Update: Training Sat 04/07/09

Debbie's semei M strike

Kia Ora everyone

I thought I would take up Sam Sensei's challenge of sending an update out for those of you who were unable to attend training yesterday. Hopefully this will serve as a refresher for you and give you some idea of what we got up to.

Sam did suggest that we all might like to maintain a training blog for the benefit of our peers. A good way to keep in touch. Sam thought we could write in our 1st language e.g. english, chinese, mandarin etc however I thought it would be a bit cruel to write in Maori. Specially since there's only a couple of us, aye bro?... Hehehe. Ok, moving right along...

This is my account of how training went yesterday Sat 04/07/09.

My peers and senpai may like to add to or correct my comments, which is absolutely fine.

Presentation: Sam presented certificates to those who graded last Sat 27/06/09. Well done and thank you to everyone who attended (to grade, train and support).

Updates: Reduced numbers at Kendo due to holidays, sickness and other priorities. Important points; any outstanding NZKF or fees to Ann/Debbie/Adam or David, we can apply our kendo principles to our day to day lives to achieve balance, harmony and good habits, in a new phase of training so important we attend training regularly.

Warm up: Awa took this.

Tip from Sensei Marleen re side cuts. Remember to keep strong posture, tummy tight and not to lean forward when doing side cuts.

Ashi sabaki and Fumikomi: Sam lead this session with smaller groups moving up/down dojo. Combo of skipping, ashi sabaki, fumikomi and combinations of all of these. Footwork training with emphasis on achieving ken tai ichi.

-- Tip follow up right foot quickly and strong upper body strength.

Kiri-kaeshi and waza geiko. Marleen reminded us all how to strike correct men side cuts. Ensure you keep centre line and strike at 45 degree angle and not 60 degrees or more. Sam reminded us about the differences between correct kamae & seme and positioning.

Tai-a-tari and hiki waza: Sam lead the mens group & Marleen lead the ladies group in practicing the right techniques and movements. Lots of useful advice and experience shared between sensei's, senpai & kohai.

Group feedback session. Several topics and stories shared.

Main points; Kendo is for everyone regardless of age, gender, body type etc. It is about learning about yourself and tailoring your own strengths and weaknesses to overcome your opponent, we have learned to do big cuts - this is so we will have strong basic body positioning and movement to help us when we move into variations of the basic cuts.

Hopefully this is helpful.

Apologies for any misspelling or wrong referencing. Ka kite ano (see ya again...)

Regards

Debbie Price

About Fumikomi

作道正夫 範士八段, Osaka Physical Education University, Kyuto Taikai

剣道選手の打突のしくみ - Fumikomi

* * *

Regarding our training Goal, having the correct posture is the first step!

Extend reading: How to coach Beginners.

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Ps. Photo scanned from Kendo Nippon Magazine

Grading on 27/06/2009

Panel: Jason Oh, Sam Tsai & Thomas Hong

first group: Peter, Joyce, Eric, Jason & Henry

Third group: Kata exam


Jason gave comment

Jason gave comment

Dear Waikato teams,

Thanks to your passionate and support so that we can have a successful grading on 27th June.
However, please do not forget Mr. Jason Oh and Thomas Hong from Auckland. Without their contribution, we won’t make such a fruitful grading.

Here is our team who has successfully made the challenge on the Kyu grade.

Congratulations to all!!!

Boys under 20th who has achieved 6th Kyu from nil –

Henry Tang
Jason Hunag
Eric Tang (9 years old with very good vigor)
Peter Ho

Girls who has achieved 5th Kyu from nil or previous kyu

Joyce Tsai (7 years old performed outstanding ki-ken-tai itchi)
Debbie Price (with great cool mind set)
Alba Crisan (performed very calm hardly to show her shyness)

People who has achieved 4th Kyu

Adam Ward (believes ‘Kendo is a BIG mind game’)
David Woodcock (who study Kendo with a very sharp eyes and clear mind)
Sabjiv Singh (with very determinated efforts)
Joseph Chen (tried his best as he usually did)
William Chuang (13 years old)
Louis Lin (delievered his best efforts as usual)

People who has achieved 3rd Kyu with great focus on Kendo training

Tian Li (outstanding vigor)
James Huang (showed his persistence as he always did)

