Squad #9 Enjoy!

Here I sum up the routine procedure for the Sunday squad training. It has been like this for weeks, not sure if it will change soon, but meanwhile...:-

1. Warm-up: Push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squatting... all 20
2. Suburi: Oki-suburi with 2 shinai = 50; then Oki-hayasuburi with 1 shinai = 50
3. Kihon: a couple of rounds of men, kote, kote-men - all with the use of seme, not just go in random timings
4. Waza: One side cut men/kote, the other side goes either anything, or yakusoku (eg. de-kote, nuki-waza, etc.) - Either side has to make ippon, so it's not really a motodachi-kakarite thingy
5. Ai-men from to-ma: with rotation
6. Ippn shobu: loser gets kakari-keiko, and if no one wins when sensei calls for Yame... ai-kakari-keiko...argh
7. Strings of uchikomi: men-hiki men/kote/do... one string kirikaeshi... one string do-kirikaeshi... one string of men/men-do/do - finish by men. Usually doing 2 strings of these

That's done in 1.5 hrs with the final 30 mins for jikeiko (sensei-queuing style)

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Some points from today:

1. When we were warming up, Kishikawa sensei said one thing quite important - that we have to enjoy doing push-ups and suburi, and apply these into our kendo. If it is such a chore doing push-ups, then even shomen-uchi (using some of the same muscles) will be a chore later on in the training.

This is very true that now I kinda like to finish the cardio workout ahead of anyone, and enjoying that bit of successful secret training at home...

2. My left hand grip is terrible. Wrist is not turned in... Making my kihon cuts not strong enough.

3. Today's theme is: when to cut, and how to find the opening for a cut. Of course this is up to us to find out, but I am quite inspired, and really takes my opportunity at yakusoku waza-keiko, taking at least 75% of my cuts

4. Before the Ippon shobu rounds, K-sensei said, "It's okay you lost your match here and only do kakari-keiko... If you lost your match at the Championships, your whole team will lose!!"

5. It's either K-sensei explaining too much or we finished the training slightly eariler, or I am getting better. It's the first time I still stand up properly when I do the last uchikomi-keiko string.

6. And also I had 4 jikeiko, although 2 keiko are quite short. But I had some enjoyable keiko against Yoshioka-sensei, Agnes, Leo, and, K-sensei... If he only cuts men I think I won't enjoy it as much. But I find myself successfully blocking "some" of his cuts finally, and countering (although my cuts are not 100% on the spot). There was a bit of fun moment at the final Ippon... like, "pong pong pong pong pong BANG!!" thing (which reminds me of my fights with Matsuoka-senpai in London). Though the last Men was from K-sensei, when I was not in the position to block or do anything.

Funny enough when we go bowing to the sensei afterwards, K-sensei said "Don't give up that easy!"... Matsuoka said the same comment to me before... Am I really such a loser?!

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A few corrections of my entries:

1. "Kishikawa" spells with a k not a g (d'oh!)
2. Got the Kendo Nippon 2005.6 issue, but the article about "Asian City Friendly Taikai" tournament is actually the one held in Taiwan... Sorry for the wrong info. But I still wonder how people heard about the one in Hong Kong.