January 05

 

Day 194: Sunday, Jan 2-05

My wife: I am going to get ready for bed now
Me: (With hands over my face in anguish) I've got to do my f**king suburi.

I get to them...

After all the one-handed suburi with kotachi at the end of last year, I am interested to note that I can control the sword more easily.

With a kotachi you have to be extremely precise to minimise the wobble at the end of a strike. With the long bokunto its better balance allows you to ignore this problem somewhat, at the expense of good tenouchi.

 

 

Day 195: Monday, Jan 3-05

Since the New Year, the daily challenge of mustering up the motivation to do the suburi has got harder. I just do them and try not to look too closely at the reasons for doing them. My motto now is simply 'persevere'.

The bokuto still feels heavy after all the one-handed suburi with kotachi. However, it has become easier to control and, for some reason, my appreciation of maai has improved, which strikes me as slightly perverse.

My schedule remains almost the same as the end of last year. That is to say, lots of straight kote and men, then sayumen and do. I am starting to realise the importance of being able to strike hiki waza as easily as forward waza. Ultimately the two should be interchangeable. 

 

 

Day 196: Tuesday, Jan 4-05

My first day back at work, and my first day of my diet. 

My wife does not like my 'hara'. Neither does my mother - 'Hello piglet!' - nor my mother-in-law - 'You're still pregnant then...'. and so on. It's a long list.  

For breakfast I gingerly pour myself some muesli. I go to work neither hungry nor full, merely unsatisfied.

It's only Tuesday and already I feel nostalgic for the weekend.

 

 

Day 197: Wednesday, Jan 5-05

Day 2 of the diet. I cram down more muesli. I get to work and buy a pain au chocolat, then snack on leftover Christmas biscuits and chocolate. I seem to be eating more than before - or at least eating the same amount and feeling guilty about it.

I do my suburi, continuing with the motto 'persevere'.

 

 

Day 198: Thursday, Jan 6-05

I do my 200,000th suburi today. It doesn't feel like it. 

I exaggerate the movements making them as big as possible. I think my tenouchi is starting to come together. 

My wife asked me the other day what I thought I had learned from my suburi. Outside of improving my kendo and my physical abilities in various ways there was nothing I could tell her. 

Perhaps the only difference is that I have no expectations of my training now. It just is. 

 

 

Day 199: Friday, Jan 7-05

More muesli. More denial. 

 

 

Day 200: Saturday, Jan 8-05

Guess what I did today;)

 

 

Day 201: Sunday, Jan 9-05

Fortunately I can take Sunday's off from my diet. The same can't be said for my suburi.

When practicing kote I keep my back as straight as possible to compensate for my tendency during ji-geiko to stoop when reaching for this strike. 

Other than that I can't think of one interesting thing to say. 

 

 

Day 202: Monday, Jan 10-05

I start my suburi so late I am forced to do them in the kitchen. I finish at midnight wondering if these late night sessions do any good.

I am concentrating on going straight as I know that after attempting a cut, be it men kote, my hips are not straight on to my opponent. This might be a fear reaction, but it is affecting my kendo as I seldom perform a good taiatari. 

 

 

Tuesday, Jan 11-05

Special training with other clubs in the area. It is good to experience other people's kendo.

Last time I went I was really disappointed, so this time I concentrated on keeping a good distance and really being there (last time an teacher said that it was like fencing with himself!)

Things go better. The kotachi suburi are really paying off. I feel my strikes are sharper than before and my posture is better. I do more 'do', although on one occasion I strike just under my opponents arm.

'Happy New Year' I tell him as he limps around, grimacing in pain.

I do some OK hiki-waza, but afterwards wonder why I didn't try hiki-gyaku do.

On the whole I am pleased with the training - my first in the next year - although I wonder if some people were taking it easy on me.   

 

 

Day 203: Wednesday, Jan 12-05

I go back to suburi with just the kotachi in order to practice the left and right hands separately. This also allows me to concentrate on my feet more.

I encounter the same problem as before. i.e. it is difficult to stop the wobble at the end of the strike. However, I concentrate on tenouchi and am able to minimilise this to some extent. 

I find that directly the kotachi with my right index finger makes the strike easier, but I have never heard anyone doing this before. I will check to see if this is a viable method. 

 

 

Thursday, Jan 13-05

Kendo practice with 40 people who all seem to have made the same new year's resolution.

We do suburi in pairs before putting on our armour and doing kirikaeshi, kakarigeiko and aiuchi-kakarigeiko.

Then we do ji-geiko. 

I have a good surprise when I fence with a beginner. All he does is attack, and attack and attack. I really have to try hard. In ippon he takes a nice men in about 2 seconds. Fantastic.

I fence with my teacher. I don't bother about trying to be clever. I think this is what he has been trying to get me to do for about three years. Yes, I am a slow learner.

I have three bad habits which I have to break before the end of the year.

I have to stop raising my hands after a strike; I have to keep my hips straight, even when an attack has failed; I have to stop bobbing and weaving my head when under attack. 

