2011-07-20 05:33:00
As I said before: I'm becoming lazy. Instead of chomping at the bit for more kendo practice I was actually trying to find excuses to cancel last night's practice. I'm glad that Marli didn't let me and that Martijn was showing such enthusiasm :) If anything, last night's exhaustion tells me that I still love kendo and that I really do need to keep up my practice (both in running and in kendo).
So that's one lesson learned, but what else was there?
- As always, I need to learn how to think aggressively. Stop the endless waiting and thinking ("What'll he do? What'll he do? Will he strike? Should I strike? Where should I strike? How about small men?! No, he already expects that!") and create my own chances. Create an opening (or find one), strike and push through.
- Push through! Push even if your strike failed. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT skip backwards, back into kamae! Lunge, strike, follow through and move! And if the opponent doesn't let you pass, go for tai atari.
- There are a number of openings that are automatic with me: if opponent does A, I do B which leaves me wide open. This includes:
- When my shinai is pushed out of the center line, I push back. When this is done repeatedly, all the opponent has to do is release tension on his shinai and bingo! My sword swerves waaay to the other end and there's an open kote target.
- When opponent goes for my men, I raise my shinai to deflect. However, I raise it too high and too far to the right, so again that's an open kote.
- With many attacks, instead of parrying and countering, I simply brace for impact.
kilala.nl tags:
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kendo,
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