Studying kata under a different teacher

2012-11-20 18:36:00

Last tuesday was an interesting class in Amstelveen: in preparation for the shinsa (kendo exams) next sunday our students were studying kata. While we study kata on a weekly basis in Almere, in Amstelveen it's a much rarer occasion. 

I was asked by Bert Niezen-sempai to join him in practicing kata. While he's more experienced in kendo than I am, he indicated that he'd like my help in kata. We learned a lot, under the watchful eye of Ran-sempai who spent the better part of 45 minutes coaching us personally. During the practice I was always uchidachi ("attacking sword"), while Bert was shidachi ("receiving sword"). He had a lot of points for improvement, the following for me.

• In kata #1 I showed good seme, but I really do not have to be as hurried as I am. Don't 'thrust' into jodan no kamae, but assume the position confidently. Don't rush forward, but step confidently. When striking, have confidence in shidachi that he will be fast enough to evade the blow. 
• Between each phase of a kata (kamae, stepping, striking, zanshin, kamae) should be a tiny yet perceivable pause. 
• Both of us do not strike properly from jodan. Instead of striking straight down, we first swing a bit further backwards before going forward. Similarly, in kata #2 our upwards swing goes too far backwards while it shouldn't go further than the position of jodan. 
• As uchidachi, it is my task to guard our maai. If I sense that our distance is off, or that we are drifting too much into one direction, it is my prerogative to adjust. 
• In kata #3, uchidachi's thrust is not straight. The mune of the bokken is twisted towards the left. The thrust should also be made strongly from the hips, otherwise you would normally have no chance of actually stabbing shidachi. I did not use my hips strong enough.
• My absolute, biggest failing in kata is my footwork, just like in shinai kendo. I use flat feet instead of standing properly on the front of my feet. I also have too narrow a stance, which only gets narrower, meaning that I keep losing my balance. This is most noticable in kata #3, when I move backwards as uchidachi: I wobble all over the place and my parrying of shidachi's bokken becomes very slow and sloppy.
• In the last few minutes we reversed roles and we again put a spotlight on one of my biggest failings in kata: as shidachi I have a lot of trouble not leading. When uchidachi hesitates I don't react to what he does, but I try to pull him into what he needs to do. That's wrong.

After kata practice we immediately went into 20 minutes of jigeiko (only preceeded by three rounds of kirikaeshi). I did three rounds where, sadly, I got progressively worse. My round against Zicarlo-sempai was pretty good and he helped me a lot! Against Onno-sempai I got worse insofar that I started shutting down. Finally, against Bertolino-sempai I excused myself because I noticed that I really wasn't acting properly. My head was mostly hazy and I was slow to react, or not even reacting at all. 

Learning points:

• Against Zicarlo I made a few good strikes which would've been yuko datotsu if I actually pushed through and ended with zanshin. Chris and Ton often point this out.
• Onno-sempai noticed that at a point in time I "switched off" and started waiting for him to act. On the one hand this may have been because I was intimidated by his tremendous speed, on the other hand it's simply because I'm not that good yet ;)
• Onno-sempai also indicated that my kamae belies my kiai. While he found my kiai impressive and intimidating to a degree, he saw that at the same time I actually recoiled a bit from his own actions. You can't be assertive and scared at the same time :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

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