Kendo... for real

Yesterday was the first time we did what I consider real Kendo. For the first time, almost everyone got in bogu and we spent the night doing kirikaeshi and uchikomi. We've done that before but this time it was facing each other (2 lines). That meant receiving kirikaeshi... That was a disaster at first but they slowly got to speed. Depending on motodachi, they were reacting in a way or another. Flashback to the exam when E was motodachi and they didn't know how to react to his style. My main complaint was that they weren't confident enough to "do their own thing". With everyone in bogu now we can finally start working on that!

Main problems detected today:
- receiving tai-atari
- proper count 4/5 in kirikaeshi
- proper swings with kote on
- speed to put bogu on
- general laziness in lining up and ready to go
- proper hit on top of men

I had to explain why we were suddenly doing all this... prior to today, they were still doing their waza on each other's shinai (without bogu) or on either me or K. But since I gave them the ok to wear the bogu a few weeks ago, there's now nothing to stop us from "going at it".

Now the fun starts...