So in the past month I’ve been travelling and I’ve brough my gear with me to dojos in Chicago, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Here are some remarks on both the pointers I’ve gotten as well as the ways of practice.

In Chicago, there was a cohort of beginners, who seemed rather muscle-bound, and practice was much less sempai-focused, less circular, in that the beginners rotated and the more senior students didn’t move on the sensei-side. The exercises focused on footwork in a hexagon (very confusing) and solid men strikes which fully reach the top of the men–completely straight right arm. There seemed to be more of a focus on big swings and coordinated action. In a big dojo, it felt my kiai didn’t go far enough most of the time. The eldest sensei mostly observed until keiko-time. Keiko was very energetic and difficult for me–I was reminded to loosen up and straighten up for a more bouncy and relaxed strike. It all seemed rather short.

In Tokyo, I was worried at first that it was just a kiddie dojo, but that was just the beginning: I was working with the Sensei I knew and the kids (about 10-12?) and our focus was on speed, mostly doing three-in-a-row waza and focused on good footwork, snapping the left foot. I of course was too tense. In keiko with the senior sensei, I was told that I lean back a little too much. Most of the adults in armor (and some of the younger folks (teens and up)) only showed up for jigeiko, with no appreciable group warmup or anything–just practice.

In Hong Kong, the segregation of beginners from more advanced players was even more extreme: the beginners practiced for an hour and a half, starting with fixed pairs practicing strikes with bokuto, which was very interesting, especially with the wrist-twisty strikes (think kata-4) which I was just terrible with. These strikes included men, small men, kote, small kote, kote-men, degote, and debana-men, as well as various harai-waza. The feeling was very different and the rei was very abbreviated, but the feeling of striking with an actual bokuto as opposed to a shinai (with no impact (we hope!)) was helpful in adopting the right tone. Once in actual armor, I think we pretty much went straight to keiko. I was relatively high-ranked in the beginners group, but the teaching sensei definitely disarmed me without much trouble.

In the second class, the focus was on fluidity of strikes for a while: men-men-do-do, then kote-men-kote-do. I don’t remember what other drills we did, but it felt like there weren’t all that many, what with suiting up (no group warm-up). Keiko was only with senior instructors (oops), and I did better with some than others. The continual correction was my posture–more forward in the torso, not leaning back all the time….

I should take better notes and revive this blog…

So today’s practice was super-crowded given our celebrity visiting Sensei, which meant a three-nanadan practice, though I ended up deferring to my sempai, not practicing with all that many people outside of the dojo, actually. But it was a good practice, with a solid hour of jigeiko and one practice with a sensei I normally do not see at all. I think what I need to focus on is the difference between how I practice with kohai and with sempai or sensei. The main pointers, being posture upright and hip power, I think I should also continue to keep in mind, as keeping my back straight has made a big difference, I think, in jigeiko as well as kakarigeiko. I do, however, notice that I very rarely effectively use taiatari in jigeiko. I also tend to stop a few steps even after a good strike which I know to be good. The other recurring criticism I get is the tension in my right arm, which is still far too much. A wider tsukagawa helps in this respect, I think, and I think that doing better kiai like I was today, in which it was quite intense and consistent, will help me to eventually actually put my power in the hara where it belongs, which I never really do.

There was one men strike in particular today, where I felt that my power was emanating from the tip of my shinai, straight forward to strike, cleanly and solidly.

I must also strive to hit better immediately from sonkyo, or to get the first strike.

So today was just what I needed after my discouragement Thursday and skipping Saturday. The Sensei who used to run all Sunday classes finally returned after a long absence spent at one of our sister dojos. And this meant that we had the old condensed Sunday routine from before, which goes something like this: (ashi-sabaki) ayumi-ashix2, okuri-ashix2, ayumi-ashi fasterx2, okuri-ashi fasterx2, back-and-forthx2, back-and-forth plus men, back-and-forth plus kote-men; (kihon without men) menx3×2, kote-menx3×2, hiki-menx3×2; (men-o-tsuke) kirikaeshi, suri-ashi menx3, tobi-komi menx3, kihon menx3, sashi-menx3, kihon kote-menx3, small kote-menx3, omote-harai-menx3, ura-harai-menx3, tsukix3 (optional), hiki-menx3; (without bogu go off to the side) waza-practice on the blocksx2 each: otagae-ni-menx2, debana-kotex2, men-nuki-dox2, ai-kote-menx2, kote-kaeshi-menx2, kote-nuki-menx2, otagae-ni-hiki-menx2; karari-geiko: menx2, kote-menx2, men-or-kote-menx1. Sonkyo. Whew.

In keiko with said sensei, I felt for the first time that he was taking seriously, though by that I just mean that he kept the pressure on, rather than going straight through after a point, walking to the other side casually, turning around and resetting deliberately–it felt more like five minutes of continuous practice, though this does not mean that I scored a solitary solid point. With Sensei I scored a few clean shikake-waza points, but was still too tense, and he cautioned me afterward that bad tenouchi leads to painful strikes for motodachi. I’m torn because part of me wants to work on my hikiwaza, but the rest of me knows that it’s really more important to work on basics, basics, basics, and there are plenty of other things (such as simple tenouchi, zanshin) which would improve my overall far more.

Also, in trying to keep my back straighter, both in kakari-geiko and again senseis, I find that my form improves, but I tend to be a lot more tired and sore, which can only mean I should be more consistently upright.