This morning I started with Iaido again at -- 8.30am!!! I didn't sleep well and woke up so early that I actually made it to the dojo. It was pretty sunny tho (like, why is it only sunny when I have to do indoor activities...??)
Kishikawa sensei wasn't there, but there is another dude... uhmm or should I say a sempai. I didn't manage to talk to him (typically me) but he does Muso Shinden Ryu - so do I. He looks ok (not spectacular) But I sucked completely as I realized I have forgot most of the MSR stuff... Do'h!! I need a proper sensei or a reference book...!!
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I watched the entire 9.30-10.30am session as I am just too sleepy...
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Since K-sensei wasn't there (but in Japan.. Grrr) we were exempted from the mental rounds of hayasuburi... But the dojo was quiet with only 10 (4 female...) squad members. I got paired up with Eda-sensei... Who is ultra serious at practice (she is always training; coming here from 8.30 and train in both sessions on sunday; does more round if other people haven't finished, etc.) So I felt rather bad that I wasn't as alert at waza-keiko and messed up a few times as motodachi, and got comment about my kiai not strong enough (it shows..) But I was going ok from the 2nd hour onwards - finally waking up...
In waza keiko we spent quite a lot of time doing "step in -> mune-tsuki, repeat, step in ->men/kote/kote-men" I found the kote-men get messy very easily if I don't focus on the last men, after spending a lot of concentration on the step in and aiming for kote... My men sounds okay if I hit on shinai/tsuba on the omote side first (as another nidan-waza), but I am not sure why I can't grip the shinai strong enough for the men if I hit on the kote first ...
At 11:30 Lai-sensei shouted "yame" and then called for shiai-keiko (???) There are a few Japanese sensei around but they looked rather bored when we do our waza-keiko. And they still looked dull at shimpan... The matches are not brilliant really. 3 people chose not to participate so I ended up fighting the 4th and last fight against Takase-san, who is a kohai... Needless to say I got KM-0 in 15 secs. But those are not really good ippon as she just walked into the spot, and also the shimpan got bored and gave out any pop sound (I really know the last kote-nuki-men I got was without fumikomi...)
I found out my opponent at the previous shiai day, Narita-san, was actually 5Dan. Argh.
Uhmmm so the last 30 mins of jikeiko I managed 3 fights. First I had Kawada-san (6dan), he had a high+off-centered kamae but still hard to get men or kote from him (I am not fast enough)... A few strong pushes after cut reminds me of using more koshi - but then that made my grip less strong and can't really pop anything... Grrr...
Second jikeiko was against Tomioka (Another 6Dan but rather tall and young, and last week he won a brilliant last ippon from K-senseni) was a lot of fun. Of course he slowed down and let me do stuff, but in turn this "equal opportunity" made my keiko more pleasant. Not like getting my Men popped all the time whenever I do anything. Comment was about me doing too much feints or blocking and not really going for a cut.. Even the men cut of my kote-men has a major delay (uhmmm)
Final Keiko was against Lai-sensei. I found him easier today - probably because it's the last keiko and he haven't been resting (I don't think I have improved much!). Maybe that made him blocked less of my men, so at least I hit on his men (previously he just blocked everything...)
So my new tactic to survive in jikeiko is to fight the hardest person closer to the end and after a bit of rest..!!
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It suddenly started raining very heavily on the bus on my return journey. I don't have an umbrella (I'll be wet anyway) but I am quite happy that I went today (even though half of the time I was felling asleep).
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