Kote-men

This week is a bit too busy to write things down. When you have more important stuff to deal with in your life, such as job hunting... You don't want to sit in front of the computer typing stuff about kendo!!!

BUT

$#^%#^!!!

Just when you think you can get away with 7 months not training regularly, and go for your Nidan after 15 months of Shodan--- you realize the most important waza of Nidan, a Kote-men, is not working properly!!

The more you do it, the worse it gets!!!

Adding to that is a blister developing between my left thumb and index finger. Sign of a bad grip -- I have been having a bad grip for 3 months without realizing!!

I am still fighting too far as well. Last weekend at the Squad training, my uchikomi keiko and kakari keiko were sh!t. I still hit with the very tip of the shinai, instead of the pat closer to the nakayui. Thats why it doesnt give the pop. Thats why I was vvvvv frustrated!!

At the squad we did funny waza-keiko. Select a type of cut for your motodachi, and then you do your counter attack. We pair up, go on for sonkyo, stand up and walk to the middle, saying, "Hello, what do you want?" Even more interesting is, everyone wears a big smile in their face (despites being tired and out of breath)

"Big, slow men please." We did that 4 times and swap around. Sounds like hungry customers ordering food from waiters.

My de-kote went great. But my kote-men sucks. Really sucks... Especially when I paired up with Fisher, who I KNOW will be fighting me at the grading next weekend!!! God... why am I doing this?!?!

One great thing I did was to fight all the girls!! It was much better than I expected, with 6 other female kendoka around.

The most stupid thing has to be the public transportation. One section of the Underground wasnt running and we have to take replacement buses. That made a journey of 2 hours going out and 3 hours returning. The squad training was only 3 hours... How should I weight that?