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....