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!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Kendo, ich bin wieder! (I'm back)

Went to training this evening for the first time since my toe injury 3 weeks ago. It was good to see the kendo friends again. Fortunately no one stepped on my foot during the training, which would have been a total disaster..

It's nearly the end of the semester, and I was suprised to find out that about 7 beginners from the uni club stayed, two more than when we were beginners.

When I arrived in the middle of the beginners training they were learning how to disassemble and reassemble the shinais. So I just did some kihon myself with the column as target.

In the advanced session, we did kihon geiko and then practised waza's of one's choice to counter Men- and Kote- strikes. My repertoire were:
  • To counter Men-strike: suriage-men, debana-kote, and kaeshi-do.
  • To counter Kote-strike: suriage-men, kote-men.
After thoughts:
  • suriage-men: upward brushing and downard strike should be fluent and fast, otherwise the opponent gets too close. Therefore, one should also be careful about the distance when striking.
  • debena-kote: aim to get that nice popping sound. Watch the posture during the Zanshin. I have the tendency to quench my back when turning sideways. :((
  • kaeshi-do: from Miyazaki's shiai with Eiga (not sure which year, see below), whereby he finished with a kaeshi-do, I noticed that he stepped to the front-right and blocked, then without stepping further forwards he reversed and striked do. more practise, more practise...




During the jigeiko I fought with David, and Elisa, after which we did a shiai-like practise, where only one pair fights. If one gets Ippon within 30 seconds then he/she stays on, if no one then both people are replaced by two new people. I didn't get any Ippon, and was forced off by the time limit. While I think if more time is allowed then I can do it, it clearly reflects the efficiency of my strikes -- should work towards a perfect strike every time.

All in all, I feel great to be back in the dojo again. Clearly there're lots of things to improve, but at least I could pick up the level of my kendo where I left it, and the suburi's at home in the past 3 weeks improved my kirikaeshi.

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