Person who has achieved 2nd Kyu with plenty of extra training & study

George Liu

Person who with great passionate has conquered age limitation achieved 1st Kyu

Douglas Ferris

Well done TEAMS

3rd Shiai

Well, how exciting! On Saturday we trained hard, as usual, and I was quite tired during gi keiko. It was a little discouraging to face senior after senior and be unable to compete adequately with them, even though they were kind and allowed opportunities to strike. I felt discouraged to feel like I had no way of "getting to them". Thankfully Sempai Amigo gave me some very useful advice. He could see is was wasting energy by striking without commitment. Without commitment, no point could be scored anyway. I took on his advice and tried to be more selective about my strikes when facing the next opponents.
Then came shiai - Red versus White teams as usual. The Red team looks very strong and has many experienced Kendoka. White team has a great variety of young, old, inexperienced, etc. - it was time to face off.
Perhaps the two biggest surprises of the day came from me and Adam. I faced the fantastic sempai Leo again. In my mind I was determined to perform well. I quickly exchanged my large handled heavy shinai for my new, light, small handled AAAA shinai. It is really nice and has "fight" engraved on the bamboo. [Sensei Marleen had told me she really liked the word.] I hoped it would bring me luck... and it did! I managed to score a men cut to poor Leo [he must have been going easy on me] using a technique I picked up during gi keiko. I struck in counter attack and it worked! I was so shocked that I couldn't even breathe from when the flags went up until after I bowed out. So exciting!
Then I felt bad for Leo, but he was so cool afterwards, coming over and congratulating me, promising to 'get me' next time. Our club has such wonderful humble characters in it.
After me came Adam and one of our club champs - George! Adam has been training so diligently and with such excellence it maybe should be no surprise that he managed to score a point and defeat George! He did it in 6 seconds. Everyone was surprised by our victories. We were proud to help our team get to a six to one victory.
It was great for us too. Some encouragement that eventually we can be good like our talented sempai... if we keep training hard and listening to all the advice.
Thank you for all the help, team!
:-)
warm regards,
David Woody

Seminar - 27th June 2009

Dear WKC members ^^

Most of you know that we will have a grading seminar on 27th June (Saturday from 2pm to 6pm), just 3 weeks before the NZKF seminar.

** Beginners from 2009a are allowed to attend the seminar as well. For Alan sensei will run a Kata session with Bokuto.

According to panel, we can grade to 1st Dan.

More detail will be issued after Alan sensei get plan back to me.

However, Graham (president of NZKF) hopes to encourage people holding 3kyu and above title to make their efforts attend the NZKF seminar's grading.

My view, it means people with 3 kyu and above have two options.

You can make your own decision then let me know how you think of.

A very important thing is:

Unless you have work or family commitment, please do attend both seminar.

These are very unusual opportunities for you to meet other Kendoka and increase your Kendo experiences.

Cheers ...

My 2nd Shiai

Wow! What a difference a week makes. This time last week I was gathering my resolve and determination to take the hard lessons learned from my first shiai and use them to improve my training for shiai.

I arrived at training yesterday knowing it would involve some shiai and was feeling excited by the prospect as I could only improve from my first effort which saw me making foolish mistakes in my nervous attempt to avoid appearing afraid. Before shiai however, we had a monster training involving my first gi keiko.

I was fortunate enough to train with our talented fighting friends, Clement and Do Hun. What more could you ask for!? Two of our top competition fighters and both with different styles and approaches to training. I was already tired but I had to give it everything to try out techniques on Clement who is a committed and serious training partner, as well as a good kendo friend who generously shares advice. After the hard training build up and several minutes of striking at poor Clement, I was very tired. My arms felt like lead weights.

Then came Do Hun [sp?] who has speed and agility to burn. I struck at men and fell backwards, completing a backwards roll in full armour - quite funny for my training partners to witness no doubt! Perhaps I could become a kendo stuntman?

After Do Hun I had my first chance to see how I compared to one of my fellow beginner's group - Adam - who trains with so much commitment. I had seen Adam fight in shiai the week before so I knew he was very confident and committed to forward moving attack with multiple men strikes. Luckily for me, Adam had also given everything in training and was similarly drained of energy. He did however show me how clever he was at hitting kote. He scored several clean cuts on me that way. Something extra to watch out for in shiai!

After Adam I was so exhausted. Then came the news - we would have shiai again! Just when I thought I had no energy left.

We lined up and I was opposite Leo again - time to swap! I exchanged Leo for Clark [1st kyu] who I have admired for his training and really appreciated his thoughtful and sincere feedback about my own training. Clark is very generous and an excellent sempai.

Before our fight, Clark [Wen Luo] had to face the dreaded Joyce! Joyce softened Clark up for me and left him a little tired so I would have a better chance against him. I knew that Clark would show me respect and not go too easy on me. [We learn more this way.] Just before our fight, Robin sempai advised me to avoid retreating in the face of Clark's attack, for he would use that opportunity to strike men repeatedly. I took his advice and moved forward constantly. I enjoyed the sensation of having no fear and moving towards the battle. Clark was an excellent opponent who dispatched me with two clear points, just as Leo had the week before. [I seem to be a the weak point in my team in terms of giving away points.]

I enjoyed watching the rest of the battles and then was very grateful to receive advice from Clark afterwards. He is an excellent teacher who notices thing and shares them so we can improve. Apparently I struck him several times but scored no points as I had not performed fumikomi. This will be very difficult for me to rectify and it is something we were all reminded of at our last grading by Alan sensei [if I remember correctly].

