The Role of Jigeiko

This is something that was actually thought up of after Sunday's practice while I was helping a friend compile information for the Kendo club next semester. He was asking me about how I felt the club would be better run since I was in the club for longer than he was. Well, the subject of practing waza came up briefly, which set some sort of internal dialogue.

This is mostly a reflection of my own Kendo in that I have always felt that my actions have been a bit on the stale side. In the beginning, it's okay to just simply go for the men, kote, do and kote-men strikes but I feel that it's about time that I branch out to other techniques to round out my own style of Kendo.

Once one gets into armor, a bit part of the practice is Jigeiko, which gives us an opportunity to practice anything that we've learned in class that day in sparring matches at the end of the day. While this is great and all, I feel that I haven't been using Jigeiko as effectively as I could. When I am sparring, even when it's just practicing, I get into the mode that I should try my best to get that hit before the other person does and get the "point."

As a result of this thought process, I have decided to do my best in changing the focus of my Jigeiko matches by focusing more on trying different waza to start advancing my Kendo skills. In this way, I can have a better indication of what works for me and what doesn't.