Suburi at school or kirikaeshi in the classroom?

You will have to forgive the alliteration for this post’s title. Getting creative on a Friday afternoon could be considered a tall order!

I was approached today at work by one of the other history teachers. He is a judoka and next term his Year 7 History class will be looking at Feudal Japan. His question to me was whether I would be free to bring my bogu and shinai into class and give a short talk on kendo. He would do the same with Judo. I agreed – I have no idea when this will be but I can imagine that it will be quite a bit of fun. The students love this sort of stuff as they get a chance to see how something like bushido manifests itself in the world today – I think the whole idea of swords and armour probably has quite a bit to do with it as well. After all, these are 12 and 13 year old boys!

So, suburi at school? Kirikaeshi in the classroom? I was thinking of actually practising suburi in the gym during a free lesson. Looks like I will be demonstrating it in the classroom instead!

End of the road?…

…let’s hope not.

I have not written anything these past couple of months (!!) because I have been so busy at work and with my university studies. Kendo has had to take quite a back seat. It is not something I like but it is something with which I have had to cope.

My last major foray into kendo was the Sydney Kendo Club’s SKC3s competition. During that competition, I managed to give myself quite an injury. I incurred a mid-foot sprain on account of falling over during one of the last bouts that my team were in. Apart from feeling clumsy (?!!?) and making me feel a little embarrassed, the injury put me out of action for quite a number of weeks. On top of that, while playing some ten pin bowling with some friends, I managed to slip over and fall directly on to my knee. That was about two or three weeks ago and it is still sore to touch. I suspect it is quite badly bruised. Again, another injury preventing further kendo training.

It is not just a couple of injuries preventing me from donning men, do, kote and tare, picking up my shinai and getting back into it. Saturday sport has once again raised its ugly head. This is something that I really have found to be annoying. Saturday sport cuts across one’s weekend so in effect, while the teaching week ends on a Friday afternoon, you have to turn around and coach a team on the weekend. Now, for me, I am lucky. My “home” field, for want of a better term, is at the local high school. My own school does not have enough space to cope with the number of home matches. Year 7 Football gets relegated to a nearby but off-site field. Given I live in the local area this means that a home match is quite close and there the day is not completely lost. Shift the location of the match to, say, Cranbrook or Waverley (for those of you not from Sydney, these schools are on the other side of the city) and most of the day disappears as you negotiate not only distance but Sydney traffic to get to the location on time and in readiness for the match.

What does this mean for kendo training? Well, Saturdays at the moment are out. Simple as that. It is incredibly frustrating. I really enjoy kendo and, while I wouldn’t say I am brilliant, it is something that I feel I have had some success with. The times of the Saturday matches cut across training time at SKC – I contemplated trying to get to training and then rush over to the football match and then realised that the logistics of all of that were just too complicated, if not unworkable.

I hope this is not the end of the road for kendo. I don’t think it is – but my “missing in action” status from SKC should at least now be partially explained. Holidays are coming up fairly soon so hopefully I will have a little more time on my hands to commit to training on Saturdays. At the rate things are going at the moment, Wednesday nights are out. There is simply too much during the day to allow for it. Perhaps I should start visiting Shinbukan Kendo at Hornsby… at least there is somewhere to train…

End of the road… I should hope not… just a temporary hiatus…

Thursday’s video (9)

Okay…. so it’s Saturday which makes the video a couple of days late but this one is a good one. I can’t take credit for finding it though… thank the Facebook network for that…

SKC3 – Sydney Kendo Club Friendship Cup

It was an awesome day!

The last Saturday of February saw the inaugural SKC3 Friendship Cup finally arrive! Hosted by Sydney Kendo Club, “the threes” was a team event. How it ran was simple. Each team had three players. One of those players had to be a kyu grade. That kyu grade would be in position 1 in the team. The way most teams were structured (not all, as one or two I think had two kyu grades and one dan grade) was kyu, dan, dan. This meant that one match would be kyu vs kyu.

Medals for the winners and runners-up for the tournament

So, the day started with registration and shinai inspection. It was extraordinary as to how many people were there.

Regsitration begins at SKC3 2009

As mentioned in an earlier post, there were over 100 people registered for this event. A variety of clubs were represented; they hailed from Sydney and Canberra in the main. Sydney Kendo Club, ANU Kendo Club, University of Sydney Kendo Club and UNSW Kendo Club are three examples of those who attended.

Once registration was complete and the opening ceremony was complete, the day moved to what proved to be a highlight. Balloon keiko. The following picture probably explains it all.

