Skip to main content

Stepping Up

Ever since the shinsa back in February, I've been thinking of ways to improve and step up my training.  I want to be the best that I can be, and I know that there's always room for me to improve.  But how do I do that?  I had a nice talk with my sensei about it last week and after getting some advice and guidance I have a lot of new ideas.


The main things that I want to work on (and am working on) right now are moving from my center and being more explosive.  I believe that I'll have to put in a lot of work to move with my whole body before I can start making it faster, but that's ok.  I want to be able to strike with everything, not just my hands and upper body, and I want to be able to do it in a split-second.  To go from relaxed and pressuring in to striking and flying through all at once.  The first step in doing that is to change my mindset.  Sinclair Sensei put a big emphasis on changing my mindset to begin to improve the rest of my body.  If I want more speed and explosive movement, I need to think of myself as faster and more explosive.  He said to imagine myself as a "small, wiry guy."  For me that is going to be a chore, as I am anything but small and wiry, but after trying to keep that focus the last week I can see a slight hint at improvement already.  So there's step one down, as long as I can continue to keep that mindset.

I've been doing a lot more running lately, since it's warming up outside, and I've also been staying on top of my at-home exercises, doing them just about every other day.  Over time I've noticed an improvement so I'll continue to do those.  Sensei gave me some new variations to work on, as well, so I'll change up my routine and start using those.  I also have some new footwork drills to work on to help with creating more power in my fumikomi and my follow-through.  I just received the new drills last night so I'm excited to try them out.  I just need to remember to start out small and build up to more reps with each one.

Another point that Sensei made was that my shinai speed is already pretty fast.  I shouldn't concentrate on that so much at the moment, and instead shift my focus to proper distance and timing.  Again I will take this to heart and begin to make it my focus.  It's going to take some time, and a lot of practice, but I'll do my best to keep on these two points, as well.

What will all of this add up to?  A stronger, faster, better me!  I not only want to be healthier (with all the exercise and running) but I want to be able to always give 100% every time I train and compete.  As long as I'm doing that I feel that I'll never have a regret concerning my kendo.  I also want to be able to give my best to each of my dojo mates, and to push them and encourage them all to improve, as well.  I have a strong desire to help our dojo be the best it can be, and I can do that through my continued support and help when needed, and also through my willingness to give everything I have for each of my partners during training.

Hopefully over the next few months I'll be able to really focus on these points during my training and begin to transform my kendo into something more than it is now.  I feel that I have a good foundation to work with and now it's time to begin shaping my kendo into what I want it to be, and what I want is beautiful, powerful kendo.
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 25, 2012 at 11:51 PM

    Remember this too!

    Speed is not just about speed! It is also about timing! A slower person with better timing than a faster person will end up being faster in a practical way. Control the tempo and pace for a match and you will always be 'faster' than your opponent.

    This! I have learned! (Not so good at doing it though...)

    Mm. *sagely nod*

    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 lik...
4 comments
Read more

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 wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Palouse Kendo Club

This Sunday a few of my dojo mates and I traveled to Moscow, ID to visit the Palouse Kendo Club, a relatively new club to the area that was started by my friend Maina.  The club has been active for a little over a year, if memory serves me right, and we'd always talked about having visitors to the club, but we were finally able to put it together and schedule it.  Six of us traveled over, ranging from 3 kyu up to, well, me!  We pulled up to the dojo about 20 minutes before training was scheduled to start, and after greeting my friend and getting a quick tour, we were suited up and ready to go.  All in all, they had six people that showed up to train with us, and we trained for a good two and a half hours.  We started with warmups and suburi, then moved straight into footwork drills.  I have to make a confession:  I don't particularly like footwork drills.  I don't like running, either, but I do both because I know that they're both good for me a...
2 comments
Read more