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 it’s shiai season, which means that practice is abbreviated by shiaigeiko nightly, only to run long as the matches wear on. I reflect on the last two practice matches I had.

It’s always tricky, these dojo-based matches, because everyone is watching and so you not only really want to do your best, but will see these people very soon again. It’s also tricky because sometimes it’s better as the underdog, since you’ve got less rep to lose that way.

Tuesday, the match was against a Korean kohai who is quite good at the shiai-style of practice and has a lightning fast kote. Tired as I was, I revved myself up with plenty of kiai, and from that point of view dominated the match, at one point pushing him back in tsubazeriai on the strength of my kiai alone. The first point was a hiki-men which I scored, and it did actually feel like a point to me, with plenty of backwards momentum to boot. I was satisfied with that but then we ended up exchanging blows which were ineffective, until, on the turn-around, he hit my kote with me barely noticing. That was typical for me–overthinking when I have the lead.

Thursday, the match was against another nidan who may or my not be more senior than me–he comes from our LI sister dojo, so who knows. I did my usual overthinking–he tends to be like our branch sensei in his low kamae and the way in which he tends to hit the upper corner of the men while sailing away real fast. Not too long into the match this is what he does. Sensei remarks that this point probably would count in shiai but was a little on the soft side. I am waiting, heart-pounding, in kamae before nihonme as this is said. It is a tough moment. But then with hajime, I stop thinking–much less than before at least–and before long I have scored, one, two kote. The second felt especially good, I think some species of degote, and I definitely felt the impact. Somehow, then, I managed to win the match.

I need to keep going on this–the advice Sensei gives–maximum power in the abdomen, kata-5 style high-lifting, and maximum tightness in the last two fingers–are things I will try to continue to do…

So today Sensei took matters into his own hands, and actually taught us some specific waza, which is somewhat out of character, as usually he focuses on endurance and feeling and kihon, rather than the tricky left-hand-fowrard, but right-hand stays in place men and kote sashi-waza, plus gyaku-do, which seems like an odd thing to teach beginners, and I never quite got the feeling for it. Madame Sensei also returned, though she seemed a little out of sorts, not really joining us too much in practice and then in jigeiko I felt pretty good and in control with most of my opponents, even Sensei himself, off of whom I probably scored the most points today than ever. I should really do my best to keep up my kiai, as it really is an intimidating thing sometimes. I guess as much as I appreciate learning new waza, I would much rather just do more and more jigeiko and this point, though I haven’t been neglecting suburi, shooting for at least 300 every off day from practice.