Special Double Issue (part 2)

Yes, I understand the irony of an updated post on belated posts would turn up as a late post itself. Moushiwake gozaimasen, all.

Without further ado, here is the second part.

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Training on Saturday, 6 October 2007

Sensei called in sick, so Jeffrey took over the session.

- Training Schedule on Saturday, 6 October 2007

• Warm-up
• Normal exercise
  
• Group jumping suburi - 20 each = 380 total
• Fitness training
• Long step walking - 6 laps
• Focus points: back straight, step forwards as much as possible without ruining posture, keep back leg straight.
  
• Hopping on one foot - 8 laps - begin on left foot, reach end of gym, go back on right foot
  
• Focus points: don't land with heel, keep proper posture.
• One-hand men suburi
• Focus points: kiai, tennouchi
• Fumikomi with men cuts - 8x in successive rows, 1x round trip
• Bogu Keiko
• Kirikaeshi
• With block - 2x
• Do-kaeshi - 3 x
  
• No block - 2x
• With block - 1x
• Big men cuts
• 3x 4 cuts each
• 3x 10 continuous
• Ai-men - 6x
• Kirikaeshi - finish

A pretty straight-forward and to-the-point session. Need I say more?

On personal development, still need to work on:

• Maai - James-senpai and Robin-senpai pointed out I'm still stealing distance when I do the cuts. Still can't figure out how to stop it.
• Cuts - old habits really do die hard. I'm still doing the old raise - draw down- extend routine, rather than doing cuts. Need to work on that. A lot.

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Training on Tuesday, 9 October 2007

[Note: This session was recorded by Clement, so kudos and thanks go to him for helping out.]

- Training Schedule on Tuesday, 9 October 2007

• Warm-up
• Normal exercises
• Jumping suburi - 20 each
• Footwork review
• Stamping, alternate steps - 4 laps
• Focus points
• Use body and waist to move forwards
• Don't look at the floor
• Tummy tight, upper body straight
• Fumikomi with men cuts
• 2x men
• 3x men
• 4x men
• 5x men
  
• Focus points: turn fast, ki-ken-tai, don't let kiai drop
• One-handed suburi - 3x 30 cuts
• Bogu Keiko
• Kirikaeshi
• Big men
• 3x 4 cuts each
• 3x 10 continuous
• Ai-men
• Kirikaeshi-finish

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Right, now that that's properly dealt with, it's time to catch up on the next four sessions...unless I manage to postpone that further, which I don't intend to do. Now that exams are over and I'm free...well, there really aren't that many excuses left. Fighto!

Also, would anyone like to contribute to this blog? Doesn't have to be session reports, it can also be little editorial-type/insight/thoughts posts. Just a thought, but if anyone's interested, please let me know. Cheers.

Quick Update

Yes, yes, I know I said I'd put up the second half of the special post. Sorry about that, I had to concentrate completely on the exams. But fear not! They are coming, along with the two other belated posts from last week. More on this tonight, as this one is going to be a quick update.

This Saturday's session will be on kata, but Marleen-sensei is going to try something different. We're going to do the kata with bokuto as usual, but bring the shinai as we'll be doing waza which correspond with the kata. Confused? Just remember to bring both shinai and bokuto, and expect the unexpected.

[end]

Special Double Issue (part 1)

Whoa. Talk about belated entries. Up and coming - a special, two-part issue worth four session reports!

Well, this week I'll put up the blogs I didn't have the chance to write up (due to a plethora of feasible reasons, I assure you). And I do realize how it shows my zanshin is still pretty sloppy. Hai. Rest assured, I'm not going to bombard the site with a massive block of text, so it'll be the last four sessions (minus Saturday, 14 October) divided into two sections to give anyone reading it a fair chance. Alright, here goes.

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Training on Tuesday, 29 September 2007

Hurrah! I'm well enough to start practicing seriously again! A few problems here and there, but otherwise a good re-start.

- Training Schedule on Tuesday, 29 September 2007

• Warm-up
• Normal exercise
• Group jumping suburi - 20 each = 280 in total
• Basics Review
• Fumikomi - focusing mainly on ki-ken-tai ichi
• 1 men cut, with zanshin (2x)
• Focus points - keep proper posture and cuts at all times
  
• 2 men cuts, with zanshin (2x)
• Focus point - breath control - must change breath after first strike fast enough to launch the seond.
  
