MMB! Kendo Blog

A new phase in my Kendo

2010-07-23T18:23:00.004+10:00

I have told myself to write this at the start of the one-month university winter holiday break. But since then, I have found myself enjoying my time with friends, doing road trips, kendo and rock-climbing or just plain chilling out and catching on some good old classic movies. All of a sudden, I just realise my holiday is about to end. So I better start writing something before university goes back into full swing next Monday.

'Skier's Thumb' - even though I have never skied in my life
Another reason why I felt I must write something now is because I am going to have a surgery done to my left thumb in a bit over two weeks time. And I want to write about my current training status in as much detail as possible - what I am working on, feelings that I should replicate, main points on techniques, etc - so that I will have a smoother and quicker return to the pre-surgery training level 3 months after the surgery.

It was kind of freaky how this ligament injury happened. To be specific, the ligament I am talking about is the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) of the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint. This type of injury is commonly called the “skier’s thumb”.

In the first training back from Brazil last September, I sprained my left thumb in an ai-men situation where my thumb was caught and jammed back in the attack. There was quite a bit of pain to the joint line and I lost a lot of range of motion in the thumb after the injury, which side-lined me for about two weeks. After the pain subsided and range of motion recovered, I went back to normal training with thumb taping. But then two months later, I sustained exactly the same injury in exactly the same situation with exactly the same training partner again. This time, I got it checked out by an experienced hand physio specialist and he reassured me that it was partial tear and not full rupture. However, he told me to be really careful at kendo training.

Unfortunately, with all the tapes I could possibly lay on my thumb, the ligament eventually completely ruptured at the last keiko of the year in another ai-men situation. I did some quick ligament tests to my thumb, and it didn’t appear well at all. I knew the ligament was completely ruptured.

Alas, it was that time of the year when all the hand surgeons were on their one-month Christmas New Year break, so by the time I could see my hand surgeon in February, the ligament has already shrunk and cannot be reconnected without using a graft from my little finger.

Since I have already missed the critical one-month surgery timeframe, time is not a factor anymore to my recovery, and so I decided to have my surgery the week after my 4th Dan grading, which will be two weeks from now (8th August 2010).

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A New Phase In My Kendo
Anyway, this is what’s happening with my kendo…

Over the past two months, I have made a 180 degree turn to my kendo. It’s such a big change it’s completely different to how I played at this year’s nationals. And I reckon this is probably the biggest change in my kendo career, and I am really happy about this. I feel more natural when I hold my shinai, the new grip and kamae makes me feel strong and calmly in control, and the attacks are relax yet powerful. I am totally addicted to this new feeling and do not want to play that old style of mine anymore. That old style has already been torn and shredded into pieces and discarded, and I am ready to embrace this new style that I am slowly uncovering. Hopefully, this will lead me to a lifelong everlasting style of kendo, the style of kendo that I would like to have – noble, proper, strong, efficient and effective.

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There are quite a few things I want to jog down before my surgery. So here they are:

Length of Tsukagawa
The length of the tsukagawa is an extremely important, but often overlooked aspect of kendo that has a flow on effect on your kamae and strikes. I have recently fitted all my size 39 female shinai to a size 37 tsukagawa. It instantly made my whole upper body relax and I was able to square up my hips more naturally.

My definition of optimal length of tsukagawa:
I define the optimal length of tsukagawa to be that when you hold the shinai with both hands in kamae, the right elbow can still rest on the side of the body, where the upper arm is closed to perpendicular to the floor. This allows the chest and shoulder muscles to stay relax.

What happens when the tsukagawa is too long?
At the point where your right elbow needed to position itself in front of the side of the body in order for your right hand to grip close to the tsuba in kamae, the tsukagawa is probably too long. What happens is that your right chest and shoulder muscles will activate to try and keep the arm forward and up against the pull of gravity. This causes the right chest and shoulder muscles to tense up. We often see a lot of people get really tensed up in kamae, and no matter how many times we tell them to relax their arm and shoulder, it just doesn’t seem to work. Whereas you can tell when someone is really relax and comfortable in their kamae. Adjusting the tsukagawa length may be a simple, yet often overlooked solution to this.

A quick thought just came to me with the right shoulder forward position and the up and down swinging motion during a strike. With repetitive striking in this forwarding sitting shoulder position, I wonder if this may increase the risk of shoulder impingement. Mmmm… I would love to do a clinical study on this topic if I can get a large enough study samples and long enough study duration. Seriously, this may be a very interesting project.

Where to position the left hand in kamae?
Over the years, I have been told many different things about where to position my left hand in kamae by many different Sensei. The most commonly advocated position is to place the left hand in the centreline of your body. Then there are others, including Chiba Sensei, who instructed me to position my left hand in front of my left hip, which is slightly off the centreline.

