It was kind of interesting how my knee reacted.  For the first couple of weeks it didn’t seem like it was getting better at all and I was worried that it wasn’t going to get better. However after that it got remarkably better in that next week.  Enough so that I went to the Thursday night class at the Nampa club and participated in some non-bogu practice that included kata and basic uchicomi.  Friday night it felt good enough to bogu-up and take part in full practice.

Both nights were new beginner classes.  Stroud sensei was present at the Thursday class to get the beginners started.  There were about 4 or 5 beginners and then 5 advanced members including one from the last beginner class.  He’s pretty young, but hopefully he will stick with it.  While Stroud sensei worked with the beginners I led the other group through the first few bokuto ni yoru kata.  We just concentrated on 1-3 since we had a new person that wasn’t familiar with them at all.

About half way through class Atagi sensei showed up and took over leading our group and we started going through some basic uchicomi; men, kote, kote-men and more complex ones.  After Stroud sensei dismissed the beginners he joined in our rotations and not too long after that I stepped out with the newer member, Kelso, since we weren’t in bogu.  I worked with him on kirikaeishi.

After practice Atagi sensei mentioned the importance of high spirit during practice and equally present reiho or manners.  He said that we have to keep both of them at high levels and even though we are trying to kill (beat) our opponent we still need to keep our manners at the same time.

Friday’s beginner class of about 10 people was headed by Dr. Roosevelt.  With three of us testing for ikkyu in August the remaining advanced students worked on the first three kendo kihon kata.

I still feel very heavy on my feet when doing kata.  I need to be lighter so that my movements are smoother and more effortless.  I think part of the problem is that even in kata I am way too tense. Learning to relax more will probably help that feeling along with a number of other things.

After the beginner class left and we moved into the advanced class we worked on some footwork and basics before spending a large part of the remaining time working on doh.  Just when I thought I was getting really good at it Dr. Roosevelt told me I was swinging too much from the side and not bringing it down from above enough.  He also tried to talk to us about being able to strike quickly and without taking a step before striking. Striking inside the strike of your opponent will give you a great advantage.

After a lot of doh practice we moved into jigeiko and took turns with each person in class.  I took it pretty easy since I was still nursing my knee, but did get some quality practice with Dr. Roosevelt.  I have a bad habit of wiping out a good kote with a men afterwards which we both seemed to agree came down to having more confidence in the kote hit and not forcing the men when it isn’t needed.

This was quite the long post since it had been a good deal of time

We started out with kata and spent the first 45 minutes or so of class working on the first 7 forms.  Mr. Kim made a few observations while we were working on the various forms.  One of the things he mentioned was the position of our left hand during left jodan for kata number 1 and 5.  He stated that the left hand should be above the left eye about one fist between the tsuka and forehead.

Mr. Kim’s next point came mostly for kata number 3 and 6.  He noticed that when were executing the tsuki’s in these particular forms that we tended to do the motion with our arms rather than our body.  He said the whole tsuki needs to move from the core of the body during the tsuki and it needs to be especially quick in number 6 when the motodachi retreats into jodan.

The final note came about zanshin.  He asked what zanshin was, and I replied that it was the when you are suppressing the spirit of your opponent after you have cut them.  Holding them there in case your strike didn’t completely disable them.  Mr. Kim mentioned that our zanshin needed to be stronger and that we needed to look like we were ready to cut again.

After kata we did a quick warm-up that ended with 140 or so hayasuburi.  I had to stop part way though because my knee started to protest.  It has been bothering me for a couple months now and I have a MRI on Monday to hopefully find the issue with it.  Never really hurts, but gets tired and feels weak at times.  While we were doing hayasuburi Mr. Kim said that we needed to have bigger swings when were are doing it so we did a few sets where it was similar to jogeburi.  We would swing all the way back so the shinai would hit our backs and then strike men as normal.  He said that the feeling that you get when swinging like that should be the same as when you are doing hayasuburi normally.

After some quick ashi-sabaki practice we practiced some hiki-men with the reverse fumikomi.  This proved to be quite difficult for me as it looks a lot easier than it is to pull off.  After a short demonstartion we practiced it a few times before putting on our bogu and trying out then. Once we had our bogu on we did some basics; kirikaishi, men, kote-men, and then the dreaded hiki-men.  I think I did ok with the hiki-men, but I know I’m a little gun shy with it because of my left ankle that I sprained last year.  Sometimes if I still put too much weight on it at the wrong angle then it will protest quite strongly.  This tyupically happens when I suddenly change directions from back to forward or quickly come to a stop.

