There was a fun surprise this year though – an old member of the dojo who had moved was back visiting and showed up to practice with us!  We had started at Shodokan at the same time and it was great seeing him again.

The food after was spectacular.  Chicken curry, soba noodles, sushi, etc.

Happy New Year Shodokan!

Lately I’ve found that since I’ve been practicing with a small group (my dojo) over-and-over again that I’m beginning to style my kendo in a way that matches each individual I fight.  I’m also finding less variety in my kendo than I would like.

This has manifested itself in two ways.

Subconsciously

On a sub-conscious level I am reacting to certain moves or feelings without thought.  Everyone has a particular style and when I see certain patterns or feel ‘uneasy’ in certain ways then I’m reacting with a counter-move that is tailored for that individual and situation.

Consciously

I’m more consciously choosing certain tactics that I know to work based on my opponent rather than focusing on “what is good.”  If I know somebody prefers kote, for example, I’ll leave it open as a decoy.  Not because I am waiting to see if they take the bait but rather because I suspect (based on past encounters) that they will.

Solution

So what am I going to do about it?

I’m afraid I can’t do much about the automatic reactions.  But I was recently reading about Musashi and how he once stated that one should never do the same thing more than twice.  The idea is that you are ever-changing and difficult to predict.  It also leads to more ‘discovery’ of things which may be useful.

I’m trying to apply this idea to my kendo now.  Each keiko I do I’m trying things I would never do and trying to limit the amount of repetition in my style.  This also involves thinking less about my tactics themselves and focusing more on the situation at a high level (where am I, what’s open, what does my opponent see, how does he move, etc.) rather than focusing on attack/counter-attack.  I think this is helping some.

I’m also finding a lot of things that don’t work!  But this is part of the fun.  Why didn’t it work?  Could it work?  Does it at least keep my opponent guessing a bit?  How do people behave when I do <something>?  I believe that failure is only bad if we don’t learn from the failure.  And learning from a mistake is often more valuable than getting it right the first time.

I’m also going to be trying to visit at least one other dojo once a month.  This will add some diversity to the number of people I practice with and place me in more  situations where I simply can’t predict my opponent.  This will probably be more helpful in the long run as it will require more dynamic adjustments to situations.  I will also be seeing other styles and finding things that work for others.  Hopefully I will learn from them!

“But when somebody comes kote I get hit!”

“Just go men.”

“Then they go do!”

“Just go men.”

For some time while learning this was the best (and seemingly only) advice I received when asking questions about what to do during keiko or in a shiai.  “Just go men.”

So I did just that.  Go men over and over and over.  Almost to the point of boredom.  Naturally I threw in a few other techniques for fun, but mostly just men.

The repetition is good if tedious.  It trains the muscles and sharpens the mind.  And I know that.  But for a long time it seemed to me that there was obviously some “trick” to parrying an opponent.  A fixed counter-move that perfectly offsets the opponents position.

It turns out that there are such pairs of move/counter-move but I’m realizing that they’re less important than I would have thought back when I began my kendo journey.  And to think that’s what others have been telling me from the start!  Who’d have thunk? 

As an example I recall the last local shiai when I was watching the 4-dan+ matches.  The top performers had no tricks.  No stunts.  No “parry-parry-thrust.”  Just one solid men strike that seemed to move in slow motion from watching on the sideline and which I’m sure like lightening to the opponent.

In one such match I witnessed a chudan-stance user face off with a jodan user.  “At last,” I thought, “I’ll be able to witness how high-ranking kendoka deals with jodan!”  To my amazement it was *exactly the same* as how he dealt with every other opponent – “straight men.”  And it worked beautifully!  Two strikes later the chudan kendoka won.

In my own matches I have also found better success when I focus mostly on keeping center, straight and going men.  In one such instance I had an opponent try to ‘fake’ me by dropping his shinai and without a thought I went men (and it landed nicely).  It was a fascinating experience and one that I haven’t had in a long time – automatically reacting without thinking.  I credit my teachers for patiently pushing “just go men” on me constantly over the last couple years.

These days I try to not underestimate the value of a good men strike.  I’m trying to learn good control of maai and to control my opponent but it’s become obvious to me at this point that without a solid men strike everything else is just for show.

So what happens is I’m not straight.  I tend to come in at an angle and I feel the right-side of my body kinda leaning in a bit.  With certain opponents this means it’s easy enough to simply let me glance off to the left (their right).

