Back to basics in kendo

2012-06-12 22:21:00

It is my intention to train without bogu at Amstelveen, for the next few weeks: back to basics!

After last week's class eye-openers I've asked Roelof-sensei to take Miyahara-sensei's remarks into account, so we can ensure that the two basic flaws in my kendo can be remedied:

1. My breathing
2. My footwork, esp the stepping through after fumikomi

I am glad that he agreed and I had a great class tonight. After going over all of the basic stances, I practiced suriashi with the other bogu-less kendoka. In between, we watched the advanced techniques being explained by Makoto-sempai and the others. This included the differences between de-gote, nuki-waza and kaeshi-waza (some of which is still vague to me, so I need to do some reading!).

During our practice of oki-men, Roelof-sensei also grabbed my shoulder. He saw a big flaw in my timing and he would only let me move forward or backward at the exact right, time. This timing is way different from what I've been using on large men-strikes so far! In this case, the right way to do it, is to only start moving once you're already halfway through your downswing. Because only then is the distance that the shinai needs to travel, equal to the required instep and fumikomi! This is was Kris-fukushou has been trying to get me to understand! He always told me to "step in later!", but it never clicked -when- this "later" was :)

Other people who helped a lot:

• Raoul-sempai came to help us with oki-men and hayai-men. He noticed that when I twist my wrists to close my kamae, I forget to open them again on the upswing which constrains my whole swing. 
• He also pointed out, once again, that my up and downswings segue to the right. He informed me that, while it may not be proper form to do so, the striking of your butt during joge-suburi and men-suburi are actually helpful, because they will help you determine whether you are swinging straight!
• Both Raoul-sempai and Koseki-sempai reminded us bogu-less to keep our right arm straight and our left hand a bit lower, after a strike. 
• Like she'd done before, Koseki-san also reminded me that my kiai should be drawn out until I again face my opponent. This is part of showing proper zanshin. 
• Ran-sempai helped us out with oki-kote-men and hayai-kote-men. As always, my first instep for hayai is too large so he advised me to keep on squeezing it tighter. I'm quite glad that he seemed to think the rest of my kote-men practice was okay :)
• Our guest Kashiwa-sensei (he is in the Netherlands for only two months) addressed me in the dressing room. He had noticed me practicing oki-men across the room (to get the timing right, as Roelof had explained) and he complimented me on the "snap" I was creating in the strike. Wow :)

Saturday I can finally join class in Almere again. After oodles of family and work events, I'm back to training in my home town. I'm ready to kick some ass! And to get my ass kicked! ( ^_^)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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