Taught kendo for the first time

2013-01-20 08:43:00

Ahhh, life :) I've just gone over the last weeks worth of blogposts from when I was still in college, working on getting my teaching degree. On the one hand I love reading about that time, on the other it makes me a bit sad because it's all done and gone. There's that 'mono no aware' again: the beauty of passing/fading. One thing that has never left me though, is the fact that I love to teach. 

That's why I was thrilled when Ton-sensei asked me to teach the beginners group for a part of class. :)

After warming up and doing footwork practice (laps of okuri ashi, lunges and fumikomi), my sempai suited up for kihon and waza practice (suriage-men, ai-men etc) and I took the group of a dozen newbies. Because I hadn't prepared anything beforehand and because Ton-sensei didn't have any specifics he wanted me to teach, I went through the following thought process.

• The group was diverse. Three children (one of whom doesn't speak dutch or english), three guys who have 3 months of experience, four guys with 6 months and one who has been with us longer than I have (>2 years). The more experienced guys have been learning about more special techniques, that the others don't know. 
• I need to find something that all of them can work on without expert help (I'm only a beginner myself), but which is still important to learn (solidify the basics).
• After my half hour, Jeroen would take over. I know Jeroen enjoys working with the training dummies that Ton-sensei built, so I know they will probably be doing kihon practice.
• Before my half hour we focused on footwork and Kris-fukushou had quite a few things to say about that.

Putting all of that together, I decided to work on ki-ken-tai-ichi: the unity of mind, sword and body during a strike. This builds upon what we've done so far and is something that the group could use in kihon practice with Jeroen. These are the drills I went through with them:

• The phased men-strike: 1. raise shinai. 2. raise right foot and hold for two seconds. 3. strike and fumikomi at the same time. 
• Haya-suburi footwork: stand on one side of the line, then make the small sliding jumps back and forth across the line.
• Okuri-ashi, circling our section of the dojo.
• Repeated fumikomi, back and forth across our section.
• Strike with fumikomi, from okuri-ashi, back and forth across our section.
• Strike with fumikomi from okuri-ashi along the length of our section, striking my shinai as target. 

In each of these practices, I first let the group do them a number of times without me saying anything. Five men strikes, twenty haya-suburi, two laps of okuri-ashi, etc. I only observed them, trying to see what everyone is doing. After the initial round, I would provide general feedback without singling anyone out. Then I'd let them repeat the exercise again, doubling the amount of strikes/laps. During this second round I would provide the students with personal feedback.

I'm very glad that the group paid full attention! At no point in time did they start drifting away or were they slacking off which, I hope, was caused by my demeanor and posture: stern and polite, speaking clearly and loudly and giving precise instructions. Once again my strong lungs came in handy, as I was able to address the group as they lined up (no huddle needed) and still being heard over the loud group in bogu. 

I certainly hope to teach again sometime soon :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, school,

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