September 2007 Kyu Gradings

Konbanwa. I meant to put this on last night, but fell asleep before I could post it. Oh well. Bad zanshin! Right. Here's this week's rambling in review...

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September 2007 Kyu Grading

Ah, I’m back again with yet another belated post. Trust me, I’ve got the three previous sessions in the draft section, but none of them are really fit for posting (curse my fickle obsession with blog perfection!). I’ll definitely post those up...eventually :S

Anyway, on to the main topic. Last Tuesday, 4 September 2007, the Club held a kyu-rank grading. Read below to see what we did...

Beginner Grading

So the night started off with the recent beginners class doing their (hakama?) grading, with Benjamin, Jeffrey-senpai, and Leo-senpai as the panel. Here’s a recap of what was tested:

Footwork

• Forwards and backwards (2x each until stopped by panel)

• Sideways (2x each until stopped by panel)

• Forwards and backwards at a 45 degree angle to the right (2x each until stopped by panel)

Suburi

• Jogeburi – 20x

• Men cuts – 20x

• Kote cuts – 20x

• Do cuts – 20x

• Jumping suburi – 20x

• Kote-men cuts – Until stopped.

• Kote-do cuts – Until stopped.

Pretty much everyone did well, and I think everyone passed. Kudos to you guys for making it through your first grading!

With that done, we move on to...

Senior Grading

Oh, before I forget, credit for this summary goes to Tatsuaki, who wrote it down for me. Thanks, Tatsu!

Suburi

• Jogeburi – 20x

• Men cuts – 20x

• Kote-men (with ichi-ni backwards footwork) – 20x

• Jumping suburi – 30x

• Waza (in pairs assigned from group)

• Big men strikes with zanshin – 2x each

• Kote strikes with zanshin – 2x each

• Do strikes with zanshin – 2x each

• Kiri-kaeshi -1x each

Kata

• Ippon-me kendo kata

• Nihon-me kendo kata

For some reason, almost everybody was quite tense during this grading, and as a result we didn’t do as well as expected. Afterwards, we had jigeiko for about 15 minutes while the panel disappeared to reach the verdict. Here are the general inputs Marleen-sensei, Sam-sensei, and Jeffrey-senpai (as the panel) gave when they reappeared.

• The most important thing to focus on at the moment as a kyu-grade kendoka is ki-ken-tai-no-ichi. Get that right, and good kendo should follow.

• The motodachi (because the people doing the grading had to do the waza section in pairs) weren’t very good in receiving the cuts. The reasoning is one of the obligations of a senpai is to teach the kohai, and must therefore be able to receive the cuts properly to allow the kohai to understand how to do it right. Also, being a senpai means getting hit a lot more often. And so forth.

• Generally speaking, most of the do cuts were pretty off. Apart from that, Sam-sensei also mentioned that the zanshin would have to be done much faster and with more readiness.

• The kirikaeshi was okay, motodachi need more practice (as in point 2).

• The footwork for the kote waza needed improvement. People were taking large steps, which meant that they had to pull the shinai lower than the navel (because they reach the target before the cut is made). Focus more on small steps and extending the arms.

• Tennauchi needs improvement.

• Good kiai for the most part.

On a more personal basis (oh noes, rambling!), I didn’t do as well as did during training. Despite having reassured myself that it was only a grading (“a grade’s only a number, not a factor” and whatnot), I still managed to get pretty nervous. I think I still used too much right arm power for the suburi, but otherwise it was manageable. By the time we were in bogu, my arms felt like lead. Not good. Extremely sloppy,wooden waza and kirikaeshi (and I still haven’t gotten over that completely :D). Breathing also a mess – must stop using kiai excessively. And tense! Argh. So much to improve...oh well. At least I know where I stand at the moment.

Well, to make a long ramble short, everybody passed. I’m not going to put in the full list of who got what grade, it’s already on the club’s blog. Congratulations all around to us all! Yay!

Righty-o, that should sum up tonight’s business.

By the way, I’ve still got a pile of draft handouts from Marleen-sensei on NZ kendo events from August 2007 to 2008. If you haven’t gotten one of these, ask me on Saturdayso I can give you a copy. M’kay?

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p.s. Thanks for commenting on my blog, Ruby! Sorry about not getting back...I wanted to post a reply on your blog, but for some reason my laptop won't allow it. Meh. Bad zanshin! Bad follow-through! Ahem. Yes. Thanks all the same, senpai :D