Yet more thoughts on kendo
Jan. 8th, 2005 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of St. Apollinaris
All right, so I initially intended to complain about my lack of stamina and how today's kendo practice was very, very painful, but then I ended up writing a lot about various minutiae and uninformed epiphanies (which may end up being entirely wrong, for all I know), and I realized that only about five people on my friends list would even understand what I was talking about, much less even care, so I cut it to spare you all. ^_^
Next time I'm stupid enough to go to kendo practice without having exercised after a week of being sick, someone hit me on the head and force me to at least race-walk or something beforehand instead of blithely walking into practice thinking that I'll be able to handle it. Argh. My cardiovascular system, never in the most robust of states at the best of times, was positively atrophied, as I realized today. And it didn't help that our fukusho, Jon (or Amanda, as Daera and I like to call him), led us through a pretty difficult warm-up. Well, all right, it was an average warm-up for spring semester practices, but we'd been having rather easy practices all during fall semester, and after having not moved all break on account of the flu, my body was definitely not prepared for it. (We did 100 shomen-suburi instead of 50, 50 sayumen-suburi instead of 30, 100 hayasuburi instead of 50, etc.) And then we did more cardiovascular drills--kirikaeshi up and down the length of the dojo, fumikomi shomen up and down the dojo, then the variation where you alternate with your opponent at receiving fumikomi shomen up and down the dojo. The latter one is supposed to practice your sense of distance. I had the good fortune (note the sarcasm) of going against Agatsuma-san, who probably slowed down for me and still went at a far faster pace than I could handle. He gave me good advice as usual about focusing on my legs and footwork, instead of worrying about my arms, because focusing too much on lifting the shinai makes you tire more quickly. That is very, very true, and it would have probably helped me a lot if I was capable of breathing at that point. Which I wasn't.
Also, unfortunately my period started this morning, and I made another foolish mistake of taking only one pill of acetominophen instead of two. Two pills usually make me feel nauseous and slightly dizzy, so I thought I would take only half the dosage to keep my head clear--bad, bad mistake. The painkiller wore off really quickly and halfway through the fumikomi shomen drill, the cramps hit me badly. Not a good combination. Kendo while going through cramps can be either a fine or horrible experience. It's fine if your medicine works--sometimes, I even manage to play a little better because the lethargy keeps my muscles relaxed instead of tense. It's terrible if it doesn't, and so today was quite awful.
After the fumikomi drills, my heart was beating so fast that I was quite sure I'd either faint or throw up if I pushed myself any further, so I sat out the first half of the waza drills. That was a wise decision in terms of my own kendo because I was able to get through the second half, and despite the cramps, I told myself to concentrate, and there were a couple of times when I actually did kote-men and hiki-men decently. In terms of the team practice though, it was a bad idea. I think what I really learned today was that being a senpai means a lot more than seniority. After I sat out to drink some water and recover, many of the freshmen also started sitting out. There weren't many people practicing to begin with, and by the point half the people in the dojo were either sitting out or lacking a partner to practice with, Jon called for a five-minute break. There's this tendency in kendo that you can keep going as long as everyone else keeps going, but once someone drops out, everyone else can't keep it up anymore. It's especially true when the person to drop out is a senpai--one looks to upperclassmen as a model for behavior, after all, especially in the dojo where as a confused kohai you often don't know what to do. Being a sophomore, I often forget that now more than half the club is younger than me, and although many of them are physically stronger than me and will probably end up playing better kendo than me, I still have that extra year of experience. So I think I made it look all right to just sit out and take a break during practice, when, really, it isn't. ::sighs:: I really, really need to work on my stamina and moreover maintain it. I actually had pretty good endurance during second semester, especially after Gasshuku and after Ueda-sensei's visit, but it slipped during the summer, and I've let it slip even further during winter break. Anyway, I realized today that I have a responsibility as senpai, no matter what the actual level of my kendo is, to set an example, and I'm going to have to remember that.
