Typical Practice Outline

[nodachi]

What does the typical practice at your dojo look like? Do you do a short warm-up, and then go right into jigeiko, or is there a big structure to your practices? How often do you practice kata, etc... Give us an outline. Just curious about how other places are training these days.

For example, my old club would do basic warm ups without shinai, then some suburi, then some kirikaeshi, then work on kihon waza, then slowly incorporate more complicated drills involving the different combinations of waza or hitting men down a huge line of people or sensei would go for your men and you could try whatever technique you wanted to beat him to the point, then maybe some kata, and end with shiai practice or some jigeiko and rotating to different partners every 3 minutes.

So how does your dojo practice?

[Old Warrior]

"For example, my old club would do basic warm ups without shinai, then some suburi, then some kirikaeshi, then work on kihon waza, then slowly incorporate more complicated drills involving the different combinations of waza"

That is very close to what we do in our Kumdo school. Before the suburi we do 10 reps of every cut in 2 step movement and then in 1 step movement. Then on to suburi. Next, we form 2 lines and after doing 5 reps of whatever technique that is called out (sometimes we do a few different techniques with the same partner) you rotate to the next partner. If bouting is going to occur everyone sits at one end and the first pair is called out with the winner staying up till defeated. Class ends with muk sang.
After a grading exam we sometimes spend a week doing kata. I have a feeling as the NJ summer takes hold, kata without bogu will be a bit more frequent.

[William Honda]

Warm up no shinai
Suburi
Footwork up and down the court
Footwork with ki ken tai ichi up and down the court
Seiza (callouses), mokuso, rei
Kirikaeshi
Uchikomi drills
Kakarigeiko (slaughter lines - 3-5 sensei 2or 3X around)
Jigeiko
Seiza (callouses), mokuso, rei
Atogeiko

[Charlie]

We do pretty much what you said, although we usually stick to kihon. We often have a couple of rounds pf "player's choice" where you and your partner (rotating) can work on whatever waza you want. Then finish the evening with jigeiko. We often start with kata.

We should do kakarigeiko more often, but we have many beginners, and want to work on basics with them.

[Old Warrior]

I'm curious, how many suburi do you do on a typical day. We usually do 200. On my old body 300 is the current outside limit.

[Hongsermeier]

Old Warrior...You should come to summer camp in No Cal. It runs for three days. On the second day you get the joy of 1000 suburi. You will sleep well that night. :cross_eye

[Neil Gendzwill]

30 minutes kata practice (1 class/week only)
Jog or jump to warm up
Stretch
Suburi
Lineup/mokuso/rei
Drills without bogu (sometimes, especially early in the year)
Put on bogu
Kiri-kaeshi
Rotation waza-keiko - usually basic strikes followed sometimes by more complicated technique (suriagi, debana etc)
Kakari-geiko (sometimes)
Rotation jigeiko (sometimes)
Kiri-kaeshi
Slight break for equipment checks
Jigeiko or (rarely) shiai practice
Lineup/mokuso/rei

Note that depending on who is attending class, rotation practice may be senior people on the motodachi side and only the juniors rotating, or one senior person anchoring the rotation and everyone else rotating.

Note also that out of a 2 hour class, 30-45 minutes is jigeiko and everything else is structured. There's also usually 15 minutes or so at the start of general milling about before practice starts.

[Old Warrior]

Hongsermeier

I'm 3X's older than the oldest student in my class. I would be proud to say I could do 1000 suburi, but I'd have to lose 30 pounds or I'd probably wind up sleeping forever, if I tried. Since I've fixed it that my wife is better off if I'm alive - I'll pass on the 1000.

[Raígma]

Warm up with stretching and running
Suburi (A pitty, since more beginners are there we stick to 20-30 per kind)
Seiza
Sometimes Footwork but mostly KiriKaeshi followed of other Kihon Waza and more advanced Waza.
JiGeiko
Sometimes following drills.
Seiza
-End-

Takes 1 hour 30 minutes.

Kata is only fridays one hour before "normal kendo".

[Neil Gendzwill]

Originally posted by Hongsermeier
Old Warrior...You should come to summer camp in No Cal. It runs for three days. On the second day you get the joy of 1000 suburi. You will sleep well that night. :cross_eye
Meh. 1000 suburi is about 20 minutes of swinging. It's kind of a time-waster, as everyone just ends up raising their arms up and down without much thought. Better to do 100 and do each one correctly.

[Hongsermeier]

They are done in sets of 100 with a short 10-15 sec break in between. :cross_eye

[William Honda]

I had to do 500 nonstop for stepping out of bounds 2x at a shiai.

[Sir Percy]

40 minutes kata practice
Lineup/mokuso/rei
Jog or jump to warm up
Stretch
Suburi
Drills without bogu (sometimes, especially early in the year)
Put on bogu
Kiri-kaeshi
Rotation waza-keiko - usually basic strikes followed sometimes by more complicated technique (suriagi, debana etc)
Kakari-geiko (sometimes)
Rotation jigeiko (sometimes)
Kiri-kaeshi
Slight break for equipment checks
Lineup/mokuso/rei
Closing comments by sempai and sensei

[Hongsermeier]

Honda..steped out 2 x and lost because of it? You deserve to be beaten!! 500 is a slap on the wrist. :cross_eye

[m_french]

I lost by stepping out twice...second round, of second ever shiai.....were can I go to get My beating.!?!?!??!?!:beard:

[Hongsermeier]

I'll see ya Mon night. If I can't do it the wife will be along. :cross_eye

[William Honda]

Yep, lost one to zero if my memory is correct. Too many tourneys, not quite sure. The only sure thing is I lost in the end.

I tell you, I was doing it as quietly as possible after practice that day - trying make my 9 foot tall body 9 inches tall.

[Inouye02]

confounds place , she likes to beat men ..

[Paburo]

30 min kata (once a week)
warm-up / stretch
suburi + footwork
rei / put on bogu-men
kirikaeshi
kihon waza
uchikomigeiko
advanced waza (debana, suriage, kaeshi, etc)
2 min break for check up
jigeiko or shiai practice(sometimes)
rei / take off bogu
stretch

[William Honda]

Hongsermeier,

I hope sensei forgot - but it is supposed to be progressive. Next time for me it will be 1000. The next one after that 1500 and so on. Therefore, no more stepping out for me. I might be able to eek out 1000 straight at a comfortable pace.

Is it cheating if I grab a 34 shinai? Too drastic huh, a 36 maybe?

[KATSUJIN]

well...it depends on the dojo.....in my main dojo....we do stretching with suburi cuts by 30 or 50 cuts for each ( 50 shomen, jogeburi, sayu-men, haya-suburi) for warm-up, then kiri-kaeshi followed by big men cuts, and then kote cuts followed by waza practices. We finish this portion of training with kir-kaeshi and then move on to ji-geiko....we do kata once a week on sundays...so we start earlier on sundays....

[Hongsermeier]

honda......good thing to stop. 1000 straight is pretty hard.

I'd say to borrow a nito 37. hard to see difference unless close.
:cross_eye

[Inouye02]

cant borrow mine honda san, besides he's big as one gorilla , so let him do it with 3 shinais...waaaaahahahaha

[William Honda]

That’s Mr. Gorilla to you, Inouye san.

[Inouye02]

mr inouye to you

[Nishi]

20-30 minutes stretch and suburi

20-30 minutes waza-kihon with or without bogu

20-30 minutes kirikaeshi/kakari-uchikomi etc.

30 minutes jugeiko.

It never works out this perfectly though and we usually have time to get a set of kata(each side, 1 to whatever).