Tonight turned unexpectedly into shiai, which was fine, I guess, since I managed to win my match with a clean men straight out of sonkyo.  I really should worry less, though, about winning and losing, but it’s difficult to not care when everyone is watching–it’s somehow easier in actual competition.  Other than that, I had a few good kote in kihongeiko because I was all loose…  And I had some pretty great kote-nuki-men.

Some brief comments on the 10th Rensei.

The seminar led by Teramoto-Sensei seemed pretty standard, at least for someone at our dojo–how to pick up a shinai, kihon-uchi, renzoku-waza, and other forgotten minutiae.

Today’s shiai was a late start for me due to weather and then I went up for nidan division for the first time in four years. Against my first opponent, she kept on raising her hands and so I could not score effectively: she scored a dodgy men on me after some tsuba-zeriai nonsense. Then, noticing that chushin almost scored a hiki-doh for me, I started trying to hit doh, finally landing a nice solid forward-one. We go to encho and after more of the same grappling in tsubazeriai, before I do one of my dodgy kote-men combos and score.

The second match is one of these perfect kote-nuki-men setups, except he keeps dodging his men. We grapple scoreless for a while, and eventually he lands a kote, and I don’t have time to take it back. This is why I don’t like shiai.

We brought three teams, and all lost in the first round. We were up againt the host A team, so I don’t feel all that bad, actually. My match was one I lost 0-1, due to a kote again, though I think it was relatively legitimate. Always next time. Overall, the competition felt much stronger than before.

It occurred to me as I was walking to work today to think about my mental images of good kendo. It’s hard to catalog, because the moment you realize you’re in a period it’s almost too late, but I mean the one strike I play over and over again in my head when I’m walking around or not in the dojo, otherwise daydreaming about kendo.

For a while, it used to be regular men-uchi–good, straight, right on top of the buton.

Sometimes I combine this mentally with my favorite waza (that I can actually do), kote-nuki-men, which leads to a very satisfying and surprising men… All my best, most spontaneous men in shiai have been like this.

Since Hayashi-Sensei’s visit, however, I’ve been thinking about (and trying in keiko more often) men-kaeshi-do, which is his especiality, not mine. I think my kendo has suffered.

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.