• 3 men cuts, 1 breath, with zanshin (2x)
• 4 men cuts, 1 breath, with zanshin (2x)
• 5 men cuts, 1 breath, with zanshin (4x)
• Keiko
• Kirikaeshi - 6x
• Focus on large swings
  
• Big men cuts, no seme - 3x
• For motodachi:
  
• Only let down guard once partner is fully prepared
• Kiai to maintain tension and spirit
• Keep appropriate distance, especially after partner has followed through.
• Continuous men cuts, 10 each - 3x
• Motodachi must maintain distance to allow partner to immediately resume after zanshin.
• Both big and small men.
• Ai men - 3x
  
• Finish off with kirikaeshi - 1x

A few announcements were made, mainly

• A reminder from Robin-senpai on dojo (or equipment?) etiquette, most of which he spoke about during the Tuesday session. To recap his main points,
  
• Don't make senpai/sensei wait - be prompt when told to line up and put on men.
• Arrange the men-himo so that the men can be put on as quickly as possible once the order is called out.
• Line up -
• Knees against the blue line during seiza,
• Kote and men parallel to and in front of the blue line,
• Tsuba on the inside of the blue line (the side facing us).
• A reminder from Marleen-sensei on dress etiquette,
• Keeping a high standard when dressing (eg. making sure everything is tidy and properly tied) will improve performance in kendo.
  
• Didn't quite get how she explained the way it works, but I assume that not having to worry about your hakama slipping off in the middle of a keiko session would help you concentrate better and therefore improve more quickly.

Well, now for a short personal rant (skip this part if you wish). It was pretty frustrating to see just how much I got weaker after two weeks being sick. I wasn't able to finish the group jumping suburi warm-up completely, and spent the next half hour completely drained. Hahaha. Robin-senpai and Fumiko-senpai commented on me looking like a doll with its strings cut. I've got a lot to learn about perseverance, in that matter. Oh, well, more points to concentrate on next session.

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Training on Tuesday, 2 October 2007

Not much to say to start this session report, other than it's a kata-oriented one. More after the schedule.

Kata Session, 2 October 2007

• Warm-up
• Usual warm-up routine
• Group jumping suburi
  
• Cut review
• Men cuts
• Kote cuts
  
• Ippon-me kendo kata uchidachi cut
• Kata session
• Three groups were set up, which were
• Those who have not yet learned or are unsure of ipponme and nihonme kendo kata,
• Those who have learned ipponme and nihonme kendo kata, but have not yet learned sanbonme kendo kata, and
• Those who have learned/are comfortable doing ipponme, nihonme, and sanbonme kendo kata, but have not learned/are uncomfortable with yonhonme kendo kata.
• Most of the session was used to go through the technical aspects of each kata (with the third group reviewing all three as well), and ended with a demonstration from each set of partners.

Some feedback from the senpai (Jeffrey-senpai, Leo-senpai, Robin-senpai, and Terry-senpai) that I wrote down during the demonstrations:

• Don't smile - it ruins the sense of tension that the kata is supposed to generate.
• React, rather than predict the partner's actions - if both sides simply go through the kata by rote, it's pointless.
• Beginners - will eventually gain confidence through more training.
• Don't let the sword come up when bowing.
• Sword in Jodan position should only be a fist away from forehead.
• Pay attention to every detail - eg. after rei, go immediately into taito.
• Do not correct the mistakes of a partner during a demonstration.
• Keep gedan lower than own kneww.
• Keep eye contact at all times to maintain tension

And something I didn't know we could do,

• If you make a mistake during a grading, it is better to stop and ask the shimpai (judges) to start over rather than ignoring it and continuing. Acknowledging you made a mistake and (more importantly) know how you made might show the shimpai that you are *ahem* worthy of a second chance.

Ah, well, that's pretty much all I got for this session. Not much to talk about, unfortunately. For some reason, it's still lacking the intensity and the tension I felt during the Winter Camp (though I'd probably have to be nanadan or so to really understand their deeper meanings :D). Perhaps because we're doing it with people we (to a certain degree) trust with our lives, and thus we unconsciously relax? I'd like to hear what people think about this; it would be a nice little topic to comment on, if a little abstract.

