Last night I skipped for a quiet night at home, some better (Mark, calligraphy), some not (Kitchen Nightmares).
I did, however, do some good conditioning: 1000 suburi (with some sayumen mixed it) and 100 each of squatiburi and lungiburi, plus some attempts at ab exercises that probably need some extra refinement.
So it feels like more of a gap than it has actually been
With the team at goyokai
and Sensei in Japan
it’s been a couple deserted practices
with the successor senseis (7,6) feeling awkward for the lack of students and motodachi
but that’s how it goes
Sensei’s closing speech last night was helpful as a reminder about the shiai season, but also as an insight into non-Occidental culture. Last night, I fought two ippon-shobu shiai matches. In the first case, it was with a twitchy junior who scored what I thought was a kote but was actually a men but which actually was no contact at all. I lost nonetheless. In the second match, I lost a 2-1 decision about the other guy’s kote to my men, which likely was too slow to be the first (but was the more positive strike). But the point is that shimpan are always right, even if they’re not: that if there is a bad call, one must blame oneself and take it as part of the enterprise rather than blame the shimpan: how was it that I was even in a position to receive a bad hit/call? It’s this self-centered approach to calamity which makes sense in the East–deference and authority.
I’ve really missed these Sunday specials. Today felt a little abbreviated, and I missed both Sunday sensei and Mouth-Way sensei, but did get to practice with Sensei proper, against whom I saved up my kote until ippon-shobu, when I eventually scored it. A little bumpy but my waza-geiko is still formidable, relatively, and needs only selective sharpening. If only I cut down more often, and more loosely, I’ll make faster progress soon.
I went back today after five missed practice and lost a shiai match (but he’s quite great) and got my elbow wound busted open and bleeding again… a good thing though….
Keiko today was with four sensei, of which two gave rave reviews:
Thin Sensei said he didn’t remember how I scored (kote-nuki-men) but it was good and I should continue…
Saturday Sensei said he saw that I was going to attack kote but couldn’t stop it… I should further sharpen but not rely entirely on such.
Sunday Sensei remarked that I should never ever ever go back…
Sensei proper scolded me on several counts: 1) establishing a pattern; 2) looking at the target; 3) waiting; 4) not initiating; 5) not enough guts!
