Concentrating on distance

Distance seems to be my biggest problem at the moment, its the thing i'm picked up on the most. Distance is affecting the quality of my cuts and seme.

This week I decided to concentrate on improving this aspect of my kendo, it will be my number one priority up to my grading in July.

I had little chance to practice on Tuesday because I was teaching basics to the beginners (who are coping very well.... I am pleased how they are progressing).

Thursday was my first attempt at keeping distance and attacking from my comfort zone, not my opponent's. This proved a bit of a disaster, I found it very difficult to break centre and cut successfully. I even got a tsuki in the throat for my troubles. The main issue I can't get my head around is how you seme/keep centre from distance when my kensen is hardly touching with my opponents? I feel like i'm creating little pressure and end up either moving within distance to threaten or running onto my opponents sword.

I visited Wakaba on Saturday and tried to concentrate on distance again. During Motodachi Keiko I asked Rukas to help, he spotted that I lean forward before launching an attach which telegraphs my intentions (something which O'Sullivan sensei has also warned me about). I need to move with my hips/left leg more and speed up my fumikomi, concentrate on cutting with footwork as opposed to arms/hands. This could be one of the reasons why I don't create enough pressure especially against seniors), they can see when i'm about to attack!

I have a feeling this will be a difficult problem to overcome and I have to accept I will lose many times before I improve.

I also had advice from Hiro who said I should push my shoulders back because they are too narrow. This will help my posture.

To keep with the hypochondriac theme I have split my right big toe again which is causing quite a bit of discomfort during the day. I have started wrapping it in tape again for practice.