I’m struggling to keep my momentum but I believe it is also inevitable for excitement to fall a bit flat after a series of break-troughs. Though I keep my positive attitude and try my best to make training sessions tie into one another, whatever the attendance might be.

Some nights, though, I have to just ditch the plan almost completely and go for something more adapted to beginners, as it was the case last Thursday, when 50% of the class were non-bogu ichi nen students.

A few years ago this would have frustrated me beyond words but now I see it as an opportunity to focus solely on their progress for 2 hours and an opportunity for them too. That’s how I present it to them anyways.

We worked a lot more on foot work and I spent 45 minutes making sure they would correct it, especially during backwards strikes (in menkirikaeshi especially).

My original lesson plan, that was supposed to delve into hikimen wasn’t ditched entirely though, but reduced to maybe 15 minutes instead of being the main theme.

I do my best to include beginners and make them feel valued or at least respected and accepted, to foster healthy group dynamics that will serve the dojo in the long run.

I’ve had a few days of doubt after the excitement of seeing them absorb the new approach to seme and debana waza. It is because explaining and working on it doesn’t automatically bring them to my level of experience and I have to learn to let go and let them find the answers at their own pace.

Last week I’ve added tsuki to the kihon from suburi to well into wazageiko. Nothing too hard simply moving forward with the hips dead center, while moving the arms forward in a relaxed manner to connect the hit with all the power in the legs and as little as possible in the arms.

At this level I thought it would be great if they simply got to reduce their apprehension about giving and receiving tsuki, so the angle is mostly about working on self-confidence.

In wazageiko I went a step further : using tsuki not as an ippon (which would be a little too optimistic anyway), but as a way to shake things up with a passive sparring partner and possibly open a way for other valid strikes.

We worked on tsuki followed by men, tsuki followed by kote and finally tsuki followed by kote-men. Some of these waza are uncommon, or may seem unpractical, but the emphasis was on constant seme and reaction to motodachi’s openings while they were retreating rather than reproducing a point-scoring scenario.

In that regard, such drills are a direct tie-in with previous training sessions focusing on developing pressure, seme and reaction to opportunities.

I then proposed one last drill : a tsuki with keeping seme (not stepping back of it), motodachi steps back and slightly pushes kakarite’s blade away, to which kakarite reacts with a kote-men, taiatari and finishes with hikimen.

This series of attacks looks like an uchikomigeiko, except that this time they were focusing on reacting correctly to their opponent instead of simply making the techniques in a mechanical manner.

My dojo members have to start thinking about these interactions of pressure, reaction and opportunity constantly, including in kihon keiko and uchikomi keiko as only a mindful and focused practice allows for conscious improvements.

When these concepts sink in, we’ll see a lot of bad habits corrected, I’m sure.

The start of the academic year usually brings around 10 newcomers to try out kendo by the end of October. From those curious souls, an average of 4 will sign up (of which about 3 will give up in the first year, but that’s another debate).

But this season? Nothing. Almost. We got one real beginner and one person who transferred from another dojo. Since mid-August, we got around 10 emails asking for information but we are yet to see these people show up to give Kendo a try.

At the same time, regular’s attendance is at an all time low but we still manage to work with motivation. 4-5 per training is not ideal but it’ll work, especially since it’s mostly Yudansha that are present.

I’ll wait it out and see if November gets better.