AUSKF Kendo Seminar: Day One

Today was the first day of the Kendo Seminar. Today was just a godo-geiko with the Sensei from Japan.

There were a lot of people there so it was a great opportunity to adjust to different styles of fighting. We were seperated by rank and put into groups and did mawari-geiko with sparring for about 20 minutes. It really took a lot out of me after the first few matches, but I made sure to not give up as my arms were getting more and more tired. In actuality, I was more concerned with the sweat getting in my eyes since I was sweating pretty profusely during the whole practice.

I got a chance to have a bout with Kobayashi Sensei and Ohta Sensei during the practice. I've never been with a hachidan before so it was great to have the opportunity to practice with both for the short time we were sparring. After the five minute break, we proceded to do some jigeiko with some of the higher ranking people. In that time, I was able to go against three people. I already had the opportunity to practice with the hachidans so that freed me up to go with the others in the shorter lines.

As far as personal issues, it would have to be that I need to pay more attention to my arm as I'm not extending it enough. It really helped when I was told to bring in my wrists more to help with the extension as it was pretty effective.

Well, tomorrow's another day and the official start of the seminar. There were a lot of people there today with more arriving tomorrow, so I wonder how packed it will be. I just know that I should just show up in my gear as I didn't realize the bathrooms were so small there.

Well, time to go for now. I'll post some notes about what I learned at the seminar after I get back.