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.