December 04

 

Day 169: Wednesday, Dec 1-04

I push myself to the limit, not allowing any breaks or pauses to scratch my head. I am glistening with sweat by the end.

Currently I am training: 

30 x Jogei (?) suburi
30 x sayu-me jogei suburi
40 x shomen suburi
100 x sayumen
100 x do & kyaku-do
100 x sayumen
200 x shomen
100 x sayumen
100 x kote
100 x sayumen
100 x shomen

For all the suburi I make two cuts going forward, two going back to practice footwork for multiple attacks.

 

 

Thursday, Dec 2-04

Kendo training. It's like pre-Kill Bill days with only a handful of people there. 

We practice seme by sliding the right foot forward half a step with a kiai. if the other opens we attack. If not we snap the left foot forward and then attack. It's difficult to do well, but effective in keiko for applying pressure.

I fence with my teacher who is still giving me a torrid time. It is good for me as it makes me attack more aggressively. Afterwards he admonishes me for being worried about hurting him. I resolve to give him a good pounding next time we fence.

 

 

Day 170: Friday, Dec 3-04

I do my suburi in one long, languorous set after my daughter goes to bed. No particular insights. 

 

 

Saturday, Dec 4-04

Kendo practice at the local ballet school. 

Practicing kata I realise that I am far more focussed when I am against my teacher than someone else. I don't know why. Fear?

Maybe it is the influence of the dancers, but my feet feel a lot lighter. Somehow I feel as if I am moving my my lower back when we do the seme training. 

During keiko I try and put the training into action. I certainly helps when attempting to apply pressure on an adversary. 

I try tsuki on my teacher. Afterwards he points out that there was no zanshin. 

 

 

Day 171: Sunday, Dec 5-04

I cannot use my right arm particularly well. It seems to have seized up over night. I can't swing a bokken, so I practice sliding backwards and forwards, left and right. 

I have noticed that during ji-geiko I tend to always slide to the right making my movements quite predictable and showing a preference for that side.

I notice that I am not well balanced moving to the left. If I wanted to attack I would have to adjust my balance again. I need to improve this aspect of my kendo.

I also practice sliding diagonally, as if in men-nuki-do. What is the correct angle for this? 45 degrees from normal kame? 60? I have never asked myself before, just assumed that whatever I did would be right. 

Towards the end I find myself moving from the small of my back. It feels strange. I wonder if this is the right direction.

 

 

Day 173: Monday, Dec 6-04

I come home early from work with stomach 'flu. It reminds me of having food poisoning, except I feel quite feverish too. 

I drift in and out of sleep between hurried visits to the bathroom. 

I manage to visualise 1000 suburi, each one separate and distinct. It takes me all afternoon between naps. It occurs to me I am slightly crazy.

 

 

Tuesday, Dec 7-04

I spend a second day in bed. I only get as far as 500 before falling asleep in the evening. I feel completely out of it. 

Today I fail to make the required number. 

I ask myself whether in the future, if I had some serious disease, I would allow myself the same excuse? I think this question is of fundamental importance to the whole exercise.

 

 

Day 174: Wednesday, Dec 8-04

'No dinner, but suburi?', my wife says incredulously.

 

 

Thursday, Dec 9-04

Kendo training. Beforehand I eat a meal for the first time this week. During the training my breath feels quite short and I wonder briefly if I should take it easy - as if that is ever an option.

We practice seme again and again. Springing openings and inviting attacks. There seems to be a rhythm to it which is quite satisfying, but in this I am an absolute beginner.

I fence with my teacher and we have an incredibly exciting match, ruined slightly by my histrionics when he accidentally aggravates an injury. Afterwards I am appalled at myself for making such a fuss. 

After the practice he tells me not to raise my hands after making a strike. It leaves me off balance and unprotected. I need merely to drive forward. 

Another bad habit I need to break. 

 

 

Day 175: Friday, Dec 10-04

I arrive home very late with an uncomfortable mix of stress and tiredness.

I do my suburi and gradually wind down from the week. 

 

 

Saturday, Dec 11-04 - Sunday, Dec 12-04

A shiai weekend; lots of high-level people to fight against. It's a round-robin competition so combats continue as long as you have the desire to fight.

My teacher isn't there, and I miss his insightful - to put it politely - comments after each fight. I have to analyse myself which is difficult. 

On the whole I feel like a bit of a one-trick pony, constantly going for men, regardless of the efficacy of the strategy. I also notice that I have got quite lazy in the sense of not going for every single chance and half-opening.

Other advice includes using my left hand more and making my points clearly. I receive some encouragement too, which is appreciated. 

In short, however, I need to tighten my game and the weekend shows me ways to do it.

 

 

Day 176: Monday, Dec 13-04

After a weekend amassing bumps and bruises it is good to stretch out and do the suburi. 

