Chapter 4: Practice
Xia Yan spent a day training the grip and starting style of kendo. After mastering it, Renji Asai began to teach him the footwork of kendo on the second day.
There are many footworks in kendo, and there are six basic footworks, which are folding feet, stepping feet, sending feet, stepping feet, opening feet and stepping feet.
Among them, folding feet is the most commonly used foot movement method in kendo. It is similar to the sliding step. The foot does not lift and moves close to the ground, which can reduce body shaking and maintain the integrity of the posture. At the same time, the sliding step has a small range of motion and can be used. When under attack, adjust your body shape as soon as possible.
It took Xia Yan two days to be able to keep his body steady while gliding.
During this process, Xia Yan needed to hold the long sword and maintain the basic posture of holding the sword.
Afterwards, Asai Renji taught me the footsteps, the footsteps are very similar to the folded feet, almost walking in the folded way, moving forward step by step.
After that, send your feet forward, with your feet one in front and one in back, with your right foot in front and your left foot behind, and the heel of your left foot should be lifted slightly.
If you move forward, first move your right foot forward in a folded gliding manner, and then quickly follow with your left foot.
If moving backwards, move the left foot backwards in a folded-foot glide, followed by the right heel.
In addition to moving back and forth, there is also movement in an oblique direction. It is necessary to use the sliding method to move the feet one after the other while maintaining a stable posture of the upper body.
You cannot move forward and backward at the same time, this is to have a supporting foot to stabilize the body during the movement.
It took Xia Yan five days to master sending his feet.
After that, it is the foot opening, which is the oblique and sideways change of the footsteps in place. Through this change, the body is turned to attack and defend against the enemy's attack.
This is relatively simple, and it took Xia Yan two days to master it.
After that is the stepping foot, which is very similar to sending the foot, but the difference is that the forward foot moves forward first, and the rear foot moves backward first.
But when the step foot is moving forward, the back foot moves forward to get closer to the front foot, and then the front foot moves forward, attacking suddenly, or retreating instantly.
The first step of following the foot is also called stealing step. This step is used for surprise.
After Xia Yan mastered it, he learned to step on, which is also called Zhenzu, which is closely related to sending off feet.
When moving forward, the front foot moves forward, but the entire sole of the foot is on the ground, and with great force, the rear foot moves quickly to keep up.
The moment the front foot is stepped down, the strength will be accumulated, and the strength of the body will explode when the back foot is followed.
These are the six basic footworks, and it took Xia Yan more than ten days to master them. Along with the training, his spirit particle density is also slowly increasing.
Footwork is the key to kendo. If you practice footwork well, your body will be stable and you will have the foundation to practice your fighting style.
The first practice style of play is shimmy.
The footwork used in the shimmy is closely related to stepping or shaking the foot. Using abdominal breathing method, when shaking the foot forward, adjust the center of gravity, tilt the upper body forward, and spit out the gas in the body at the same time. Shaft, throwing both arms out, splitting forward.
Moreover, there are also requirements for the movement of the hand when swinging the sword. When the sword is first swung, the little finger of the left hand should hold the handle firmly, and the left hand should be turned slightly inward.
But when the sword is swung to reach the farthest distance, the right hand has to be twisted inward, relying on the force of turning and squeezing both hands inward, to hit a point with the force and transmit it to the enemy through the body of the sword.
Shimming is the result of the joint action of footsteps, body, and arms. It needs to mobilize the strength of the whole body, which is of great benefit to the exercise of Reiatsu.
Shimmy training methods are also divided into two types, one is to pursue the number of shimmy, and increase endurance by doing as much shimmy as possible.
The second is to pursue the speed of shimmy, and increase the burst by the number of shimmy per unit time.
Rukia asked Xia Yan to train in both ways,
Especially for the first type, it must be able to achieve fifty shimmy vibrations at a time without stimulating the spirit particles.
This is not a small challenge for Xia Yan who is small in stature.
After Xia Yan taught the basics of shimmy in Rukia, he began to train alone. Holding a bamboo stick, he stood up and down in the open space to practice shimmy.
Once, twice, ... five times, ten times.
