MSU Visit, 7/17/07

Ron Fox and Wendy Chen of MSU Kendo visited us for practice last night. Great practice as usual with Fox-sensei. Attendance last night was roughly half bogu and half new people, so Fox-sensei covered a lot of important ground for the new people and kept them working (footwork and swing) and instructed the bogu people in a series of drills, then leading us into jigeiko.

Let's all try to remember what Ron taught us about footwork, balance and cutting. Some key points (and please help me out if you can):



-bring the left foot up quickly to join the right when stepping
-keep your balance, don't be cutting with your chest and arms in your hurry to make the cut
-remember the drills, stepping in from to-ma, extending the kiai, making the attack from to-ma and following through
-Fox-sensei said the Japanese believe practice should be "big, slow and correct!" This is good to keep in mind
-Relax the shoulders and float the sword up and down, cut with the legs

Always great to see MSU Kendo. Let's all try to get out to MSU to repay the favor!