Fighting New Sensei!

Yesterday was a national holiday in Japan (something like Thanksgiving, only with less turkey and more tourists crawling through our neighbourhood to see the momiji) so there was no kendo, even though my energy has come back and I really wanted to go.

Fortunately, there was women’s practice today! Yuko unfortunately is sick, and so were a bunch of people, because only half as many showed up this month as opposed to last month. I was feeling good, not weighed down at all by the germs that have been plaguing me all month. Finally, I can get back into kendo!

Practice was much the same as it was last time, though we only had one break this time in the middle. We did our warm up and suburi, put on our men and did some men-uchi waza and six rounds of kirikaeshi. My lower back and calves started to seize up half way into the first hour from disuse this month, but I pressed on until the end.

In the second half we did more men, kote and dou-uchi, as well as some hiki-waza. I was complimented on my debana and suriage-waza which was nice considering I’ve been struggling to teach them to myself these past few months.

Keiko was really welcomed, and since there were less people attending, I could fight with all three sensei present which was great! 

The first was really strong. Kuzuta Sensei has a strong seme and likes to press forward quickly so there was little chance to reset myself. It was a lot like fighting Sugaya Sensei, only with less playful teasing and a more serious feeling. I couldn’t get very far with him, because he pressed me so hard and so quickly that I was quickly exhausted, but it was a good exercise nonetheless.

My second fight was with Masuda Sensei. He was somewhat more relaxed in that he didn't constantly press the distance too short, but his seme was still strong. He tagged me twice on the same spot on my hip with a sensei power level strike. It hurt like hell both times and on the second time he stopped and asked if I was all right. Yuko says that I should have said “It hurts! It hurts it hurts it HUUUURTS!!” but I told him I was fine and wiggled in my dou a little to ease the discomfort and we kept going. I prefer to pretend that I’m fine, even if I’m not because if I give in to the thought that I’m in pain, I’m less likely to want to continue, and I NEED to continue.

My last fight was with Toyoda Sensei. He was really fun to fight, probably because his feeling was the most relaxed and it felt more like I was playing than in a life or death battle. I managed to score a hit or two and he seemed to be impressed which was uplifting.

At the end of practice I was pretty exhausted. My lungs were feeling sticky again and the cough was coming back, so I bowed out of the final rounds of kakari-geiko.

I was told that sometimes I cock my elbow out, which tilts me to the side a bit and that I should concentrate on being as straight as possible. I was also told that I had amazing energy, which is a great thing to hear on the first practice back after a month of being sick!