Xia Yan just started to shimmy, very relaxed, and soon did it ten times, but after more than ten times, he could feel the weight of the wooden stick and a sense of fatigue.
Eleven times, twelve times, ... nineteen times, twenty times.
Xia Yan continued to train for more than 20 times. When he reached the 21st time, he felt tired and his arms hurt.
Xia Yan rested for a while, then continued to train, performing shimmy time and time again, causing the spiritual seeds to be consumed again and again, but they were constantly replenished.
Under such circumstances, Xia Yan's spirit particle density increased extremely fast, and he could sustain a very large number of shimmy vibrations.
Thirty-five times, thirty-six times, forty times.
Forty-seven times, forty-eight times, forty-nine times, fifty times.
It wasn't until half a month later that Xia Yan was able to achieve a set of 50 shimmy times, which met Rukia's requirements for herself.
But only mastering the movements is just getting started. The strength used by each part of the body during the shimmy and how to respond to the moves require the help of others to train.
At this time, Rukia took the initiative to serve as Xia Yan's training partner.
Lukia held the wooden sword and stood in front of Xia Yan, with a pair of beautiful eyes exuding a serious look.
Xia Yan stood three steps away in front of Lukia. He held the knife in both hands, took a deep breath, and suddenly took a step forward with his right foot, stepping heavily on the ground, and then quickly followed with his left foot.
At this time, with the help of his shoulder joints, Xia Yan raised his arms flat and pointing upwards with the sword tip, then bent his arms, and swung them forward violently.
Along with Xia Yan's movements, the wooden stick hit Rukia's face.
Rukia raised the bamboo knife in her hand, just slightly adjusted her posture, and slapped the side of the wooden stick in Xia Yan's hand with the side of the wooden sword.
Only with extremely weak strength, he opened the wooden stick in Xia Yan's hand and flicked it to the side.
And the emergence of this force also made Xia Yan's movements stagnate. At this time, Lukia stepped heavily with her right foot, and chopped out the bamboo knife in her hand.
Xia Yan felt the huge wind blowing, and the shadow of the bamboo knife was in front of him in an instant, and he couldn't help closing his eyes.
But the expected blow did not come. Xia Yan opened his eyes and found that the bamboo knife had stopped one centimeter in front of him.
Rukia took back the wooden knife, shook her head and said, When you attacked just now, your hand movements were not well coordinated and your strength was not concentrated. The second point is that you did not retreat well. In the last move, don’t stop retreating just because the opponent blocked your sword move. Retreating in time can avoid the opponent’s next attack and give you the ability to dodge and counterattack.”
I remember.
Xia Yan kept these in mind, Rukia nodded and said, Come again.
Xia Yan trained with Lukia's company, mastered the essentials of shimmy, and was able to master it by heart.
Next, Xia Yan learned a lot of basic kendo techniques, such as hitting the face, such as hitting the abdomen, stabbing the throat, hitting the face and cutting back, and hitting the body.
These are the basic ways of fighting in Kendo, and they are also the most direct and simplest moves.
Those who can master these skillfully will have enough combat power to protect themselves, but compared to the profoundness of swordsmanship, these are just the simplest moves among them.
There are also face attack, abdomen attack, hand attack and throat attack in kendo.
In addition, there are Nianliu, Yidaoliu, Yinliu, Shinto and other schools and hundreds of branches.
But Renji Asai and Rukia Kuchiki didn't know these things either. The god of death who wandered here only taught them these basic skills and had to leave.
But these basic styles of play are enough for Xia Yan to protect himself.
At the same time, Xia Yan also mastered the skill of using spiritual pressure, and increased his speed, reaction ability and strength by consuming spirit particles.
Covering the long sword with spirit particles can make the sword faster and more powerful.
The current Xia Yan is only eleven years old, and his body is too small to compare with A Sanjing and Lukia, but by consuming spirit seeds, he can already compete with them for a short time.
Along with the practice, Xia Yan's spiritual pressure has also increased a lot. Presumably, if he continues to practice like this, one day he will be able to reach the fifth-level spiritual pressure.
And at this time, it had been three months since Xia Yan came to this world, and it was winter.