Shodan

I have finally passed my Shodan grading. What a great feeling.

It wasn't all smooth sailing though. There are two components to a kendo shodan grading. Jigeiko (free sparing) and kata. Going into jigeiko I thought this would be the easiest part of my grading. However, standing there in front of the judges on the day...I was particularly nervous and subsequently my muscles were extremely tight limiting my movement and making me feel heavy overall. My 1st grading partner came out firing leaving me flat footed. It was a real task to re compose myself, and get back to playing my natural aggressive game. But it was too late...i was stuck on the back foot, unable to get a clean cut to boost my morale...it showed with lack Kiai. The second round of Jigeiko was a little better, but more of the same.

I felt disappointed with my effort.

Then onto kata. This was my biggest worry, since I’m not a great kata lover and don't manage to get a lot of Kata practice in each week like some who are more enthusiastic about it. However, going into the Kata I found a spot of calm intensity, and managed to pull out a very reasonable display of kata skills. My weakest area had just become my strongest over night so it seemed.

On the day, I learnt Kendo, like many other sports and combative activities has a strong mental component which influences overall performance. I heard chess is a good way to pump up the grey matter....