one-on-one

Mano-a-mano. Nakatani-kun and I squared off for two hours of intense practice. Actually, it being the middle of summer vacation, he's the only one who showed up to practice. So, I worked him hard, drilling the finer points of upper- and lower-body timing; trying to get the legs and arms to move in unison, drive the power from the hips, keep balanced and stable. We ran through fundamentals for most of the time. First basic cuts, checking angles, grip, and the timing of foot and hand movement. Then we did the basic renzoku waza; the two series of draw, cut, sheath that are aptly named #1 (horizontal cut) and #2 (rising diagonal cut). I stood him in front of the mirror to check angles and point out the timing of stepping versus drawing back the left hand to get the sword tip to clear quickly and cut powerfully.
Teaching in such detail is a great way to work on my own technique, too. I have to show proper examples, and as I'm explaining and demonstrating I'm realizing what I need to work on as well.
And yeah, it wasn't exactly cool and refreshing.
After practice I jammed back to work to jump on the Tuesday night conference call.
Couldn't do it at home because I'm in the process of switching my second phone line from the company to my own name; company no longer sponsors phone lines, so I have to have it in my own name and then submit an expense report every month for it. And since the owner of the line, and therefore the number, is changing, I have to cancel my Yahoo! BB 12 meg DSL account, send the rental modem back, and then sign up again and get a new modem sent out.
Of course, yesterday when I sent the modem back, I forgot to include the power supply...wonder if they'll notice?

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