Ah well. There were good points during practice too. I successfully lead the initial warm-up--the stretching sequence before suburi--and I think I actually managed to do it correctly without making a mistake. (Since Izzy, Daera and MG were all absent from practice, I really couldn't get out of it this time.) At least...I'm pretty sure I didn't make a mistake; I might have switched the order around for some of the stretches and I definitely faltered at times but I'm reasonably certain that I didn't leave anything out. Also, there was this one point during kote-men where something just clicked, and the men finally worked (well, "worked" in that it was stronger than the kote strike and actually had some tenouchi). I mean, normally in kote-men, I don't actually hit kote too hard--I don't think so, anyway--but my men is not any stronger, which it should be. But something just clicked today, and I think I got the dynamics of it. Unfortunately I lost it after we rotated, but for that one set, I thought I understood it. It definitely helped that Jon emphasized doing big strikes; somehow that made the men strike work.
Also, another interesting phenomenon: I didn't wear contacts because my set had expired, and I completely forgot about replacing them during break. (And to tell the truth, one of the lenses had dried up over break. >_>) I've done "blind" kendo once before, and that time I squinted a lot and tried to focus. This time, I was too tired to squint, and I think that started to help after a while. I have this tendency to aim my shinai at whatever I'm trying to hit--not only does this cause me to use my right hand too much but it also causes me to play badly in jigeiko--and because this time, I couldn't even clearly see the string on my shinai, much less the center line of the opponent's men or the location of his kote (monochromatic uniforms and bougu turn the opponent into a blur), I didn't aim so much and used my right hand much less. You can really feel the difference--your strike just feels more flexible and effective instead of stiff and clunky, like you're really using a sword instead of swinging a club. I wish these little "breakthroughs" would remain permanent, but instead I always revert back to my same old bad habits at the next practice. But I suppose having felt the difference will help me work on the problem in the future.
Still no breakthrough in the "marionette" syndrome though. Yifon lectured me quite a lot on synchronizing the stomp with the swing today--she always does, which is often annoying, because I do realize the problem (how could I not, since I can practically hear the delay between the stomp and the swing) but for some reason my body just doesn't obey me, and no one really seems to have a good suggestion on how to fix it other than to simply concentrate on synchronizing. But today, she did come up with a good suggestion, to stop focusing on stomping at all and just let my body move forward. Well, all right, it's not an entirely new suggestion--it's what everyone says after all--but Yifon pointed out that one of the reasons I lift my foot to stomp is because I'm unconsciously trying to stomp hard. If I stop worrying about that, then maybe I'll be finally able to push myself forward. I think what really needs to happen is that I need to just get it right once, so I can know directly what it feels like--I watch the senpai and listen to all their advice, but I don't really have a body memory of it at all.
Yeah, um, that was...long. Sorry. Whenever I go to practice after a long time of not practicing, I tend to end up thinking more about my current level of kendo, what I want to improve, why I have certain bad habits, etc. But normally I don't write so much about it. I think I'm starting to get more and more long-winded in general. I've noticed that the average length of the LJ comments I leave has increased substantially this semester. I just can't shut up anymore. I suppose it wouldn't bother me normally if I didn't have this irrational fear of turning into one of those hysterical babblers who talk and talk and talk and can't stop talking regardless of who's listening or not because it's become a compulsion instead of a desire to communicate. (Maybe that's what Shinji feels like when he mumbles his way into non sequiturs.) You know, those times when (often disconnected) ideas just flow into your brain so quickly that you can't stop a train of thought, and it keeps proceeding so quickly that you wonder if you haven't gone slightly insane, and your sentences verge on 14-line run-ons worthy of Descartes? Okay, I should really just shut up now. (Actually, on second thought, maybe it's a sign that I need sleep. You don't need to get me drunk in order to get me talking uncontrollably. You just need to catch me in a sleep-deprived state, and I will not only start laughing at the silliest things, but I'll also come up with ridiculous metaphors and just babble on and on while everyone smiles politely.)
