Worn Blades...

After Kendo practice today, Mr. W handed me a pair of Kata swords for me to practice with for the preparation of the Kata demonstration in October. He told me to be extra careful especially with chipped and worn blades, it may inadvertently hurt someone with them. I placed them on my shinai rack and will practice swinging them whenever I have the chance.
Today I came to practice with a calm(er) state of mind, even though I didn't think I got many scores on my opponents, my teachers commented that I was doing well today.
Sergeant H mentioned that it was hard for him to find an opening on me today. Honestly, it was quite difficult for me to find an opening on him as well, since his stoic and immovable nature. We had a long back and forth keiko before he finally scored a men hit on me in the last attack.
I had hard time fighting with Mr. W and Mr. M today, because of their agility, they were able to dodge many of my attempts. Especially Mr. M, despite his age, height, weight and health condition, he's fast and alert, even though we may be able to guess his favourite attacks, it is still difficult to penetrate his defenses.
Thinking back to my keiko with Mr. W, I remember that I was trapped in my own blueprint of Mr. W's Kendo style. Instead of keeping an open and empty mind, I was anticipating what Mr. W's next movement would be according to my own blueprint.
Blueprinting is perhaps one of my traits in Kendo. It could be first considered a strong point, because I am able to analyze my opponents and find a pattern within their movements and style. However, I think that in the long run, this blueprinting is setback because it holds me back from developing my own feeling and sense for Kendo. Instead I would always fall back on my blueprints for each of my opponents every time. I shall try to keep an empty and open mind next time I practice, of course there are general tactics when facing different opponents... I just need to somehow find a balance between tactics and an open mind.
I will go to practice again tomorrow, hopefully I will have the chance to practice with Mr. S and Mr. K again.