2009, The Summer of Aggression

By Charlie

Well, we've all been busy, and I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog as frequently as I should. Gonna be a nice hot summer of good training, we hope. And we have a theme.

Coach Abbey said a couple weeks ago that he wants us all pissed off in our training, asserting aggression, going after ippon with everything we've got, with a feeling of "I'm gonna put this damn shinai through your skull." When sensei lays down a theme like that, you've got to pick it up and run with it, I feel, so I've been calling this The Summer of Aggression. By that I mean this summer, our training focus is going to be on fighting aggressively, on taking ippon.

I think the drills that will best help us train toward that goal - and I articulated this on a couple of occasions - are:

-footwork
-kihon
-uchikomigeiko and kakarigeiko

And of course spirited jigeiko. Fundamentals, basically, but with this particular emphasis and goal in mind. I'm sure Abbey-sensei's words will be interpreted by everyone individually, but I wanted to articulate this here so you could keep in mind during the summer.

As always, don't forget to hydrate properly! See you on the floor.