First shiai

I participated in the Dresden kendo league for the first time, and I fought with Isi, who has been a kenshi 6 months more than me. I was very motivated to attack, but most of the strikes were ineffective. (Something to work on.) The result was a draw. I scored first with straight Men-strike. It landed despite that she tried to block it. She also scored a Men when I turned around without a proper Zanshin. It was an important lesson to learn. There were a couple of moments when the judges disagreed, one of which was when I went for her Doh she striked my Men. When I later looked at the video we striked at the same moment. Nonetheless, I think my Doh-strike was more impressive ;-). Overall, I think I tried my best, but there are a lot of things I can improve.

• Practise striking during some footwork. I found I tend to stop my footwork before making a stike which I think will alert the opponent.
• Better Zanshin.
• Work on Seme (tackle the opponent's shinai to create distraction).
• Convincing strikes.