Lab report. Right. >_<
Yours &c.
All right, so I initially intended to complain about my lack of stamina and how today's kendo practice was very, very painful, but then I ended up writing a lot about various minutiae and uninformed epiphanies (which may end up being entirely wrong, for all I know), and I realized that only about five people on my friends list would even understand what I was talking about, much less even care, so I cut it to spare you all. ^_^
Next time I'm stupid enough to go to kendo practice without having exercised after a week of being sick, someone hit me on the head and force me to at least race-walk or something beforehand instead of blithely walking into practice thinking that I'll be able to handle it. Argh. My cardiovascular system, never in the most robust of states at the best of times, was positively atrophied, as I realized today. And it didn't help that our fukusho, Jon (or Amanda, as Daera and I like to call him), led us through a pretty difficult warm-up. Well, all right, it was an average warm-up for spring semester practices, but we'd been having rather easy practices all during fall semester, and after having not moved all break on account of the flu, my body was definitely not prepared for it. (We did 100 shomen-suburi instead of 50, 50 sayumen-suburi instead of 30, 100 hayasuburi instead of 50, etc.) And then we did more cardiovascular drills--kirikaeshi up and down the length of the dojo, fumikomi shomen up and down the dojo, then the variation where you alternate with your opponent at receiving fumikomi shomen up and down the dojo. The latter one is supposed to practice your sense of distance. I had the good fortune (note the sarcasm) of going against Agatsuma-san, who probably slowed down for me and still went at a far faster pace than I could handle. He gave me good advice as usual about focusing on my legs and footwork, instead of worrying about my arms, because focusing too much on lifting the shinai makes you tire more quickly. That is very, very true, and it would have probably helped me a lot if I was capable of breathing at that point. Which I wasn't.
Also, unfortunately my period started this morning, and I made another foolish mistake of taking only one pill of acetominophen instead of two. Two pills usually make me feel nauseous and slightly dizzy, so I thought I would take only half the dosage to keep my head clear--bad, bad mistake. The painkiller wore off really quickly and halfway through the fumikomi shomen drill, the cramps hit me badly. Not a good combination. Kendo while going through cramps can be either a fine or horrible experience. It's fine if your medicine works--sometimes, I even manage to play a little better because the lethargy keeps my muscles relaxed instead of tense. It's terrible if it doesn't, and so today was quite awful.
After the fumikomi drills, my heart was beating so fast that I was quite sure I'd either faint or throw up if I pushed myself any further, so I sat out the first half of the waza drills. That was a wise decision in terms of my own kendo because I was able to get through the second half, and despite the cramps, I told myself to concentrate, and there were a couple of times when I actually did kote-men and hiki-men decently. In terms of the team practice though, it was a bad idea. I think what I really learned today was that being a senpai means a lot more than seniority. After I sat out to drink some water and recover, many of the freshmen also started sitting out. There weren't many people practicing to begin with, and by the point half the people in the dojo were either sitting out or lacking a partner to practice with, Jon called for a five-minute break. There's this tendency in kendo that you can keep going as long as everyone else keeps going, but once someone drops out, everyone else can't keep it up anymore. It's especially true when the person to drop out is a senpai--one looks to upperclassmen as a model for behavior, after all, especially in the dojo where as a confused kohai you often don't know what to do. Being a sophomore, I often forget that now more than half the club is younger than me, and although many of them are physically stronger than me and will probably end up playing better kendo than me, I still have that extra year of experience. So I think I made it look all right to just sit out and take a break during practice, when, really, it isn't. ::sighs:: I really, really need to work on my stamina and moreover maintain it. I actually had pretty good endurance during second semester, especially after Gasshuku and after Ueda-sensei's visit, but it slipped during the summer, and I've let it slip even further during winter break. Anyway, I realized today that I have a responsibility as senpai, no matter what the actual level of my kendo is, to set an example, and I'm going to have to remember that.
