I think I took the most beatings I have ever had in Kendo today. My body has the evidence to show it.
After warmup as usual, we did the footwork and cut practices. Then, unlike the last few sessions, we didn't do our usual combined training with bogu, non-bogu players and beginners. The beginners were taken aside, and we did a few rounds of kirikaeshi to complete warming up in bogu. Then the fun began.
I was asked to be motodachi with the person leading training today. The rest of the bogu and advanced beginners were split into two lines. Each line was facing opposite directions towards each other, with myself and the leader facing our lines, so a -----> <- -> <---------- arrangement of sorts, but the two lines were displaced so we weren't back to back. Then the hitting began.
As each person infront of the motodachi makes the cut, they zanshin through and join the other line, so it is a continuous waza practice loop with the two people opening up for cuts etc. We had a lot of people today, so I took a lot of cuts. Men cuts, kote cuts, dou cuts. Good cuts, bad cuts, hits, bludgeoning. Aigoo, my right wrist got an absolute bashing today, and so did my right ribs. For anyone who is an advanced beginner or bogu beginner from my club, if you're reading this....
1) Listen to instructions PLEASE. When you suriashi in, you pause briefly and cut after you make sure your DISTANCE is correct. Don't club your motodachi with the wrong part of the shinai. If the instruction for your small kote cut is that the shinai goes up and over the motodachi, go up and over, don't go down and under.
2) For the love of healthy bodily organs and tissue, TENOUCHI! Some of those cuts, dear me, was like someone trying to chop my arm off with a blunt bamboo stick, oh wait, thats EXACTLY what happened.
3) If you can't do the advanced cut because you haven't been taught it, don't try it. If you try some mish-mash version of it because you saw it on youtube or something, you probably have no idea what to do correctly and you will learn bad habits faster. As a beginner, stick to your basics until you have them right. If you see something you want to try, ASK a senior to teach you it/show you it, then you may be able to. Otherwise you'll end up with some crappy small kote cut which is bad habit form. ~looks at one person in particular~
4) POSTURE. Back straight. Head straight.
5) Oh my god, TENOUCHI~! T_T
6) Zanshin & Kiai appropriately.
We did that for a while and I accumulated enough damage to my epithelium for the next few days....
Then we did rotational jigeiko. I got told I was a meanie today, and well I kind of agree that I was a little bastodic in what I was practicing. Mind you, I did my own practice and I wasn't exactly doing anything bad, it just wasn't something you could expect beginners to be good at getting around. What did I work on? Center. Holding center, regaining center.
Why is this bad? Well, for beginners playing you, they have problems breaking center in the first place, and then when they telegraph their attack intentions, it's even easier for them to end up impaling themselves on your shinai in a mune-tsuki because they haven't broken your center. Further more, working on Seme a little, I managed to push someone with footwork alone into the wall. All I did was hold center, step forward, hold center, step forward etc and they kept backing up until they hit the wall.... LOL, I found it funny because I've never done that to anyone before, but I guess I must have done something right to do that today, or they just kept backing up because they said they were trying to keep distance.... Well, don't keep backing up. You will never win if you do that.
I now sport some hip bruising through the tare, rib bruising from shinai contact, and rib bruising from the dou impacting on my, and forarm and upper arm bruising from kote and missed kote cuts/bludgeoning. My head isn't too bad since the men does take a lot of the force except for those who have cuts that dig the kensen in....
Just as well I have a few days for recovery. At least my left wrist didn't get strained.
After warmup as usual, we did the footwork and cut practices. Then, unlike the last few sessions, we didn't do our usual combined training with bogu, non-bogu players and beginners. The beginners were taken aside, and we did a few rounds of kirikaeshi to complete warming up in bogu. Then the fun began.
I was asked to be motodachi with the person leading training today. The rest of the bogu and advanced beginners were split into two lines. Each line was facing opposite directions towards each other, with myself and the leader facing our lines, so a -----> <- -> <---------- arrangement of sorts, but the two lines were displaced so we weren't back to back. Then the hitting began.
As each person infront of the motodachi makes the cut, they zanshin through and join the other line, so it is a continuous waza practice loop with the two people opening up for cuts etc. We had a lot of people today, so I took a lot of cuts. Men cuts, kote cuts, dou cuts. Good cuts, bad cuts, hits, bludgeoning. Aigoo, my right wrist got an absolute bashing today, and so did my right ribs. For anyone who is an advanced beginner or bogu beginner from my club, if you're reading this....
1) Listen to instructions PLEASE. When you suriashi in, you pause briefly and cut after you make sure your DISTANCE is correct. Don't club your motodachi with the wrong part of the shinai. If the instruction for your small kote cut is that the shinai goes up and over the motodachi, go up and over, don't go down and under.
2) For the love of healthy bodily organs and tissue, TENOUCHI! Some of those cuts, dear me, was like someone trying to chop my arm off with a blunt bamboo stick, oh wait, thats EXACTLY what happened.
3) If you can't do the advanced cut because you haven't been taught it, don't try it. If you try some mish-mash version of it because you saw it on youtube or something, you probably have no idea what to do correctly and you will learn bad habits faster. As a beginner, stick to your basics until you have them right. If you see something you want to try, ASK a senior to teach you it/show you it, then you may be able to. Otherwise you'll end up with some crappy small kote cut which is bad habit form. ~looks at one person in particular~
4) POSTURE. Back straight. Head straight.
5) Oh my god, TENOUCHI~! T_T
6) Zanshin & Kiai appropriately.
We did that for a while and I accumulated enough damage to my epithelium for the next few days....
Then we did rotational jigeiko. I got told I was a meanie today, and well I kind of agree that I was a little bastodic in what I was practicing. Mind you, I did my own practice and I wasn't exactly doing anything bad, it just wasn't something you could expect beginners to be good at getting around. What did I work on? Center. Holding center, regaining center.
Why is this bad? Well, for beginners playing you, they have problems breaking center in the first place, and then when they telegraph their attack intentions, it's even easier for them to end up impaling themselves on your shinai in a mune-tsuki because they haven't broken your center. Further more, working on Seme a little, I managed to push someone with footwork alone into the wall. All I did was hold center, step forward, hold center, step forward etc and they kept backing up until they hit the wall.... LOL, I found it funny because I've never done that to anyone before, but I guess I must have done something right to do that today, or they just kept backing up because they said they were trying to keep distance.... Well, don't keep backing up. You will never win if you do that.
I now sport some hip bruising through the tare, rib bruising from shinai contact, and rib bruising from the dou impacting on my, and forarm and upper arm bruising from kote and missed kote cuts/bludgeoning. My head isn't too bad since the men does take a lot of the force except for those who have cuts that dig the kensen in....
Just as well I have a few days for recovery. At least my left wrist didn't get strained.
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