First steps in Kendo
Sunday, 22 February 2015
Ramping up
Due to commitments tomorrow I couldn't attend the 2nd Minami Kenyukai (monthly open training session in the south-east of England) but with any luck I will be adding 1-2 more training sessions in each week from now on at another dojo that has a reciprocal arrangement with Tsubaki.
I've also booked one day at a Seminar in Oxford next month...
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Clear vision
After battling through sessions in armour where I can't see a thing due to my glasses steaming up... I tried this scuba diving anti-fog spray. It worked great!
Monday, 26 January 2015
Jigeiko
Every time I have a jigeiko session I get something different out if it and my body also responds differently. The first time I was constantly out of breath, sweating and my arms were getting weaker and weaker. I was worried about being hit, I was moving around, blocking and very tense. Especially, I was quite intimidated by going against much taller or experienced students.
Now I like to think I am much more relaxed, taking care of my form and strikes, definitely less scared. Jigeiko feels much more of a partnership and a fun way to experiment with technique. I still sweat buckets and often feel like I am over heating towards the end but the tiredness I now feel is a welcome sense of a great workout rather than total exhaustion.
Monday, 19 January 2015
Tombo (Dragonflys)
For weeks now I have been wondering why the dragonfly is so often used as a motif on Kendo equipment, including one of my tenugui... Google to the rescue...
http://avaluk.tumblr.com/post/17489733123/like-a-dragonfly-forward-only
During this weeks lesson I had the opportunity to train for a short time with a visiting sensei who practises Nito ryu. Picked up lots of useful pointers about keeping good distance and not raising the tip of my shinai too high.
Monday, 12 January 2015
First steps...
A few Kendo firsts for me...
First Lesson