I've not been going into nearly enough detail in these entries, mostly due to exhaustion, but then again attendance was so low today that there were only three people when practice began, which made ashi-sabaki very painful indeed, what with no breaks.
We also did all sorts of exotic suburi instead of the usual routine: joge-buri, sayu-joge-buri, shomen, sayu-men, sayu-men with hiraki-ashi, squat suburi (painful), lunge suburi, and then said ashi-sabaki. With men-tsuke it got more traditional, focusing on men, kote-men, and various waza such as nuki-men, suriage-men, debana-waza, and so on.

Keiko itself was great because with only seven people, you do get to practice with everyone at least once. I'm told to be more careful with smaller waza, so that I can actually land strikes with proper kikentai. Also, I should not bend backwards, like a lumberjack when striking. Other than that, it was a little painful, all those sayu-kote, but otherwise not all that much to say--just a very sweaty, intense practice--great for waking up on a Sunday.

Trying to do both kata and kihon bokuto waza does not lead to learning twice as much, but rather half.

No sensei for keiko today, mostly kohai--some I was satisfied with, others not so much at all--I should be trying for bigger men, and more degote beyond my usual debana-men routine. I'm reminded again to relax more--sing and dance a little, but above all just take it a little easier.

Saturday sensei tells us also that we should all have a concrete goal in mind--however simple--for each keiko. He gives us an example of how he is trying to change the grip of his left-hand, to be more v-shaped, even though this gives the last two fingers less power. In watching him hold the shinai from the side, I saw for the first time just how lightly the right hand holds the shinai--not holding, but attached, encircling. Something to further emulate.

Also, I finally understood what "kaeshi" means in "kirikaeshi," "kaeshi-do," and "kote-kaeshi-men"--I always thought it meant to hit, or deflect, or bounce--it it just means to return: the difference between kaeshi-waza and suriage-waza is just whether the shinai passes over and around the other, attacking shinai. Now that makes more sense--less of a bounce, and more of a minimal arc to go all the way around...

Tuesday Sensei showed up today, as did Soft Sensei, which made for an interesting training although I'm informed by a kohai that I was weak today. Especially painful were the bobbing-up-and-down men-suburi, which left my thighs aching. It was fun, though, the suburi which were three-sayu-forward, three-backward, for five sets and a total of the usual thirty. The paired kirikaeshi striking exercise was also fun, as usual--it's important to continue to cut all the way down, rather than just swinging for shinai.

Still, practice against all three Sensei was fun enough, even though on the one hand regular sensei kept on nuki-ing my kote (why was it that I couldn't find any way to counter?), while I landed a nice, soft, smooth kote-nuki-men against Tuesday Sensei, and Soft Sensei says I need to wait less and attack more.

Though Sensei is gone, we were nonetheless very crowded tonight, with an influx of Jerseyans, some of whom were quite good at scoring my men. I felt crowded out and quite ineffective. Tsuki-waza in particular I need to work on a lot more, and luckily I'm not a katate-tsuki sort of person, cuz that's even worse than normal morote-tsuki for me. And my kote-men has entirely gone to seed.

Still, it was interesting the new rotation of suburi-type exercises, including some real deadly lunge-suburi and squat-suburi, which were devastating. I really need to do something also about my pathetic hayasuburi--it's kind of embarassing at this stage to be hopping like a bunny so often.

Yeah--somehow tonight felt like a mediocre sweaty, maintenance practice, not one with many new insights or anything.

The rain is really no excuse to not show up to practice. Yet, there were about 10 of us, plus three sensei. I only practiced with Sensei, and probably for the last time before he departs for his semi-annual shinsa. He had several good tips about how to better use tenouchi--I should think of my right hand not as holding the shinai, but rather as attached--as if it is glued--very soft and almost falling down, ready for the next attack--my problem is more about releasing the power afterwards. When playing a drum it should be a sharp PANG!!! Not a sustained and tense BAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMNNNNN.

