That didn't go too well (some good stuff as well)

2012-10-17 07:44:00

All of yesterday I'd been feeling crappy, so I wasn't altogether too confident going to kendo. It was nice going together with Herman and Charl though :)

As I'd feared I had to bow out during kihon practice, because I was soo tense and out of breath that I'd keel over if I didn't. I don't know what was up yesterday, but all my muscles are/were tight as heck and my breathing patterns were a complete mess. Meh. So I quickly joined Roelof-sensei and Herman at the beginners' side. There I practiced oki-men, sayu-men and the semete-men movements we've been working on for the past weeks.

Pointers that I was given during class:

• Roelof-sensei remarked that I was using too much power in my strikes.
• Wouters-sempai found my footwork in kirikaeshi to be shoddy. She urged me to move from the hips and to be more precise: "More hips, less with the arms".
• Makoto-sempai noticed that I was taking an extra step when jumping to make a strike. This is very similar to the issues I've been having the past year, where I first dangle the right leg backwards instead of jumping in. In this case I first put weight on the right to only very slightly bring left further in, after which I kick off. That's wrong. I should be able to kick off immediately. Time to work on my kamae.
• Koseki-sensei pointed out that my sayu-men strikes were not off to the side enough, they were too much on top.

During class I noticed that I'd cracked one of the take on my newer shinai. ( ;_;) I guess Roelof-sensei sure had a point when he said I was hitting too hard. I'll see if I can fix that tonight, otherwise I'll find another solution.

EDIT:
When it comes to good stuff (it's not all bad), I've been writing a lot for the new Renshinjuku kendo dojo website. Aside from summaries of the classes I attend and some news posts about kendo events, I have also started a series of lexicographical articles. I know from experience that all the Japanese terms and phrases can be confusing for beginners, which is why I want to take the time to explain them. Of course there's the dictionary list compiled by our teachers, but that only provides translations and little explanation.

First up in the series is an explanation of the various types of geiko ("training"). Next up, to be published on sunday, is an explanation of all the commands used during warming-up and the various types of suburi. In the near future I'll also write about the commands in seiretsu (plus some background on dojo layout) and about our equipment.

kilala.nl tags: anxiety, sports, kendo,

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