Pop that kote, yo

Thursday morning training. It was hard to get up both this week and last week. But somehow I managed. I set my mind to give it all before each fight as though I will only meet the person once. (Ichigo ichie, in Japanese) This week the number of people coming to the morning training has reduced from 9 to 5.

Some notes from the jigeiko:

• A few nice kote "pop's".
• Sanbon Shobu: 1-2 Lost to Stephan. Got a kote. He got two men's. Becareful of the distance!
• Make better use of hiki-waza (and more often), i.e. the right moment and the right distance. If a men-uchi doesn't work, then can follow it by a hiki-waza from tsubazeriai.
• Posture after debana-kote need to remain well.
• Harai needs to be sharp. and start the motion not too early. Ideally just after propelling with the left leg. (need to experiment)
  
• Advice from Stephan: when applying seme, keep the centre and make contact with the opponent's shinai.
  

Yasuko and Kuroda-san (see Prague seminar) both have written me very nice emails. I'm glad to have kept the friendships!