Other than that, it was keiko with a taller sempai and a kohai. Kohai are tough. They lift up too high, and whack you in the tender above-do area. It's hard for me to manage these. Practice against taller sempai felt like I needed to be taller and more relaxed, again especially afterwards, ready to strike again.

Turnout was low, even for a Saturday, and I was third in line--no shodan or nidan present at all. The focus on was on the kihon bokuto waza yet again, and there are indeed plenty of those waza which I need to work on--my hiki-do is going too far back too fast; my nuki-do is too deep, my kaeshi-do has no kaeshi and therefore no do, my suriage-men does not go back far enough (remember kata nihonme!!) and therefore also lands too deep, my uchiotoshi is not worth mentioning at all. Somehow it does feel, however, that most of my problems center around do-uchi.

Although I did manage to practice with four sensei, they each had minimal advice for me: Sensei mostly reminded me that all of kendo is suriashi, including and especially kirikaeshi--I should be a kenshi, not gojira. Saturday Sensei just told me to keep on going--even though I felt like my observation was not as good today. Regular Sensei actually suggested that I continue to keep up the attack, which is not what he said last time. Saturday-Jr-Sensei meanwhile reminds me to relax especially after the strike.

Tonight's practice was sweaty and unfortunately I am still unsuccessful at lining up to practice with Sensei. Against soft Sensei, though, I did manage to land a nice kote ippon, which was nice because it came out of nowhere, and had extended kiai and zanshin. I love kihon and kakarigeiko, and there was plenty of that tonight. In terms of kihon, though, I really do need to work on kote-men, kote-keashi-men, kaeshi-do, and degote. It's really embarassing how bad I am at these waxa, though I wonder what it is that I should focus on anyway for shodan--bigger men-uchi and a more committed kote strike, I suppose.

The other keikos were pretty unremarkable--my debana waza is still slow than it should be, but when I stay relaxed and go straight down the center, I do a lot better. I should know this by now...

It's getting close to shinsa season for Sensei, and attendance was odd for a Tuesday. In the ashi-sabaki/kihon portions of class, the focus was on good men-uchi. This meant lots more of the deliberate striking across the entire length and other such drills as fumikomi and men-four-steps-stop-men. Kihon focused on striking men from to-ma, by movig slightly to the left or right, just enough to claim the center-line from an unwitting opportunity.

After men-tsuke with Tuesday Sensei teaching, it was the usual drill of kirikaeshi (regular, no-blocking, one cycle in one breath), men, kote-men, kote-do, with an emphasis on to-ma, ai-kote-men, debana-men, degote, nuki-do, and plenty of kakarigeiko.

Mawarigeiko got messed up, so I only got a piece of one sensei today, and ended up moving around in the line too much. Do I smell?

I didn't feel terribly in control or aggressive today, and was told by an infrequent sempai that I need to loosen up a great deal more. And that's probably right, as usual, it's just that my debana men feels slower than before (or maybe it's not as cheap), and my harai-men is not as fast as it could be. My ura-harai-men in particular tends to go too far on my right, rather than the left, katsugi-style like with some others. In the case of all the others I practiced with, there just wasn't much to say, other than sensei encouraging me to make smaller men and more committed kote. Nothing new, then, but also stuff I should have a better grasp of by now.

Soft Sensei and all of the crowd from our little sister dojo somewhat upstate came today, probably because of Easter Sunday, or some other observance. I mention Soft Sensei as opposed to Sunday Sensei or the other Sunday Sensei because in the last keiko today for some reason, he was practicing with the other Sunday Sensei, and then (presumably after ippon shobu), just starting running and screaming with zanshin. Now, it's one thing to start running around and making noise to sell a point in shiai, but what happened today was that he ran around two other pairs in the middle of keiko. All the way around. I was in one of those pairs, and I just couldn't stop laughing. It must have been good ippon.

Sunday Sensei led, meaning the good old routine I love so well, plus ura-harai-kote and ura-harai-do. The latter is something which I absolutely cannot understand, at least not at this point. We were cautioned that with degote it is important to step a little to the left, and even to angle the left hand a little bit to get the proper angle on the strike, which is not kashira, but the vertical portion of the, um, tube-y part of the kote. Datotsu-bui!