Finally on the list was some jigeiko.  We rotated through everyone so I had a chance to keiko with everyone, but Dr. Roosevelt.  He stepped out and took some photos and video of us.  After practice he said he had some footage of some good things we were doing and a lot of footage of bad things.  For now I know my number one issue is getting myself moving forward.  When I fumikomi I tend to left my leg really high before I step and move and I’m probably putting a lot more force downward rather than using it to pull myself forward and through.  I’ve known it as a problem for a while and keep trying to work on it, but its one of those things that seem to get mixed up with the various other things that need to be worked as well.

Here’s to another great practice!

After the normal warm-ups we quickly moved in to ashi-sabaki practice across the gym floor.  We concentrated mainly on okuri-ashi moving at various speeds.  The gym is the ideal place to practice this because the distance across is so great you really get a workout. After normal footwork we added swinging practice to the drills;  kote, men, saya-men(right), saya-men(left), men, do.  We did 3 or 4 rounds (over and back) of this increasing speed until we went as fast as we could.  Mr. Kim mentioned that some of us started to cheat a little bit and we weren’t raising our hands completely over our head instead we were just bring the tsuba to our forehead.  For basics our swings needed to be big and above our head.

Next he had us do a tenouchi drill where we open our right hand up so that it is forming more of a large ‘C’ shape and the tsuka rests in the fingers.  You then pull the shinai back and catch it with your thumb and snap the wrist forward throwing it back into your fingers simulating tenouchi.  While doing this you make a small (as in tiny) fumikomi with your foot as you snap the shinai forward.  If you think it sounds confusing to explain it is twice as hard to do.  Mr. Kim explained that hayasuburi is the normal way that is great practice for tenouchi, but since it is very exahausting it is hard to do a large number of them.  This was a little bit of a shortcut to be able to practice over and over without wearing yourself out.  Out of all of us Matt seamed to grasp the idea the best and I failed pretty miserably at it .

Around this time we had one of our beginners show up as well.  I believe his name is Josh.  He has only been to about three practices and this was his fourth so he is really new.  He snuck in between our normal beginner classes, but anytime we can get a beginner we’ll take them and work them into the normal class.  While we worked on our normal drills we had him concentrate on big mens and following through.  I think for only his fourth class that he is doing quite well.  His hits aren’t too hard and he is starting to following through more smoothly.  I hope that he sticks around.

Once we took a very short (3 minutes) break we put our bogu on and starting hitting practice. I was still feeling pretty crappy at this point and was going to just sit out the last half of practice, but my body had other plans as it just went and grabbed my bogu anyways and started putting it on.

 The first couple of rounds were normal basic men and kote strikes just to get warmed up and then moved to sashi-men.  Mr. Kim explained that if someone has a strong kamae then you may have to make your opening since one is not there for you.  He said that it doesn’t take much of an opening and that you only need 1 or two inches and then you will have enough to strike.  To make this opening you can simply slide your shinai down theirs, applying a small amount of tenouchi as your are moving forward.  This will create the small opening for you to move in and apply the small, quick men strike.  Now my issue with this is that I’m just not as fast as I probably should be.  I’m still in two step mode; move in creating the opening, then strike the men.  I need to make it all one step so that as I’m moving in to make the opening I’m already moving to strike the men as well.

Next on the list was sashi-kote.  Matt gave me a good insight on this and said that since I’m a bigger guy with a longer reach that I should attempt sashi-kote from further back.  Instead of moving to uchi-ma I should strike from issoku itto no maai when the tips of the shinai are just touching.  Since the kote is closer I don’t need to be as close as I do to strike men and also this helps the fact that I don’t have to move my shinai as much, if at all, to get over my opponents tip and strike his kote.  Out of all the things we practice tonight I think this was the one I had the most immediate results with.

We finally ended practice with jigeiko and rotated between each person. My stamina started to fade pretty quickly once we hit this stage.  Between being under the weather and just a hard practice I was hitting the wall by my second or third match.  My last match was with Mr. Kim and I always have a hard time with him since he is so fast and skillful.  Towards the end I just try to hold center and pick off a quick kote as he moves in to strike, but I’m usually too slow for that as well.

After practice Mr. Kim came by to tell me that I have a bad habit of pulling my shinai back to strike and thus opening up my kote.  I’ve known about this problem for a long time and I think it gets really bad when I’m exhausted.  I need to do as Stroud sensei said before and just work on keeping my tip on my opponent and lifting the shinai with my left hand rather than pulling with my right.

All in all it was a very hard but good practice.  I was feeling much better at the end, very tired, but better.