Class summaries

You may have noticed a small change during our seiretsu before and after class. When showing gratitude we used to hear the following two commands:

• Sensei ni rei (先生に礼) Literally “thank your teacher“.
• Otagai ni rei (御互いに礼) Literally “thank each other“. You thank your classmates.

You may notice that these have changed and thus we’re offering a short explanation here:

• Sensei gata ni rei (先生方に礼) Literally “thank your teachers“, with “gata” being the honorific for a group of people. We still use the previous form if there’s only one teacher, but seeing how we now have multiple teachers you’ll often hear the new version.
• Sougo ni rei (相互に礼) Literally “Show mutual thanks”. It’s quite the same as the previous command and seems like more of a grammatical and formal change.

Don’t forget! If you need help remembering all of the Japanese terms, we have a handy page with lots of study materials made by our own members!

In absence of Heeren-sensei, class was led by Kikuta-sensei.

As usual, class was opened with stretching, suburi, footwork practice and kihon. During the basic exercises and also during the more advanced training, Kikuta-sensei paid extra attention to the following topics.

Regarding fumikomi:

• It was reiterated that one should not lift the right foot, but one should slide forwards close to the ground. Lifting your foot high, tells your opponent that you are making an attempt for men.
• It was reiterated that one should lunge deeply, do not stop short with the right foot. Always attack from issoku-itto-maai, so step in if need be. Then make a long, deep thrust forward from the hips.
• When you are in issoku-itto-maai, do not reposition your left foot when attacking. You are slowing yourself down tremendously. If you are in position, thrust forward from the left foot and trust that you were within the right maai. If you were not, next time you should either start a little closer or step in deeper with the right foot.

Regarding omote and ura:

• We performed a number of exercises involving the omote and ura sides of the shinai. For explanations of the terms below, please refer to our article “Waza explained”.
• We started out with osae men on omote side, as a continuation of our fumikomi exercises.
• Sensei then discussed the matter that many kendoka will block your “standard” men attacks, by raising their shinai diagonally. This block however, opens one up to attacks through the ura side. Thus we practiced accordingly in three-man uchikomi geiko groups:
  • Osae men on omote
  • Osae men on ura
  • Seme to men, ura-men
  • Seme to men, ura-kote
  • Harai men on omote
  • Harai men on ura
  • Kote – Kaeshi kote
  • Kote – Kaeshi dou
  • Men-taiatari-dou, kote-men

After class, sensei reiterated Heeren-sensei‘s message from two weeks ago: the importance of correctly wearing your men.  It is not only for your own safety, it is also so one may properly use and guard the monomi: the looking-slit in the mengane. Sensei noticed a lot of people looking through other parts of the grill, too low or too high, which has two downsides. For starters the monomi is a weakness that should be guarded, and secondly you are lowering your field of vision by looking through a narrow part.

Last night, aside from another etiquette review, we focused on the center line.

I hope that by now it is very clear that the center line is where kendo all plays out. If you have the center, your opponent will have a harder time attacking you. If you have the center, you are more likely to have a good opening. If you attack through the center, you are more likely to land a proper blow. If you attack through the center, you may always attempt a thrust to tsuki.

Class was spent on kihon; no waza at all. And all exercises were meant to reinforce the basic attack through the center. Sjoer-sempai often sees our kendoka hunt for suki in kihon practice, which is superfluous and not the point of the exercise. In kihon practice, motodachi will provide an opening and it’s kakarite’s job to neatly attack straight through the center. So don’t do harai waza, or osae waza, or weird sweeping motions unless that is what we’re practicing.

We practiced the following:

• Kirikaeshi, with motodachi both receiving on the men and on the shinai
• Oki men, chisai men, oki kote-men, chisai kote-men
• Tsuki
• Hiki men, men taiatari hiki-men
• Men passing motodachi then hiki men, kote-men passing motodachi then hiki men

This sequence culminated in uchikomi geiko, with all of these exercises in one long string of attacks. In each of these cases it was paramount that motodachi provide an opening and kakarite to neatly move through center.

