About this blog..

This is a blog that I started in April 2006, just after I first put on my bogu (kendo armour). It collects the advices given by more experienced kendo practitioners as well as those from my own experiences. Both technical and the mental aspects of kendo are written in the blog. I hope someone will find them useful or interesting at least!

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Found a interesting discussion on Kendo World forum about Tsuki:
Click here

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Remember what you've learned

Yesterday I mainly worked on trying to be more aggressive. I find it much easier to strike Kote, because it's much closer than Men. My attempt at the Men usually ends up being blocked, whereas my attempts at Do were almost always too low. I think for Do I need to take care not to step too far forwards. For Men, I need to learn how to break the Kamae of the opponent.

Stephan told me not to forget what I've learned before wearing the Bogu. He said that my shinai striked sideways a lot (maybe I was trying to block?) which is inefficient. Should always aim to stike forward and pass by the opponent, then Zanshin.

Question: what's the best way to turn around?

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Birthday Kakari-Geiko

Yesterday at training the people gave me a birthday present -- Kakari-Geiko. All twenty Kenshis stood around in a circle and I had to stike men until I flatten out. Hee hee how fun.

During practise:
  • striking do after kote. I always strike it too low during uchigumi-geiko
During jigeiko:
  • be more aggresive and don't just stand around and do nothing..
  • was almost tsukied by Alex because I didn't delfect his shinai while striking men.
  • try to follow through after striking.
My heel still hurts. I hope it'll recover by Friday.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Birthday

My birthday was yesterday. Worked a lot over the last weekend, so I had no time to organise any birthday celebrations. Besides, kendo is more exciting to me especially it would be my second time wearing bogu. My heel hurt a bit from last Friday's training, and doing fumigumi hurt like a bitch. As a result my strikes were slow.

Some things I learned during gikeiko:
  • hit as soon as there is an opening. eg. the opponent's shinai tipping sideways.
  • zanshin! especially when turning around.
  • small strikes shouldn't pull the shinai too backwards.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Officially a Kenshi

On Friday, after four months of training (on average twice a week), I wore the Bogu for the first time! I was very excited, not by the look or other superficial reasons, but by the fact that I can now move on to another total different level, the one where there is no boundary and no limits.

The other new Kenshi's were Wei and Elisabeth. The training was short because at the begining we spent some time to wear and try out the Bogu's. Moving with the Bogu feels strange, something one definitely needs to get used to. Couldn't evening do a Suburi properly cuz the Men is getting in the way. The Kote wrapped my fingers tight together, which feels very different from before. I definitely need to do some Suburi with the Bogu at home.