Well, that was hard work!

2011-06-11 12:54:00

Again, like a few weeks ago, we had a rather small group at Renshinjuku in Almere. While a low attendance does affect the atmosphere negatively (nobody's on edge) it also has an upside: everyone can get the undivided attention of sensei and the sempai. And today I learnt that many of the things I've been doing really aren't that good, but so far they've gone unaddressed.

Hillen noticed two things, one of which I've stupidly forgotten :( 

• My posture for my back is incorrect. I lean backwards too much, by overcompensating for my own perception that I slouch forward. Instead: lower back should be hollow, then shoulders and such should arch forward. Basically, stand as usual and tilt your hips backward a bit. 

Kris really was very dedicated and noticed a boatload of things:

• Both during kata and during suri-ashi my left heel is way too high off the ground. 
• During kata I have literally no seme. I'm simply too focused on trying to get the motions right that I don't do anything with the non-physical parts of kata.
• My footwork goes apart when I'm paying attention to other things. Immediately it drops back to a two-step motion, instead of a fluid glide.
• On my upswing, the left wrist should stay unbent. DO NOT BEND! This could be my compensation for thinking that otherwise I can't get the shinai upwards fast enough. 
• In uchi-geiko he was quite subtly trying to tell me, again, that I have no seme whatsoever. If he doesn't provide an opening I really should try to push. PUSH!

I didn't work with Ton very much today, but during uchi-geiko it was obvious that:

• My swift strikes are 100% shit =_= I've completely forgotten how to properly do small kote or men. Do might be okay, but kote and men suck. 
• I should relax my posture as I'm horribly rigid in kamae. Also, I am now 100% sure that my headaches every Saturday are caused by my abuse of the muscles in my neck and shoulders. By cramping up in class, instead of having relaxed posture, I'm overloading these muscles, which come back to fight me later. 

There was more, but sadly it doesn't come to mind just yet. I'll try to remember later...

Both Kris and Ton suggested getting a third-person's view of my suburi. Either by using a mirror or a camera. Marli had also suggested the same a few weeks ago. I'd better set up the mini tripod I have, so I can film myself. Worked when I was learning golf swings, so it'll work here as well. 

EDIT:
I spoke with Martijn, my study-buddy you might say, on the way home and I've decided that I need to up my running schedule to build more endurance. I don't know if it's the heat in the dojo today, if I'm just in a rut or whether I just suck, but today's class wore me out. I haven't sweat as much as this before! My keiko-gi and undershirt were drenched! I was already panting quite heavily after the laps of warming up footwork and I couldn't hold my post-striking position that long either (while the teachers were evaluating us). 

So. Not necessarily more, but longer running! And I really need to stick to my at-home suburi schedule!

kilala.nl tags: sports, kendo,

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