I notice that my strikes are surer after the weekend. The final position is a strong one, balanced and centred.

On the whole I can feel the importance shifting away from suburi and back to training. It is difficult to explain, other to say that previously my suburi informed my training, but increasingly my training informs my suburi. 

That doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.

Finally, I am vaguely considering stopping this journal. Not for any other reason than it's not much fun anymore. I feel my writing is becoming too studied, and there is less and less to say. As a result I think the quality is dropping and I won't continue unless I am happy with it. I'd prefer to do the suburi and just move onto the next thing. 

I will certainly keep going at least until the New Year, then I'll see. Perhaps I can find some other form in which to continue it. 

 

 

Tuesday, Dec 14-04

Special training with 5 clubs in the area. I feel dead on my feet and one of the guys says afterwards 'It was almost like fencing by myself'. I slope out the dojo morose. 

My teacher opines that stopping this journal is a good sign as it means I am intellectualising kendo less and less and becoming more instinctive. I can see his point. My brain is trying to take over something that my body should already know. If you have to think about it it is already too late - and writing everyday just encourages me to do that.

Additionally, after 9 months of training what is there left to say. I've had injuries, highs and lows and, like a constant beat in the background, the daily task of 1000 suburis. These I will not give up. 

Perhaps I will just record the significant events as they happen and let the daily suburi training pile up as it wants to. As my Japanese kendo teacher once said:

 'Gomi demo, takusan ga areba yama ni naru', or:

'It might be only rubbish, but if you have enough you can build a mountain.' 

 

 

Day 177: Wednesday, Dec 15-04

I do another set, just for a change of pace. I concentrate on kote-men, kote-do, kote-gyaku-do and others to get me out of the just-men mindset. 

I have noticed that in tsubazeriai my right hand becomes very tense and heavy, making hiki waza even more difficult to perform. I concentrate on just my left hand. One day it might sink in...

 

 

Day 178: Thursday, Dec 16-04

My daughter's crèche has its annual nativity play. I fully expect her to get the star part, and have to remonstrate with the organisers when she doesn't. I mean, really! As a consequence I miss kendo and do suburi at home.

I make a few hundred random suburi to break out of the 'just men' mindset. I also practice a number of moves from the keiko kata. I refuse to intellectualise the experience.

 

 

Day 179: Friday, Dec 17-04

I continue with my plan of doing a few hundred shomen and sayumen suburi, followed by some random renzoku suburi, then back to shomen and sayumen. 

 

 

Day 180: Saturday, Dec 18-04

Saturday: the usual deal. Laundry, suburi and cleaning. 

 

 

Day 181: Sunday, Dec 19-04

Take my time over the suburi and add some sashi moves into the mix. 

It strikes me as slightly odd to be faithfully following a regimented programme of training in order to perform spontaneously in an ever-changing environment. 

 

 

Monday, Dec 20-04

Kendo training. 

My kendo is so bad it is too depressing to talk about. 

 

 

Day 182: Tuesday, Dec 21-04

My kendo sucks. 

It's just a case of getting my head down, putting the hours in, and hoping - praying - for some improvement.

 

 

Day 183: Wednesday, Dec 22-04

I feel some confidence returning. I start my suburi by practicing 500 suriashi from chudan kamae. I keep my posture as correct as possible.

'Tuck in your tailbone' my wife advises.

After the suriashi I practice kote, making sure I don't bend forward to make the cut.

On Monday my teacher admonished me for trying to do kendo not suited to my frame (186cm, 95 Kgs). He told me I should have more 'magisterial' kendo, not a speedy, whippy style. 

This advice is beginning to sink in. I have always tried to incorporate the parts of other people's kendo that I admire. Although this is no bad thing, now is the time to find and express my kendo, whatever that might be. 

 

 

Thursday, Dec 22-04

'Don't hit my kote, they're new' my teacher tells me.

I assure him I will give him 5 francs every time I do. By the end of ji-geiko I owe him 10 francs and a big thank you for reminding me of maybe the most important thing about kendo.

Enjoy it!

This is my last post until the new year. Osake de gambaranba!

 

 

Day 184: Thursday, Dec 23-04 - Day 193: Saturday, Jan 1-04

I go away for a winter holiday, taking a bokuto and kodachi with me. The apartment where we stay has very low ceilings so I use only the kodachi in one hand, which is an interesting experience.

Why? Because I think the left and the right hands have different roles. The left hand stays in centre and powers the shinai. The right hand directs and catches it. By using a kodachi I can isolate the cutting movement with either the left or right hand. My suburi schedule for the holiday looks like this:

30 x L jogei (sp?)
30 x R sayumen
40 x shomen (both hands)
100 x L shomen
100 x R sayumen
100 x L kote
100 x R do

and then rensoku waza

100 x L kote-men
100 x R do-sayumen
100 x L kote-men
100 x R do-sayumen
100 x shomen (both hands)