The position of the left foot

Today, Sensei told us to pay attention to the position of the left foot.

I feel like I’m finally starting to understand how important the left foot is in kendo.

In today’s practice, Sensei said to us, “After setting kamae, no matter what movement you do, you should always be aware of where your left foot is.

If your left foot isn’t in the correct position, try practicing with clean, disciplined movements, being careful that your left foot is always in a good position.

It’s good to do everything slowly”.

This is because, if our left foot isn’t in the right position, we won’t be able to attack with power, using our left foot push our body forward.

When we don’t use our left foot, usually we end up reaching forward with the right foot as we go forward to attack.

This movement disrupts your balance and momentum, which makes you lose power.

Clean, sharp striking is difficult to do without the correct use of the left foot.

Striking from an awkward position can sometimes even hurt or injure your body.

The bottom line is that without appropriate use of your left foot, nothing good happens in kendo!

I immediately decided to constantly be aware of the position of my left foot,

but with so many kendo movements, it’s difficult to keep track of its position every time I move.

So the other day, I tried recording my practice.

But, honestly, watching videos of my practice or tournament is so painful（˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥)!

It’s as painful as watching a video of myself singing karaoke (T⌓T)!

But in order to improve,

I heard the voice of the kendo god telling me, “You must not look away!”

I forced myself to open my eyes and face the video of myself.

Well, my first impression was…

“My head is huge!”

Well, I’m a cat like Doraemon, so I guess that can’t be helped.

Anyway, the problem is the position of my left foot!

As I watched the video,

There were times when my left foot position was good,

but a few times I felt “Huh? My left foot’s a little too far forward…”

For example, when I was doing some renzoku-waza like, kote-men, about 90% of the time, after the first strike to kote, my left foot would slide too far forward to nearly alongside my tight foot…

I thought I was moving my left foot correctly, but the reality was that I was wrong again

I don’t know why, but often times during practice, I hear what Sensei is telling us, but surprisingly, his words don’t sink in, or at least as I actually try to do things, they don’t stick in my mind, and in the end, from start to finish, I just end up doing whatever I want…

Or, as I mentioned earlier, I think I’m correcting my bad habit, but when I watch the video, I see that I didn’t do it at all. I just did the same wrong movement over and over again.

This happens all the time…

So, I think watching videos of myself is a great tool for looking at myself objectively.

It’s incredibly painful to watch, but the more painful it is, the more I need to face myself and discipline myself, sigh.

So, once again, I need to pay attention to the position of my left foot, and in any movements, I need to generate power with my left foot pushing and connect it to the strike.

Come to think of it, rather than being the “King,” the left foot is more like the “commander” of each attack.

I can imagine my left foot shouting:

Yes, that’s probably what it feels like.

Okay! I’ll try my best again with this image in mind.

I will go to practice again tomorrow ♪