I’ve been in a slump! Sorry for the lack of activity.
For the past few weeks I haven’t been excited or enthusiastic about kendo, but I still went because I knew I was just in a down phase and it would pass.
It has, and my BFF and training partner, Dale, got me through and into my current up phase - that’s what friends are for! I’m very grateful to that girl!
So now we are back to training six times a week - with an awesome twist!
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 6.30am, Dale and I train at her school together - which has been so kind and given us a fantastic drama room with springboard wooden floors to train in for free!
We use the time together to train endurance squad drills, which include so much kirikaeishi that our arms are ready to drop off by the end of it.
If we finish early we do oikomi drills across the floor and mix it up with waza. I guess my current focus is to cut two, three, four times at once, rather than just one cut every time. Not always, but there are opportunities I’m coming to see that are opening with this new ‘tactic’ I guess. For me, it seems (for now) to work!
Our evening training has begun to get harder, which I. AM. LOVING.
I must admit, I had a hissy fit during my slump and I complained to Sensei that I wasn’t getting enough quality kendo time in the dojo with the other seniors, and that too much of my time is focused on beginners - which is very true. Dale and I take turns to run the 8 week beginner’s course and now it’s my turn, so my Mondays are fully taken up by this class, and I didn’t feel like I was getting anything serious on Thursday so I had a serious talk with Sensei and we worked it out.
Like tonight for instance, Sensei destroyed us with a drill on cutting straight - from our own distance. Pretty much one-step-cut, zanshin in, he’d push you back, you’d cut again, he’d push you back, again and again etc etc
Pretty soon I was tired as, and we could both see that my kensen wasn’t straight and I was cutting from the right rather than the center. It was a really good way to focus on straightening my cut, cut from my distance, and get pushed around until I was barely standing. I think Dale and I are going to do this in the mornings, too.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at!
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