Swedish Championships

Swedish Championships in iaido was this Saturday. My goal this year was to win one match, but I ended up winning three. Obviously, I'm really happy with this. I was even close to getting a medal as I lost in the quarter finals. ^^

In the team competition I was in my club's all girls team (actually, we're the only club with enough girls to have one). We didn't win anything, but I think we had fun anyway.

After the championships there was some time for grading, but I decided that very morning to not grade for shodan. Instead I will wait, and aspire for the national team. I don't know if it's all that realistic to hope for though, as some people that I lost against are also aspiring...

Well...not much to write down as the things one learn at competitions is mostly related to handling stress and thinking in the right way, although I do need to practise these things.

Also, I overheard Momiyama-sensei correcting shômen ni rei to some people, and I realized I am making the same mistake. I have already started changing this, but I also need to tell the others here in Linköping about it (it being that hands should be shifted at the side and not in front of the centre).

Nice n00bs

Not much to put down in writing tonight, as I haven't been practising myself, only guiding the newbies. And I have to admit they are starting to really get the hang of it. It's too bad that they only have one session a week and have only had half a semester...but still! I'm impressed of what they have grasped in just the last two or three weeks.

Off to bed!

Last night's practice

There were actually a whole bunch of as at practice last night. Well, we were three, but I guess "bunch" is sort of relative... This was a good thing for me, as I have been feeling lately that I practise better with people around. It seems I need the social part of it all to make it work.

I focused a lot on metsuke and could feel that it made a difference. I'm not finished yet, but I'm improving. ^^

I'm getting used to the weight of my bokken now, which is real good. I even tried doing a few hayasuburi, but they don't work when doing them alone and without kiai. Jogeburi on the other hand work better than they have in a long, long time.

Horizontality in kiritsuke was quite good when standing, but in the seiza and iaihiza no bu I have a tendency of cutting too deep, even though I've hardly ever done koryu. I can't wait until the full day of MSR practice with Amerfoort-sensei in June. After that, at least I will have an excuse. ;)

Over all, everything work better than the day before, which was nice of course. There are a few more things I have discovered though. One is that I have started making a face when cutting. It doesn't happen all the time, but is bad enough when it does. I think this comes from kendo, actually, but I have had this problem before when trying to breathe out through my mouth. That means the breathing will have to wait till after the championships. The face-thing needs to go away this week. I have also noticed that my left hand cheats during chiburi: when it should be going all the way back to the obi, it lands sort of on the saya. Bad, bad habit. This I will also try to get rid of this week.

And, of course, better metsuke.

Why karateka shouldn't sweat so much

I had forgotten all about practise today until someone asked me about it. I'm really thankful for that question, as I really needed to practise, but sadly the person asking didn't show up. That meant it was just Hannes and I, which of course is better than the times I'm there alone. ;)

Overall, it was a good session. My throat is aching, as I did some bad kiai during warm-up (mainly to scare off the karateka of course ;) ), but other than that...no huge mistakes. Or, well... The thing is our dojo is equipped with an officially crappy floor. I don't like blaming every mistake I make on this, but today the karate class that has the session before us had been sweating a whole lot, which meant the floor was even stickier than usual. This in turn, meant that sliding gracefully across the floor was absolutely impossible.

Anyway...my bokken suburi worked out a lot better than they did Saturday. I did focus a little extra on my kiritsuke and I felt that it made a difference. Also metsuke worked rather well, but only when I think about it. :/ To ni rei was a little so-so...again.

The things that need more work this week:

• metsuke - eyes mustn't follow the sword through kiritsuki even if I'm concentrated on something else


• kiritsuke - works fine, but I need to actually *know* that it does


• footwork - will see if I can steel a corner of the training hall at kendo practice tomorrow


• to ni rei - mainly the sageo is causing trouble

A little bit of kendo

There was supposed to be a kendo seminar here in Linköping this weekend, but unfortunately the invited sensei got ill just a fews days before, and it all had to be cancelled. This of course meant that we had a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands and we had paid for some time in a training hall. What did we do? Of course we had some practise.

Today was hence lazy-kata-practice-day. I didn't do any kendo kata, but I did try some bokuto kihon bla-bla. First kendo I have done for a looong time but it was kind of nice. Didn't go well, but was fun. Better than the other way around. ;)

As the others continued with kendo kata, I switched to iaito and did iaido kata. Tried to start by doing reiho, then five kata in a row, then reiho...a little like shinsa/shiai as the Swedish Championships are coming up. Didn't get to the finishing reiho before people started asking questions, but no harm done really. I was rather in a more social mood anyway. ;) Because of this, not much did get done.

I feel that I need to do more suburi with my bokken, as I have to get used to it's weight, which is close to zero. I also need to practise my kiritsuki as I have become a little lazy when it comes to dai (as in Dai Kyo Soku Kei) and horizontality. It seems a little late to start doing any important changes in the kata, but to ni rei still needs polishing. Also metsuki and speed need to be focused on.

Inspiration

Wow, this is something I thought I would never do, getting a blog at some blog service. However, over the last few days I have discovered a lot of kendo blogs...and I was inspired! Considering that I am usually too lazy to take notes on my training these days, maybe a blog will do me good. We'll see!