The other day I read in Clive Woodward's book 'Winning!' that he asked all the members of the English rugby team to imagine the sort of player they wanted to become. I am asking myself the same question now.

What sort of kendo do I want to do? What kind of kendoka do I want to become? I think about all my kendo teachers and wonder if I can ever be that good.

 

 

Day 204: Friday, Jan 14-05

I do 500 suburi with the kotachi and another 500 with a normal bokken. I feel as if my hips are coming into play more as a result. I am a convert!

I also read this article, which I think is brilliant.

 

 

Day 205: Saturday, Jan 15-05

I do another 1000, breaking the monotony to do 100 nito - if I can call it that - suburi with a kodachi in my left and a bokken in my right. I alternate somen, sayumen and do strikes. It's fun, and prehaps a good way to practice timing, but probably risible if you know anything about nito. 

 

 

Day 206: Sunday, Jan 16-05

My wife goes back to kendo after a hiatus of almost a year. We're going to have to share the baby looking after responsibilities as we both want to go to kendo. Should be interesting...

My daughter has a private celebration having survived 6 months in our care. She looks pleased to be here.

For me, another chance to polish my technique, another tiny circle filled.

 

 

Monday, Jan 17-05

Kendo training. I can think of many reasons not to go, but am glad I make it.

We do lots of suburi, then kirikaeshi and kakarigeiko, then ji-geiko. 

I fence with my teacher who surprises me by attacking almost immediately. Actually, this is a good thing as I have to fight instinctively, not intellectually. 

It's an exciting fight, I have to make myself relax. We do sanpon shobu and it's difficult to see who got the final point.
'I was faster but you were heavier' he says afterwards, before admonishing me for presenting my kote as a massive target during 2nd and 3rd phase attacks.

Again, there are almost 40 people there. The club seems to be really thriving.

 

 

Day 207, Tuesday 18 Jan - Day 211, Wednesday, Jan 26-05

I have not made an entry in this diary for 9 days. 

I have been training and doing my suburi, but I have also been quite ill and unable to train.

I am still not able to coherently arrange thoughts on paper, but I hope to pick things up today and tomorrow and continue.

I can't think of anything perky to say, except I had a tough but good training on Sunday. In short, I need to learn to use my shinai effectively to refuse opponents attacks, I need to stay 100% engaged 100% of the time. I need to learn how to make points even against the highest level aite.  

 

 

Day 212, Thursday 27 Jan - Day 215, Sunday, Jan 30-05

The challenge continues. In some ways it gets harder as I struggle to find the motivation to keep going at what is an absurdly repetitive task. My heart is less in it, although I promise myself to keep going. 

I make things harder for myself by introducing more katate strikes. I also practice waza a la keiko ni yoru bokuto suburi.  

This diary is also becoming more and more sporadic. As I noted before, there is less and less to say, and fewer ways to say it.

Training is clearly the key. Small, hardly noticeable changes every day. 

At the start of this journal I wrote that the goal is enlightenment. I wonder if this is possible. Maybe, like a koan, the idea is that wrap yourself up in an unsolvable problem and thereby lose the self. 

Perhaps. 

My wife gave me a book on baby massage. Now I give my daughter a massage most evenings to get in touch with her on a non-visual, non-verbal level. 

These suburi are like that.  I am doing the same thing to myself.  

The glass is nearly three-quarters full.

 

 

Monday, Jan 31-05 

I bump into my kendo teacher on the bus. Talk immediately turns to kendo. I admit that I still want to be 'the best'. He chides me for always having these absurd expectations and says that he trains just to train. 'But I felt like you 10 years ago' he says. 

I can't just push this to one side, so I'll just have to learn to relax more.  

In the evening I go to practice, my first in more than a week. It certainly feels like that!

I am 4th in the line. To my left is a member of the Swiss kendo team, to my right is member of the Yugoslavian team, an ex-member of the German team and our sensei, ex-Swiss team Captain. 

It's a workmanlike practice for me. I enjoy it and look forward to the next. 

I also receive this excellent piece of encouragement from my brother, an elite rowing coach:

'Imagine a guy on a building site mixing cement; a pretty dull and repetitive task you may think. 

But you never know - he may enjoy the job; maybe he spends the day imagining the cathedral that is being built around him.

The same is true with your suburi. Don't think about it cut-by-cut; picture the cathedral. 

I had a similar dilemma with rowing; its pretty dull sitting on a rowing machine 3 times a week for an hour. Each hour = 60 minutes at 25 strokes a minute = 1500 times up and down the slide. On the one hand, it can be frustratingly dull. Same on the river. 4 sessions a week, each 1 - 1/2 hours, rating 25 strokes a minute = 1800 strokes a session. It doesn't tax the mind at all. 

On the other, it gives one the chance to think about why you are doing it. 

Did I find it dull, or was I thinking about the next race, the next time we would fly past the opposition? 

In the absence of a coach telling you what to do, you should coach yourself - and I mean your mind as well as your body.'

Thanks, mate;)