On Striking Through Nito

Practice at Fuchou today. I still have a couple sniffles and a general cloggled sinuses feeling, but I’m more or less well enough to do kendo again. Kendo today was then as expected. There were only a few people at first, but things started to pick up as the practice wore on.

I was complimented on my new shinai today. Apparently it has a really nice balance. I suppose that’s why it feels so nice and fluid in my hand. I tested out a bunch of shinai while I was at Tozando and this one was the one that felt best. Doing a few practice swings I was surprised to find that the oval shape of the tsuka helps me keep the center of my swing a lot better, and my cuts seemed a lot sharper for it. I was really impressed.

I was further impressed when we started practice. The very first men-uchi drill we did, the strike connected so sharply, with such a nice pop that I could feel it up my arms. Even I could tell that was a nice hit, and after practice Yuko told me that my first men-uchi was really nice.

Practice went well from there. We did the usual drills, men-uchi, small motion men, kote-men, ai-kote-men and then three rounds of mawari-geiko. Unfortunately not being able to breathe through my nose really slows me down, and after the second mawari-geiko I was almost completely out of breath.

I managed to get through the first two fortunately, with decent strength and stamina, which was especially necessary when fighting Murata san’s nito style again. I think I’ve gotten a little better, though, I only judge this by the fact that I’m hitting him more than I did before. My timing is a little bit better, though I still have to wait for him to strike first before I have a chance of hitting him in return, which is a disadvantage.

The other thing I’m noticing when fighting him is that I can’t tell what the appropriate distance is. I’m used to judging distance by my opponent’s height and the relative distance between our shinai. Because he has his shinai up, I lose that way to track distance so he always seems to be too close (in fact, from my perspective he is too close) and it gives him a further advantage to strike me first. I’m still trying new ways and tricks to get an opening on him. I’ve learned that it’s impossible to try the usual tricks to get a valid hit, so everything I do with him now I’m making up as I go. I don’t even know if any of it is valid! Maybe I’ll ask someone to watch us next Friday and give advice.

By the time we started ju-geiko, my throat was completely dry and sore, so I took a little break for a throat soother and a discussion on suriage-waza. I think I’m going to try and increase my study of basic suriage. It’s a good technique to know, and I want to at the very least, not completely be in the dark with it.

Afterward, Tanaka san challenged me to a match that I didn’t do stunningly well on. My shoulders were too tight through the entire practice, and I know I was too tight when fighting him too. Strange how some days everything is relaxed and others it’s all tight and knotted. Somehow I managed to relax enough to get a good enough hit that he called an end to it, and from there, practice was over.

I need to get myself a better knee brace too, I think. My right knee felt a bit like jelly today, not willing to support my weight which isn’t a great thing considering how much pressure I put on it. I’ll go to the drug store when I get paid next.