Nearly healthy

I haven't given up on the blog, don't fret, but the "slight cold" turned into a not-so-slight cold, which means I've been away from all kendo and most iai for three weeks. Yesterday was my first day back for kendo, I had planned to stay away until Thursday to get healthy for real, but since the practice was all kata I decided to join in (I was already there because of the newbie session).

I really like kendo no kata, but I'm not really any good because I've done them too little. Yesterday we did 1,2,4 and 5. Number 4 was the one that posed me the most trouble, I tend to want to take a step forward when doing the cut (as shidachi), but at the very end I managed not to do that and everything got a lot better.

I also had a lot of trouble with number 5 (I think it is?), both as uchidachi and shidachi. As uchidachi I failed to make a decent straight cut...not much to say about that as it's just plain embarrassing. I worked it out, though. As shidachi I tend to raise the sword and pull it slightly backwards instead of straight up in suriage. This is no good, as my fingers soon found out. It got better, but I still need to work on it.