My last post was about, essentially, how shit I have been recently. In fact, maybe my last few.
What is strange, is that, following that and the (thankfully very) minor neck injury, I had two frankly awesome practises, one straight after the other. Friday evening and Saturday morning. Just like that, as Tommy Cooper would say. If he wasn’t dead.
I have an inkling why, let me share it with you. Its appallingly simple, actually. I simply concentrate on attacking seme (ie what I always god dam well preach myself, seme that forces a reaction, and makes them move the way you want) to create better opportunities, and then on the attack, concentrating on getting my legs to the target, bring back some of my speed and distance.
Keiko, in short, felt fantastic.
And then, on the way home, I realised, quite correctly, that, I haven’t gotten better, I’m simply doing the kendo that I was doing half a year ago before the slump I had fallen into gripped me in it’s dirty arms and dragged me down. But then I guess that is the nature of the dreaded kendo slump, you have to get back to where you fell down from in order to try that first step to a higher level again. So, back to that old place I was.
An interesting upside is that I’ve managed to retain a lot of the shape and technique that I had been working on in the absence of success, so I guess it does do well to train your balls of through the slump, and not give up. It’s funny that it all came and (hopefully) fixed itself in a light-bulb-above-the-head esque moment of clarity.
Now all I need to figure out is what I need to do to get moving forwards again…..One step at a time, Gibbo, one step at a time….
