Sonntag, 15. Juli 2007

4th KenVO Squad Training

Yesterday the 4th KenVO Squad Training took place in Leipzig. I got up 6:10 am in the morning and met with Stephan at 6:50. I went out of the house earlier than I do it on weekdays. We met the others (namely Tino, Patrick, Liv, Lilli and Elisa) and went to Leipzig.
We started the training with a normal warm-up and probably ten-times Kirikaeshi. Then we did basic strikes in different variations, but not in the easy way. On the first whistle we had to do Kiai and keep the tense in our bellies, this tense is also shown by stopping breathing. On the second whistle we had to execute three strikes in a row without breathing. Very exhausting. To calm down a little bit the next exercise was Tsuki. In the beginning slowly, then faster ending up with Ai-Tsuki (both try Tsuki at the same time on command).
I did a good job at the Tsuki training and I didn't feel uncomfortable anymore. Anyway our trainer had some good advices for me.
  • execute the thrust with the hip
  • Fumikomi-Ashi is very important
  • I shouldn't care about my arms that much, just naturally raise them
After some more exercises and a little break we did some more technique training. This time Nuki-Do. In the beginning the motodachi started with a Tsuki and at the same time we executed Do. It became more difficult with every round and we ended up with Men-Nuki-Do.
My timing and the step side-wards and even the Do strike work quite well. The real problem is the Zanshin after the strike, my arms don't do what I want them to do and I get stuck. I really have to improve the movement of my arms and body after the Do strike.
It wasn't exhausting enough and we started the final showdown before our mid-break: Suburi of all types, Double-Naname-Suburi on command, Koshiwari (very hard). We all felt like dying, even our friends from Berlin being invited to this training. But, this was not enough. Again Koshiwari in a very special manner anybody knew before: Koshiwari with jumping and without stretching the body to relax. Well... now some Hayu-Suburi. We survived.

After 1:20h we started again, just a short break to take a breath. We did Mawari-Geiko and Jigeiko. I met all important persons for Geiko and one of the final rounds I met, as always, our trainier Tomo. He always forces me to strike with his strong centre and his dangerous Maai.I have no time to relax at least a bit. Strike after strike. My body felt so weak even before we started and after two minutes of bleeding I felt like dying. I gasped for air and he said:
You are weak. Gasping for air is NOT a problem. Invest everything you have into one strike, its not a problem if you fell down after the strike. Overwhelm the weakness of your body with strength of your heart and fighting spirit.
Its not like I am not able to fight, but it's meant to be able to cope with very strong Kenshi on high national and even international level. Another reason why I started my extra conditional training.

Anyway we survived this day, but it was not enough. There was a kind of sport event in town and we have been invited to present Kendo. Again those wet clothes, our muscles felt like pain. The only reason to smile was a free meal and drinks. It wasn't enough though and we did a, almost traditional, stop at Macess (McD) afterwards.

Puh... what a journey. Big thanks to all who take part on this, especially Dresden's Kenshi, and of course our friends from Berlin.

2 Kommentare:

Anonym hat gesagt…

Your post sounds like the training was nice and instrutional but you told me that it was the horror and the hardest KenVo Squad-training. Hm ... I think I'm not able to understand how hard it was /is/will be.

Ok, whats enough for this late time.
WfG Conny

Georg hat gesagt…

Well.. I wrote I felt like dying and I gasped for air.
Maybe I didn't say how hard it was exactly because everybody already knows how hard it is.
The post was more meant as an analysis of the exercises and stuff we did.