After the recent change to the length of tsukagawa, I was able to relax my right upper body substantially. And I have also come to feel that it is more natural to put my left hand in front of my left hip as it allows my left chest muscles to relax and my wrist in a more neutral and less stressful position.

With the upper body more relaxed than ever before, I now have the luxury to play around and trial how to channel my left hip power to my left hand when I push my hips forward in an attack.

Furthermore, with the right arm in a less stretched out position, I now have the potential to reach further in a cut just by extending my arm, without leaning my upper body forward to get the extra reach. Effectively, the straighter upper body posture during a cut eliminated the problem with my chin lifting upwards during an attack.

This is just so beautiful. All the pieces in the jig-saw puzzles are slowly fitting together now.

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Seme (攻め)
Cross Sensei has been leading the class to focus on seme in the past few weeks, especially since he came back from his recent Japan kendo trip. He brought back a wealth of knowledge and advices and shared with the whole class. Here is a few points that I would like to jog down:

Win Before You Cut
Broadly speaking, there are two types of seme – physical and psychological. By physical, I mean that you use your physical strength and power to overcome your opponent. On the other hand, psychological seme is more subtle, but it is the more powerful and devastating to your opponent of the two types of seme. Here I would like to explore further on the psychological seme.

Like what Cross Sensei and Jayson have been saying, the victory is determined before you cut. What that means is that, you should have total control of the situation and complete domination over your opponent before you cut. This happens when you have superior seme over your opponent.

We have all experienced superior seme in our kendo career. And when that happens, fear and doubt arise. As soon as one succumbs to the immense pressure, depending on different people, some would react by throwing unnecessary cuts; others may decide to block. When this happens, the victory has been decided. The person with the stronger seme will capitalise on this situation when the opponent is most vulnerable.

The following are a few points I have been working on:

• Dominate the centre. Always keep your kensen in the centreline.
• Always position your shinai on top of your opponent’s if both shinai are fighting for the centre. This is to make sure that you block your opponent’s shinai pathway to lift up and make a cut.
• When your shinai is in the centreline, but your opponent’s shinai is off the centre, this is the opportunity to cut.
• If your opponent uses a lot of force in his shinai to push your shinai off the centre, don’t go into a strength contest and push his shinai back. Simply release that pressure by lifting your shinai either up or down. The force and momentum of his shinai will naturally make his shinai slip off the centre. In that instance, position your own shinai back in the centreline. If your opponent’s kensen is way off the centre after you release the pressure, cut him before he can re-establish equilibrium.

Tame (固め)
Another psychological concept that Cross Sensei has been instilling into our kendo lately is the concept of tame, which means ‘to hold’. The idea is that when both players are engaged into an attacking distance, it is too often the case that one side would decide to launch a cut in the hope that speed will help him to get to the striking target. With the concept of tame, however, you should try to hold that urge to cut, but instead use the application of seme to break your opponent. Tame allows you to build up the intensity of that one cut that you are about to make, and when your opponent succumb to that intense pressure with fear, doubt, surprise and confusion, you have already won the point. Just finish the point off with the available opened target.

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Here are some technical notes on various waza:

Katate-tsuki
Right hand has an important role to guide the shinai into a straight path to the target. So do not release the right hand too early. Pull the right hand back to the right hip in a snappy fashion only at the very end of the thrust to generate a crisp thrust.

Pattern Recognition
How many times have we been in the situation where we did something, and our opponent reacted and exposed a target, but we missed the opportunity because we simply wasn’t prepare for that opportunity.

I agreed with Jayson that kendo is a game of pattern recognition. The more you are exposed to a certain pattern, the quicker your brain and your body will recognise. It’s almost like conditioning. In kendo nowadays, there are a few common patterns that we often encounter in our practice, and it has been wonderful to attend the Friday night training session that Jayson is leading these days where we practice those common patterns. So here they are:

• Seme into men --> if opponent lift hand to prevent men cut, kote is exposed --> cut kote
• Seme into kote --> if opponent kensen opens to the right to prevent kote cut, men is exposed --> cut men
• Seme into men --> if opponent completely lift up their hands to blocks both men and kote, gyaku dou is exposed --> cut gyaku dou
• Seme into men --> if opponent pushes your shinai out --> release that pressure on your shinai, by either lifting up or lowering down your shinai, so that your opponent overpressure and his kensen divulge from the centre with their kote exposed --> cut kote
• Seme into kote --> if opponent pushes your shinai out to prevent kote cut, kote is exposed --> cut men

Well, that’s it for now. I will do my best at my 4 Dan grading in two weeks time.

35th AKC and Seminar

2010-04-09T15:14:00.016+10:00

35th Australian Kendo Championships

Another year. Another national championships. Congratulations to all the winners in the championships, and all the participants, officials, volunteers and supporters for making the championships so successful. The standard and quality of kendo was no doubt improving every year, and this year's championships ended with a thrilling match-up between NSW and Victoria. It was a tooth and nail fight down to the taisho match. In the end, Brett Smith took the deciding point to take Victoria to victory. But regardless of the result, I am sure all who were lucky enough to be there appreciated the display of such high quality of kendo. Well done to all!