Robin also very kindly told me that I needed to show more commitment to my strikes by demonstrating zanshin - something i had not done at all whilst moving forward. This too will be a challenge, and is something to work on for next time.

In summary, you may recall that last week I spoke of feeling dejected afterwards, as no one gave me any constructive advice and I felt i must have been so bad that people felt sorry for me and did not know what to say. This time I kept it simple and was delighted to accept advice from my generous sempai and sensei.

I have two clear things to work on for next time - zanshin and fumikomi.

Lasto - Sensei Marleen asked the sempai judges to name "fighting spirit" award. They had not thought about it so we missed out... until afterwards that is when Sensei Marleen awarded it to me! I was so proud.

Truly a night to remember. [and my arms do today!]

sincerely,
David Woody

******

A response from Clark / Luo Wen:


Dear Mr. Woody,

To be honest, I feel you are so good and amazing in your learning process. When I was in this stage, I was afraid to cut forward because I did not have enough confidence and courage (actually, even now, I am still not good in this area). However, you do show me how to really enjoy the kendo. Just as Marleen sensei and lots of senpei (Robin, Awa, Clement)said: just show what you have and enjoy the play, do not need worry about win or loose, it is a life long martial art. Technically, I want to say that I do not have good stepping and zanshin, either. I know I did not presented a good stepping when I was fighting with you, especially in the second men cut. I think I can get the point because I played a drama haha :). Hope we can learn more from each other. Have a nice day :)

By the way, I want to say "thank you" to Awa senpei. In the gi keiko and shiaikeo between us, he showed me how to through out 100% energy to cut. I think that is just like what Sam sensei taught us last year: do not hesitate or think too much when you're are fighting.

best regards,
Clark

David - First Shiai at Saturday's Training 05 16

Wow - what an experience!

After months of training I finally had my first chance to hit someone in an uncontrolled fashion yesterday. Having missed out on gi-keiko opportunities through my absence, my first chance came in an actual shiai.

We had to pick a number and see who we randomly drew to fight. Luckily for me my first opponent was Leo - the awesome Ni-Dan!!!!

Thankfully Leo was kind to me and allowed me to last for one minute of shiai before dispensing me with a tidy men cut made possible by my foolish attempt to cut kote on the wrong hand - his left.

The whole experience was okay, apart from the slightly embarrassing feeling of knowing that I was making mistake after horrible mistake in front of all my peers.

The beauty of fighting Leo was that I didn't feel as nervous because there was no way I could win, and I knew he would go easy on me, so I just got to try some techniques. I was silly to even consider trying kote and do, but I did and missed, giving Leo easy opportunites to strike. This in itself still proved valuable, as did every second of the experience. I found myself trying to balance the desire to demonstrate determination and passion, versus an interest in trying different things. I also felt pressure to strike quickly so as not to appear afraid, without really knowing how to make or wait for a genuine opportunity.

Afterwards I felt very good, knowing that I had had my first experience and I was delighted to have the honour of fighting someone so talented. Naturally Leo was very kind and humble afterwards. I felt that I had now taken another step towards joining my clubmates as a genuine team member.

The interesting part for me psychologically came later as, rather than learn more after class with our kind sempai Clement, I had to go. Once I had left different feelings began to flood me - uncertainty, disapppointment and a feeling of failure. I think this was partly because it is such a big thing to build up for an then to not do very well is quite crushing. It is also quite powerful how people react to you afterwards. Some are encouraging which is kind, some pick out actual things you did well, which is great, but when people say "dont' worry..." etc, it makes you feel like you did more poorly than you realised and then I felt that I was REALLY bad. Thankfully I was able to reflect upon this and realise that this was my true opportunity to learn and grow from the experience. It has given me a benchmark of my own ability from which I can only improve. It has lit a fire in my belly to take every opportunity, without fear, to learn from my kendo friends. I think learning from failure is the hardest but most effective part of training... maybe. What do you think?

It was great to watch Adam, Joseph, Sanjiv, and Alba fight so well. Even Joyce fought! I think it may have been her first time and she was courageous - she is like a tiger.

I can't wait to fight at my own level to see how much I improve next time.

Other key moments of training stuck in my mind. Doing ashisabaki [footwork?] with Clement was very educational. His complete application allows less skilled kendoka to learn more. At one stage Clement effortlessly let my kensen slip away from his and I thought it was because I was pushing too hard. He told me it was because he noticed my focus was slipping. I hadn't even noticed - kendo is such a subtle sport!! Wow.

The other cool moment was enjoying the new technique of striking your opponent immediately after they turn from a men strike and zanshin. I really enjoyed practising that with Sensei Marleen who is so kind and encouraging.

Have a great weekend team - see you Tuesday :-)

David Woody

p.s. Hi Sam!

+++++++++

Hi David

It was a great shiai to me as well, I learnt alot from the shiai last
night.

p.s. I am not talented!!!

Regards,
Leo