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Alright, part one down, one more to go! (note: this means tomorrow's session's record will come up probably on Friday)

Training Session on Tuesday, 23 September 2007

Argh. Can't believe I got sick just when things were getting good (and tough, quite apparently). And that also means I've missed two sessions already. Ah, well. I'll just have to make up for it in the holidays, then. And on the plus side, sitting and watching from the sidelines really puts things in a different perspective. So, without further ado, I give you Tuesday's training, as seen by this distant observer.

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Training Schedule on Tuesday, 23 September 2007

Beginner's Class

• Footwork review
• Fumikomi
• Fumikomi with men cuts
• Jogeburi review
• Note - more focus on keeping shinai in the centre for this session
• Men-suburi review
  
• Normal men cuts
• Men cuts with fumikomi
• Naname-buri
• Maintaining proper kamae when doing naname-buri
• Doing naname-buri correctly

This is the last beginner class for this term's beginners, which means that everyone will now be practicing on the same timetable (although, technically speaking, they do that already when joining in the senior sessions most of the time).

In between the beginner session and the seniors', a few announcements were made by Marleen-sensei. Of particular note:

• As the beginner's class has officially ended, a new schedule is in effect. Tuesday sessions will be from 6 to 9 PM, and Saturdays will go from 3 to 6 PM. Everyone's welcome to stay and train or jigeiko afterwards if nobody else comes to use the gym.

• The next 2-3 weeks sessions will be focusing on men keiko.

• From this session onwards, the group jumping suburi will be part of the warm-up routine. Whoa. She mentioned that the key to getting through it was maintaining tempo, as changing speed and strength midway only adds fatigue. Hai.
  

Also, a few words from Robin-senpai concerning equipment. Apparently, seeing people fiddle around with their men-himo when the suit-up order comes is both annoying and frustrating. Therefore, he suggested that the first thing everyone should do after entering the dojo is to arrange their men so that they can put it on quickly and efficiently. After all, nobody wants to keep their motodachi waiting, ne?

Seniors' Session

• Warm-up
• Keiko
• Kirikaeshi (3x)
• Big men cuts (3x)
• Focus on keeping proper distance, being ready before making the cut, and maintaining proper kamae all the time.
• Improve zanshin - turn around faster and draw in breath during the turn so that the next cut can be made as soon as you're ready.
  
• Motodachi must actively adjust distance with their partner, and always be ready to receive the cut.
  
• 10 continuous big men cuts (3x)
• Same points as above, only that both partners must act and react faster.
• Ai-men, three hits (6x)
• Use small men to ensure both cuts arrive at the same time and at proper maai.
• For small men, the movement of the shinai should be [forward - cut] rather than [forward - draw back - cut]. Use only 1/6th of the movement made during big men cuts.
• Challenge - Ai Men (3x)
• (Not sure how this is a challenge...looked pretty much the same like the one before)
• Kirikaeshi to finish off.

One last announcement - a big, hearty ganbatte to Terry-senpai, who'll be going off soon to Wellington soon to compete in the competition there. Yeah!

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*Sigh*. And it looked like such fun. Oh well. As I said, the upside was that I got to watch, and watch I did. And take notes. It feels different...and a little wrong not to be with everyone else even though I'm in the dojo. Ah well, nothing to be done save recover as soon as possible and probably wait for the fasting month to be over so I can go back to training hard and proper.

Night, all.

Training Session Saturday 15 September, 2007

Disclaimer: This was supposed to go online on Saturday, hence everything in present tense. Things got a little messy, and apparently it didn't quite get posted before the wifi died over the weekend. Enjoy.

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Training Session Saturday 15 September 2007

Before I even start anything...

Gomen nasai *bows profusely* to anyone who’s actually waiting for me to post something up. I know I promised back issues...which still haven’t come up, unfortunately. To be completely honest, it’s a rather busy time for me at the moment, both in study and personal life, so I haven’t quite managed to put something on the blog. Yet. But that changes today! Well, probably only today, since next week’s going to be just as hectic. Ahem. I digress. On to today’s session...