This year also saw the introduction of the new Kyu women's individuals event. Thanks largely to Kate Sylvester, who is the latest John Bulter Award recipient for her huge effort in the development of women's kendo over the years. It was really wonderful to see so many people supported and cheered on in the kyu women's individuals even though it was around the lunch hour. Congratulations to our NSW girls who performed so brilliantly in this event. In particular, Songie who took the inaugural kyu women's individual title, and Julie and Kathleen for coming equal third.

As for myself, I participated in the women's dan individuals and team events and came third and second respectively. Reflecting on my match performance, I felt I was too rushed to cut in some of my matches, which I should have settled down and setup my cuts a little bit more. Exploring ways to seme and control my opponents will be things I need to work on before next year's nationals.

The NSW Team

The NSW Girls

The 2-day national championships were followed by a 2-day seminar. This year, Australia was fortunate to receive the support of the AJKF, who sent a delegation of two Kendo 8 Dan Sensei to conduct the national kendo seminar. They were Takeshi Masago Sensei, Kendo Hanshi 8 Dan, and also Toru Tamura Sensei, Kendo Kyoshi 8 Dan.

Below are notes that I have taken at the seminar. I hope these notes will be useful for all who read it.

2010 NATIONAL KENDO SEMINAR

------Notes from First Day of the Seminar------

Accident During Shiai - Shinpan Decision:

Masago Sensei kicked off the two-day seminar with a 30-minute championships discussion session. During which, Masago Sensei brought up the topic about the incident that happened at the Open Team Championships final and its implication to shinpaning. For those who did not see the senpo match of the team finals, here is what happened:

In the senpo match of the Open Team Championships Finals between Team NSW and Team Victoria, Jayson Chaplin (NSW) and Kevin Chin (Victoria) opened the match with exciting exchange of attacks with full vigour and spirit, and I was actually very looking forward to see this match up, because both players have really positive style of kendo.

Unfortunately, the match was cut short due to an accident, where Kevin landed heavily on the back after coming into contact with Jayson at the completion of his tobikomi-men attack. Kevin's feet were still up in the air at the instant of his body contact with Jayson. And that was enough to flip Kevin straight back and down on his back. There was a loud thud from the fall, followed by the sound of agony.

Having worked with rugby teams and seeing some nasty injuries before, my first reaction was to get onto the shiai-jo quickly. So I immediately ran to the chief referee table to gain permission to get on the court as a senior first-aider. At first, I was really worried if there was spinal injury involvement, so I did a quick neural structure test. Fortunately, Kevin responded well to the test to rule out spinal injury. Kevin then said that his shoulder has come out and has had a history of shoulder dislocation last year. So we quickly called for an ambulance. Fortunately, around the same time, Dr. Humphrey from Queensland walked on to the court. After examining Kevin's shoulder, Dr. Humphrey offered to relocate Kevin's shoulder. So after about 10 minutes on the shiaijo, Kevin finally had his shoulder relocated and got up. As he walked out of the court for more side-line treatment, the crowd gave him an encouraging round of applause.

After Kevin's shoulder was relocated, however, the drama did not end there. This was because the shinpan had the difficult task in interpreting the shinpan regulation with regard to accident and injury. Under Section 2, Article 30, Item 2 of The Regulations of Kendo Shiai and Shinpan, it states that:

"in case Shiai-sha is unable to continue Shiai due to an injury, should the opponent be deemed responsible for the accident, whether intentionally or not, the opponent shall lose Shiai, whereas, if the cause of the accident cannot be ascertained, Shiai-funo-sha shall lose Shiai."

So the point of contention here was whether "the opponent be deemed responsible for the accident". There was a very long discussion amongst the shinpan and court-side referees on this issue. In the end, the shinpan decided that the NSW senpo was not responsible for the cause of the accident and awarded the senpo match to NSW. And this decision was a correct one in the opinion of Masago Sensei.

Masago Sensei then challenged all the seminar participants to think how we would make the judging decision if the same clashing situation happened but none of the players was injured. How would we judge then?

Sensei added that, of course, when a player was down and injured, it was very easy as a human being to get emotional and be sympathetic to the injured player. However, a good shinpan should not make decision based on emotion, and should remain impartial even during a difficult situation.

Pre-tournament Shinpan Seminar:

An issue was raised by one of the seminar participants that the shinpan at the championship over the weekend were not judging at the same level - some shinpan raised their flag too easily, while others hardly ever lifted their flags up. It seemed that the shinpan all held different criteria for a yuko-dadotsu (valid point).

