Sensei came back from Cali with the good news that Saturday Sensei has passed his nanadan, which is impressive though not completely surprising.

The heat today was unbearable, and I swear that I was having heart palpitations or something, as the difficulty of my opponents accelerated--mu-kyu kohai, shodan sempai, nidanette, middle-aged sandan, elderly sandan, Sensei himself. Sensei himself seemed to get a run for his money from me: I was able to land some nice semete-kote, and even a kote-men, though I think it's my kote-men which needs the most work.

The contents of today's lesson focused mostly on hitting men with the left-hand--starting with katate menuchi without movement, then morote menuchi with followthrough, debana-men, debana-kote, kirikaeshi, and then kakarigeiko (though Sensei misspoke once and then yelled at us for doing kirikaeshi). Deadly.

We were worried there would be no sensei today, but eventually Sunday Sensei showed up and with more in tow, so it was more of that usual Sunday routine. I love that quintuple kakarigeiko, and I had a chance to actually practice some kote-men which felt pretty good, as did my small men-uchi. Still, the advice from Sunday Sensei was the same as last week--good kiai, but relax a lot more, and use more snap in the wrists when striking--my wrists tend to stay in the same place, and not move: he does a great impression of me...

With both top senseis off at camp, Regular Sensei returned and led, though perhaps he's not as regular as he would like, as he had to excuse himself in the middle, take off all his bogu, and run downstairs to the bathroom. Still, we had time for independent paired kata practice and then plenty of kihon and kata-based waza before keiko. It was quite humid and uncomfortable, but I did okay, I think. Shinsa is coming up soon, and I just need to remember to move forward with more authority, as well as polish up that kote-men.

Sunday sensei returned, and it was unbearable--not the practice, which was the old standby, though we substituted some do and kote-do instead of the usual hiki-men. The five kakari-geiko were so draining that I didn't even do my newfound habit of counting how many strikes I can get in before the time is called. All in all, I think that Sunday Sensei was pleased with me: I managed to do a tsuki-semete-kote, though without enough zanshin: I am told that I'm too much of a woodchopper--I need to focus on snapping my wrists more, and striking more with my left hand, not both hands together. It's funny to watch Senseis parody my beginner nonsense.

Either way, it's just three weeks to shinsa! Time to get serious!

I have missed way too many practices, and I also will need to miss part of Tuesday. I can't tell if Sensei is tired these days because all of the otherones are gone or absent these days, or whether he actually does believe we need over an hour and a half of kata practice, with all ten, including some kodachi-waza practice. My footwork is okay, but I "toh" too quickly on kodachi 3. That, and I lift up, going overboard, which I need to stop if I want to pass shodan.

Keiko itself is fine--I should try and strike lower, and keep my hands down...

Practicing against kohai as I did today, I'm told I should not let them hit me, but rather attack them too, lest my kendo suffer further. Meanwhile, Sensei took charge yet again as illness seems to have felled many of the other sensei. We did a new drill today, after blissfully short ashi-sabaki, which I will dub kote-men tame-style: hit regular kote-men. Then, hit hiki-kote with one step back, retain ki in tame-style, then hit forward with men, moving straight. Pick up speed, focusing on retaining power, rather than on power.

The rest of the day was pretty unremarkable--my new e-bogu kote have fully broken in now, at least, so it's not just a matter of stayin gin shape until shinsa in July. Actually, this will be difficult, as my teaching gig keeps me from going to practice on Thursdays....

Saturday Sensei I haven't seen for weeks, if not a whole month, and tonight's turnout was low, meaning that we got plenty of kata instruction--almost an hour and a half, all though the critical lens of tame. But there is still plenty I need to work on, though I think I have all of the motions down, just not the feelings... Keiko itself ran long for some reason, with plenty of practice against kohai, and Sensei says I need to relax more, not to be afraid of being hit quite so much.

Today I also showed up late by a few minutes due to house-hunting, but made it for most of a regular session, with plenty of tame training and yet more of the stop-and-reverse training which was made much more difficult with the need for speed: soon I was sweating buckets and the worst part was I didn't have my own men, so I had to borrow an absentee's, and it was a little too small for me, so I was tentative, and then with a messed up rotation I didn't get much of a chance to really practice. Next time, perhaps, if I can locate it again--kote should be in the mail...

The train being late and all, I arrived to practice late, which meant that I showed up late and humid. The experienced people were all absent, so instead we were doing real kihon, with bokuto instead of shinai, followed by ashi-sabaki, with the dreaded SAR-drill and yet more tame, before we left enough time for a little jigeiko at the end and the new beginners. The annoying part was how my men disappeared. At least I felt loose, though I need to be looser, while my kote needs to be a lot smaller and straighter.