Eventful Times

Well, it's been a while since i've had my last blog update. In terms of training, some interesting things have happened.

Tuesday 18th November,
- Daniel came over my house, we caught up, played some games, ate Pho, etc. Then we made our way towards Blue Leaf Kendo Club for the 5-6:30 training session. Mainly consisted of being a motodatchi. I didn't mind being motodatchi, it allowed me to pick up on somethings that the other peopler were doing wrong. I would've said something, but it wasn't in my place to change the way they were teaching.

- Fast foward an hour or so and then the other guy in bogu (his name escapes me) did kakarei-geko and was a some what, a demonstration to the non-bogu people on how to zanshin properly, and go for the next cut. After understanding what kakarei-geko, I noticed that I was doing the wrong thing with Walter the week before, I was only supposed to remain in Chuudan, which was my bad.

- We Jigeiko'd for a while, and then had session where we tried to land an ippon. I tried, but failed. I felt a nice cut that he landed on me, which had ended the practice. We sat in seiza, took off our kote and Men, did Mokusou, and training was finished for the day.

Friday - 21st November;
Training for USYD kendo was still not on as exams officially finished on sunday, 23rd november. We did some more kata practice, revising over 1st - 4th Kata and learnt 5th kata. Didn't go to dinner because I had work the following day.

WORK - SAT & SUN - 22nd & 23rd Nov;
To sum it up in one word;; tiring. Haha, but good to not work with my manager who seems to boss us around allthe time. haha. did 6-4pm on both days. Helped make a platter on Sunday for a customer which is something new for me. haha

Monday - 24th Nov;
Went to training early, around 2-15pm. Jinny came at around 2-30pm. did some warming up at the start and big kihon cuts to get into the mood for training after a months or so without training at USYD.
Mark ended up coming training today, and only bogu people ended up coming. Focused on Kirikaeshi with tenouchi after each sayu-men.

Then we did some basic cuts, Kihon Men, Kote and Dou. Except for the Dou, Mark taught as a new way in that we slide up our hands when we make the cut in the attempt to do a Nuki dou (opponent goes for men and you do a dou cut). My skills were a bit rusty and I sucked. haha. Nothing new for me.

Did some Hiki-men afterwards from tsube-zeriai. Was a totally new thing to me and luckily it was broken down into steps so we could follow on with what we were supposed to do. Somewhere during his time before doing Hiki-men, we did kote-men cut. Footwork stuffs me up really badly. Need to see how the foot work goes for kote-men.

We then did some shiai with Mark which was over really fast for me. Marks men cut is soo fast. I observed from the other beginner bogu people, that when we go for men cut, Marks men cut arrives earlier then ours. Need to do weighted training with a suburito.

Tuesday - 25th Nov.
Training outside of HKGYM with Kelvin & Takuma. Phil was supposed to go but he was busy.Did warm up, basic kihon cuts, Uchi-komi gekom Jigeiko & Ai-Uchi Men. Was good training session. 12-3pm in teh sun so it was a bit of a work out. I wasn't huffing and puffing, but my arms were tired. lol
Need more practice in jigeiko. Hmm. My weakest point in kendo is going for that deciding cut, making & identifying an opening. Zanshin was pretty bad though as well. Not sure why.. maybe it was because i was tired or just because it was grass.. but my zanshin could've been better.

Anyway, this is my post for the moment. Nearly midnight and im getting sleepy, so I'm going to head off to sleep. Staying up for no reason isn't good for your health ((in my opinion)) x]

Looking forward to Fri Training. PEter's leading training and it's supposedly going to be like highschool kendo training in japan to (as per Jinnny) make us buff for States.

Will I be better before State championships? Probably not. But time will tell. Need to start to put more effort into my kendo.


Until next time-
Kent~

Dojo Select - Blue Leaf Kendo Club

Howdy all,

Well I just got back from the Blue Leaf Dojo Club located in my hometown of Sevenhills.
They use the hall of Sevenhills Hills Sport High School for their dojo.

Aspects of the dojo:
They actually have a proper Shomen for us to bow to. We didn't do a formal bowing at the start because we started 30minutes late.
The hall was used for the School Certificate exams so we had to clear out the desks so we could start. While waiting for Walter & Peter, we (the other 2 beginners that were there: Anthony & Joe) started stretching.

Currently; there are only 3 non-bogu people, 1 sensei and 1 other bogu person. From what I overheard (yes, rude. But I couldn't help it) this week is his last week in Sydney so he won't be there next week.

Training:
We did some warm up, normal joge-suburi, naname-suburi, Double men (men forward and then backwards)and Sayu-men. I've noticed a difference in the teaching styles of Ervin and this club.

One; when doing joge suburi, they hold a normal grip. We hold both hands at the end.
Two; Sayu-Men: They go raise their shinai along the path they cut instead of what Ervin told us & up the middle.
Three; Men cuts: The sensei said that tenouch at the head, and not to cut to the chin which makes that "shinai flex" effect.

Then we did some Kihon Men, Kote Dou (without Men on)
5 Kihon Men each, rotate, do 5 Kihon Kote, rotate, do 5 Kihon Dou.
And then we did kihon kote -> Kihon men followed by Kihon kote -> small men.

What i've noticed about the non-bogu cuts (well one of them) is that there's no real power in their cuts.

We then put our men on, then did some kirikaeshi, Followed by uchimeigeko (I think that's what it's called). Motodatchi plays center game and then creates opening. The bogu players were the motodatchi.

Kakarei-geko was the next part of training where we had to pressure and make our own opening. I think Walter and I misunderstood and started to do Jigeiko. Haha. We learned our mistake and then we started to do Jigeiko following the Sensei's instruction.

