My apologies for the delay - I've been trying to find the best ways to juggle my time, and sometimes that means less computer time. Yesterday was my third Kyudo lesson, and a lot of what I've been practicing has come together. I got to the dojo early, and sensei sent me to learn how to clean the range. It turns out the mound is made of sand - between practices, they wet the sand and reshape it with this paddle-like thing. Also, Kawaguchi-sensei has lightning ninja reflexes - just after the greeting ritual, a mosquito landed on her arm. In a fraction of a second, she slapped it without looking. I hardly even saw her hand move!
Today, both of the foreigners showed up - Wolf and Sebastian. As usual, I played the interpreter. We practiced kata again, until finally sensei came over and said, "I think it would make more sense if you were actually holding bows." And so, we went out back to the storage shed, which was FILLED with bows. I mean, tens if not hundreds. Sensei picked out a bow for each of us - mine weighs in at 10 kilograms. Before we could use them, however, we had to string them. Let me tell you, it's not easy. You stick the top of the bow in this hole in the wall to keep it steady, crouch down, and bend the bow upwards.When you've reached the correct angle, you attach the string to the bottom of the bow, and then gently let the tension out. It took my three tries. When I got it, sensei showed me that I did it wrong: something about the string being backwards. So she restrung it, but instead of using the wall, she braced the bow with her leg. WHY IS SHE SO COOL?
And so we began practicing with the bow. We got to hold the arrow, too, but she made us drop them before we got to the drawing part. It's dangerous unless you have a glove on, I'm told. And that's just fine with me - practicing with the bow makes a lot more sense, but introduces many more variables into the equation. For one thing, the position of the bow changes a lot - you rotate it as you proceed through the first two steps, and you have to keep it at the correct angle. That also has to do with actually holding the bow properly, another thing I had a bit of trouble with. Sensei got a bit snippy since I kept getting it wrong. She likes to pretend she's strict, but since she's always smiling, I can tell that she's actually quite caring. She's just a hands-down good teacher. Few and far between, those.
But back to the problems: I'm too weak/don't have good enough form to draw the bow well. I don't think I've been able to get it to full width, just because I'm not strong enough. But the amount of force required to pull back the string makes my posture sloppy, and makes my bow tremble. I'll have to practice a lot more before I'll actually be able to shoot an arrow. But if tiny old Japanese women can draw a bow, so can I! Incidentally, sensei was able to, using three bows at once, draw over 30 kilograms at once. Not surprising, since she's practiced since she was 12 years old!
I'm hoping to take my first shot before my 21st birthday, so I have about 20 days to improve. Cue Rocky training montage.
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