Seme Ashi

This is the first practice after a month's break from kendo, including a week of holiday in Cambodia. My left wrist seems to never recover 100%. Eda-sensei recommanded the old-school treatment of, well, just keep carry on with the practice. It's meaningless if I only watch and never try.

So this Sun afternoon I was back in the dojo in full bogu, and fortunately there were plenty of time spent without bogu (less stress on my wrist). Again, Minejima-san had taken over the senior teaching part. Facing the mirrors, we practice seme-ashi. Key points:-

1. Upper body without any movement
2. Constant eye level
3. Left foot slides on the floor until the very last moment
4. Hand movement only at the very last moment

We also had rounds of kirikaeshi, 1-min jikeiko and ai-men. It's really great to feel that I'm getting on with the seme part well, as I can see how some juniors didn't show much of the seme (with reference to the key points). Against Minejime, who I knew he's being easy, I messed up with the distance. My lack of power from the legs were mostly due to an hour of motorbike ride in the morning - it's exhausting.

The month has been busy at work, but I really hope I can show up more. The dojo is filled with more serious training atmosphere, and everyone is showing some improvement. Too bad I can't commit to the squad anymore, but I wish them the very best at next month's Chinese Taikai.

One day after I am feeling a bit of swelling pain on my wrist. If it's not getting worse, I think I'll just have to withstand it and keep going.