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.
  

Mock Shiai

Yesterday at the end of the university kendo club training we did a shiai practise, in which I was up against Wei. The result was 2-1 to me. I got one Kote, but lost one because I didn't know where the boundary was and went outside. He returned the favour and went outside twice too. I wasn't very happy about my performence as I forgot lots of things I kept telling myself, including:

• Fully extend the arms and body whiling striking, especially, the Men.
• The actual combat starts when the Kensen (tip of shinai) is touching each other, we both kept too great a distance.
  

Coughing

Was in fact ill today, and thought about not going to the training. But in the end the stronger part of my mind won, and so I did. I told myself that if I believed that I wasn't ill, then I would feel stronger. Sometimes it is the case. At least this time was. We trained in the first half Kata - the first and second forms -- and the second half some strikes and then Jikeiko. It wasn't hard at all because the main trainer wasn't there, who went to the German Champianship with the strongest kenshis. So there're only four people today with Bogu and three without.

Because the Jikeiko was short, so I only picked out one thing to improve:

• Kote-stike should take smaller step forward.
  

Straight..no ice

On Tuesday, Stephan asked us to Jikeiko with first only Men strike allowed and, later, Men and Kote. It was a good exercise, because I immediately realised that I need to improve on speed. Someone whose name I don't know, landed his shinai on my Men almost everytime, and I felt extremely embarrassed.

I think I'll go to the Leipzig Champianship on 27th May, which will me my first shiai!!

Bagai photo! Everyone trying to look his/her best.
From left: Stephan, me, Jan, and Wibke.



Here are some photos from the BBQ with kendo people on Monday, May Day.

Training from yesterday didn't yeild much I think. Here are some reflections:

• The Kote strike should be more of a continous forward action, instead of a downward one.
  

• I still haven't considered Jigeiko as a routine practise. Partly was due to that fact that I try to hide too much, so my postures were mostly incorrect when I striked. I should just apply directly what I learned in Uchikomi-geiko.
• My blocking is not so effective. My opponent could still hit my Men even though I though I was defending it.

On the bright side:

• I'm more aggressive. My Zanshin is better, i.e. I'm more ready to attack again after the previous one.