Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference

Wednesday 31st August 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet

Tonight’s keiko was once again led by our wonderful Marleen Sensei. 

We began with double Shinai warm up drills, suburis & 30 Haya-Suburis followed by single Shinai 30 Haya-Suburis.

Tonight’s Kihon & Uchikomi-geiko menu:

1. Kirikaeshi x3
2. Big Men x3
3. Big Men 10 times rensoku continuous x3
4. Big Kote x3
5. Big Kote 10 times rensoku continuous x3
6. Big Dō x3
7. Big/ Small (for higher grades) Kote-Men x3
8. Followed by Ji-geiko then Kakari-geiko with Sam sensei.

       

Tonight’s focus was:

1. To better feel & use our fingers underneath the Kote correctly to continue working on getting proper Tenouchi during each strikes. 

2. Concentrate on using our Shoulders more to raise the Shinai overhead & take care not to use too much right hand to manipulate the Shinai movements as this would produce unintended & unwanted forces & reduce accuracy.

3. In order to reduce time lag & to speed up strikes, try to start pull down left shoulder & elbow as soon as we can see the left hand & Tsuka of Shinai moved past our eye level.

4. To work on improving our stamina & footwork. These days we are spoilt with modern transportation to take us everywhere even to Dojo, but it also reduced our opportunity to train our lower body & limbs. So Marleen sensei’s rensoku drills really helped us training the lower body, stamina & Ki🙏

5. To train & feel our core, shoulder muscles & legs more & work on having a good Kamae at all times to be ready to strike at any moment to minimise delay in reaction times. This is crucial not only during Ji-geiko or Shiai but also an important skill to have to become a good Motodachi so that we can be ready to move our bodies more swiftly to follow up the Kakarite & learn to judge & adjust the distance to facilitate & ensure Kakarite can land their strikes accurately without delay, & won’t disrupted their momentum & rhythm by getting in their way or accidentally obstruct their Shinai movement by moving too slow or moving too early causing them to miss the target completely.

In other words, to be a good Motodachi is truly challenging. It will take years of practice to gradually become more proficient at it. So just keep practicing💪💪💪

Always come to keiko with a goal in mind or an area you wish to improve on, as this will make your keiko more meaningful & fruitful. 

Part of the beauty of Kendo is that it’s a lifelong journey of self discovery with endless potential to strive for self improvement. 

Even though changes often won’t happen straightaway, but just like growing plants 🌱 we often don’t see much difference initially, but we just keep watering them, nurturing them with nutrients day-after-day, & then one day they will eventually produce beautiful flowers 🌸 or fruits 🍎. 

So same applies to Kendo. We may not be able to see dramatic differences or improvement overnight, but by coming to Keiko regularly, learning from Sensei & senpais alike, taking in their honest useful feedbacks & suggestions with an open mind & positive attitude, & try our best to follow & apply them during each keiko, then with time, these efforts will surely help us to become a better version of ourselves through Kendo❤️

Thank you to both Senseis for leading the Keiko tonight🙏🙏🙏

Thanks to all the Senpais for being great Motodachi & giving good feedbacks for us to improve, truly appreciated🙏🙏🙏

We also wish our amazing Sam Sensei a very very happy birthday 

お誕生日おめでとうございました🙏 🎈🥳 🎂 🎉