My five actual keiko weren't that great, overall. I just don't know how to get the most out of practice with kohai. Either I wait too long before I counter or I do something else wrong, but I don't have the right kind of kikentai. Meanwhile, my immediate sempai and I need to get into a new groove, as we aren't practicing aggressively enough, somehow. I really need to go for more men against him. Luckily, I have no fear of his tsuki. I am tempted to start using tsuki too, but I think I'll wait until nidan. I should note that my tsuki couldn't hit a cat, it's so bad.

Such a sweaty season!

Rather than kata, kihon bokuto--all nine, but only one rep each, which although against Saturday Sensei seemed hardly enough to internalize, even with the extra bogu-based practice of all these said waza.

Only for keiko--all sempai. I need to work on speed and center as always, while using more kiseme. Other than that, a pretty average practice and nothing too remarkable, overall, I'd say.

I must confess when I entered practice today, I had two worries--the need to pee and the need to poop, because my bowels had been loose all day, but it's amazing what some good keiko will do for you. Put the power in your tanden!!

Regular sensei led us through ashi-sabaki, which meant lots of renzoku-waza: men, kote, doh, kote-men, kote-do, and then the dreaded SAR-men drill before men-tsuke.

Sensei then took over. He led us through the kihon bokuto waza, but in bogu and with shinai. As best I recall, these waza are: men, kote, do, tsuki; kote-men; harai-men; ai-men-tsubazeriai-hiki-do; kote-suriage-men; degote; men-nuki-do; men-oji-gaeshi-do; do-uchiotoshi-men.

Keiko itself was with a bunch of folks, I felt pretty decent but not completely in control, and was thwarted in actually practicing with Sensei.

Tonight practice starred three godan. I only practiced with one, satellite Sensei, but he was tough and fast and surprisingly nimble, but he had good things to say about my men strike, the straightness, but cautioned me to cut more with my left hand and to not bend or twist toward the right like sometimes I want to and do. He has this habit of going into what is almost a gedan, which I find very difficult to deal with, as the angle is difficult to harai, makiotoshi, or otherwise work with, and is aimed right at my mune or do. His makiotoshi is also pretty wicked.

Regular sensei suggests we work more on ai-men, and I agree that this is a good idea. I'm told that I lift back too high and should try to lift straight up, therefore never exceeding 45 degrees.

Sensei, meanwhile, still says that I need to put less power into my hands, which I agree with, and today against him I felt like the keiko went on a little long, or I was just tired, and flailing left and right, all over the place. I wasn't holding the center line before going in, and my form suffered greatly. I did manage to land somehow a nice ippon shobu men-uchi which was a nice thwack and penetrating, though at one point, I nearly suffered a balls-waza. I am able to tap his kote, but I should be hitting harder and more accurately with better zanshin.

In the first part of practice, I was surprised by how sucky my tsuki was, but then how gangbusters my tsuki-men actually is. I think I just more fully commit to the strike and gain center more solidly. It feels like it could be a very effective waza after a few more years of practice.

It was interesting practicing two bogu-newbs. I can hardly remember what it was like those days, not without effort. It's good to be so regular that I am constantly in the flow of things.

My energy went both up and down against the other people I keikoed with. J in particular and I have gone into a much slower, kamae-bound kendo rather than power-power-power, which is hard to describe but still very demanding. Otherwise I just wasn't as aggressive as I could have been today, probably just tired out.

Oh, yes--I should mention that during men-tsuke, my himo broke, which required me to run downstairs, miss about 10 minutes of regular keiko, and be very very embarassed.

