Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

This week has been a good Kendo week so far.  I've had practice Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night, and I pushed myself hard in each one.  Although now I'm glad for a short break to rest and relax tonight, I'm happy I was able to push myself through each and every one of those practices (including two practices with the beginners/intermediate people where I was not only Motodachi for them but also able to work on basics). Last night started out normal enough, with warm-ups and suburi, and then Sensei had us put our shinai down for a bit and we went over the clap drill that we did a couple weeks ago.  He has used this drill a couple times to emphasize connection to your partner and the group, anticipation of their movements, and also as a lesson in following instructions.  Afterward we broke into partners and worked on keeping that connection and anticipating our partner's movements.  When they would step, we would step, trying to stay as close to their movement as p

It hasn't been that long since I've had training, less than a week, but for some reason last night felt like my first time back in a while.  Probably due to the fact that we didn't have training on Saturday downtown, or at all last week in the valley.  Instead we had a demonstration for the opening ceremony of Japan Week here in Spokane.  I will hopefully have pictures to post later, but for now onto last night's practice! Sensei had us start out with a few interesting drills.  We stood in a big circle after our normal warm-ups, and we would begin a clap.  At first he would clap once and then the next person over would clap as fast as they could after him, and so on, until we made it around the circle.  The next version involved Sensei clapping twice, in rhythm, and the next person over would begin their first clap on his second clap, and we would keep that rhythm going all the way around the circle.  After a few failed attempts and some laughs we finally were able to

For some reason I feel like I haven't been on here in a while.  I know it's only been a little over a week, but still.  I took time off from Monday's class to rest up and let my leg heal up a bit more.  It's still sore, but it's getting better.  After last night's practice it felt pretty good, and it honestly didn't really bother me much at all last night.  I had to step out once, and that was due to the exhaustion, not the leg.  So I'm happy for that, but on the flip-side I'm still working on my endurance.  I'm constantly working on my endurance... Last night's practice was pretty fun, to say the least.  Wendy was leading us and we ended up doing a lot of kirikaeshi to start things off.  First slow and controlled and precise, and then as fast as we could while maintaining control, and then we backed it down for a few rounds of quite-not-so-fast kirikaeshi.  Next we moved into some kihon drills with Men and Kote.  Wendy wanted us to focus

It's always hard to come back to "reality" after such a great Kendo weekend.  This past weekend was the UW Invitational Taikai, and it marked my first time fighting in the upper Kyu division.  I was in the 1-3 Kyu division for this taikai.  Initially I was also going to fight on our B team in the team division, but due to a few complications we were unable to run a B team.  So I had to pour everything I had into the individual matches that I had.  I was not only fighting my opponents for this taikai, but also a pulled muscle in my leg and a sickness that I was recovering from.  Despite all that, though, I don't think I did too bad.  Here is my account of the taikai. Friday night I had to cut my training at Bellevue dojo a bit short.  I felt feverish and didn't want to overdo it the night before the taikai.  I believe I made the right decision, although I really wanted to jump into jigeiko with everyone from Bellevue.  Saturday morning rolled around and I felt pr