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.

Hello

Welcome to my new blog.

There's lots of Kendo blogs floating around on the net so I thought I'd do something a bit different. All kendoka know that injury is a familiar part of this martial art, this blog will list mine as they occur.

PAST INJURIES

I started kendo in November 2005. Since then I have damaged the following:

April 2006 - Broken right thumb.
This occurred when I caught it against my aite after it was sticking out during a cut. I fractured it at the MCP joint.



It was my my fault and as a result I quickly learned that i need to tuck all fingers in.

I visited the hospital and they x-rayed then strapped it up. They used fabric tape and cut it into short strips. The strips were wrapped around the bottom of my thumb and crossed at the top, creating a ridged herring bone effect. I had to maintain this strapping for 3-4 weeks.

In the mean time i used single hand chudan and jodan, which was tough after only a few months training.

December 2008 - Torn left shoulder rotator cuff.
I did this after some over enthusiastic kagarigeiko. I felt my shoulder go after I hyper extended it ( I think i 'threw' my arm'). Stupidly I used freeze spray and returned to practice only for it to go again. I need to listen to my body more.

I visited the GP who refereed me to the hospital. After a series of in conclusive x-rays (it was soft tissue damage), I was told to rest it completely for a few months.

I then started a program of physio at the hospital that lasted from February to August 09. I was instructed to use weights, theraband and stretching exercises to build up strength. Unfortunately I was unable to return to full fitness in time for my intended Shodan Grading in April.

After my physio program I had an MRI scan. This wasnt an enjoyable experience as it involved a long needle being inserted into my shoulder joint. This showed that I have a small tear in the rotator cuff which has caused some slight thickening around it.



I had an option to either have surgery now which may not produce any improvement or wait until I get older where i may feel the effects more. I still experience an achy shoulder but you get used to it.

September 2009 - Damaged right hand knuckle
I caught a painful kote from an opponent fighting Nito. I have a feeling it caught my knuckle between the rolls of padding on the fist part of my kote - therefore I had about 2mm of leather protecting it!


I should have rested it until the bruising disappeared but I kept training for the following few weeks (stupid again!). Sods law I seemed to get hit on it during every subsequent training session which resulted in a lot of swelling and shooting pains up my arm when i bent my wrist down. Not good.

To remedy this ive been icing daily and applying voltarol. I've also been fighting in Jodan.... an interesting experience which I would like to study further. However, my lowly shodan status means I need to fight chudan for a fair few more years until i can practice Jodan seriously.

To try and increase my kote protection in the meantime it was suggested that I stitch a tsuka stuffed with tights over the problem area. It works but looks a little odd as I am currently fighting with a big white sausage attached to my right hand.



Phew.. that was a bit of an essay. Bye for the mo.