It’s been a week, so it’s okay enough, humid as it was, but I have a great deal more work to do.

Today’s practice was very well attended and despite being a little tipsy this afternoon I made a good show of holding my breath during practice. The main thing is to do use less right hand, as always.

Sensei has been trying really hard to communicate to me how to relax more and use proper tenouchi. The sad thing is that the sum total of his suggestions over the last four years could well nearly leave me as a one-man band: castanets, drums, xylophone, and goldfish!

Today I returned after a week break and did indeed feel the better for it.  Sensei remarked offstage about how he’s training his grandson to walk by pushing him down at every occasion.  I feel as if this is a metaphor.

Sensei says that I have improved without doing anything, mostly because my shoulders are open and I don’t twist inward quite as much anymore.

Visiting lower-ranked British says that when he saw me do dummy-practice, I seemed too heavy.  In keiko I was too light.  I should try for in between: 1.5…. 3.5…. 2.5!!!

It’s been a week, and that’s worth thinking about: while I could have gone both Thursday and Saturday nights, I found other excuses–Mark and the brother, for instance, but it’s worth reflecting before I actually go in a few minutes today, on the pleasure of taking some time off.

Smells fade. So do rituals, but there’s still muscle memory, and when I step back, it all comes back. Tension also relaxes, so that by the time I return there is a feeling of sharpness, of having stepped away from it all. The weak points I’m reminded of, the “fire” I once felt is reignited, especially to the extent that some absences are enforced as opposed to voluntary. More later after I’ve gone…

Two lazy Labor Day weekend practices,

which meant super-low turnout but lots of sensei action.  I need to move forward more, mostly, and relax my shoulders, and actually just follow-through–with all the advice I been getting these past four years…