#kendo practice

I visited Orlando Kendo yesterday while on a work trip. I always try to fit Kendo into my business trips so I can practice with as many dojos as possible. You need to take personal time on trips to stay balanced.

It took over an hour to drive there from my work, but it was worth it.

Ishikawa sensei, mentioned his brief experiences as a boy when he saw one of the last 10.dans practice Kendo. He walked in with a cane, like an old man, but once he grabbed the shinai, he corrected his kamae and became untouchable.  Now I walk with a cane due to folding my ankle for the second time in two years. Due to an illness my joints on a clock, eventually I will blow out my ankle with all my weight behind it. It won’t be pretty and could be life changing injury. 

 I caught my right front big toe on my hakama in the middle of a men strike.....ankle turned, and my weight came down.....BOOM! Folded.

Not broken....but a severe sprain. 

Where does my Kendo develop from here? 

What is my path to GoDan in a year...now maybe 3 years depending on the ankle recovery.

 How do I continue to love what I do in Kendo, but I love the ability to walk even greater.....how do I insure I can do both in another decade..or three decades.

------------- Like a magic kendo shinai was waved over my head-- A highly respected 7.dan sends me a development instructions appears in my email --- while I was flying back home. Im under the firm belief I just got Yoda’ed. He was reading my thoughts from 1000 miles away. -- 

NOW THAT IS SEME. the  mental seme - executed when you didn’t even see it coming and BOOM. Ippon. 

Forging Spirit:  Kantosho

We should avoid becoming comfortable in Kendo. When you feel that everything is easy, you have failed yourself. This doesn’t mean you should push yourself to injury. Comfort is a state of mind, its a relaxed disregard of your lessons. You are “fine” with where you are - Really? Every practice you should push your mind, your body to it upper limits. When you are faced with “I want to quit”, “I cant go on”.... that is when you are achieving growth. Learning is difficult. Its painful. Its frustrating. Its painful because all of the information is new, and difficult to apply into practice.Whenever you are faced with discomfort, frustration, exhaustion, remember THAT is the moment when you are developing something new. 

Push yourself as hard as possible every practice. You will grow. When you are faced with dire circumstances and situations in testing and competition know you have already faced practices and situations that were much harder than what you are experiencing currently. 

Nothing your opponent does to you will break your spirit. You have forged your spirit with a thousand practices. You have conquered yourself in the dojo over and over and over. 

Going to the international shimpan seminar we were in the beginner court (below 6 dan) it was a lot of listening....which is necessary.

i was given the chance to jump into shiai for judging. I quickly got suited up without hesitation.

Why? Because I need more practice for 5.dan. and I wanted to be active I stead of passive.

The benefit of extroversion?

Point specific - feedback and evaulation by a 8.dan hanshi.

What I did, what shimpan SHOULD have done.etc....i was much more involved in the lessons. I was in the middle of it.

I landed a men-kaeshi-do that didn't score....Sensei stopped the match queried the shimpan and students.....evaluated it, and said it should have scored. YES!!

Awareness of Sleeping

In keiko last practice I caught myself sleeping, or rather, my opponent caught me sleeping...a lot. I was physically active...but it was mentally static. We were into about 1.5 hours of Keiko and my body was getting heavy, and my mind wanted to relax..and it did. My opponent and fellow sensei took advantage and scored point after point, destroying me for an entire session.

After the rotation, I told myself that wasn’t going to let that happen again. After several rotations we ended up sparring once again -- this time I didn’t relax I kept my mind focused but also didn’t allow my feet to settle for any longer than a few split seconds. I was trying to stay fluid and moving. 

Objects at rest, want to stay at rest....objects in motion want to stay in motion. 

This time I scored a wonderful NukiMen and a two Tsuki. He mentioned it was like fighting someone new. This helped. 

Spatial Awareness, Focused mInd. Volumetric Adaptation 

In a recent conversation - how to handle performance pressure and nerves came up. Ishikawa sensei sent me to my very first tournament when I was just a SanKyu I had maybe practiced one year. The tournament he sent me to happened to be the national championships - I was competing for Mudansha Individuals. Of course, I had never even seen a Kendo Tournament, and to be told that I was now going to compete at a national championship level was terrifying.  Ishikawa sensei trained national champions, and he himself was a very powerful force in Kendo. I told him I was very nervous, and that I was very unsure of my ability to compete. He told me I was ready and gave me a great piece of advice.  He told me to focus. And that walking into a large gym, when you practice in small dojos will throw off your maai. It will be hard to see the distance to your opponent due to the volume of the room. The fact that your background is further away makes everything seem farther away also.  He told me that when you walk in to the tournament, and before your match -- stare at the stitching on your Kote.....then stare at a point as far away as possible....then to the person in front of you, then back to your Kote....then Far away, keep repeating this. It helps your mind absorb and adapt to the change in Volume. While you do this.....BREATHE and Relax your mind.