The dojo floor has been fixed :). There’s no more gaffa tape lining the floor.

Just couldn’t get my head together at the start of practice. Hands wrong way round for Mokuso, picking up tenegui when going into seiza rather than waiting for command, and then taking 3 attempts to tie my tenegui.

Plus I seemed to have the start of a cold. Had been fine all day, but found myself suddenly spluttering and coughing throughout practice.

Practice took the form of:
Taiso
Suburi
Kirikaeshi
Men (tobikomi, seme/sashi men, debana men)
Kote (sideways and over, seme to eye and under as motodachi lifts, seme – invite – oji waza)
Men Oji waza
jigeiko

Once I’d got my head screwed on it went well. Occasionally I managed to get my hips driving my movement (or it felt like I had), and someone did comment that during jigeiko they’d felt that I coming forward a lot faster/stronger. Hopefully I aiming for the right thing, now to try and get it for every cut. And work on landing for fumikomi more as well.

Started off with fun trying to get a broom to sweep the floor with.

Warmup and suburi and then kirikaeshi. Sempai said that the large men cuts must be proper large cuts, and we were to send anyone who didn’t do it like that back to start again (irrespective of grade…). Also emphasised that motodachi has work to do during the exercise, not just stand there.

Then onto Men, 3 types:

• from far distance, seme in until the kensen are just crossed and then large tobikomi men
• from far distance move in. Pressure down towards kakarite’s hands. step in holding centre and using the shape of your shinai to push kakarite’s off of centre and then strike sashi men by pushing the hands forward.
• Seme in to just past kensen. Build pressure, and then release slightly and seme-ashi to invite men. As the other person strikes men get in first with debana men

Then 3 Kote:

• With kensens just touching lift and cut. But moving slight to the left, as if attacking kakarite’s right foot with yours.
• Seme in, start lifting kensen and threatening kakarites left eye as though going to men. As kakarite lifts their kensen to protect come round under their shinai and strike kote.
• Seme in to kensen/kensen. Then as stepping in strike right side of kakarites shinai with the right side of yours .

Shikake waza against men:

• Debana kote
• kaeshi do
• suriage men.

Jigeiko

Kata 1-5

Unfortunately this was going to be the last time Miyagawa Sensei would be practicing with us due to work sending him back home to Japan.

Tried to keep my right foot flat/down during suburi, but that seems to have brought back my habit of narrowing my stance. 1 step forward, 1/2 back….
with kirikaeshi, it now feels a lot more stable when I keep my head stable. but it still feels like I’m having to ‘hold’ it there rather then it just staying there without tensing.

Then mawarigeiko. Different types of men cut (tobikomi, sashi, from far distance). The Oji waza practice. I’m starting to ‘catch’ my partners shinai, but I’m tensing up so I then muck up the timing/distance for my cut.

Sensei then had everyone line up in grade order for a final fence with him. The first people in line did uchikomigeiko, with it gradually moving towards more jigeiko as the higher grades came on. Every time sensei cut through with me he repeated “Don’t be late”, which I’m guessing means I need to be readier to go when someone starts their attack/movement.

Managed to get some good photos of the people after me, which will appear in time.

After practice we had a picnic on some mats on the dojo floor to finish saying goodbye.

Think I managed to keep my head stable during kirikaeshi. Worked on trying not to rise up on my toes at the strike. Seemed to work occasionally.
We worked more on Kiai and pressure. Trying to keep pressue going after a short kakegoe felt very strange. Think I’m getting to used to just using kiai to feel like I’m generating pressure

Tried to concentrate on moving my hips first during jigeiko. But it now feels like i’m putting less ‘spring’ into it, so that’ll be fumikomi-ing around the house for the next week then.

Spent a good chunk of time working on kirikaeshi again. Pointer for this session was to use more fumikomi. I think this means I need to push more and commit the body into it rather than just trying to stomp harder. Was also pointed out that I’ve a tendancy to rise up on my toes at the end of a cut (also spotted during suburi).

More working on pressure/seme. Seem to be able to sometimes get the feeling of pressure in my stomach, but not reliably yet. And I’m not putting enough into my kakegoe.

Jigeiko was good. Felt I was waiting/responding rather than just diving in for ippon.

Tried to pull last weeks pointers for Kirikaeshi. Some of it came back, but it didn’t quite have the feel from last week. Something to keep chipping away at. We also did kirikaeshi with holding seme/kakegoe for 5 seconds before men, certainly makes doing each set on one breath a lot trickier.

Seme/pressure seemed to be the theme for the evening. Trying to push the kiai down into the stomach felt OK, my throats not sore which is probably a good sign. Still don’t feel that I’m actually putting that much pressure on. Also during jigeiko I find I’m trying to pressure forwards so much that I’m actually more likely to be the first to go.

an aide-memoire from last nights practice.

I was given a couple of pointers for kirikaeshi:

• More upright (which shows you can’t tell, as I felt I was standing straight)
• During the shomen cuts I’m ‘pecking’¹ my head forwards as I lift my arms

I tried it on the next round and it did feel a lot better, hard to describe why but each cut felt ‘stronger’ and more defined.
Tried to carry the posture through the rest of class, it did feel different but my back started aching during Jigeiko so I guess it’s something that’s going to take some getting used to.

Sensei pointed out that we’re still not driving with the hips properly, so I’ve been stomping around work when noones looking, and it looks like I’m still rising as I spring forwards.

¹Imagine a chicken pecking at the ground except horizontally through my raised arms.

The first BKA Kyusha Taikai was held at Imperial College in London on 22nd September 2007. Any BKA member below shodan and practising for less than 3 years was eligible to enter.
The taikai was combined with a refereeing seminar as well, so everyone got to fence in the example matches before the taikai began. As usual with the refereeing seminars some fighters were ‘encouraged’ to do something wrong to check that the refs were awake :).


There were 65 entrants for the taikai coming from all over the UK. Matches were 90 seconds long, with no encho (extra time). Any matches ending in hikiwake (a draw) were decided by hantei (judges decision).
Despite a nightmare getting to the venue I had a great day out. Managing to struggle through to the semis to get a 3rd place.

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