Well, barring a few gradings in April/May, 2014 has been a fantastically unproductive year, budo-wise. Most of my energies this past year were given over to studying for my two attempts at the JLPT and, although I will be taking it again next year (the results haven't been announced yet but I'm not holding my breath), 2015 will be dedicated to budo, kendo in particular.
After the first five years of practice, the regularity of my keiko tapered off as I started university and work but it has returned to pre-university levels since coming to Japan. I have identified a number of issues I want to resolve in 2015, first of which is to build stamina and the strength in my left side. I am lucky enough to practice at two children's dojos where the adults can usually dictate exactly what waza they want to practice and exactly how to practice them. I plan to start with kirikaeshi before moving on to wazageiko (five times each), alternating between wazageiko and two-minutes' worth of kakarigeiko and uchikomigeiko, increasing the time as my endurance builds.
Secondly, I need to broaden the range of waza I am comfortable with. I am relatively happy with basic waza such as men-uchi, kote-uchi and hikiwaza, but I feel my technique gets quite shaky when it comes to anything more advanced. I want to work especially on kaeshiwaza, nukiwaza and haraiwaza, as this is the direction I want my kendo to go in at the moment. Besides, I have to start somewhere...
Finally, for the last few months, I have had a go at fighting from jodan. I don't think I will ever make jodan my favoured kamae but I do want it in my repertoire so I need to raise its level to equal that of my chudan. Unfortunately, none of the sensei I train with are jodan fighters but, on those occasions when I have used jodan against them, they have been kind enough to give tips and points.
Iaido
While next year's focus in terms of budo will be on kendo, there are also a few habits that urgently need to be kicked; I had previously thought that I had rectified them but both Ishido s. and Nakada s. have made it clear that they are still cropping up, so I will be looking to eradicate them completely.
The first of these is a double nukitsuke in forms such as seitei Mae and koryu Sato, Uto, to name but a few. I think the root of this habit lies in putting too much emphasis on the initial seme and turning what should be one movement into two (seme and cut). I will therefore be taking some of the focus out of the seme.
Second is an old demon I have been struggling with for a while: solidifying my cuts. While my kirioroshi is quite solid (though not as solid as I'd like), my body has a tendency to shift back in standing forms. This problem is quite noticeable in this video from the Kanto Taikai back in November. I suspect part of the issue is that my front leg might be too straight, pushing my body up instead of stopping my body's forward movement. In order to address this, I will be bringing my weight down and making sure my front leg doesn't straighten too much.
In contrast to the previous habit, the last point is one I've only noticed in the last month or so: whenever the right knee comes up for nukitsuke in seated forms like seitei Mae and koryu In'yo Shintai and others, I find my hips turn ever so slightly, also raising my right hip. I think this is due to sayabiki pulling the left hip back, the angle of my shoulders filtering down to the hips, and my right leg trying to make too much distance forward. I have already worked on this point a little during the last few practices of 2014 and putting the focus of hips further into the left hip seems to help, but I will have to have a play around over the year to find the best way of correcting this.
As a general aid to my training, I have also decided to model my iai on Hiraoka Yuki, a 6dan from Nakada s.'s dojo. His technique is very nice and correct, his cuts are sharp and his kamae is incredibly solid, despite his very tall and thin physique.
Jodo
As for jodo, I have only one really major technique that I seriously need to work on and one general habit I need to kick. The technique is makiotoshi, specifically in Midaredome where I find that I generally move too early and rush to bring the jo up, so I'll be working on waiting longer and relaxing the catch. As for the general point, I again seem to have a problem with solidity and sharpness.
Additionally, I'll be making a concerted effort to seriously practice the Omote, Tanjo, Chudan and Kenjutsu (in that order) every chance I get. Unfortunately, not many people in the dojo practice any of the jo koryu, let alone the auxiliary arts, and there's no such thing as a jodo koryu seminar here.
Similarly to iai, I have also chosen someone to model my jodo on: Morimoto Kunihito s., 8dan Kyoshi. He is also quite tall and relatively slim but his technique is absolutely beautiful and very clean and sharp, all things I am trying to incorporate into my jodo. Sadly, he is from Osaka so my exposure to him is limited but I will take every opportunity to study him.
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