In absence of Bert Heeren-sensei, Mark Herbold-sensei of Museido graced us with his presence. While Ran-sempai directed class, Mark-sensei provided instruction. We continued our past few weeks’ focus on tenouchi and on interval training.

The usual 4×50 oki-men were followed by rounds of kirikaeshi around the dojo floor. Four rounds of men kirikaeshi were followed by another four of kote-men intervals and another four of double hiki-men intervals. Mark-sensei impressed upon us the following important points:

• It’s not a race. Motodachi should not be tempted to run backwards as fast as possible. Our spacious dojo makes this tempting, but by running away you’re messing up shidachi’s exercise.
• Shidachi should determine motodachi’s pace with his/her strikes. Each strike forces motodachi backwards, not the other way around with motodachi “pulling” shidachi around the room.
• Strike correctly, targeting yokomen. Our target is not the opponent’s shinai, our target is to strike motodachi’s head and temple. If shidachi repeatedly strikes at the wrong spot, lower your shinai so he may target correctly.
• The kote-men intervals should ideally have a 1-2 rhythm. If you cannot manage this yet it’s fine, as long as you strive for perfection in your exercise.
• The double hiki-men intervals are still interval training! Do not spend lots of time in taiatari, trying to set up your attack. Go into taiatari, do the double hiki-men, perform zanshin, stop in a clear fashion. Then go into taiatari again immediately and proceed with your attack. Continue until the end of the room.

Class with continued with kihon practice and open jigeiko. At the end of class, Mark-sensei had a parting message: he would very much like everyone to practice with full focus and intent.

During class he often felt that many students were doing exercises by rote, instead of focusing on what they were doing. Things that are pointed out in class are details which you should pay attention to. However, the underlying assumption is that you already pay attention to everything else without having it pointed out to you.

In jigeiko a lack of focus and intent was often shown in kamae: the tip of the shinai is being moved about aimlessly (“we’re not making whipped cream here!“) instead of using it to sense your opponent. The tip of your sword is where the fight is being fought! At Museido the students have recently been studying a “quiet” kamae, minimizing the movements they make and cutting out anything that’s not needed. By aiming for efficiency you will improve your kendo, as your reaction times go down and you are focused fully on your opponent.

Finally, with regards to intent: if you aim for 100% and only achieve 60% that’s great and acceptable! But aiming for 60% and only getting 20% is not. Train to the fullest. Having success without intent also does not count for anything: wonderful, but accidental ippon might score you something but you’re not learning anything.

Yesterday’s class in Amstelveen again put focus on te-no-uchi training and the left hand. After the usual suburi and warming-up, we were again instructed to practice men strikes with motodachi. Five repetitions of fifty shomen, followed by two repetitions of thirty doubleshomen. Heeren-sensei reminded us that it’s not just an exercise to make our arms tired, but that we’re really here to practice our left hand. Like before:

• The left hand goes over the head pretty closely.
• The left hand moves straight up and down through the center.
• For the purpose of this exercise on should always tap the buttocks on the upswing.

When it comes to breathing, don’t try to stick to a rhythm of in-and-out breathing that attempts to match your striking pattern. Instead, take a deep breath and keep on breathing out until there’s no more. Then breathe in again. Heeren-sensei always tries to get in as many strikes with one breath as possible.

We were all reminded that breathing should not be done “high” in the lungs, but “low” and from the “hara“. In both Japanese and Chinese arts, the “hara” (or the “lower dantian“, 下丹田) is said to be the seat of your energy and to be the physical center of gravity of your body. (more here) By breathing from the hara one ensures at least two things:

1. You are regulating your breathing and getting enough oxygen without hyperventilating.
2. You are building force in both your body and your kiai/kakegoe.

A way to check that you’re breathing right, is to tie your hakama himo pretty tightly around the hara, which ensures that you feel yourhakama tightening when breathing in. A very clear difference was presented, between a “high” and a “low” kakegoe. The one produced from the hara was louder, solid and rolls over your opponent.

