Practice began with Sensei giving a short talk on shinai maintenance:

• As shinai are made from bamboo, don’t try and sand out the dents as you’ll split the fibres
• If doing any maintenance be careful of splinters under the skin, and also try not to breathe in too much of the bamboo dust

We began with kata. Depending on people’s grade they either ran through the entire Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho or numbers 1-4, with some people moving onto Kendo no Kata 1-3. Pointers I recieved were:

• In bokuto kihon 4, kakarite’s initial attempt at men needs to be a strong cut as it then gives more momentum/impetus to the rest of the kata
• again with kihon 4, be careful of how far you step back during the hiki waza. The cut want to be deeper than would be usual with a shinai.
• kihon 5, the debana kote should be made mainly with a stretch of the wrists (also must resist the urge to fumikomi :) )
• kendo no kata 3:
  • As uchidachi you initial parry should be strong, with the 2nd weaker as you’re overpowered by shidachi’s push
  • During uchidachi’s parry’s the feel of pulling the kashira (right word for a bokken or just swords?) should be much like that when receiving kirikaeshi.
  • uchidachi’s raising of sword should be strong as it’s actually threatening shidachi which is what makes him move backwards
  • The ‘joining’ of shidachi and uchidachi when moving back to the center should be reasonably seamless (ie; there shouldn’t be a pause while the kensen connect, it should flow).
• Generally, to improve the appearance of the kata the movement in should start off strong becoming warier as you become closer (ie; at 9 steps your safe and showing strength, but as you come closer you should start to be more aware of approaching danger). On moving out it should be the reverse, from kensen touching the movement is careful as there’s still a chance of attack but then moving faster once you’re out of danger. This applise to both Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho and kendo no kata.

We then put on armour and begain shinai practice. We began by doing kirikaeshi at walking pace. This made it obvious how much you can rely on momentum when doing kirikaeshi at full speed. Also made you focus much more on the cuts and where they were landing. I felt I had my left hand too high for the saya-men cuts, so there’s something to work on. Moved out of rotation to work with the beginners doing a basic form of kirikaeshi, Sensei had then doing it using only men-uchi and sliding footwork. When I rejoined rotation we were working on kote-men, 2 sets using one breathe. Then moved onto an exercise where kakarite would push motadachi’s shinai (with motodachi pushing back), then releasing the pressure and cutting a small kote or kote-men. Felt that the work Sensei and Sempai had done with me on kihon 4 really improved my kote here, I could feel quite a bit more ‘pop’ than usual, also the kote-men I felt I’ve made an improvement on the footwork and wasn’t ending up to close for the men, think again this was down to extending arms for kote more. Then moved on a ‘routine’ uchikomigeiko (men, kote, do, kote-men, kote-do). After a number of rotations Sensei doubled the cuts.

We then finished and Sensei asked us all to say a few words about practice. I commented that I am finding kata very useful at the moment. I think this is mainly because I’ve got the base movements down (just), and exploring some of the other concepts is making me think about my shinai kendo a bit more and also carrying over good habits.

Spent the session working through kata. Looked at both Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon-waza Keiko-ho and the full Kendo Kata.

Due to some gradings coming up Sensei worked through Bokuto Kihon 1-4. Making note of the following points:

Kihon 1 – Check distances. Each cut has a different start ‘distance’ (for the initial men a little closer than for the kote strike but not as close as for do).
Kihon 2 – Should be a clean flowing movement between Kote and Men
Kihon 3 – The harai movement should be small and coordinated with the right foot moving forward and with the upswing for the men cut. It shouldn’t look like a wild swing in from the side and then a disconnected cut. Also motodachi should only allow their bokken to move just enough outside of the bodyline to allow kakarite to make the men.
Kihon 4 – Both sides should take a 1/2 step in to tsuba-zerai. tsuba-zerai should be done with straight arms, and the bokken should not be vertical as then your centre would be off.

Then we worked through Kendo kata 1-3
Sensei spent a lot of time correcting kamae. Left (hidari) jodan should be done without excessively turning the torso, the left hand should be over the left foot and above the eyeline. Moving in hidari jodan from chudan you should lift your arms and then they should move into the final position from above (ie; swing up with a large movement and then settle down into jodan).

Kata 1 – After the initial approach you should be close enough that Uchidachi’s strike would hit Shidachi (the aim being to cut through the tsuka (handle), both of shidachis hands, their head and down through the torso) so that shidachi has to move to avoid the cut. Uchidachis swing should be a large arc (based on what they’re trying to cut through), and should leave uchidachi off balance (weight too far forward.). Shidachi’s nuki movement to avoid should be small, and the sword/hands should move upwards not backwards (ie the kensen shouldn’t drop and the bokken shouldn’t become level).

Kata 2 – Uchidachi’s cut should end just below shidachi’s wrist. Shidachi’s strike should be made with a step forward (ie; shidachi shouldn’t just step back and strike, but should evade (nuki waza) and then step in to ensure the cut is on target)

Kata 3 – Sensei broke this down into small steps to build it up:

• First, uchidachi performed tsuki with shidachi performing the parry. The tsuki needs to be a strong tsuki and aimed towards the solar plexus. Shidachi’s parry should be performed while stepping backwards but pushing the arms/bokken forwards. The parry should be enough to move uchidachi’s kensen, but only enough to avoid the body/
• Then performed the above, but this time with shidachi’s retaliatory tsuki/push.
• Then begining with the approach from gedan, and trying to build contact/tension while coming up into chudan and then following through with the sections already practiced.

Today we had a practice with a lot of visiting high grades Budden sensei, O’Donnell sensei, Matsuda sensei and Dockwray sensei

we started with kata practice
kata 1-3
3 – chudan, don’t reach arms out too much. Tsuki should be from hips. Push is done from chudan with kensen rising up for zanshin.

Then repeated but with Shidachi using seme to make Uchidachi start the kate

4 – Overview of waki and hasso kamae. Switch feet but same distances, right fight pointing out 45 degrees. left foot should be pointing/attacking opponent. Men cut should be to head height. The block should be done using the force of uchidachi’s incoming tsuki.

kodachi 1 – new to me. overview of kamae. chudan with kodachi is identical to tachi chudan, just with left hand on hip. Kamae against jodan is the same, shouldn’t be pointing, and should cover the body as well.

armour on

taitari practice

kirikaeshi – pulled up for not enough speed and no kikentaiichi

mawari jigeiko. Absolutely knackering, but managed to survived.