Last Practice Before the Tournament

Well, this is it. This is the last practice before the MWKF tournament in La Crosse, WI. I made sure that I gave it my all this time!

First, I made sure that I arrived early so that I could get a chance to practice some kata before practice. As said before, I think that I have ipponme and nihonme down, but it's sanbonme that I need to work on. After working a little on it, I think that I have it somewhat down...or at least to the point where any improvements would do little help on my performance.

Practice was the normal fare with the extra weight (read: double shinai) suburi at the beginning of practice. The real fun began once we were working on waza. Overall, I felt that I got some good speed this time around. With that in mind, I'd like to have that carry over to my jigeiko sometime :).

I learned a new waza today where we take the shinai and turn in clockwise or counterclockwise to get the opponent's shinai out of the way for a good attack. Of course I was confused at first since it is new to me after all. I do know that I need to work on the effectiveness of my movements by speeding up and shrinking the circle that is made. I wish I knew this before this practice so I could use it effectively in shiai.

At the end, we did some 1 minute jigeiko. I wasn't at my full potential since we were on the stage. I got some hits in, but people were able to make some multiple hits on me since I was hardly able to move without bumping into someone. Maybe if we did do it like a real shiai then I would have done better. Ah well, there is no use complaining now since practice is over and I did give it my all despite the space constraints.

Well, I am getting pretty tired now. I hope to do well at this tournament and the ranking and I wish the same for all that are participating. Good night and good luck everyone!