Thursday, 18th February 2010.

Before I take you lot for a tour through my thoughts, I would very much like to say this. “HAPPY RAWR YEAR” to all of you ^__^ May your opponents quiver further under your ‘seme’! Hahaha, that was random. Yes, Chinese New Year is the time where we all feast upon good food and grow fat while telling ourselves “Once in a year! It’s okay!”. Yeaaaaa~ see la…. Eat eat eat eat… >.< Now I feel like a deflated tyre during training…

It has been almost 2 weeks since the last time I trained. The week before CNY, my dad actually told me. “You are not going Kendo this week.” T.T Wuuu~ It became unbearable after a while knowing that my peers were training while I was at home, rolling pineapple tarts. Then, it was the ‘balik kampung’ days. I went back to Penang and then Taiping, spending two days each over there, returning only on Wednesday evening. Needless to say, I missed Wednesday training as well. My shinai actually felt heavier when I picked it up to do some suburis that night (haha).

Perhaps I should thank Jessica for dragging me out of my house the next day. (Thank youuu~ XP). Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a reason to go for Kendo as I rely on daddy dearest to take me there despite the fact that I have been pestering him to ‘LET-ME-DRIVE-THERE-MYSELF’ =.= Yeap. What did I tell him? Simple “Pa, my friend asked me to go for karaoke. After that they are dragging me to Kendo.” LOL Karaoke is definitely a good thing before keiko (XD) as my kiai was a lot louder after that.

Anyway, Thursday classes are specially catered for non-bogu students so, we (the ones in armour) didn’t have to put on our men and kote. It’s a blessing really. Lol. Everything looks great without having something in front of your face and best of all, we feel a lot lighter. It was fun for us when it all became some sort of a game to us. Haha.

Warm Up.
The last Thursday session that I attended had a different style of warming up. The old ‘run and suriashi until you feel like you legs are going to fall off’ was replaced with the one we usually do on Wednesdays, which, I shall name it as ‘stand in a ring and follow the leader’. Heehee, forgive me for the lack of originality. Let’s see… we did jogesuburi, men suburi and hayasuburi (40 times as compared to the usual 50 that we usually do on Weds.)

Seiretsu.
It’s quite confusing at times being a bogu student in the non bogu session, truthfully speaking (XD). Sometimes the sensei wants us to be at the first line, sometimes he kicks us waaaay back into the last line. So… we became a herd of sheep for about 5 seconds. Haha. “Shomen ni rei!” That means no “Onegaishimasu” or “Arigato gozaimashita”, guys =P.

Back to Basics!
Partnering time! Pick a person of equal height! Nelson! Lol. He was my partner that day. I think his basics are better than mine, haha. Ashisabaki! Mae, ushiro, migi and hidari. That reminds me of my non-bogu days. We did quite a lot of suburis that day. Possibly more than 300 hayasuburis in total. Out of all the drills in the basic class, the one that I dislike most will be the “slide and hit men (3 step men)”. I find it a little… boring ^^|| Though of course, if the sensei wants me to do a hundred of those, I’d gladly do so. Then it was more hayasuburis. If only everyone could see their faces when Aimi demonstrated hayasuburi. Lol. Her speed is double of what we usually do.
• Ashisabaki – Left foot straight, right heel off the ground. Weight distribution of 50:50. Shinai NEVER moves.
• Suburi – Use less right hand strength. Keep shinai in the centre plane. No pausing before bringing the shinai down. TENOUCHI!
• Hayasuburi – Feet must move and not stay in one spot.

Fun stuff!
This is the part that I’ve alwaaaaays looked forward to in every basic session that I have attended. Uchikomi practice. Although they are similar to what we usually do in bogu practice, the atmosphere is not as intense. Well, at least to us in the ‘bogu group’ =P Yes, Chua-sensei split the class into 3 groups (Bogu, Adults, and the kids). The drills that we did? Men, Kote, Doh (my favourite! ^.^), Men Men, and Kote Men (which then evolved to small kote men on our side after a while). Everything was received with the shinai, except for the doh.

So what was the fun thing here? Lol. Our little inside joke about Jessica’s kiai (XD) that sounded very much like ‘Soup’. Then we all went through the various brands that we could use as kiai. That would’ve been hilarious if we actually did… Imagine yourself going… “Caaaaaaaaaaaampbells!” or “Heeeeeeeeinz!!” That’s where it all started. All the laughing, giggling, snickering while everyone else were trying hard on their side. I did overhear something earlier in the changing room although I am not sure who mentioned it. He said that it is difficult for a bogu student to go back to basics and honestly, I think it is true. ^^ Some things actually feel odd when we go through it during practice. There were a lot of other funny things that we all did. Hahaha. All are unintentional, of course. Especially when we called wrong targets.
• Kote – Stretch out arms and use tenouchi.
• Doh – The moment the cut is executed, the shinai has to ‘stick’ to the doh as tenouchi is applied. This creates the nice popping sound and also gives the feel that the cut is strong.

Ending.
Extra 50 hayasuburi!! At this rate, I think all the beginners can beat me in doing hayasuburi LOL. There is no way that I’d be losing to them!!! From now on, 200 hayasuburis a day for me! Last but not least, thank you sensei for now throwing your shinai at us for fooling around that day. Heehee~.