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.