Too Much

Starting a rigorous kendo training schedule is tough. There are all sorts of limits a stubborn body wants to impose when it comes to training harder. Stiff muscles, aching joints, pulled muscles and a general lethargy are all things that slowly need to be plowed through to increase the endurance of the body. Today was one of those days.

I was still sore and lethargic from the two hour practice on Saturday, so I made sure to stretch a little extra today, jogging around the gym to try and loosen up my muscles. My knee felt a little weak and sore so I worked a bit on it too. I had a discussion with Koyama san about knee injuries, and he helped me a little bit with making a nicer men-uchi before practice started up.

Itou Sensei wanted us to make sure our strikes connected and didn’t simply bounce back up into the next one, that there was some amount of pause between the two strikes. He was getting on some of the guys’ cases about it, and asked Sato Sensei to do a further ten strikes. Then, we all did another twenty strikes and following that, Itou Sensei asked me to do another ten. Embarrassingly, everyone clapped after I’d finished. By that time, the extra hits plus having started rather tired made me absolutely exhausted. I don’t think I completed the full 50 sayu-men-uchi, and the final choyaku-suburi nearly flattened me, but I finished.

We started with a couple sets of 5 basic kihon in one breath, and then did some kirikareshi. The oval shape of my tsuka gave me it’s first disadvantage today in that it hurts the muscles in my hand to do sayu-men for a long period of time. It’s something I’ll have to get used to.

Next, we did 4 rounds of mawari-geiko which, honestly, I can’t tell you how I survived. It was tough. My body just didn’t have the energy for it. I wish I had a bit more time to energize myself for the practice, but coming right in from a difficult day at work was a bit halting.

I took a water break between mawari-geiko and ju-geiko, and then fought Inoue san. He’s incredibly fast. I couldn’t land a single hit on him before he got me. I’ll have to try and fight him again to see how he does it. After that, I asked for a match with Tanaka san, though we didn’t get very far. I launched myself forward for a hit and pulled my groin. It’s not the first time I’ve sustained this injury, and it probably won’t be the last, but I’m always surprised by how much, and how suddenly it hurts. Like, laughing while in tears sort of pain.

I managed to limp over to the side to recompose myself before stepping off to just watch the rest of the practice. I’m told I should rest, but I have practice again on Wednesday. If it feels all right on Wednesday morning, then I should be able to practice, but I should take it slow. I think, then, I’ll go to the Butokuden practice on Wednesday.

Yuko suggested that I not go at all, but I’m getting tired of being side tracked by injury or illness every time I make a commitment to do all the kendo I can do. I just want to do kendo! I don’t want to rest anymore!