Friday, October 29, 2004

The Dance of Kendo

Earlier in the week Blake asked us "seniors" to invent a way to teach beginners about "ki-ken-tai-icchi". IMHO they should have been working more in their feet rather than their hands. But anyway its quite hard for me to convey the idea of NOT using muscular strength. Practically nobody seems to understand.

At Thursday's UCL practice - technically a new university club filled entirely by student membership - Matsuda-sensei-in-charge (since Gibson is away) taught about ki-ken-tai-icchi as well. The few of us from Nenriki was assisting, as in "run around correcting little mistakes". They did a bit of fumikomi. Then without shinai in their hands, Matsuda taught them to clap and stamp with their foot together.

To me it looks like a dance studio with teams of dancers clapping and tap-dancing (in a violent way). But we do find that clapping helps a lot with the speed, because we are getting to be more "on the beat" now!

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