Locker room stories

I must confess that my summer break was quite a long one. Though I am back for now . Of course I practised all the time since summer and didn't stop at all. We even went to Kangeiko, the probably most important Kendo seminary in Germany.

Today we prepared for the upcoming tournament in Magedburg and did a technique training. I preferred to practice Men-Debana-Men to get a feeling for the timing. There are a lot of indicators to recognise before a strike starts, like preparing movement and closer distance. I tried to concentrate on the other players mind. It is really difficult but you receive a lot of information looking in the others eyes. Learning to read the opponents mind and see his steps before he will do them is a very difficult thing to learn. Of course you can force a persons to act in a way you like with Seme and pressure, but the first described feelings are more elegant. Combining both is absolutely necessary. Afterwards I concentrated on Men-Kiriotoshi-Men which is a technique to prepare and understand Suriage-Men. Sometimes I miss the right point being either to early or to late. Kiriotoshi is very powerful and I'll focus on this technique quite a while because I like it and can combine it with my timing practice. Techniques against Kote work pretty well as I optimised my own Kote strike in the last weeks a bit.

To prepare for our tournament we continued practising opportunities with Kote-Men or Kote-Do. After a Kote strike the Motodachi either tried to protect his Men or not. If he did this was the opportunity to strike do, if he didn't we just go for Men. This is great exercise to practice reaction, body-eye control and realising strikes in a very short time period. However the success or correctness of this exercise is heavily affected by the Motodachi. If he raises his arms too late you'll probably go for Men before. I'll continue practising this exercise in the next training sessions and might extend it a little bit. For example the Motodachi tries to block the Kote strike or if the Kakari hits Kote perfectly he might show Zanshin afterwards instead of doing another strike which might be incorrect or risky.

'Inuff' about Kendo. After training we are a really crazy mob. Singing while having a shower. We have two favourite songs so far. I also searched for the lyrics, maybe we can learn them to act more professional.

• We will rock you (Queen) [lyrics]
• The Lion sleeps tonight [lyircs]

Finally an awesome picture of our pecking order. (like Kohai-Sempai system)
From top to bottom:

1. Stephan
2. Me
3. Tino & Patrick
4. Alex, Conny & Sebastian