First Steps Back

Its been a while but i'm finally updating two weeks after returning to training.  I'm only attending one practice a week at the moment so I can rediscover lost muscles and easy my wrist back into action.

Its been an fascinating experience to say the least.  First of all it was great to see familiar friendly faces again, it was great to fight then have a few pints down the boozer afterwards.

I also found some aspects of my performance surprising.  Although my kendo fitness is shot to hell, i found my timing is still ok-ish.  However, movement, accuracy and distance is all over the place!  I'm yet to rediscover the kendo 'feel' - I felt like a fish out of water at times.  I'm hopeful this will improve over the next few weeks.

Another surprise is practising without my previous performance 'obsession'.  This maybe due to my current cycling fixation, but I left both practice sessions with a sense of contentment as opposed to beating myself up over some waza screwup or another.... or perhaps its because i'm just happy to simply train again?  Either way I've forgotten all my old hangups from 7-8 months ago and was able to jigeiko without excess mental baggage.  I'm unsure if it'll stay this way, ha!

As for the wrist, it was pretty sore after both sessions.  I iced when i got home and it seemed to be ok the next day (there's always background discomfort anyway).... maybe this is how it will always be?  I'll bump up to two practice sessions in a few weeks to see how I get on. I'm also wearing wrist braces which are designed for tennis use, apparently this type of injury is common in that sport.

Outside kendo I've finally completed my BA Graphic Design degree after 5.5 years of study.  I managed to sneak a first which I'm pretty pleased about, this has now freed up time for other stuff.  I also have my first 75 mile cycling sportive in a few weeks.