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.

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.

Two practices in one entry.

Yet more kata on Saturday, but it was welcome, vaguely, at least–an emphasis on choking up the back foot in all situations after ayumiashi to maintain the proper stance, especially in various zanshin type situations. Also the earnestness of the strike (tsuki) in nanahonme. Other than that, the main problem I have is the main problem of the kata-failees: after being in jodan-no-kamae, my sword dips back before the strike.

Practice itself was fine, if somewhat disconnected and not as aggressive as I usually am: I need to stay loose and Sensei chided me on not striking deeply enough, while Saturday sensei said I should continue to observe the opponent closely.

Today’s practice focused a lot on footwork. That abdomen-based feeling of pushing the opponent with the tip of the shinai–not sticking the hands out. SAR drills I did horribly on (not enough spring forward). Other than that, not so much to note: the usual sequence of kihon strike drills, the most interesting being kote-men, men, hiki-men.

Mawari-geiko was somewhat unremarkable: just need to keep working on the basics. Felt good, though, to be back, especially since I’ll miss two practices in the coming week.

It’s interesting how the shinsa-prep season can seem so little like real kendo, even though it’s supposed to be reaching for the real. Today was lots of kata-cramming and practice, which does not seem like the everyday, somehow: too too many small conventions to be followed, which are not often enough enforced. My kata is okay, but just needs continual practice by June.

Then after a few rounds of regular men-uchi and kirikaeshi, we moved into one-on-one shinsa practice with criticism from Sensei. Against my perpetual sempai, I did reasonably well, although I was told that I rush too much and am still too tense with my hands. Still, I heard a few good thwocks at least and some kote-nuki-men type waza. I didn’t think too much and so barely even went for kote, although I guess I could have and should have. Then it was just watching other people keiko, which was interesting if only because it wasn’t a shiai context.

Then we had four or five rounds of “shinkendo” practice–three menuchi, kirikaeshi, and then kakarigeiko until Sensei gets tired of watching you flail. Whew.

More kata! Normally I love it, but normally it’s just 1 hour, not 1.25! And those poor beginners–I hope they don’t think that this is what kendo is (well, normally).

Actual practice was great–maybe it’s the naps I’ve been taking. Plenty of solid oji-waza, kept the center, felt good energy, knee didn’t really bother me, I did pretty well and was relatively relaxed against most opponents. I should work on my makiotoshi, though–right now it only works (and spectacularly!) against kohai.

There were the usual two new students since it’s the beginning of the new year. We did way too much kata–I was bored and there wasn’t enough room and every passes kata anyway–and so I mostly watched, but I do need an intensity rather than a doo-doo-doo type of approach: killer instinct! With only 45 minutes for regular practice, we ran through kihon, (M,KM,D,KD) and uchikomi practice plus kakarigeiko before keiko. I felt good today–rather aggressive and effective while holding center but still a little too tense.

Quite possibly the boringest practice ever: watching other people do kata, watching other people in mock-shinsa. My kamae is too tense–my elbow should rest against my body, ready to spring, not already sprung. I should feint less and use big old waza more. That’s about all.

So it’s a great contrast, the transition from kata (kodachi ipponme through sanbonme) to kendo-keiko, though Saturdays usually means more focus on jigeiko, with very little kihon-geiko, and today we also squeezed in some shiai-geiko. Today actually I managed to practice against three Sensei, including one who hasn’t been around quite so much the past few months, so it was a good revisiting on my progress since then since he would yell at me in the past for various minor offenses, such as mokuso-ing wrong, breaking mawari, loosing energy. So it was good energy all throughout, with brief keikos, which I think I prefer, as I get to burst forward more.

My shiai bout was against my immediate sempai, who is also my immediate sempai overall in terms of the dojo, as he has an extra month on me, but practices far far more than I do. I started out really strong with massive kiai, and scored an ipponme men after we followed through on an attack–I nailed it with a satisfying thwack. Unfortunately, my kensen came off, and so I had to get a replacement shinai, and this meant that I broke the rhythm and after I ran all the way downstairs redfaced in full bogu, and then rushed back, never regaining the momentum, and losing with two straight men. I think another problem is that I used up most of my kiai too early on, and then was panting too much, and it was only a three minute match. I should try to play strategically–this is sanbonshobu, which means that after I have ippon I should play differently, though I suppose in real life my matches don’t go well after I have ippon–at June’s shiai, I scored a kote out of the gate, but then went down to two men’s. So it’s delicate balance–not to loosen up enough to let the opponent score, but also to not overexert and lose all my energy too quickly.