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.