kill a fish.
I’ve missed posting the last two practices, but it’s still better than missing practice altogether, as seems to be the trend these days, I don’t know if it’s because it’s mid-August or because the weather outside is so damn fine. I’ve been easing up as much as possible, although this causes some people to encourage me to use more seme or to comment that my kamae is still stiff. Still, I can manage an occasionally good kote against Sensei for ippon-shobu, now with less pain, although I still need to observe more and be ready to go, rather than ducking down, knees bent when the opponent comes in. My main goal is to until the start of Tuesday classes without missing a single class all summer (well, since July 4th weekend, I suppose).
I was late today because of waiting for a kendogi, which still is not backseamed, ironically, but it was good to have Sensei teach again, even I still persistently use way too much right hand for my own good, and that of others. Still, some small progress, even though it makes me more tentative.
Today Sensei was back in charge of the teaching, which meant lots of scrutiny of our defective hayasuburi footwork, lots of emphasis on various suriage and kaeshi waza, and revisions of ichigan nisoku santan shiriki. It was good to really get back to basics, and I had a good march through Sensei today, most of whom repeated the same old message of stronger kamae, more relaxation in the shoulders, and maai management. So plenty to work on, that’s for sure.
Today was about as dispiriting a day as I’ve had in months, in part because my perpetual (and infernal!) sempai took me aside to lecture me on the severity of my strikes despite his own issues which I do not dare mention, citing several others to drive his point home–unclear when there’s time in the day to talk about other people’s kendo. The fact that actual sensei harp on the same theme as well doesn’t help me, though.
Sensei proper today lectured me on ato-uchi, which is when a dead man strikes men (from beyond THE GRAVE!) and the smoothness of my strikes between seme and zanshin and the next strike. I observe but I’m not ready to move.
Sunday sensei also remarked I do the same thing over and over again which makes it so easy to hit me on my kote.
Soft sensei also told me to be, um, softer, and not hurt him so much, physically. I really need to find some better way to achieve this. It might just be a matter of not worrying so much about getting hit, as I do tend to still worry about this, though not shirk blows when they do reach me. The only other thing to shoot for is a better understanding of the applications of kata, which means more guts and better observation.
I’ve been scoring Sensei’s kote a lot for ippon shobu, but he still complains about the pain: I need much more tenouchi.
On the other hand, tonight’s monologue of the evening was all about doctors and how they’re trying to kill you, how they need your business, how you can go 70 years without seeing one, and how working through the pain is what really improves your kendo: even after surgery for lung cancer, apparently, one should do it.
Today was back to basics, and I would say probably a pretty routine practice as far as these weekdays go, but helpful in terms of kihon. It’s nice that the shiai season is over because now we can back to focusing on kihon, which in my case is still my right hand: Sensei went so far as to suggest that I get some “flamingo” music and learn to use castanets (granted, he’s said this before). Surely I can think of something… I think I need more conditioning too: my back started to hurt way too soon tonight, since it should be never…
Just got back home from the shiai. Probably the most successful in a good long while–fought five matches, winning three of them. Granted, the first three were all hantei, but the last two were in team matches and better overall. General comments:
Generally speaking, I should keep it up while the summer lasts and do my best in the fall as well.