With that, Masago Sensei told us that this was where a pre-tournament shinpan seminar was necessary and important. In Japan and at the World Kendo Championships, pre-tournament shinpan seminars were held to allow all shinpan to discuss and come into agreement with what constitute a yuko-dadotsu. In these pre-tournament shinpan seminar, shiai-sha were selected to match the skill level of the players at the actual tournament. It is at these pre-tournament seminars that set the standard of shinpan level at the championships. Of course, it is important that shinpan know how to hold the flags correctly, move across the shiai-jo, etc. However, the most important thing for a shinpan to understand is how to correctly judge a yuko-dadotsu. By running a pre-tournament shinpan seminar, a more unified decision could be reached amongst shinpan.

Crowd Participation:

Another issue raised during the discussion session was about crowd participation. The question was 'what is an acceptable level of crowd participation and cheering?' Some teams were cheering so loudly that the shinpan were not able to hear the sound of shinai contact, whistle, etc. And it seemed that some cheering were made to influence the shinpan decision.

Masago Sensei replied that as a basic rule, cheer in kendo should be kept to clapping, but that should also not be a coded rhythmic clap. Vocal cheering should be curbed. But even then, in reality, it is difficult to control how the audience cheer. It is not possible to give hansoku or penalty to the crowd. As a shinpan, it is important to stay impartial and not be influenced by the crowds.

Being a Shinpan and a Shiai-sha:

For us, we don't have the luxury of having a team of shinpan purely dedicated to the role of refereeing. Often we have to be both shinpan and a shiai-sha in the same tournament. With that, Masago Sensei saw it as a good thing that we have the opportunities to be on both sides of a match. This allows us to see and understand from both the shinpan and the player's point of view.

As a shinpan, one should strive to make good decision to raise the shinpan level such that players, judges and audience all understand the shinpan decision. Although human are imperfect and we have all made incorrect decisions as a shinpan, what sets kendo apart from other sports which utilise electronic scoring system is that we strive to achieve perfection within ourselves.

Bokuto Ni Yoru Kendo Kihon Waza Keiko Ho:

Holding the bokuto - must hold with ring and little fingers. If these fingers are loose and not holding on, it is easy for others to snap the bokuto off your hand. Not a good thing.
Demonstrate zanshin after each cut - Yes, I know we have heard this many times, but how many of us actually demonstrate zanshin after our cuts. We really need to make an effort to strengthen our zanshin display.
In sanbonme (#3) harai-kote - Right foot comes forward as you execute harai-men, and not in two separate motions.
In yonhonme (#4) tsubazerai-hiki-do - In tsubazerai, the kakarite pushes the motodachi's tsuba down. In response, motodachi counters with an upward push. At this very moment, the kakarite releases the pressure. As a result, motodachi's arms upward momentum exposes his do target, and the kakarite capitalises on this opportunity by striking hiki-do.
Nuki-do & kaeshi-do - After executing the do cut, kakarite should turn the head to face uchidachi, while the rest of the body should remain squarely forward.
In nanahonme (#7) debana-kote - As the motodachi, make sure to take a subtle small step forward as you open up the kote target.

Relevance of Nihon Kata to Kendo:

The modern form of Kendo derives from fighting techniques using the katana. Nihon Kendo Kata captures and focuses us on the psychological aspect in a real sword battle. The idea of Nihon Kendo Kata is to allow us the opportunity to understand and immerse ourselves in the essence and spirit of the opponent-to-opponent sword battle situation while practicing in a safe environment. This enable us to strengthen ourselves both spiritually and physically.

In a way, Nihon Kendo Kata serves as a link between katana and shiai kendo. It enhances our appreciation of the life and death situation in our shinai-to-shinai kendo keiko. When we practice Nihon Kendo Kata, we should always aim to maintain the mental state of a life and death situation.

Bushido:

There are four points that Masago Sensei associate to the idea of Bushido:

A straight and forward-going spirit;
An honest, unwavering mind;
Be kind and gentle to others; and
Be strict towards yourself.

A straight and forward-going spirit
We appreciate that in kata, we don't sway our body sideways. So in kendo, we should also aim to practice kendo with a straight and forward-going spirit.

An honest, unwavering mind
What is seme? A true seme demonstrates to our opponent the unwavering spirit and intention that we are going to attack to the point where our opponent is completely overwhelmed and frozen by our strong determined spirit. The battle is won before the actual cut. Whereas pretending to hide and doing sneaky attacks are not seme.

Be kind and gentle to others
We should not perform techniques with excessive force than necessary that can hurt our opponents. A cut that creates a nice pop sound on the dadotsu-bui and not painful to receive is said to have sae.

Be strict towards yourself
In the Olympics, sports such as gymnastic and figure-skating are very beautiful to watch. However, those at the highest level are all very young. When you think about it, often these athletes reach the pinnacles of these sports after 10 years of training. One would think that the more years of training you do, the better one would become. However, this is not the case in those sports. This is because those sports rely heavily on strength, speed and youthfulness.