Ah well. There were good points during practice too. I successfully lead the initial warm-up--the stretching sequence before suburi--and I think I actually managed to do it correctly without making a mistake. (Since Izzy, Daera and MG were all absent from practice, I really couldn't get out of it this time.) At least...I'm pretty sure I didn't make a mistake; I might have switched the order around for some of the stretches and I definitely faltered at times but I'm reasonably certain that I didn't leave anything out. Also, there was this one point during kote-men where something just clicked, and the men finally worked (well, "worked" in that it was stronger than the kote strike and actually had some tenouchi). I mean, normally in kote-men, I don't actually hit kote too hard--I don't think so, anyway--but my men is not any stronger, which it should be. But something just clicked today, and I think I got the dynamics of it. Unfortunately I lost it after we rotated, but for that one set, I thought I understood it. It definitely helped that Jon emphasized doing big strikes; somehow that made the men strike work.
Also, another interesting phenomenon: I didn't wear contacts because my set had expired, and I completely forgot about replacing them during break. (And to tell the truth, one of the lenses had dried up over break. >_>) I've done "blind" kendo once before, and that time I squinted a lot and tried to focus. This time, I was too tired to squint, and I think that started to help after a while. I have this tendency to aim my shinai at whatever I'm trying to hit--not only does this cause me to use my right hand too much but it also causes me to play badly in jigeiko--and because this time, I couldn't even clearly see the string on my shinai, much less the center line of the opponent's men or the location of his kote (monochromatic uniforms and bougu turn the opponent into a blur), I didn't aim so much and used my right hand much less. You can really feel the difference--your strike just feels more flexible and effective instead of stiff and clunky, like you're really using a sword instead of swinging a club. I wish these little "breakthroughs" would remain permanent, but instead I always revert back to my same old bad habits at the next practice. But I suppose having felt the difference will help me work on the problem in the future.
Still no breakthrough in the "marionette" syndrome though. Yifon lectured me quite a lot on synchronizing the stomp with the swing today--she always does, which is often annoying, because I do realize the problem (how could I not, since I can practically hear the delay between the stomp and the swing) but for some reason my body just doesn't obey me, and no one really seems to have a good suggestion on how to fix it other than to simply concentrate on synchronizing. But today, she did come up with a good suggestion, to stop focusing on stomping at all and just let my body move forward. Well, all right, it's not an entirely new suggestion--it's what everyone says after all--but Yifon pointed out that one of the reasons I lift my foot to stomp is because I'm unconsciously trying to stomp hard. If I stop worrying about that, then maybe I'll be finally able to push myself forward. I think what really needs to happen is that I need to just get it right once, so I can know directly what it feels like--I watch the senpai and listen to all their advice, but I don't really have a body memory of it at all.
Yeah, um, that was...long. Sorry. Whenever I go to practice after a long time of not practicing, I tend to end up thinking more about my current level of kendo, what I want to improve, why I have certain bad habits, etc. But normally I don't write so much about it. I think I'm starting to get more and more long-winded in general. I've noticed that the average length of the LJ comments I leave has increased substantially this semester. I just can't shut up anymore. I suppose it wouldn't bother me normally if I didn't have this irrational fear of turning into one of those hysterical babblers who talk and talk and talk and can't stop talking regardless of who's listening or not because it's become a compulsion instead of a desire to communicate. (Maybe that's what Shinji feels like when he mumbles his way into non sequiturs.) You know, those times when (often disconnected) ideas just flow into your brain so quickly that you can't stop a train of thought, and it keeps proceeding so quickly that you wonder if you haven't gone slightly insane, and your sentences verge on 14-line run-ons worthy of Descartes? Okay, I should really just shut up now. (Actually, on second thought, maybe it's a sign that I need sleep. You don't need to get me drunk in order to get me talking uncontrollably. You just need to catch me in a sleep-deprived state, and I will not only start laughing at the silliest things, but I'll also come up with ridiculous metaphors and just babble on and on while everyone smiles politely.)
Lab report. Right. >_<
Yours &c.
