Random #57 - Return to training

Its been a while since I properly trained, and I have recently started to ease myself back into things after my hiatus focussing upon archery related activities.  Upon my return, we now have a new Sensei, a 5th Dan, from Japan.  His name is Takayama, Katsuhiro.  He is a star pupil of Chiba Sensei, and has been the former coach of 6 different Kendo teams.  He's an interesting person, quiet spoken but often has a mischievous glint in his eyes, not to mention his interest in soccer, like many Japanese people.

Training is vastly different to how training used to be when I last trained, and it is still something I am adjusting to, the structure is different and of course the exercises are also different.  Katsu-san told me that he is looking at ways of changing how Kendo is taught, that makes it more fun, less serious, but still allows the principles of Kendo, good Kendo, grading Kendo, shiai Kendo, to all be learnt and applied.

To this, we do different footwork to what you would expect to see in many traditional dojo settings, and we also run different warmup exercises.  What I do miss though is our waza/suburi rotations, though of course things can still change again as Katsu-san has some kind of plan that just takes time to implement.

In any case, my fitness is being tested, and all the muscles I use for archery aren't the ones for Kendo, so I need to re-develop and rebuild them again, but thankfully so far, my feet haven't suffered too badly.  

Grading is coming up at Picton, but I will give that a miss as I do not feel confident about it, regardless of what the others say, it is what and how I feel in the end as I need to enter the grading confident in passing to perform at my best.

Onwards with the journey.