I used to think this problem was  caused by my plantar fasciitis.  But I’ve been keeping that at bay these days so it hasn’t really been bothering me at all.  It’s very likely that both “being lazy” and the pain in my foot were contributing though.

Yesterday I made it a point to concentrate simply on straight straight straight and I felt better about things.  I still felt like i was leading a bit with my right shoulder though.

Also contributing to the issue I think is my anticipation of my opponent’s shinai.  *sigh*

Just go straight and center….

I notice a number of common flaws that happen when I’m this tired.

1. I stop going in straight.  My wrist is in pain today because I kept going in at an angle rather than a nice straight approach.
2. I reach with my arms a lot and stop moving with my waist.  This, combined with #1, leaves my kote wiiiide open for all to whack mercilessly. 
3. I react more to my opponent than trying to create an offensive move.

These are some things I need to keep in mind if I’m in a long match or just “not feeling up to it.”  Normally I pay attention to these but when I’m tired I need to doubly watch myself.  It’s all too easy to start thinking about just defending oneself I think, and in my experience this does not work.

So the next time I’m tired I’m going to try to concentrate more on just keeping straight good form and try not to be so concerned about my opponent.  Even if this is “easier said than done.” 

When I do this I tend to create a mental image in my mind of my body moving forward like a tree on a sled.  I try to think less of my strike and more about pushing my body into the opponent.  This mental image seems to work well for me.

Naturally I also tried to spend time thinking about maai and controlling my opponent.  But to a lesser extent today than I have been.

I’m also having a problem quite opposite of my cold weather slipping.  Blisters!  If it’s not one thing it’s another.  I’m certain now I’m “pushing” too much with my left foot.  This is probably part of the problem in both my slipping and blisters.

I have been, for the last few weeks, trying to escape focusing on the minutia of my attack.  To allow my body to simply make the strike while I direct it from a higher level.  I’ve found mixed success so far.  While doing this I do see my  opponent’s moves much better.  I’ve even once or twice been able to predict a move.  But I’m still not sure how much is luck and how much is skill (I’m leaning towards luck until I see more consistent results).

While focusing on higher level tactics I also find myself a bit more frustrated at making my attacks.  This is where my mixed results come in.  I can see the “playing field” better but I seem less capable of executing my strikes.  Perhaps this is because I have an inflated sense of ability when I focus more heavily on my strikes themselves.  But I also think that a better-executed strike has a better chance of actually succeeding.  There is much to experiment with here.  

These days I’m swinging the pendulum back towards basics.  Just go straight and keep low (I have been hearing more critique on these points lately).  But I won’t swing all the way back to “tunnel vision men strikes only.”  Perhaps I’ll only nudge the pendulum a bit and see how it works.

The shiai was broken into two groups – roughly speaking the upper ranks (3 members) and lower ranks (4 members).  I fought in the ‘lower’ category (kyu and under) and won my three matches (2-0; 2-1; 2-1).

I find it interesting how differently we fight when a score is being kept.  During normal keiko one is free to experiment and try different things in addition to practicing straight-forward technique.  But the second “hajime!” is shouted things become very “plain” by comparison and a bit more tense.

Overall I was pleased with how I did and with how others did.  Especially some other members of the class who’ve shown a lot of improvement over a short period of time!

One thing that I have noticed, however, is that the last couple times I’ve competed in a shiai (mock or otherwise) my shinai has seemed “heavy” compared to normal keiko.  I’m sure it’s a mental thing, perhaps nerves.  It seems to be new though as I never really felt that way before.  Always learning new things and developing new problems!

I’ve tried to determine whether it’s actually a problem with my feet being slippery or just me doing something wrong (not a terribly unlikely scenario).  The last time it was really cold I wasn’t just slipping doing fumikomi ashi  but even while trying to stop after going through, while turning, etc.  This leads me to believe that it isn’t just my form that is the problem.

My wife thinks my feet are too dry.  Before my next cold class I’m going to try some moisturizer on my feet to see if that helps.

At this point I believe that the issue is likely a mixture of bad technique and the physical slipperiness of my feet.  I’m probably pushing a little too hard and early which works fine under more normal circumstances but when the conditions are less than perfect the problem reveals itself.  In addition to moisturizer I’m going to concentrate on keeping my body weight forward.