Training Session, Saturday 15 September 2007

Footwork Review
- Kamae
- Footwork (single and continuous steps)
- Fumikomi (one-at-a-time and with zanshin)-

Suburi Review
- Jogeburi
- Men cuts
- Kote cuts
- Do cuts

Today’s session was a little...mixed, hence the less-than-routine layout. I’m not sure whether the beginner and senior classes were separate, since the seniors started joining in as they came. Also, I had to leave midway, so I didn’t get to see if we had a senior’s session (and thus I shall surely lament tonight as to why I didn’t finish my assignment weeks ago). Before I left, I think Marleen-sensei mentioned something about Terry-senpai going for a competition. [update - Benji informed me that Terry-senpai will be competing in the Rembuden Taikai, so here's a hearty ganbatte to cheer him on!] Because of that, there would be a team shiai practice after the review sessions were over. Not sure if that’s what happened, so would someone help me clear up what that was all about? Regardless, I’ve definitely missed some valuable training time. If it were a real life-and-death situation, the guys in my grade (“senior’s-junior-juniors”?) are half a lesson more prepared to snuff the life out of me. Yar. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up by Tuesday...but that’s two days away...

On the lighter side, my cuts are getting slightly better. I’m trying to focus more on keeping the left hand strong and close to the forehead when lifting, as well as landing the cuts with ki-ken-tai-no-ichi. Thanks to Jeffrey-senpai for helping me focus on those points. Thanks also to Benji, who’s been reminding me about how I don’t focus on those points for about three months now. Hahah. It still feels a little unnatural at the moment, as my less accurate way has become something of a habit. And it’s making me rely a bit too much on my right hand, so that needs to be remedied before it goes out of control. Still, I’m confident that if I keep focusing on these points for the next few months or so, I might be able to pull off better cuts at a faster speed.

Other news...there’s a Waikato sports award nomination going on. I’m personally not sure what that’s about, but Marleen-sensei and Robin-senpai (Parrington) told me they want to nominate Ruby-senpai for it. I’ll post up what’s going on as soon as I get more information on the matter. Or perhaps by the time this post comes out, the club’s blog will have it. Either way, expect more to come.

Finally, last term’s beginner class (‘junior-senior-juniors’?) have all started wearing their bogu. Here’s to our new keiko partners! Kanpai!

As an added bonus to this post, I’m adding up last Tuesday’s to make up for some lost entries. So, here goes...

Training Session, 11 September 2007

First off, a moment of mokuso to commemorate this now-infamous date and those affected...

Right, on to the training. Today’s session was relatively quick, in retrospect. A lot less keiko than the last session, a lot more suburi.

Beginner’s Class

- Footwork review
- Suburi review (jogeburi, men, kote, do)
- Fumikomi review
- Stamping basics
- Stamping with zanshin
- Stamping with men strikes

Senior’s Class

- Warmup
- Suburi review
- Jogeburi
- Men cuts
- Kote cuts
- Do cuts
- Jumping suburi
- Fumikomi review
- With men cuts – increasing difficulty (1 cut, 2 cuts, and so forth)
- Keiko (20 minutes)
- Kirikaeshi
- Continuous men
- 3 men cuts each, repeat

Marleen-sensei was sick and had to tend to Joyce, who was also sick, so she was unable to give us instructions today. Jeffrey-senpai was also sick today, but showed up to lead both the beginner and senior classes. Otherwise, everything went smoothly. And with less keiko, it’s starting to feel just like back in the beginner days, when Jeffrey-senpai would drill us with suburi every so often.

Note to self: focus more keeping left hand close to head when raising shinai. Also, focus on synchronizing each cut so that the left hand doesn’t stop before the right one. So far, it feels weird. Very weird.

Oh, and thank you for considering this knave as a wordsmith, Robin-senpai. I’ll do my best to update more...regularly. *bows*

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Sayonara, Sensei

Oh, well. All good things must come to an end...at least for a while. Sam-sensei leaves for home on Monday to resume his career. Hopefully, he'll be back in January to teach us again. And hopefully, I hope I'll still be doing kendo for that long (which isn't very long, come to think of it). It's been a great two months, Sensei, thanks for all the advice (both in and out of kendo) and the training. Have a safe trip, and see you in a few months' time!

[Note: I realise this post has come far too late to be of any consequence. T_T Gommennasai, Sensei *bows*]

[Gah! And I forgot to write about the Saturday session! Gommennasai, everyone *bows again*]

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