Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

A thought occurred to me last night during training;  a thought that made me both happy and a little sad.  I realized that, if all goes well this weekend, last night was my last training as a shodan.  I will be testing for nidan this weekend at the PNKF shinsa.  I feel ready for it, and everyone else says that I'm ready.  I just need to relax and not be nervous, and let my body do what it's been trained to do.  I'm glad to have this opportunity, though.  Sometimes I feel like it's too soon since I've only been training for just under four years.  In fact, it will be four years in May.  I feel like I've accomplished a lot in such a short time, but compared to this entire journey that I've set myself on it's only a drop in the bucket.  I definitely have my dojo, and the members, to thank for getting me where I am right now.  They all push me hard, right to the limit, but they also encourage me and will be the first ones to lend me a helping hand or encou

A point was brought up Monday night by Kuster Sensei, and I've been thinking about it ever since.  The point being that we should always have high spirit, both directly in our kiai and also in our movements.  I've always heard, and experienced, that when you are tired the thing that can keep your going and push you to do more is spirit.  It can also mean the difference in a match between winning and losing.  When pitted against an opponent that is of the same skill as yourself, the person with the most spirit will usually win out. When we practice we should always try to have a high spirit, not only for our own benefit but the benefit of everyone in the dojo.  These days I can definitely tell the difference between someone that has a high spirit and someone that does not.  The person with the high spirit is like a trampoline that boosts me up even higher, or even like a friend reaching over an edge to help me up to their level.  I know that I've had my fair share of times