i have new slippers!!! woohooo!!! now im ready for rag n future kendo trainings with my own pair of comfy, cheap, black slippers!!! no more heart pain, no more fighting for the only pair of black, sports slippers at home. haha~ i love my new slippers. hehe~

last night, had a training session in which my dear friends ditched me again. sigh. i thought i was going to be the only junior, until i saw.... pan yu!!! haha~ i was so happy i hugged her, making zhenfeng and jesse wide-eyed. haha~ and bihan and justin also came. yah! jianping sempai, derrick sempai, effendy sempai also turned up. so it was a pretty good training, did lots of breadth control exercises for 1 hour! omg... but i stayed on throughout the training, pushing myself. haha~ even when the migraines got worse, i stayed on. and then, a break! yay! took panadol, then it was jikeiko session.

When we first started with the breathing exercises, i was partnered with shermaine. got yelled at, but for a valid reason. after getting yelled at by her, then i realised when i do sayu(sp) men for kirikaeshi, i'm actually aiming the shinai rather than the men, hence, my cuts are too high. so yah. funnily enough, after getting yelled at by her, then did the other sempais started correcting my mistake as well. haha~ better late than never!

next, jikeiko session, i got derrick. now i understand why mun wei idolize him. derrick sempai was really patient, and he taught me so many things in one jikeiko session. in fact, this is the session where i learnt the most so far. and he did it step-by-step, so that when he sees that i more or less understands one part, he moves on to the second part, and so on. and so, for the entire 1/2hr jikeiko session, i just sparred with him, and these are the 3 main points i learnt: (1)Breathe control. basically, to control own breathing(ie, not to inhale too much, keep exhaling), and to observe the opponent's breathing. when the opponent is at the lowest point of exhaling, his/her chin will drop, and that is the point you attack. (2) Posture. observe opponent's posture. just before the opponent attacks, there will be subtle changes in his/her posture, ie, he/she will tense up. once you notice this, attack/prepare to defend/perform waza. (3) erm i cant remb 3 now, brain dead. *thinks* i think it's to maintain zanshin(sp) after a cut, run through, turn quickly, kamae, ready to cut. or after opponent performs a cut, chase quickly with intention. as effendy sempai mentioned at the end of training, cut with intention. yup, basically those are the 3 main points. and the reason why he spent the entire jikeiko teaching me was because he wanted to impart all his knowledge and what he had learnt from kendo all these years to us(juniors), as he is going to graduate soon. Thanks, derrick sempai!!!!

also, i have to thank estee once more for correcting my way of tying men, going into detail about my kamae and suburi cuts. thanks once more! i will try my best to correct those mistakes. as it is, my right elbow is hurting, now. sigh.

that's all for now. see you!