Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

I'm back.  Kinda.  I didn't really go anywhere, just busy last week and didn't have a chance to post.  But here I am, safe and sound and posting again!  I have a lot to work on, and it never ceases to amaze me that I always find more, and more, and more with each practice. Maybe that's why I love Kendo so much.  It's layer upon layer of refinement, each time you gain more, improve more and yet find more to improve upon.  It's definitely a life-long journey. We are still in our kata phase, and we took the beginning half of the class to practice the kata that we are individually working on.  My buddy Matt and I worked on kata 1-3 again, and I took the opportunity to really work on my distancing and my connection with my partner.  I know the steps of the kata I was doing, now I want to do more.  I want to feel the kata.  To move with my partner as if we were reflections of each other.  To have as close to real emotions with each step, strike, and movement.  Ther

Courtesy of H. Jewett Just a quick note from practice on Saturday.  I stayed after for the team training portion, and during the drills Sensei pointed out that I have a good spirit but I'm still using a "drill" style kiai.  He wanted me to strike like I meant it, and told me that it should be like that last point I score in the finals of a taikai.  So I did.  And I, along with everyone else, saw some big improvements from that one change in my spirit.  I'm definitely going to try and draw this out more in my regular practice.  Fight like you train, train like you fight.  It's a motto that Sensei has told us many times, and I genuinely believe in it myself. Last night we had a new beginning class, and a couple of new students.  I got to help out with them and continued on my path of learning how to be a proper teacher and a proper assistant.  I want to remember these points, as well as being a good example, because as I go through the years and the ranks peop

I sit here, wondering what to write, and the only thing I can think of is how blessed our dojo has been by the Ando family in this past year.  Ando Sensei's family came to join him last fall, and his two daughters and his son have all trained with us throughout the past year.  They have very much become a part of our dojo family, and last night was their last practice with us.  They left to go back home to Japan today.  I am sad that we won't be able to train with them regularly, but I'm so thankful for the opportunity that we had to meet them and find out how wonderful they were.  I'll be sure to hang onto the good memories that I have of them all, and thanks to the power of the internet we'll always be just an email away.  I wish them a safe journey and that they do well going back to their home, and I hope that we'll be able to meet up again to talk and to practice together! With each ending, though, there is also a new beginning.  Ours came in the form of