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) menx3x2, kote-menx3x2, hiki-menx3x2; (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 men I should be more consistently upright.