Visiting sensei was all in white, but the problem is that given the line-up, I was but one away when practice ended. Being Sunday, it was an intensive sequence--plenty of the new standard ashi-sabaki drills, involving plenty of deliberate fumikomi ashi and then the dreaded drill which I haven't been able to come up with a snappy name for--SAR? Stop-and-Reverse? Backwards footwork, then strike forward as many times as the blocks, one-block to reverse, continue, with kiai preferable when heading backwards. The bogu routine was three rounds of kirikaeshi, then men-kakarigeiko, kote-men kakarigeiko, and anything-goes kakarigeiko. Somehow felt like four rounds--maybe it was.

In keiko, there was little really remarkable with most of the practice, other than the intensity. Most notable is how I interact with my immediate sempai, managing to take his men in ippon shobu, but for the most part not practicing with him energetically enough. At least he's stopped blocking so consistently, so that it's possible to have a decent keiko with him. The thing is the release of the right hand probably cancels my kote. Should think about that.

Kata practice tonight was remarkable because of the heterogeneous grouping (somewhat rare), and the scope--all seven tachi kata, although I think that this is a mistake with so many beginners--it takes several sessions to master a single kata, and we need more time to get both roles down, and all this for 80 minutes, which left only a straight-up jigeiko session.

In that, I practiced with all sempai, which helped, I think, and two sensei. The regular sensei complained that I attacked too much today, without creating openings or observing anything. Sensei also complained that I was hitting all men buton and not enough of the actual forehead portion, though still solidly above mengane is the most desirable. That is, my left hand position is too high, ironic since he had last complimented me on all that. With the other sempai it was the usual drill--better tenouchi, cutting further down, staying relaxed.

I am loath to think that I might one day lose out on this intensive practice schedule. Tonight Sensei took charge, and focused on my basics. We did a lot of ashi-sabaki focusing mostly on fumikomi-ashi and striking men repeatedly but not continuously. Men-uchi in the kihon style we worked on for quite a while. The theme of pausing after each strike rather than bouncy continuous nonsense was continued through our practice of kirikaeshi. Then we worked on two waza which I'm really weak on: suriage-men and oji-kaeshi-men. I am ridiculously bad at oji-kaeshi-men, especially because it's yoko-men I need. I'm really disappointed these days when there is no kakarigeiko.

In keiko itself I was better at kote than usual, changed up my kiai to be more like men-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa rather than mennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn so as to be snappier, I'm told, tried more kote than usual, and actually managed to land a kote out of the gate with Sensei, as well as in 1pon-shobu using seme-feinting in order to open up a men. I think that that is really the first time that I've been successful using shikake waza against Sensei in 1pon. I tend to try and counter him instead. Which is arrogant, yes, but that's what kendo is.

Ahhhhh Tuesday!

I don't know whether it was the time change or the coming of spring, but it was crowded enough--with a whole bunch of people all gathered even before practice began. I wish I had been keeping a blog a year ago, so I could compare. It's strange when you can't yet identify seasonalities.

One of our prodigy sensei made godan, which is phenomenal at his age. As much as one wants to envy him his success, then again it's not like it's not a lot a lot of really hard work.

Practice itself was intense--I think my men was on crooked, my himo were fraying, my tenugui was slipping off, and I ended up getting nailed on both my regular and my gyaku-do, or rather inches high enough to leave welts which are only now settling in.

But it was a good practice, even though I felt short of breath and my back felt achey. I had plenty of good keiko, more patient and relaxed than normal. I don't know what other specific details I need to work on, though it's interesting to compare my debana-men type attitude versus my more shikake-kote moods. I'm still not consistent yet, but I think I just need to keep on showing up, keeping on mixing it up, but also to stick to kihon, nice and big.

Shinsa is coming up in just two months! And I won't be able to go four times a week eight months out of the year once I kick off this doctoral thing. So it's going to be hard and tricky to negotiate all that. I should have a goal of at least two practice a week, though.

With so many sensei testing, it was still puzzling why there weren't more beginners at practice this morning--maybe the time change kept some people away. Without spending too much time before men-o-tsuke, and then most of practice in extreme basics waza, there was still time for plenty of keiko. I can't say that I was terribly pleased with how I did, as I've been feeling thoroughly mediocre of late, but at least I managed to score men in ippon against Sensei.