A preview of Ventus in Birth by Sleep. Coming out for PSP.
Anyways I still managed to sleep and wake up LATE. It was 7.15, so I quickly bathed and rushed to school.
When I arrived Arif was teaching the newbies (the ungraded Kendoka) basics on kamae and ashisabaki. When he saw me he told me to warmup and he'll teach me how to wear the bogu.
Warm ups done, Mark And I listened intently to Arif on how to put it on. It looks so easy, but yet, as all things are, easiier said than done. First you put on the tare. No problem there; just wind it behind your back and tie it underneath the front flap.
The tare. Helps to protect your stick and balls =D
Next up was the do. Again, not much of a challenge. The trick is to keep the strings tied equally. Oh yeah, Mark's bogu looked awesome. Brand new, still untouched. Even his tenegui was still in wraps!
Then came the tenugui. Finally, the men. It takes a bit of practice to put it on, so no sweat. Even six-year olds in Japan can do it by themselves. When I first donned the headgear I felt like..... like....
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LIKE THIS GUY!!! check out the cool gedan posture.
The men was a bit heavy, and it took me quite some time to get used to it. After all, I've been training in Kendo for four years without bogu... Old habits die hard.
Once everything was done, Arif let us do some footwork. I noticed that my left heel tended to rise up half an inch more than usual. Is this normal? I was always told that left heel is supposed to be an inch above the ground... but now in bogu it's slightly higher. Let me know if what I'm doing is wrong, guys and girls.
We practiced hitting shomen suburi. Now I know why we must tenouchi. It actually hurts the head if you just potong balak like that. We did kakari geiko, do and kote strikes.
Another thing. In bogu, somehow my shinai feels lighter; but harder to control. I noticed this when doing kirikaeshi. Looks like I need lots and lots of practice for the next grading.
Hakim challenged me to get 4th Kyu in my next grading. The gap is wide, but the leap is possible. Well, Hakim did it. Then he also managed to jump from 4th Kyu to 1st kyu.
All in all, today was a very knowledgeable day. I have just started to walk on the path of the Sword, and I still have a long way to go. But slowly, but surely, I will get to my ultimate goal: PERFECTION IN THE WAY OF THE SWORD.
Izzaz
2 comments:
well, Izzaz, ur heels is an inch higher than usual is not right, but there are some people who do their kendo like that. I would advice u to keep to ur basic.
But even then, u will slowly change the way u put ur foot or heels. it's just thru the process of learning it u see the difference of having ur heels high and low, sometimes depends on situation and sometimes not. Unless i'm there i could give u an advice. but the important part is to is to stick to the basic until the basic proves u that it doesn't work for u.
awesome. Stick to the basics. Got it
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