Someone neglected to tell Sensei that the shiai's over--we uncharacteristically continued smaller-waza practice and so on today. I think Sensei managed to invent a few new kinds of kakarigeiko. Another focus was on oji-waza in response first to definite-kote, definite-men, and then men-or-kote. My kote-nuki-men is still pretty good, and my suriage-men is improving, but the kote-ojigaeshi-men is pretty much still hopeless. Also men-suriage-men is hard, as it's easier to just hit debana-men. It's odd because Sensei himself rarely does the bogued hit-on-the-blocks-with-counter-waza drills. It was exhausting.

And that was all before the half-minute mawari-geiko. Too bad I wasn't keeping score.

Early on, though, I felt happy with the light-touch and good tenouchi after some of the new-men uchikomi-geiko. We'll see what that means down the road, though.

It looks like the schedule for next fall might entail missing practice twice a week, or at least the first part of Thursday practice. This would be most unfortunate but part of the shortfall could be made on Mondays with kyudo. Today was first shot, and second, and... through sixth. The problem is remembering the details of the different shots, the feeling behind each one, and the move toward better technique. With hikitori and hanare it becomes a lot clearer the connection with kendo. In yumigamae in particular, there's kake-hand and the looseness of the index finger--the tiger's mouth might be something quite helpful in kendo as well the "V" and proper tenouchi. Shoulders, shoulders, shoulders, and while not the roundness is appropriate, the shoulders feeling down would be good. With hikitori in particular it's key to be relaxed, using the shoulders and delts to stretch out fully. Kai feels particular good, to hold, and to feel the ya slowly slipping out of grasp but still in control until the naturalness of release.

Instead of kata we practiced the new kihon bokuto waza, with some more useful than others, such as degote, kote suriage men, and the like, but very little of it sank it. Sensei decided to subject us to 30-seconds mawarigeiko, which was very intense indeed and refreshing to actually rotate with all of the available sensei. In the actual shiai-geiko, I felt like I could have done better, especially agsinst such a kohai, and all I managed to score was lots of hiki-kote.

Today in shiai I felt outclassed--first by a nidan korean and then by a jodan godan. Of course, I started out strong, with powerful kiai, renzoku waza, and keeping the pressure on. But in both cases I lost nihonme easily right after "nihonme"--I have a tendency of doing this--losing focus at the wrong time, letting up on the attack, and getting scored on easily. Against jodan (rare as it might be), I need to have more a kakari-geiko attitude. And in watching some of the Korean players out there, there's a lot to be learned from more continuous attacking.

Practice seemed at a slightly laid-back pace today, or maybe it ws the light A/C. But either way, the focus was on the smaller but no less sharp waza which can go with shiai--an emphasis on the lightness of some techniques, compared with the determination that might accompany regular practice. Think of the shinai as a paintbrush tipped with red paint--try and daub some on the opponent's forehead. This is debana-men.

I feel as if my kote-men is more competent these days, but still not routline usable. I got overheated rather easily today nonetheless and don't know what to do about it. I guess proper hydration would have helped.

In the last half-hour there was shiai-geiko, and I ended up with one of the scarier nidan sempai. This time, at least, he didn't take my men twice: instead he scored my kote first. Then I managed, somehow, to pull out a hiki-kote (which he thought was his), but lost again to another kote. But this too is progress, as ippon is hard to come by, especially on hikiwaza for which I have too much of a disposition.

The second kyudo lesson was a little less enlightening than the first: the only additional coordinations were yumi-gamae and kiriokoshi (sp?): the main things here are kake hand, tenouchi, and relaxing the shoulders and arms, using the muscles in the back to open up the bow, which we only pantomimed. Still, next week should be exciting, but the key is to maintain equanimity even when your ya or your yumi breaks. Something helpful for kendo.

Tonight's practice was airconditioned at least, though now I have a second rash-mark: I think it's time to wash the gi. The focus was on men, kote-men, kote-do, and then various waza before it was time for kakarigeiko again. Harai-waza I'm pretty decent at, though it's harder still to score harai kote consistently against beginners--I have more lucky against Sensei. I practiced against two sensei and a bunch of sempai before it was more of a kohai season. Then was shiaigeiko: I fought two matches: in the first I lost very quickly, men, men. The second I won readily, men-men. It's really very often just a rank thing. But also a matter of how into-it I felt.

I just need to practice more--learn how to relax. Act more like shodan and observe more rather than renzoku-ing the opponent into submission. Against the perpetual sempai the key is to wear him out, not grant him an early victory.

