Japanese delegation at Taipei Kendokan

Recently many Japanese senseis visited Taipei Kendokan, I was however busy and couldn't attend the practice most of the time. Fortunately, I made it to the practice this monday, when about 15 Japanese Senseis visited the dojo, including about four 8th Dan.

I was please with my performance in that evening. I even managed to hit the kote of a young 8th Dan Sensei! Somehow my body balance was very good, and could make straight and fast attacks. However, some senseis just knew what I was going to do. Like Yonekura (米倉) Sensei, he made me think that I could reach his men, but every time when I do that, he made kaeshi-do on me.

Tomorrow Kuroda san (5th Dan from Kobukan Tokyo) will finally visit me, I'm excited to meet my old friend again!!

Training to obtain the center

Last night I practised at Taipei Kendokan. There are some sempais from the dojo whom I just don't know how to fight. What makes me feel the most hopeless is when I loose over and over again the simplest ai-men strikes. When this happens, I get annoyed and want to make more men-strikes to prove that I can do it, which only makes my moves become even more predictable. I'm not sure how to act in this situation...

This Wed I practised at the Hsing-Hua University Kendo Club. There was a good turn-out rate, especially considering that they just had a competition last week. We started with the ooikomi-geiko with sayu-men, and then renzoku-wazas. My forearms were mildly tense after these exercises. "I used the correct parts of the muscles," I thought.

In the end we had about 20-minutes jigeiko. My opponents were all junior to me, so my goals were to use as much oji-waza as possible. However, I also found that most of them don't know how to hold the center, and how to attack the centerline of their opponents.

This is something really difficult to explain. For me, I understood what the "center" is after training with many Senseis and Sempais with strong centers. I think only when training with such people can one understand what it is.

Tomorrow I will attend the joint practice for all kendokas in Taipei. Looking forward to it!