I got to Jigeiko against Peter. I believe that I have slightly improved since my initiation, where I got owned. I still have to find the concept of distance, and recognising openings. I think more UchimeiGeko is required for me. I then played jigeiko against their sensei. It was a valuable experience for me. He did a lot of "mune tsuki" attacks which I could have Attacked Men by deflecting the shinai. Taught me a lesson about turning too early as well. I didn't make the same mistake again. I still had a lot of openings I could have taken.

I need to convict to my cuts and be more aggressive. When doing "jigeiko" against walter, it surprised me how aggressive he was. I must Catch up! I must level up.

Watching the Jigeiko between the sensei & Peter was interesting. I admire Peters kendo. haha

Fee: $10 per lesson currently. The more people that attend, the cheaper iti s. We didn't have to pay, but being the sweet heart Walter is, he paid $20 for us 3. lol.


We've got some compliments about USYD Kendo (except for me and my Noobishness. haha). Mainly Peter and his kendo. haha
Anyway, will I go again?
Possibly, if I'm not the only guy from USYD that goes there I will. hahaha.


Pros: Small kendo club so sensei can focus on most of the students., good location (for me)
Cons: Too short, the training session is only 1.5 hours.. deffinitely not enough time for Kendo to be exhausting, but managed to work up a sweat.
- The differences between the teachings of Ervin & Blue leaf dojo (hehe, kinda sounds like something from pokemon)
- No kiai during warmup. --> Not warming up the spirit.

I may go back there to train on tuesdays. It'll be a good experience for me.. And between now and state championships, I'll need all the help that I can get.

Enlightenment.

Friday 31st October, Training at 4-6pm.

Today we had a new type of training schedule as per suggested by Ervin. I quite like this training schedule. Much more intense and I felt I got more out of it. My keikogi is currently drenched with sweat so airing it out as per usual.

First we started off with general warm up; all went well I guess, 30 Normal Hayasuburi which was (in my opinion) pretty good. Then we had another 30 Hayasuburi but pulling our shinai to our butts like in Joge/Naname-Suburi. That was a bit more diffficult, but managed to live through it. 

Then comes bogu training without taking a mini-break. So we put on our men after Mokusou and then started Kirikaeshi. I mistook what Ervin said about acting like you're in a shiai and did it in the kirikaeshi. Peter corrected me on this.

Then came Kihon Men Cuts; acting as thoguh you're in shiai. Ie; gain center and strike. 

Then was Dou Cuts. My Dou cuts really suck. I need to improve on it. I screwed up on the finding an opening to do dou, and when i did; it was too close. I got mune-tsuki'd by Steven a couple of times and I pretty much swore underneath my breath. 

Kote cuts were alright.. Zanshin is a bit different from what Ervin wanted us to do. Motodatchi needs to push up against the Uchidatchi to try and push them back. It was weird at first, but when i was up against Peter, I did alright.

Then came something new I learnt. Tsuki. I still think that it's a bit early for me to use tsuki but it's a good measure for getting proper center & chuudan, since tsuki should just be a straight thrust towards their throat. Went up against Chai, and missed most of the time. And then I was up against a korean guy, and i managed to get the tsuki down pat.. but need to attack with KILLER INTENT.

Rested for a while after tsuki since Sim (her first time in bogu I think) wasn't feeling well. It was a welcome break to get a drink. Then.. JIGEIKO.

I was up against the korean guy first. I attacked a lot more then when I first had proper jigeiko against Don, from whom I just stood there when he went to attack me. When the korean guy started to attack, I initated attacks more often but still had problems identifying any openings. Then I was up against my rival, Kelvin.

It surprised me how much better Kelvin has gotten. I'll need to get my act together and do more suburi's to get muscle memory of  cuts. Another factor for me is my fumikomi. When under pressure, my posture & fumikomi goes to hell =/

I'll probably get a heel protector for the time being since i had to basically had to walk without using my heel after training and sat out the bit last of jigeiko. Skin of my toe also ripped. which was crap. -_-

Anyway, I'm (in my opinion) steadily improving my kendo. It's not where I would like for it to be at the moment... but it shall "suffice" so to speak. 

So list of things for me to work on:

- Dou Cuts

- Power in my cuts

- Fumikomi

- Posture.

- Centre

- Relaxing underneath pressure 

- Using more left foot to push for attack.

Well that's my rant for the moment. Back to watching T2. Cya. ^^

Down with the sickness

Well, I've managed to yet again, miss out on another training session. 

Felt dizzy/nauseous yesterday, so I didn't end up goin training. I feel a bit better today but not fully up to scratch. Good thing is, that I don't have to go to work and have roughly the same amount of time to study for Accounting (on the 29th) due to my 2 days out of action from my sickness.

I'm not going to be training on monday either; I need all the time to study for my exam and get Credit + for this accounting. ><

Wish me luck.! 

Also, watched Clannad After Story Episode 3 today (or was it 4 .. the latest one). Was good episode. Currently waiting for Gundam 00 new episode. >,<

Anyway, untill next time; I hope that I will feel better. Ciao~

- End Transmission.

First post

First post for me. 

Finished all my lectures & tutorials for this semester at uni, and now to study for my Final exams. 1 on the 29th of October & the other on the 6th of November. 

Not too long to study for it, so hopefully i'll be ready.!

Also another thing, is that IAM XAH (XTREME AIR HOCKEY) CHAMPION!

THat's right Phil. Team 3k will own Team Cabra. Bring it on. =]