Winners are simply willing to do things losers won't!
What a weird kendo week! Had a good training on Wednesday, but things went totally pear-shaped on Friday. As mentioned in some of my kendo friends' blogs, several of us turned up to train at Sydney University on Friday. I went directly from my office (I'm an academic at Sydney University) feeling utterly exhausted. If I had a bed in my office I would have no qualms going to sleep there and then! Anyway, conscience compelled me to go because Mike Henstock once said to me that the best time to train is when one does not want to train. Addtionally, training when one is tired is good for stamina improvement. So I (reluctantly) turned up.
Heh! It's so funny how different I could be when tired. Felt like a total beginner in many ways - short stamina, no spirit, couldn't focus right etc. Jigeiko was almost too painful to bear. What's more - sweat beads getting into my eyes, and feeling dehydrated. It's one of those "what the heck am I doing here" kinda training for me. Having said that, I'm glad I did go, though I feel sorry for being such poor motodachi and training partner to the others. It's a good training, because I pushed myself.
In any case, I went nuts at the Saturday morning training to make it all up. I started really slow, having had just 5 hours sleep. In fact, I was so groggy when I turned up that Becki thought I'd awoken from death! Eventually I warmed up sufficiently for jigeiko and unleashed all the frustrations in unbelievably constructive ways. I intentionally chose to jigeiko tall guys like Isaac and Gideon, and would have had a go at Mike too if time allowed. Focus yet again was men cuts, but I threw in doh cuts and nidan waza. My last jigeiko with Sano sensei was tamed yet deep in meaning. He knew that I was focussing on men cuts, so he did just debana kote for the entire jigeiko. He stressed the importance of keeping center while executing semete-men. I tried to strike his men with sae, which is one of the things I've been working on. We had a small discussion during jigeiko and he encouraged me by asking me to "take this to the next level". I'm so lucky to have such good senseis! *sniff*
About semete-men: Fukuda sensei also gave me a very good pointer about hand and arms positioning while executing the cut. He said that keeping center is of course important, but it's also important not to extent the arms until the very last minute, right before the strike itself. Imagine this, one applies seme, moves in but still keeping hands at tanden as per chudan-no-kamae, finally extending the arms for the strike in time with the fumikomi. As Takeshi pointed out to me after the training, keeping center and keeping hands at chudan are important so as not to allow opponent to strike debana kote. If you keep proper chudan, the opponent would have to deviate from his/her center so as to be able to strike your kote. That's point #1. Point #2 is the extension of the arms - it also provides momentum for the drive because of the shift in balance.
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We finally watched Million Dollar Baby last night. Eventhough I'm touched and motivated by the message in the movie, I'm inspired even more by the slogan on the wall of the gym which says: winners are simply willing to do things losers won't! BAM! Deep inside winners, like Clint Eastwood said in the movie, is a heart - the heart which gives them the desire, the want and the need, to excel. To excel, one needs to go the extra mile. I will always keep these in mind.
Heh! It's so funny how different I could be when tired. Felt like a total beginner in many ways - short stamina, no spirit, couldn't focus right etc. Jigeiko was almost too painful to bear. What's more - sweat beads getting into my eyes, and feeling dehydrated. It's one of those "what the heck am I doing here" kinda training for me. Having said that, I'm glad I did go, though I feel sorry for being such poor motodachi and training partner to the others. It's a good training, because I pushed myself.
In any case, I went nuts at the Saturday morning training to make it all up. I started really slow, having had just 5 hours sleep. In fact, I was so groggy when I turned up that Becki thought I'd awoken from death! Eventually I warmed up sufficiently for jigeiko and unleashed all the frustrations in unbelievably constructive ways. I intentionally chose to jigeiko tall guys like Isaac and Gideon, and would have had a go at Mike too if time allowed. Focus yet again was men cuts, but I threw in doh cuts and nidan waza. My last jigeiko with Sano sensei was tamed yet deep in meaning. He knew that I was focussing on men cuts, so he did just debana kote for the entire jigeiko. He stressed the importance of keeping center while executing semete-men. I tried to strike his men with sae, which is one of the things I've been working on. We had a small discussion during jigeiko and he encouraged me by asking me to "take this to the next level". I'm so lucky to have such good senseis! *sniff*
About semete-men: Fukuda sensei also gave me a very good pointer about hand and arms positioning while executing the cut. He said that keeping center is of course important, but it's also important not to extent the arms until the very last minute, right before the strike itself. Imagine this, one applies seme, moves in but still keeping hands at tanden as per chudan-no-kamae, finally extending the arms for the strike in time with the fumikomi. As Takeshi pointed out to me after the training, keeping center and keeping hands at chudan are important so as not to allow opponent to strike debana kote. If you keep proper chudan, the opponent would have to deviate from his/her center so as to be able to strike your kote. That's point #1. Point #2 is the extension of the arms - it also provides momentum for the drive because of the shift in balance.
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We finally watched Million Dollar Baby last night. Eventhough I'm touched and motivated by the message in the movie, I'm inspired even more by the slogan on the wall of the gym which says: winners are simply willing to do things losers won't! BAM! Deep inside winners, like Clint Eastwood said in the movie, is a heart - the heart which gives them the desire, the want and the need, to excel. To excel, one needs to go the extra mile. I will always keep these in mind.
posted by Andoru at
8:05 am
3 Comments:
Andrew, thanks for posting Fukuda Sensei's and Takeshi's comments about chudan and keeping in centre. They are really helpful.
By
Vivian Yung, at 3:59 pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
Vivian Yung, at 4:00 pm
No worries Vivian! Pleased to do it. ^_^
By
Andoru, at 11:37 pm
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