Balloon keiko

In short, each kendoka had to “pop” their opponent’s balloon.

Once balloon keiko had finished, the day progressed to the U-16s individuals and then onto the Open team events. As mentioned earlier, the teams were three in number, with at least one kyu grade player. This player had to fill the first position in the team. As a kyu grade, this was an excellent opportunity to expand my shiai experience.

The Michael Payne Fighting Spirit Award Shield

I had a great team. Cross Sensei and his wife and me. Someone described it as a “dream team” – well, for me definitely. I hope I was not a third wheel for the others! Our first match was against a team from ANU. It was great. I drew. I was happy with that but annoyed that the number of men and kote cuts were not awarded. That came down to two things: my own zanshin and the fact that I was slightly slower than my opponent. The way it was described to me was that I needed to be slightly quicker in making contact with  my target before my opponent could start to deflect. Not to worry. I finished my first match of the day with a sense of “job well done”.

Our team went through to round two. Here we played a team from the University of Sydney. I was warned that my opponent was quick. My advice was not ill-conceived. Very quickly I learnt that my opponent, who was as big as I am, could move extremely fast. It was going to be a long three minutes. The bout wore on and eventually I provided an opening. My opponent took it and… whack! A men cut found its mark. During the course of this match, I tripped and fell onto my back. I am not sure how it happened. I think we were both going for a men cut and collided with each other – I ended up second best. I was fine but a little embarressed. As I got up, I felt my foot. It was sore. Something was up. I walked gingerly back to the starting lines and recommenced play. The bout finished shortly after that. I went down 1-0. I was going to enter the next match with an injured foot. (I have been told by a physiotherapist friend that it was a mid-foot sprain).

On the strength of my team mates performance (a draw and a tie-break win), the team went through to the next round. Round 3 saw us up against a team from ANU. Now, these guys went through to the final round which explained the strength of their performance. I lost 2-0. This did not bode well. Certainly the following two matches indicated that we were not destined for anything further than Round 3. Both Crosses went down in their respective rounds. All the matches were excellent, I thought. I wonder if I had not sprained my foot whether I would have done better. Not to worry. Our team went out in the third round and it was a good feeling to get that far.

On top of that, I had a number of different compliments. I was really pleased with that. People told me that my kendo was good, that I moved well on the court and that I had great seme and kiai. The common (constructive) criticism was the issue with zanshin. Absolutely! I couldn’t agree more. It will be something I look at this year.

Going jodan

Who will score the point?

University of Sydney Kendo Club…

No… I haven’t defected to a different club or anything. I was at the University of Sydney today for work and discovered it was the end of O-Week. As I was walking along Eastern Avenue looking at the different stalls, I came across the University of Sydney Kendo Club. They were quite busy, which was good to see. What was rather amusing was startling some of the guys who are a member of USYD Kendo and train at Willoughby on a regular basis because they could not work out why I was there! Apart from that, they also put on a kendo display, which I was fortunate enough to watch. It was good – there were a fair few people interested… well, that’s what it looked like anyway. Hopefully they will have scored a few extra members out of it. It was certainly good to be in a position to show my colleagues what it is that I do when I am not at work… well, apart from my PhD, family life…

SKC3 Friendship Cup

Tomorrow is the SKC3 Friendship Cup. I am looking forward to this. It should be a great day.

It’s a team event with a simple rule: teams must have three people and have at least one kyu grade. I am lucky to be in a team with Cross Sensei and his wife.

At the moment, the day is looking like this:

8.00am – Doors open
8.30am – Shinai weigh in
9.00am – Welcome, opening and warm ups
9.30am – Children (under 12) ‘Balloon keiko‘
10.00am – Teens (under 16) competition
10.30am – Main competition starts
12.30pm – BBQ for ALL competitors and spectators
2.00pm – Main competition resumes
5.00pm – Ceremony and close of competition
5.30pm – Close

Hosted by our club, and with over 100 kendoka participating, it should be a great day.

Next post: some feedback on the day.

The importance of a good kiai

I have mentioned before that one of the things I am trying to work on this year is my zanshin. This is easy to say – it can be more difficult to maintain, particularly when it is very hot or humid! Showing fighting spirit, and that your fighting spirit does not relax until the very end of a cut or action, has an important place. I did not understand how important until last night at training.

In working on zanshin I also worked on my energy in jigeiko or in kirikaeshi or in whatever drill we happened to be practicising. It immediately paid off. My opponent sensed it. I sensed it. My kendo felt good. One thing that helped, I think, was having a good kiai. At the points where my kiai was at its loudest and most energetic, I sometimes found my opponent taken aback allowing an opening to be made and a successful strike to be executed. At the very least, there was better kendo.

