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…
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