The same can be said about kendo if one only practice kendo that relies purely on strength, speed and youthfulness. Younger kendo players can rely on speed to win. However, if that is the only thing you practice, once you get older you will not be able to do the same thing as you did when you were young. Often you see people dropping off kendo because they cannot play the kind of kendo that they once did, and their kendo cannot grow anymore due to their entire focus on the physical aspect. Kendo that depends on speed, strength and youthfulness is not true kendo. Therefore, it is important to develop your own repertoire of techniques that allow you to perform kendo in a smooth manner without relying so much on speed and strength. This type of kendo is something that people from all ages can do, but it takes perseverance to grasp and perform such type of kendo.

Masago Sensei then gave us two analogies:

The first one was with learning how to ride the bicycle. As a beginner, we paddled frantically as we were scared to fall off the bicycle. However, as you get better, you learn how to paddle the bicycle in a slow and smooth fashion while getting from point A to point B in an efficient manner.

The second analogy was with learning how to swim. A beginner swimmer paddled and flapped around excessive to try to stay afloat and swim. However, a skilled swimmer used less strokes yet able to swim the same distance in less time than a beginner.

So the same can be said for kendo. The more skillful you are, the smoother your body moves. The more efficient you move, the less stress it is to your body. This allows one to enjoy practicing an ever-lasting type of kendo.

The Importance of Kiai and Breathing:

During expiration, our body's centre of gravity becomes lower, which makes our body more stable, stronger and more difficult for our opponent to make a success attack.

The opposite can be said to inspiration. Usually, a point is scored against you during inspiration. For example, when you are startled, you take a gasp of air in.

This is why we need to practice kiai to learn how to expire or breath out as this makes our body more stable.

It is only when we reach the senior level such as 8 Dan that we don't have to kiai out to achieve the same result, because their normal breathing has already incorporated the mechanics to achieve a stable body.

Mock 6-Dan Grading Exam:

Four current Kendo 5-Dan Sensei from Australia and New Zealand who were due for their Kendo 6 Dan grading were called upon to participate in a mock 6-Dan grading examination during the seminar. After each of the 4 participants completed their 2x 90 seconds grading matches, the grading panel provided feedbacks on their performance. Below are the points that I found interesting that I would like to share:

Need to understand the difference between waiting and actual setup to seme and attack. All the mock grading participants were waiting too much, and not enough setup and seme. In grading, the actual match duration is very short, so it is very important to grasp the opportunity to seme from the beginning. Don't just wait. Seme. Seme. Seme.
Zanshin needs to flow all the way to completion of the cut to complement the waza that was executed.
Need to place more importance in the use of kiai. In Japan, a lot of emphasis is placed in kiai in grading, where people kiai to the point that those who hear it falls over.
After executing a men cut, make sure to go through with whole body to completion without lifting the hands up.
Watch the left foot. There should have a feeling of going forward instead of leaning back.

With regard to kiai, Tamura Sensei demonstrated to us how a kiai should be like. And, it was SOOOO awesome. It was certainly the most awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, eye-bulging, spine-tingling kiai I have ever heard in real life. That kiai ascended in power, intensity and spirit, so awesome that it froze the body of whoever was listening to it, including mine. I was literally stunned by such powerful kiai. Lord, I was so fortunate to hear such rare demonstration of this kind of superior kiai. So lucky.

So, after getting so revved up and inspired by the feedback of the mock grading exam, I made sure I put 300% effort into setting up the seme and replicating Tamura Sensei's awesome kiai. That made the whole experience of mawari-geiko with 3-Dan and above, and sensei-geiko with Tamura Sensei and Yano Sensei so much more enjoyable. I was able to feel the connection and tension so much more. From now on, I have to make sure I do this in every training session.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Group photo at the end of the first day seminar

-----Notes from Second Day of the Seminar------

Kata and Seme:

On the second day of the seminar, Masago Sensei started off the day once again with a discussion session. Sensei quickly touched on the main points discussed in the previous day and then focused further on the basic grip of the bokuto, and also on the topic of seme and its application in kata.

Masago Sensei brought a bokuto forward and showed us how he gripped the bokuto, while explaining to us that the hands should grip with the minimal amount of force to support the bokuto. There was no need to grip any harder than that. And then Sensei came over to me and gave me the bokuto. So lucky to be Sensei's test subject. I was told to hold the bokuto and Sensei was to check my grip. Although I thought I was holding it lightly and having known that Sensei was going to pull the bokuto out of my hands to test how hard or light my grip force was, I was surprised that I was still gripping it hard enough that Masago Sensei was not able to pull the shinai out of my hands. It was really surprising how little force was needed to support the shinai in kamae. And I felt so relax in my kamae.

