This will be rather fun. On Monday, I have been asked to give a talk to Year 7 about kendo and how it relates to Feudal Japan.

You will remember that I mentioned this a little while ago.

I will let you know how it goes. It was going to be only for one class… I now have all eight coming in to hear what I have to say and what I will be showing!

I have been putting this off for a while. Procrastinating. Maybe its the cost that has been a disincentive. Maybe it has been the sense of really committing to kendo – after all, once I have bought a set, the last thing one would want to do is to stop training! Whatever the reason, I have yet to purchase one. As I am looking to get back into training once my Saturday sport commitments for work have finished (one more week by the way), I need to make a decision either way.

There are so many from which to choose. The one thing that is common from all the people that have spoken to me about it is: get a bogu set that will last the distance. Sure, adding to one’s set is inevitable but one would want to avoid, for example, kote breaking apart after the first major practice session. Similarly, rather than having a men that doesn’t fit properly and is irritating to wear, I would rather have something that fits “nice and snug”, something that I might replace in several years time, if needs be.

In other words, quality is important.

So, what options are out there? Plenty, it would seem. Chiba-bogu has been highly recommended to me. A little more expensive than others but the quality is apparently very very good. This leads me to the question: what would you recommend? Thoughts and comments gratefully received.

As I understand, while I have been absent from training, Chiba Sensei was out in Australia. This might be a mistake on my part – a misunderstanding if you will – but that does not stop me from posting this particular video I came across of Chiba Sensei. His jodan is just amazing. There is no other way of saying it. What I find really extraordinary is that his seme is just so solid. His opponent who plays chudan appears to be hesitant – or at least uncertain of where to find an opening – in comparison.

Enjoy!

I have really missed Kendo.

Of this, I am certain.

I have been away from it for far too long – several months really since I last trained.

My previous post, so long ago (!!), detailed my annoyance with school sport on a Saturday. You might have picked up on my frustration from just reading the title of this post. Anyway, unfortunately, working at a big independent school as I do, I am not going to get away from it. Even being further up the food chain, I am still required to do one sport per year (as opposed to the standard two). The end, however, is in sight. I will be getting my Saturdays back. There are three more fixtures to go – one at home and two away. To say that I am excited about getting back to Kendo is an understatement. My only concern is that I will be absolutely dreadful at it.

There will be a litmus test, however. In a couple of weeks, Year 7 will be studying Feudal Japan. There are a couple of members of the history department who study Japanese martial arts. One teacher is a judoka. In a bid to make the history of Feudal Japan relevant to the modern world (THAT in itself is a comment that I could spend ages on) we are going to demonstrate our sports and talk about how they have evolved. I have to think through what I will be saying but it should be quite a fun lesson. It might be a bit odd only have one kendoka doing the demonstration but I sort of feel that in not having been at training, it might be a little presumptuous to ask somebody to assist me – particularly as it will only be for 30 minutes or so. Still, the students should get quite a bit out of it, which is the main thing.

Speaking of which, here is what some kendo training at a Japanese high school looks like. Not really much different than what you might find in any dojo. The training session is at Sakurazuka High School in Osaka.

So, I am looking forward to when I can don my men, put on my kote, rei to my opponent and hajime!

Soon… very soon.

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!

…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…

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…

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?

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…

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.