稽古 7-79 / Baca Center / 2016年 10月 19日 (水)

Oikomi: men, men-kote, men-kote-dou. We usually don’t practice going forward that much so whenever I instruct the class I try to put in oikomi or other practices that help with this. We start with a kiai, and then go on for continuous uchi in fumikomi. Near the end of dojo, we finish with shomen uchi and then zanshin. I felt light today, however, my left foot felt like it was being dragged along rather than snapping in for some reason. Sensei didn’t say anything about it, so it must look okay from the side.  This feeling may be due to the lack of practice of this sort.

Men-kote uchi felt natural, with the right distance for footwork coming surprisingly naturally even during the fast drill. I sometimes think this as a rather enchanting aspect of kendo. What was difficult before has finally become a second-nature, and it’s a satisfying feeling that you don’t commonly find in other aspects of life, except maybe in academia.

We ended practice with sensei’s instruction on hikiwaza and then jigeiko. I tried to focus on cutting somewhat explosively, but I was little too tired for this by this time. This is usually manifested by higher ranking kendoka who have been practicing for a long time with right chudan no kamae with proper suburi.

My energy level was excellent for this keiko.