And thinking about this more, this light grip makes the person's upper body tension to go away, which allows a person to have more control with its breathing. If optimal breathing rhythm and pattern as mentioned by the Sensei in the earlier part of the seminar could be achieved, the longer duration of expiration allows for a stabler as a result of the body's lower center of gravity.

Masago Sensei then moved on to discuss the concept of seme. Sensei particularly pointed out my match performance at the championships, that I was relying too much on speed. What I need to focus on now is to develop strong seme. To be able to gaman (我慢) or be patient, and setup strong seme so that the point is won from the beginning even before the cut is executed. I was once again fortunate enough to be Sensei's demo subject, where Sensei discussed seme using Kata Ipponme. Masago Sensei and I performed ipponme once through first, where Sensei was uchidachi and I was shidachi. After we completed the first run through and just before we performed ipponme for the second time, Sensei told the seminar group that he was about to demonstrate to us what seme is.

At that time, I thought to myself, 'how is Sensei going to demonstrate even more seme in the second go? I could feel plenty of seme in the first go already'.

In any case, we started our second go of ipponme by going into our respective jodan-no-kamae. We took the three-step in, and I could remember that I was thinking to myself to make sure to coordinate with Sensei's timing of cut and to take a good big step back to step out of Sensei's cut. The moment came, and I could sense Sensei was about to cut. So when Sensei was just about to cut down, I took a huge step back....

....but Masago Sensei was still holding his jodan-no-kamae. He simply seme in, but didn't actually strike. On the other hand, I was overwhelmed by his seme and felt the urge to step back to avoid his cut even though Sensei didn't commit to the cut. What a beautiful example of seme! So brilliantly demonstrated in this kata performance.

Spirit in Unison
Masago Sensei later explained to us that it is very important that shidachi (aka. the student) strives to hold seme and spirit that matches the uchidachi.

Left Foot
Masago Sensei also demonstrated the importance of shidachi's left foot in kata when executing the counter-attacks. Sensei urged us to put special focus on our left foot when we practice kata.

Slow, Fast, Strong, Weak (緩急強弱)
In kata, sometimes it is necessary to slow down, while other times it is necessary to speed up. There is a phrase in Japanese called 'kan-kyuu-kyou-jyaku'　緩急強弱　or slow, fast, strong, and weak. We need to be able to demonstrate the clear distinction between these four modes in kata.

A similar article on these four modes in one of my previous entries can be found here: http://nintai.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

Shinogi and Nagasu
Need to understand how to use the shinogi when performing the technique of nagasu.

Drawing the sword
Masago Sensei observed that many senior grades performed poorly in this aspect at the championships in that they drew the shinai out and met with opponent's shinai first, and then went into sonkyo afterwards. That was incorrect. The correct motion should be that the drawing of the shinai and coming down into sonkyo are performed at the same time.

Grading in Nito:

In preparation for the national grade to be conducted on the following day. Masago Sensei discussed about aspects of grading. Although none of the participants in this year's national grading would use nito, Masago Sensei mentioned about the nito grading procedure in Japan. Apparently, if there is a nito player grading, the two other players who graded against the nito player will grade against each other in a third match. I thought that was interesting and a good thing. I guess that makes it fairer for the two other players who might not be so accustomed to fighting against nito a proper chance to demonstrate their skills.

Group photo at the end of the second day seminar

All the ladies at the seminar with the two AJKF Sensei and Ron Bennett Sensei

NATIONAL GRADING

Congratulations to the girls who successfully graded at the national grading on Wednesday, 7th April, 2010. Well done to my dear obaaaa-chan, Chiaki who is now 4 Dan. I believe Shoko is my state (NSW)'s first female 5 Dan Sensei. Woohoo!!!

Assisting the 2 Dan kata grading as an uchidachi

Assisting the 1 Dan kata grading as an uchidachi

34AKC - Shomen ni... Rei

2009-04-15T14:26:00.014+10:00

Lead-up to the Nationals
There have been some ups and downs in the weeks leading up to the nationals. Since being selected onto the Australian Team in late February for the upcoming world championships in Brazil, I was so determined to improve my kendo and eliminate every single weakness in my kendo, I pulled my kendo apart so much that I felt so despair I could not reckonise my own kendo anymore. That was just 3 weeks before the nationals. In the end, I told myself to just let it go, don't force myself too much, and forget about fixing everything. And I was able to enjoy training once again.

I was glad that the last two training in the final week before the championships ended up well, which made me felt prepared and ready for the weekend. Like my last State Championships preparation, I adjusted my diet and tapered my gym training in the last week to gear up for the weekend. Unlike the State Championships, however, I had to juggle my kendo training with the demanding university study load, I really didn't have any seconds to lay idle and daydream. To be honest, my head was racing a hundred million miles all the time... juggling to keep my balance.

