New Dojo

I visited Mumeishi for the first time today which proved very enjoyable and helpful. They have Holt sensei, Salmon sensei and a few high grade Japanese sensei who are nice to practice with. They also have and a bunch of kids who are lightening.

I first practiced with Funaki sensei who immediately picked up on my continual problem of weak seme and not relaxing my arms/shoulders. He also told me not to move backwards (I seem to do this more when I visit an unfamiliar dojo... must be the nerves). I performed a number of shomen cuts with seme and relaxed posture which gained approval. Why cant I do this all the time?

He also told me to concentrate intently, focusing on my opponents's eyes but viewing the whole body (The whole mountain).

I think i'll acknowledge seme and tense arms as a long term issue as it's pointless me repeating the same kind of post all the time. Coincidentally, the BKA recently posted a good article on Seme and Tame here, an article by Kenshi247 is here. A poster on KendoWorld forum submitted an interesting seme vid here.

I also practiced with Holt sensei who taught me improved zanshin. I tend to run though too far after a men cut so sensei explained I need only to run slightly over two shinai distances away (mine + my opponents). In addition, I need to keep my hands up and shinai forward during the run though and as I rotate to face my aite, not pull them into my chest like i'm doing now. This will stop people creeping up behind me and cutting as I turn.

Holt sensei's final point for better zashin is to turn the correct way to face my aite. If they are behind and to the left then turn anti-clockwaise, behind right then turn clockwise to face them.

Need input....

No kendo Tuesday and Friday as the school where we are based is closed for half term (swines!). Need to find somewhere else to practice :(

Distance Issues (again)

Fridays practice was predominantly jigeiko.

Young wasn't practicing so he spent time watching us and providing advice throughout the night. As with previous weeks he said I should use my height advantage and attack from distance.

In addition, he picked up that my cut trajectory doesn't arc over enough and has the habit of hitting at a too sharp angle just above the mengane. This is because i'm reaching excessively with the arms instead of cutting with my whole body. Young suggested I push forward more from the hips/small of the back, therefore delivering the cut without leaning forward too much.

I'm finding it difficult to improve this aspect of my game.

I also practiced with Katsuya sensei who observed that my shoulders are too tense and narrow. I need pull my shoulders back for a relaxed posture.

Therefore my main points for the night are:

• Cut with the body;
• Cut from my own attacking distance;
• Don't lean forward too much;
• Arc my cut over more; and
• Relax and pull shoulders back.

//Offtopic: Kenshi247 posted up a vid on facebook which included Tankendo. I've never seen this style before and I think it looks brilliant. Unfortunately Tankendo isn't practiced in the UK. Check out this video.

Kakarigeiko Practice

During Tuesdays practice we studied kakarigeiko to try and understand motodachi's responsibility during the exercise.

Blake sensei demonstrated the awareness needed to recognise shidachi's timing, distance and cutting style in order to create a fluid kakarigeiko for your partner. The basic principle was to dismiss a poor cuts from shidachi with a block and cut of your own (e.g. kaeshi do) and allow a good cut to complete.

He made this technique look pretty simple but I found it difficult to perform while we were going full pelt. There's so little time to try and judge your aite, assess the quality of their cut and formulate a response. I realise this only improves with practice and I can see how it helps during keiko, as you develop the ability to read your opponent (without the need to think about it).

On the shidachi side I was pretty poor. I lack the mobility to immediately spring back with hiki waza after taiatari, I must be leaning too far forward after my cut or something. As a result my kakarigeiko attacks appear unwieldy with little control.

On a non-kendo related subject... I was well happy last weekend because Derby beat those forest scumbags 1-0. Get in.

Less Power, More Speed

Thursday night practice focused on relaxing our arms and using our wrists to 'snap' the cut.

We started with what O'Sullivan sensei calls the 'tap tap' exercise. Here we practiced repeated small and big wrist based cuts on a partner's horizontal shinai with as little arm power as possible. The aim was to create a satisfying 'pop' while keeping the sword alive.

After the initial exercise we practiced cutting in armour, finishing with kote suriage men and men suriage men. Here we we started to appreciate the benefit of having relaxed arms as suriage waza can be conducted much faster when there's little power in the arms/shoulders.

An additional mental note to take into Fridays practice is to remember not to bob up and down so much as I cut during kirikaeshi. Blake Sensei pulled me up on my poor footwork on Tuesday and said I need to cut with stable posture. This means sinking my hips into the strike as opposed to bouncing up on the balls of my feet.

Young battered me again. He managed to knock the shinai from my hands 3 times, this was because I was pushing him away in Tsubazeriai using my arms (shinai horizontal across his do). Whenever i did this he whipped his hands down and slammed my shinai to the floor. Lesson taught and hopefully learned.

On the knuckle front... its still pretty swollen and bruised after it was hit again. I am booked in to see the doc Friday morning, but I already know what he'll say... "stop doing kendo for a month or so" :(

//edit: Doc says it doesn't look like a bad injury. However, I am bruised the area around an artery and nerve which is causing 'retrograde pain' (shooting pain up my arm). Im guessing i've irritated the Median nerve. He suggested I try and protect it more and keep icing it to reduce the swelling.

Hesitation

Friday practice Vic (one of our sensei) picked up that I hesitate when people move into my cutting distance. He also said I focus too much on my opponents sword. As a result, my reaction time is slow and stuttered which opens me up to seme and feints.

In my mind I'm trying to be more considered in my cutting (i.e. no 'headless chicken' mode). Consequently, I am missing the opportunity to attack when the opponent steps into my cutting distance. I need to break from this way of thinking, even if i feel it's too soon to attack at the time.

The downer of the week is that I was caught on the right knuckle again and it's bruised up. Gutted. I've been icing it and using Voltarol gel to reduce the swelling, I will also resew extra padding on my kote for next week. I hope i've not done any long term damage.

Frustrating

I've had my first two practices this year after nearly a month off.... they were awful! I'm shocked by the degree of lost coordination and number of bad habits which have reappeared.

Although it has been a very frustrating week, it's been a case of regrouping and going though the basics again. Salmon and O'Sullivan Senseis noted that my back foot has started twisting out and I was stepping too high with my right foot (planting it too short). I was working on this during thursday practice to try and fix my footwork.

O'Sullivan Sensei retaught us 'floating front foot' for fumakomi. We were told to move our body weight to 55% on the back foot, enough to keep your front foot mobile. During the push with the back foot/leg/hips the front foot shouldn't be raised more than 2-3 inches above the floor if possible, the 'stomp' sound will come naturally. Other senseis have described the front foot to me as a stone skipping over water.