Too Hard to Handle

Today was the first Sunday practice I've been to in the last 3 months, perhaps it's the first Sunday practice I joined this year! It's been a while that I lost count...
The weather was merciless as usual in our non-air-conditioned JJS practice facility and the training, well... I found that I'm still not at my ideal cardio conditioning just yet, let's put it that way. I need to put in more training and perhaps less smoking or something. Mr. S commented that perhaps I should be his roommate and train with him morning and night.

Mr. TTKuma led today's basic practice, the emphasize was on big, fast and strong swing on every hit and drills. No pauses in between hits for kote-men and more importantly, no pauses in between upswing and downstroke on every hit. Needless to say, it was a very intense albeit not very long basic practice. Plus, we need to conserve our energy for our last match with Mr. F.

Before my turn with Mr. F, I was calm (maybe from being tired) and determined to not think too much about winning or what point to score, instead to do my best Kendo. This is not as easy as said, because despite his age and conditioning, Mr. F's Kendo is very complicated and unpredictable. One can caught off guard easily and beaten by Mr. F's experience and tricky attacks.
I was quite cautious during the beginning of the match, trying not to do too much wasted movements or attacks, then it happened... To this moment, I am still not quite sure of the play by play. I remembered that we collided when we attacked at the same time and my arm/elbow was on his face mask, I did a little push with my shoulder and arm... Then suddenly I saw maai (distance) and suki (opening), I instinctively took advantage of it. I scored a men hit and I took the match.
I know that it was not a beautiful attack, it's something that my friend ATW called a garbage point, certainly not as beautiful as Ms. KK's ai-men score on Mr. F today.

After the match, I had the opportunity to practice with Mr. K and Mr. S.
I had a good time re-learning timing and semme with Mr. K, I think both of us had some good hits on each other and he looked like he enjoyed or session as well.
Mr. S was aggressive and I was suckered a few times in the beginning before I found my own rythm. He advised me to learn semme to hit kote instead of relying on hand to eye coordination, baiting the opponent to hit instead of hitting whenever I see the opponent move.

After practice, I made sure I loaded up on vitamins, isotonic drinks and of course, protein shake... I didn't want to felt sick from over training like I did yesterday.