I arrived to Adelaide on Friday, and my two dojo mates, Kassandra and Twins kindly picked me up from the airport. We had an early dinner in Chinatown, and I ate a yummy BBQ pork (cha siu) rice dish, and ordered a fried rice for takeaway. As many of you would already know, I need lots and lots of rice before my competition to keep me energised throughout the competition. I actually brought two boxes of fried rice from Sydney to Adelaide for breakfast and lunch on my first day of competition, and this takeaway would be for my Sunday morning breakfast.

Oh, and I also had an almond bubble tea. Oh so yummy. And everything is so cheap in Adelaide. It was just great!

Rice Rice Baby! Now, I am all set!

Sat, 11 April 2009 - Women's Individuals

The NSW Team

The Championships kicked off with the Kyu Individuals immediately after the Opening Ceremony. There were some really fantastic matches, with two NSW players advancing to the later stages of the competition. Walter Chung handled his matches well and calmly, and scored some beautiful points, especially a semete-debana kote in one of his matches. Luke Lee from my club started off slowly, but improving game by game, showing the strong attacks that we all knew he was capable of doing. His match with Yehuda from WA was a joy to watch. Yehuda's strong and fluid footworks really impressed me. It was a pleasure to see such nice kendo from our kyu players in Australia. Luke eventually overcame all obstacles and clinched the national kyu title. Well done, Luke, for defending the national title!

The women's individuals began following the conclusion of the kyu individuals event. I was in the last pool on my court and didn't have to put my men on for quite some time. While the first few pool matches were going on, Greg from Qld came over and said they have prepared a secret weapon, which would not be easy for me. He was referring to Shizuka from Qld. I have never played against Shizuka before, but I have seen her observing the national squad training from time to time, and I knew she was a good player.

In any case, in response to Greg's secret weapon revelation, I told him that I was a weapon of mass destruction. =P

I was feeling very happy throughout the morning, and really ready to take on anyone who came up to fight me. Maybe it was a combination of good weather, good venue, yummy fried rice for breakfast, and my nice teammates or even people from other states who supported and reassured me that I could do it. But one thing that definitely helped me feeling light and energised was when I was trying to find ways to lift Luke up from feeling slow and heavy in his earlier pool-matches. I suddenly came up with this idea of feeling like a boxer - light on the foot yet powerful with the punches. That idea just clicked perfectly with me. The moment I thought about it, I could feel my whole body so powerful and ready. So, I told that idea to Luke and it seemed to work magic on him too!

Waiting for my first women's individual pool match
(photo taken by Ray Kato)

My first pool match was against Stibbe from SA. I was fortunate to score two quick men cuts to conserve some energy for my next match. And lucky I did, because Greg was right, the secret weapon from Qld was a really tough one.

Both Shizuka and myself were attacking and defending very cautiously. However, I made a serious mistake in mis-judging the court boundary, and wrongly presumed that the basketball shooting ring was the centre of the court. This misjudgement caused me to make two jogai hansoku well into the half-way point of the match. When I was walking back to the starting line after making the second hansoku, the terrible thought of 'could this be how my championships campaign end?' came to me.

With one point against me, I realised that I must quickly do something to score a point as there were not much time left on the clock. And thankfully, I scored a hiki-men just moments later to equalise. Phew!!! Not long after, encho was called, and our cautious game continued.

With the earlier jogai hansoku mistakes, I have learnt to use the court boundary to my full advantage. I was able to inch Shizuka step by step out of the court by closing in the gap every time she voluntarily stepped back. So hansoku #1 to my favour. Although it wasn't my plan to win with two hansoku, Shizuka subsequently stepped out of the court again which converted a point to me. So I narrowly got out of my pool. Although it was not the most beautiful way, I was glad I made it through.

In the quater-final, I was able to score an early tobikomi-men against Sharyn of ACT, and managed to hold that point all the way to the final whistle to advance to the semi-final, where I faced Daseul, who won her super long encho pool match against Susan from WA earlier in the day.

Daseul and I have played against each other so many times that we knew each other's kendo almost intimately. So I was expecting a very tough and long fight, possibly going into long encho. However, I knew I was full of energy (thanks to the rice), my mind was all set and ready for a tough fight no matter how long it would turn out to be. Luckily, I was able to score an early break with a hiki-men, which later proved to be the winning point to advance me into my first ever national individual final.

It was great to play my first individual final match against Kate the Bulldog - my long-time friend of great rivalry. However, it didn't start off as smoothly as I would have expected... In all final matches, all the shinpan and competitors on court must turn to bow to the shomen at the beginning of the match. So, when the chief shinpan called "Shomen ni... rei", I turned and bowed. But after I bowed, I didn't quite understand why Kassandra, who was behind the row of video-cameras on the audience side, was jumping up and down, and her finger pointing across the hall... it must have been a few seconds until someone yelled, "Vivian, the other way"!

Oh my goodness, I bowed to the wrong side of the hall. When I turned around, I was trying to search for the face expressions on the two 8 Dan Sensei. How embarrassing it was! I think the Sensei were more amused than anything else, while I was scratching my head through my kote and men... oh oh oh, this is probably the biggest oops moment in my kendo career.

