Our instructor today drove us extremely hard physically during our training. He warned us beforehand that it would be hard, and if we needed to take breaks, we could but to come back as soon as possible after recovering a little. He wasn't kidding. Our usual training was replaced by longer sets of kirikaeshi, plus dou-kirikaeshi, continous kihon men cuts, continous small men cuts, continous small kote-men cuts before we had several rotations of jigeiko at the end.
When we had our usual "debrief" at the end of the session, he expressed that he believed physical fitness and strength was more important for our club because we were not at the right level to make strong and fast cuts when we need to. He believed that we should do more physical training than working more on our waza and posture, even though as we do our physical training, we should always try to maintain proper waza and posture.
It is an interesting direction to think. For our club, I think it works well since during the week, we (when we have our bookings) have two sessions without our instructor because he works and we train during working hours. Only is it on Saturday or on Night training is he present. This allows two sessions to practice our basics and waza, and then receive the harder physical demands from him on our Saturday training.
By comparison to other clubs, I have been told by several people, our club is the most physically demanding. Training at other clubs from our members, and also from my visit to Blue Leaf, I can see that is often quite true. Is it more important to concentrate on one than the other?
I think, that in regards to fitness and form, they must go hand in hand. Yes, you can not make the fast and strong cuts when you have the opening if you have not the strength and fitness, but if you have it and no form, your cut will be poor and weaker, causing loss of the point that you have attempted. Kendo is meant to be physical in my opinion. Over time, yes, if you train regularly, and eat well (healthy) you will get stronger and fitter. It may take longer if you train less and look after yourself, but you will notice it. But if you do not practice your waza, over time, you will not really improve.
We train in a two hour block. The first quarter is warmup, stretches and usually basic footwork. I think we could probably better spend perhaps the next quarter on fitness. They recommend thirty minutes a day of physical exercise. We are doing two hours, so putting thirty minutes into say, doing the continous cuts or more hayasuburi sets would be useful. Then it leaves us an hour to do waza and jigeiko. At the same time, if you do three cuts per rotation in waza training, it doesn't really push your physical side. If you do five, it starts to perhaps get there. While we have done ten before, I think it is hard to do too much and may be concentration dropping in some ways. Perhaps a seven cut rotation would bring a good balance between the physical and waza blend.
But, as I do mention before, our current setup of trainings works well, at least for me. I can see and feel my fitness improving, though my waza is not so obvious.
When we had our usual "debrief" at the end of the session, he expressed that he believed physical fitness and strength was more important for our club because we were not at the right level to make strong and fast cuts when we need to. He believed that we should do more physical training than working more on our waza and posture, even though as we do our physical training, we should always try to maintain proper waza and posture.
It is an interesting direction to think. For our club, I think it works well since during the week, we (when we have our bookings) have two sessions without our instructor because he works and we train during working hours. Only is it on Saturday or on Night training is he present. This allows two sessions to practice our basics and waza, and then receive the harder physical demands from him on our Saturday training.
By comparison to other clubs, I have been told by several people, our club is the most physically demanding. Training at other clubs from our members, and also from my visit to Blue Leaf, I can see that is often quite true. Is it more important to concentrate on one than the other?
I think, that in regards to fitness and form, they must go hand in hand. Yes, you can not make the fast and strong cuts when you have the opening if you have not the strength and fitness, but if you have it and no form, your cut will be poor and weaker, causing loss of the point that you have attempted. Kendo is meant to be physical in my opinion. Over time, yes, if you train regularly, and eat well (healthy) you will get stronger and fitter. It may take longer if you train less and look after yourself, but you will notice it. But if you do not practice your waza, over time, you will not really improve.
We train in a two hour block. The first quarter is warmup, stretches and usually basic footwork. I think we could probably better spend perhaps the next quarter on fitness. They recommend thirty minutes a day of physical exercise. We are doing two hours, so putting thirty minutes into say, doing the continous cuts or more hayasuburi sets would be useful. Then it leaves us an hour to do waza and jigeiko. At the same time, if you do three cuts per rotation in waza training, it doesn't really push your physical side. If you do five, it starts to perhaps get there. While we have done ten before, I think it is hard to do too much and may be concentration dropping in some ways. Perhaps a seven cut rotation would bring a good balance between the physical and waza blend.
But, as I do mention before, our current setup of trainings works well, at least for me. I can see and feel my fitness improving, though my waza is not so obvious.
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