Skip to main content

Money In The Bank

If all goes well this weekend, last night was my last night as a Nikyu.  We head over to Seattle tomorrow and have our shinsa on Saturday, and then I'll have time to show the judges that I deserve to rank up to Ikkyu.  I'm excited for this opportunity, I've been training for it since the last shinsa in February, and I feel confident that I'll do well.  Sensei definitely knows each of our strengths and weaknesses, and what we're ready for, and he wouldn't recommend me for it if he didn't have the confidence that I'll make it.  For that I'm super grateful, and for everything that he and the rest of my Kendo family has done for me to prepare me for this weekend.  Ando Sensei put it into interesting terms for me.  He said that it's like  I made a deposit at a bank.  I gave them something that was mine, it is mine, and now I'm just going to take that deposit back.  It's always been mine, but now is the time to go collect it. 

After our kata practice I led warm-ups, and I did so with that mentality.  The mentality that said, "Time to step it up, Chris."  I felt more assertive, like there was a little more authority in my voice.  These were MY warm-ups, and I was going to lead them with confidence.  Big thinking for a such a somewhat small task, but I believe in giving my all in whatever aspect of Kendo I'm currently doing.

Afterward we jumped into Kirikaeshi for a bit.  I've always thought about my breathing and rhythm during this drill, but again I need to step it up.  I'm pretty good at doing the whole drill on five breaths.  Now I need to dig down and work on doing it in three breaths. 

We did a couple of different Men strikes.  One the basic strike, in which I focused on pressuring forward towards Tsuki and then raising up at the last moment for Men.  I've also been working on making the Men strike smaller, with less wasted movement.  We did a variation in which we stepped into position and then did fumikomi Men.  I did this with a (medium) swing, and honestly it felt better than it has before.  Usually when I do a medium swing while doing fumikomi at the same time it feels funny, but it felt more comfortable today than I remember.  Maybe I'm getting better?

We moved into Kote and Debana Kote.  Lately Sensei has been having us hit Kote and then "close the distance," instead of hitting and passing by.  This feels more advanced and more aggressive, and I try to remember to strike and then keep my left hand in place and use the right hand to bring the shinai back over my shoulder.  Sensei also pointed out that I need to snap the shinai tip up after I strike, just like I snap it down when I strike.  I'm hitting and not bringing it back far enough, or with enough speed, so I'll remember this and be sure to work on it.  With my Debana Kote I should have this feeling as well, except that after I strike (going forward) I turn to the side and continue my kiai and zanshin.  Also Billy pointed out that my Kote strike against Jodan needs to be at an angle, like Sayu-Men.  Right now I'm striking down and that just causes my shinai to slide off of his Kote.  So much to work on...

Hiki waza was next, either Men or Kote, and both sides were looking for an opening.  My goodness...  My hiki waza definitely needs work, and I'm going to talk to Sensei again to see if he has some good advice for me to improve this aspect.  I'm very much a "go forward" type of kenshi, but I take it a bit too far because my hiki waza is pretty weak.  I definitely want to continue the forward mindset, but I also want to have effective hiki waza when the need arises.

We split into groups at this point, with me being thrown in with the Yudansha, and did a few Ai-Men drills before finishing out the night with jigeiko.  I was told that I tend to crouch down before I spring forward, so I should work on getting rid of this habit.  I know I have noticed it when I see videos of myself, so I need to work on exploding forward from a good kamae position, instead of crouching into it and then springing forward.

Jigeiko was good but I did have to step out before the end so that I didn't overdo myself again.  Monday night I pushed hard, a little too hard, and ended up in a very weakened and immobile state by the end of the night.  But tonight I pushed up to my edge, maybe a little further when I had my last jigeiko with Seth, and then said "Yeah, that's enough for tonight," before stepping out.  It was a great night of training, everyone gave it their all despite the heat, and I think we all accomplished a lot.  And hopefully if all goes well we'll return on Monday with some new ranks and a lot of energy to go out and improve even more!

Comments

  1. "If all goes well this weekend, last night was my last night as a Nikyu."

    Tsk.

    Tonight is your last night as Nikyu should all go well this weekend. We are not only a Nikyu or a Shodan or a this or that when we are in practice or in shiai. We are always these things. ;p

    Enjoy the shinsa! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. VERY true. I do believe that it is an "all the time" thing we do, not just something that happens at practice or shiai or other Kendo events. I just didn't want to get too far ahead of myself, I guess :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sutemi

 The Japanese-English Kendo dictionary, located at www.kendo-usa.org, defines sutemi as: " Sute-mi   (n.)  1.  Concentration and effort with all one’s might, even at the risk of death.  2.  Concentration of all one’s effort into one strike, even at the risk of defeat." Ok, so risking everything at the risk of defeat or death.  But how does that apply to our own training?  Fighting to the death is a very foreign concept to many of us, but I believe that we can all understand fighting at the risk of defeat.  This is a concept that we've started examining in more detail at our dojo lately, and one that I believe can be learned at any stage of practice that you're at. To put it simply, Sensei explained that sutemi is putting 100% effort into a strike.  Holding nothing back and leaving all cares and worries behind so that you can give all of yourself over to that strike.  it sounds like a complicated idea, and it is, but just like all things in kendo I believe that

Nuki Men - A Personal Look

2010 Kent Taikai This month we'll be focusing on nuki waza at our dojo, specifically nuki men and nuki kote.  Here are just a few of my own (emphasis on own!) thoughts on the subject. I, personally, love nuki men. It's been one of my favorite techniques for years and years, and I used it a lot when I was a mudansha.  I still use it now on occasion, for that matter, but in order to become and stay effective with it I had to learn a few things.  These are things which work for me and your mileage may vary, as one of my friends like to say.  First off is the movement itself.  I'll start with the "classic" version with kote-nuki men.  One person attacks the kote, and their opponent responds by raising the shinai up and countering with a men strike of their own.  In this scenario there are a few things I like to keep in mind.  The first being to get my hands out of the way!  I can't just lift my shinai and expect to be ok, I have to also get my hands (and my

Harai Waza

Photo courtesy of T. Patana, Kendo Photography Another month down, another new focus for training.  This month we'll be focusing on harai waza.  Here are some of my personal thoughts on it, from my own training and experience. I really had trouble figuring out how to start this entry.  Normally I just open the page and go to work, letting whatever ideas and thoughts I have flow out onto the screen, but this one really had me stumped for a while, mainly because everything I started to write sounded really negative and I didn't mean it to, so I think I'll just go with it and try to get to the point that I was trying to make in the first place. When I first started learning harai waza it was part of kihon kata three.  If you want to be fancy, that would be the Bokuto ni yoru kendo kihon waza keiko ho, kihon san - harai waza .  The idea was simple: strike the motodachi's shinai out of center and deliver a men strike, all in one smooth movement.  It was one of the