Our left-hand training continued after seiza, with kirikaeshi interval training and normal kirikaeshi after jigeiko. In both exercises we were told to pay close attention to aite’s left hand. It should not be going sideways or wide, but through the center line. “Helicoptering” should be avoided at all costs. Even in kirikaeshi, strikes will be straight for the most part only swerving left or right close to the end. If you feel that aite’s left hand is straying, drop your shinai so he will hit your men thus alerting him of the problem.

Twenty minutes of jigeiko were had. Heeren-sensei impressed upon us the importance of practicing the lessons from kihon keiko injigeiko.

The first two classes of the season were spent on rebuilding our physical condition after a few weeks of slacking off* and on improving tenouchi (手の内, lit. “the inside of your hand”). Tenouchi is the term used to describe a specific kind of grip or movement, made using your hands and wrists at the moment when a strike connects. Geoff Salmon-sensei has written a lot about it.

Heeren-sensei reminded us of the importance of training at home. Once or twice a week in the dojo isn’t enough if you want to make real progress! Doing suburi will keep you agile and will help with tenouchi. And making a striking dummy will even let you do basic kihonpractice! You can even do suburi inside, but making a suburito from old shinai parts.

After the usual warmup routing, we proceeded to bogu-less exercises. Motodachi receives and counts men strikes on his shinai, which is held in front of his face. Each person needs to do fifty strikes, totaled up to 150 by rotating three times. Last week we also included two times fifty hayai suburi. Heeren-sensei asked us to do these exercises with three things in mind:

1. The upswing reaches all the way back, tapping your rear.
2. The upswing has your left hand passing right over your head, almost combing through your hair.
3. The strike should be made strongly, focusing on the left hand.

These three factors combined help you train tenouchi.

For similar reason we then proceed to interval training, with each couple doing kirikaeshi all ’round the perimeter of the dojo floor. Each person needs to make a minimum of four rounds. Heeren-sensei pointed out the following:

• It is not a race. It’s not about speed, but about execution. Do kirikaeshi correctly.
• Focus on using your left hand, the right hand is only used as ‘rudder’ (as it should be).
• The left hand must go above your head on the upswing.
• Keep on making kiai! Do NOT stop, because you will run out of breath if you do.

Class is finished with 10-15 minutes of free jigeiko and kirikaeshi.

Saturday’s class was great and started off with a nice surprise: our friend Sebastian, who departed for Germany a few months after I started kendo, came to visit for some jigeiko! In the absence of Ton-sensei and Hillen, Kris-fukushou led class with kihon and jigeiko.

Many things were said and done, some important pointers being:

• During suburi he noticed that many people have a sub-optimal strike. After the upswing, there are many different movements shown ranging from a slow strike, from a jerk followed by a strike, to a wide arc straight down from jodan. The proper strike is of course hard to describe in words, but he demonstrated what he’d like to see from us.
• In suburi he also admonished us for being so slow and messy on hayasuburi. Practice at home!
• For the footwork practices he again warned us to not keep our feet too narrow. You keep your balance by keeping your feet at shoulder width. Anything narrower will make you wobble about.
• For the suriage techniques he once more impressed upon us the need to stand our ground. Preferably one should move forward towards the opponent while deflecting and striking, but in the very least should you strike and fumikomi on the spot. But whatever you do, don’t move backwards. Stand your ground and be proud.
• After class he warned all of us that we should not only listen to explanations and warnings, but that we should also integrate that message into our practice. More often then not he’ll explain something, which we will then do a little in the following exercise after which it’s completely gone again. Instead you really should be aware of your body: listen to what it’s doing, compare it to what it should be doing and adjust for it. Be aware of what you’re doing.

Ingmar-sempai also reminded us all of the upcoming, annual students kendo tournament in Utrecht. Next weekend Sakurakai are holding the annual kendo competition for all students from the Netherlands. If you’re in high school, college or university and if you train in bogu, please sign up! There are contestants of all levels and it’s always a fun day out. Sign-up is through the NKR website.