Second online training on Youtube
The video of yesterday's training is up. Sorry I couldn't afford to buy any more pixels. Handy for anyone who wants a template of things to do at home during the week. See you next Saturday at the same time!
Posts
Primary school shiai
For our junior members, here is some primary school shiai (competition) from Japan. This is the Saitama Prefecture Primary School Championships from 2011. The video is of the final of the grade 3 division. So these children are probably 8 or 9 years old. Watch how they enter and exit the shiaijo (court, or match area). Did you notice how they bowed first to shomen (high place in the dojo) then to each other? That's because this is the final. You do that only when it's the very first or the very last match of the tournament. Notice the shinpan (referees) also bow to shomen at the same time. Shinpan don't bow to the shiaisha (competitors) though. This is a great match. White is quite a bit taller than red, but red doesn't seem scared at all. There is a lot of moving around in tsubazeriai (close fighting, literally 'meeting of the two tsuba'), but both shaisha regularly come back to tachiai (swords-crossed). This shows they are both experienced at sh...
Suburi pattern
This is the suburi pattern I use every day. It helps me to keep count and the small amount of variety keeps my brain interested throughout the boredom of the repetition! Men uchi is the most important of the movements to practice, but kote and do are also important to ingrain as well. So the majority are men, but there are kote and do as well. The pattern is renzoku or double-time style: moving forwards and backwards using okuriashi footwork in time with the cut. 20 sho-men 20 kote 20 sho-men 20 kote-men 20 men-do You can start by having a rest between each 20. But pretty soon if you practice every day you should be able to do 100 non-stop. Then after a while, try 200 non-stop. Then, try with two shinai or a heavy suburito , and so on. Try my pattern and if you like it, great! If you hate it, make your own! courtesy of benotdefeatedbytherain