Communication kendo

This week so far I went twice to the training. I said "sofar" because there will be a KenVO squad training, and I am always confused as to whether Sunday is the beginning or the end of a week. Well, nevermind.

In both trainings I push myself hard. In general I tried to push my physical limitation. But in kihon-geiko and jigeiko I aimed to make every strike on target an ippon, meaning: loud kiai, nice posture and zanshin. A strong emphasis for me in the past few weeks has been seme. Namely, experimenting with different ways of breaking the composure of the opponent. I also found that kendo is much more interesting with applying seme before launching the strike, because you are not merely hitting a dummy but a human being, who can defend. Through the series of exchanging attack and defense, the two in many ways communicate and understand each other in a somewhat deep level.

Yesterday I had jigeiko with Lilli, Martin, Patrick, Un-Cheol, Antja and Daniel. Lilli has really improved a lot since she started training three times a week. Especially one feels her will to fight on, which is what drives us to improve. Quite naturally, as her opponent, I was driven to give all I had. This is perhaps the best opponent to have.

It was my first time fighting with Un-Cheol. He moves fast, and does very nice kote-men, with no hesitation between the kote and men. I think it's because his kote is higher than usual (or perhaps I should just call it harai-men), so that he can execute the men strike immediately afterwards.

Feedbacks:

• Georg pointed out that my hands are slightly off-centre to the right in my kamae. I think this is because my left shoulder was slightly behind my right one.
• Martin: surprise your opponent with minimum movement, or, let's say, redundant movements. This is for me something yet to be explored. At the moment I have try to see what works and then the next thing is to stop doing those that don't work.

Some thoughts

• Striking distance. During seme, for example, harai-waza or renzoko-waza, it is easy to get too close, therefore, renders the final strike invalid. I should watch out for the distance. If the opponent doesn't move backwards, I stomp my feet on the same spot, if they do, I move forward with the left foot quickly followed. Then launch the strike with the left thigh and hip pushing forward + LOUD KIAI!

I am very looking forward to the squad training tomorrow. But first I have to make sure I won't drink too much tonight!