We're running into the warmer months around here, and with that comes the time of year where our dojo typically dives into all kinds of fun drills for practicing all manner of techniques. We usually go through many, many different techniques and situations for using them, encouraging people to grab a couple of waza that they really like and want to develop. Lately at practice I've been hitting men, dou, and kote from all manner of position and distances, and using various forms of footwork, body movement, and shinai manipulation to get to my target. I love this time for the dojo because I get to do a lot of drills that I don't normally get to do, as well as practice techniques that I'm both fairly strong at, and I also am terribly, well, terrible at! Ando Sensei has been leading a lot of the practices lately, having us go over various situations. It seems that he's especially fond of having us hit from to-ma (far out, more than one step away from the target
One man's Kendo journey