Thursday, February 10, 2011 - Session Nineteen

5:02 PM: Oh man. I am soooo exhausted. I had an appointment with a nurse practitioner this afternoon, after rescheduling it to half an hour later than it had been. I missed the first appointment because I am forgetful in the brain. It was not the best medical exam in the world. I asked to be referred to an orthopedist for my knees and the NP then remarked that my knees angle inward rather than forward. I already knew this and that was the reason I was asking for an orthopedist referral. She gave me a flimsy neoprene knee brace and also said that I probably should have had my legs braced (like the steel kind) when I was kid. Not sure my knees are that bad. Had some blood work done and that is always good. Afterward I went over to the Casa de Mom and shoveled the snow from both the sidewalk and her walkway, and now I am totally wiped. My arms are tired too, from flinging big snow piles back over my shoulder each time I shoveled. Exercise induced asthma kicked in hardcore while I was shoveling and I still feel short in the lungs even though I was able to lay down for awhile afterward. Cold air is my eternal nemesis! But maybe that will give me a refractory period later tonight and let me get down with some swings without collapsing for once. Ummm, what else, what else. Oh yeah! Kendo is going to be awesome tonight! I just know it!


9:43 PM: Kendo was awesome tonight! It totally made my entire bad day melt away like ice in the sun! Or evaporate like sweat from a kendogi! Hard to decide which. Grante the problem with the electronic ignition unit in my car came up again while driving there, but it was working fine again when class ended. I just had it repaired yesterday so it better be working right. Hmmph. Anyway, Maestas Sensei had Amaury Sempai and I start the class in bogu. We started with some haya-suburi and then ran over kirikaeshi for a while, and our rotation was staggered with more than one round for each. Which meant that I was able to catch my breath when I was motodachi and focus a little more on improving my form. After that, we ran through the first three Kihon Kata several times and then removed the bogu for Iaido lessons. It was sooooo nice to be able to breathe. Justin Sempai showed us how to perform the kata while Maestas Sensei explained them to us, and I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to some more of that.

From here on out, both Amaury and I are going to be getting together to practice on our own time. With the taikai and shinsa in Dallas coming up, it is going to be important to get in as much time as possible. I think I am going to work on really pushing my stamina so that I can build up my endurance as best as I can before then. I need to start on some sonkyo drills again as well. My sonkyo has become shakey and not at all stable. I am also going to schedule an appointment with the orthopedist right away and see about some physical therapy exercises to get my legs (closer to) correctly aligned. Kendo has already strengthened my legs enough to rotate my knees to a correct position without discomfort, but I cannot keep them in the proper alignment and I am hoping some PT will improve that. The malalignment is causing my feet to overpronate and that has been a big difficulty for me when it comes to doing proper footwork. So it feels good to know that I will be working on fixing that problem. I love that the three big issues I have been facing can all be fixed with more exercise, and that it is Kendo which prompted me to start fixing them. Oh man, the next few months are gonna be so great!

4 comments:

  1. How are you enjoying the Kihon Kata? I know that other dojos are implementing them (including ours) but you are the first person I've read about that has specifically mentioned them. I just wish I had been able to go over them when I first started, as I can see a lot of benefit in them.

    Also when is your taikai and shinsa? That is very cool that you are going. Are you going to compete??

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  2. I am liking the Kihon Kata quite a bit. I am not having any real difficulties with comprehension and I have felt a small improvement in my technique after beginning them. And that is only small because I have not done them so much. But they are definitely going to become part of the personal practice days, so that should help a lot.

    And the Dallas taikai and shinsa will be held April 29th through May 1st and, since the taikai (Nabeshima Cup) has a mudansha division, I am definitely going to register to compete. No reason not to! It will be great to see where I fall in the grand scheme, in both events, and I cannot wait! Really looking forward to it. I am going to really push myself so I can build up the endurance, since I do not want to fall over like a fish outta water at the taikai. Haha. Even begun saving up so I can purchase my own bogu before then and have something that actually fits me right for the event.

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  3. Good luck! With both the shinsa and taikai. You'll have to let us all know how you do :D

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