The only frustrating thing for me was the couple of occasions where my right hand took over. After jigeiko with one senior member of the club, she turned to me and said: “Watch your right hand”. I knew exactly what she meant. There were a couple of men cuts that skewed off target. It was annoying because had my right hand not taken control, I would have made some rather decent hits.

Two lessons then:

1. Good kiai and zanshin definitely have a place in leading to good kendo.
2. Watch the right hand. Make sure it does not spoil one’s accuracy and style. Its not a bad habit yet…

4th kyu!

I am now a 4th kyu!

Grading was earlier today and, despite the heat, about 80 kendoka looking to grade arrived at Picton High School for the grading seminar and grading session. As usual, there was a mix of people from different clubs. I think there were about six people from SKC – all of them passed. Congratulations!!

I was relieved to hear that the grading panels had met regarding the extreme temperatures. It has been up in the 40s today – and it looks like it will be the same tomorrow. The panels had decided to shorten the day, in order to run the grading before the heat set in. So, while all the necessary technical requirements for the grading were met, it was all completed by 1pm – as opposed to the scheduled 3.30pm. I should clarify that… the gradings were completed by about 12.15pm. The announcements were made at about 12.45pm.

Going for 4th kyu was good. It was hard in the heat – particularly with uchi-komi geiko but all in all it was a very satisfying feeling. I had harboured a hope that I might be jumped to the 3rd kyu grading but that twas not to be! Not to worry. There is August. My goal is now to make 3rd kyu by the end of the year.

Only a couple of days left…

It is only a couple of days left until grading.

To be honest, I am a little nervous.

It is supposed to be 44 degrees over the weekend and I don’t do really hot temperatures terribly well.

This might explain my performance at my last training session before my grading. Last night was bad kendo. Not that I was missing the mark or not understanding what was required of me. My technique was sound – and there were a couple of moments in jigeiko where I managed to score some very decent hits on more senior and experienced kendoka. No. That was all fine. It was not being able to get all the way to the very end of training that annoyed me. I stopped about 15 minutes ahead of the end and had to rest.

This simply added to my frustration. Apparently, doing this is not the done thing. I am not entirely convinced that is correct – after all, if you have completely worn yourself out, surely you should give yourself time to recuperate? I am not arguing that if you have had enough, you go off and stop. No. That is not what I am saying. I am talking about when you know if you go on you do yourself an injury. Back to the training session: according to some of the senior grades, people should not have been going off into the corner to rest. We should have soldiered on. Hmmm… working through all of that, there is an interesting question posed here: if you get to the point in training where you cannot train (tiredness or humidity or heat or whatever), is it worthwhile to continuing when your kendo in that training session will probably be bad kendo? The consensus amongst many appears to be: ‘Yes. You need to keep going because once you pass your limits, your kendo will improve…”.

It strikes me that the more correct answer might be found in knowing your absolute limits. There is a difference between pushing yourself hard during training and pushing yourself so hard that it amounts to plain and simple stupidity. In early December, just before the State Championships, I remember really pushing myself in training. I wanted to get the best kendo I could out of the two hours we had available at that time. My motodachi even commented on how hard I was pushing myself. I was exhausted but I felt good. I knew my limits. I suspect this is not what the senior grades were alluding to. I think they might be focusing more on those that are lazy. I hope I am not one of them!

So, in the end, training was not brilliant. It was not the best it could have been. Keeping a positive spin on it, though, it was made clear to me how important it was to “find one’s rhythym” as well as continuing to work on my physical fitness. The school year has started in a very hectic manner so I have yet to start my swims or sessions in the gym. I might have to notch it up the “to do” list one or two places in light of last night!

Well, here’s to Saturday. I am hoping it goes well.

Timing and breathing – a short postscript

Over the past couple of months at training I have noticed that there is a kiai during suburi that runs a number of the counts into one phrase. What I mean by that, whoever it happens to be (and I think I have worked out who but I am not sure) phrases his counts according to his breathing. Rather than breathing in and out on each stroke of the suburi, the kendoka concerned groups the strikes and exhales during the course of the grouping.

Whether or not this was a deliberate action, I could not tell you but it made sense to me so I decided to try this and found that I had more to give by the end of the suburi set because I did not have a build up of carbon dioxide in my lungs. “Phrasing” the strikes, as a musician makes phrases out of sets of bars, seems to be a good way forward. I only mention it as timing and breathing is something so very important in kendo.