The order tonight was a little inverted: kata, shiai-geiko, and then mawari-geiko after a perfunctory round of kirikaeshi. Kata was pto retty routine, though whether or not to go to kojin-no-maai routinely after each kata is up in the air and not so clear to me. Shiaigeiko immediately followed, with no real further warmup or anything--just straight in, which is rather realistic: I had two bouts: one with the perpetual sempai, and the other with my immediate sempai. The former bout I won after losing kote, but then scoring two men which I don't really remember very well at all. Against my immediate sempai I did well enough--he couldn't score cleanly enough, and so after he missed a tsuki, I pursued with men, and then a men which scored.

I also managed to practice with three sensei, though I only got feedback from one, whcih was the same--relax!!! I am also told from the videos that I lack the snappy tenouchi I need to make my hits crispy: everything else is moving toward the righ tplace.

Someone snuck the A/C on tonight which meant that practice was bearable, although the focus again was on kihon and in particular a particular variety of small men in which the right hand does not move up with elbow still tucked against the side of the do, the left hand moves forward, and then the snap carries the body and the strike forward into normal position. It's the same for kote. Kakarigeiko, but only two rounds, though there's this new habit to do really long kakarigeiko--at least 13 or 14 attacks' worth.

We carried forward the focus on watari (?) waza, or is that just nidan-waza? In any case, I feel my kote-men getting looser and better, though still not usable consciously (but maybe that's the problem!).

Also, there's been this tendency to have practice run over 15 minutes longer than it sholud, I think in part because of this shiai-geiko. In my shiai-bout, I lost again, 2-0. It's tough, being in this higher division! I need to be more aggressive and in the moment--I found myself adjusting my shinai to try and make sure it was chakuso. Which is a good thing to have, but not a good thing to still need to do.

Kyudo, I think, can also help my kendo. This is what I learned yesterday at my first session: yumi, ya, and reiho, although everything is much more relaxed that in kendo. Zazen, though, is very difficult, and not even in seiza--after a little while in half-lotus I was spazzing in the lower back and hallucinating, or something quite like it--as if I was actually blurting.

Yo I: the three verticals, will help with kendo because it emphasizes the lightning-rod nature of good shisei in kendo.

Yumidaoshi is a little challenging--one could make comparisons to gedan, but really it's different especially since it's not enzan-no-metsuke, but rather gazing a little downwards.

Ashibumi is not so connected, as the stance feels too wide and pigeontoed compared to the forward-point of kendo.

Dozukuri also emphasizes tanden power and relax shoulders, which would be really helpful in kendo--although in this case the elbows stick outwards rather than hugging the sides of the do, with straws underneath the armpits. This lower body power, and arching the back by sticking out the butt could also be helpful.

Finally, yumigamae, helps for several reasons, not just the continued alignment of the three crosses, but rather also the emphasis on the last two fingers--kake! The middle finger and the thumb, though, don't quite connect quite as much in kendo, but the tightness of the last two fingers (Sensei has been saying three of late) and the resulting forearm muscle tightness should help greatly with kendo.

I'm sure there will be more later as well. This cross-training could be great.

Today was deadly. So hot. And shiaigeiko too. I lost against a nidan, but he's in the same division now. Whew.

Today's shinsa was successful for me, in terms of shodan, though it was also successful for 90% if not more of the candidates, which is not to say that I feel any less proud and relieved, but just that I know that this rank is in a broader context, and after all just a beginner's grade, as the kanji readily reveals.

Still, it felt from the matches I saw that it was just a whole not of diagonal corner-to-corner men-kakari-geiko, and not much actual seme or waza other than straight up men. I managed to land a few decent kote and kote-men, I think, and resisted the urge to do my usual hiki-kote nonsense, so I felt like I did a good job either way. Kata too was a breeze--everyone passed, even though there were some substantial bloopers in most cases. I still felt nervous though.

One more year before I'm eligible for nidan. Should be worried that our dojo produced no ikkyu this time 'round?

So I missed two entries last week because Lostin was in town and it just slipped my mind. But so has what I learned last week, other than the return and celebration or our new nanadan sensei and some more sweaty business without cntact lenses and escalating difficulty and too-small waza.. The feedback then was that I should have not much problem with the upcoming shinsa, and people have been asking me whether I'm taking nidan.

Tongiht was plenty of kata, and sanbonme continues to bedevil me, especially as uchidachi. We'll see. Keiko was with three sensei and the advice was the same--go through more, keep the shiai-wza out of shinsa, relax, and continue to observe before striking...