When I turned to face Kate just before we did the mutual rei, I could see Kate was nodding up and down. I wasn't sure if Kate was trying to reassure me that it was okay, or if she was giggling behind her men. (Well, I was able to confirm with her later that evening that it was the later. hhhhhh) And you would have guessed, I got teased over and over throughout the championships for that.

After all the initial drama, I was finally able to play in my first individual final. From the very beginning, I could feel Kate was exerting a lot more attacking pressure than most before in both isoku-ito-no-maai or tsubazerai. When she unbalanced me momentarily in tsubazerai shortly after the start of the match, I knew I must stay on-guard every moment and played exceptionally well if I want to win. There were more attacks in this match, and it was also a cleaner match than my earlier matches so I really enjoyed every moment of this final. I was fortunate to score a nuki-men early in the match and was planning to hold on to this point safely to the final whistle. But then an opportunity came... we were both in isoku-ito-no-maai, and I could feel that we were building up for an all-out attack. And when that moment came, we both launched into aiuchi-men. I could hear the crowd roaring, and I looked at the chief judge's flag. It's my flag...

OHHHH! I have just won the national title!!! So many years of trying but falling over in the last hurdle, and now finally, finally, to win it.... It now tasted so sweet and beautiful.

Thank you to all of you who have always supported me, encouraged me and believed in me that I could do this in all these years. This win meant more to me than the ippons I scored in my matches on the day. The continuous support and warm feeling that I got from my friends to help me get through and clear all the hurdles, made this win especially sweet. Thank you to you all from the bottom of my heart.

With the conclusion of the women's individuals, I had the rest of the first day free to watch and support my teammates. NSW did very well by gaining 3 spots in the top 4. Ka-bi came second in an extremely electrifying match against Tani from WA. Jonathan Cross Sensei from my club and Michael Henstock from UNSW came equal thirds. And Jayson from my club played some really nice strong kendo which eventually earned him a fighting spirit award in the tournament. YAY for a great performance from NSW and my club on the first day of the competition.

Lining up to receive my first national individual title
(photo taken by Ray Kato)

Sun, 12 April 2009 - Women's Team
Apart from the veteran's individuals, which Toshio from my club won the final using nito, it was a full day of team competition.

The NSW women's team, consisted of Mrs. Cross, Daseul and myself with Shoko as our coach, had a good warm-up 30 mins before the scheduled start of the women's team event. Our first match was against WA. Mrs. Cross won the senpo match to give NSW a good start, and Daseul was able to hold on to the lead by forcing a draw against Susan in the chuken match. I was able to win the taisho match with a tobikomi-men and a kote-men to move the team into the final against Victoria.

Victoria has traditionally been 'the team to beat' when it came to the women's team event. And my team knew that if we wanted to win, we had got to play some really good kendo to stand a chance.

It was a tough start for our team when Mrs. Cross conceded a point early in her senpo match. But she kept fighting back with strong spirit and determination while her opponent was trying to protect the point. Her perseverance was eventually awarded when she landed a big strong men cut. After that, the whole game dynamic changed, and she was in control of the game and won her match with another men cut. And so, NSW took an early lead in the final.

In the chuken match, Daseul played an extremely impressive tactical game. She was utilising her strong seme to draw her opponent into attacks which she countered with a men cut to take the first ippon. In the second point, she did a very powerful uchiotoshi-men to give NSW an overall 2-0 lead, and sealed the team victory.

As the NSW team has already won regardless of the outcome of my taisho match, I was able to go into my taisho match without pressure, which ended up as a draw.

It was so good to be able to defend the team title once again, and especially that we have trained so hard together in the past few months. Thanks to Shoko, our coach who set up the training programs for the girls and made us a great team.

NSW Women Team with the Ron Bennett Team Victory Banner
(photo taken by Ray Kato)

At the end the championships, we had a goudou-geiko, and I had one keiko opportunity with Meguro Daisaku Sensei (目黒大作　範士) Hanshi 8 Dan. He gave me some really useful feedback about my attacks. He said that I launched my men cut as soon as I got into my attacking zone, so the timing was very predictable. However, if I could hold my cut and vary my attacking timing, it would make my game a whole lot more complex and unpredictable.

Championships Group Photo
(photo taken by Ray Kato)

Zoom-in of the Championships Group Photo
(photo taken by Ray Kato)

Mon & Tue, 13-14 April 2009 -National Seminar

Meguro Daisaku Hanshi and Mochizuki Teruo Sensei 8 Dan Kyoshi conducted the two-day national seminar. The aim of the seminar was to introduce various methods of teaching kendo, and to make kendo practice more interesting by being creative. And the two Sensei introduced us to several great ideas which I am so keen to try them out back in my club.

Here, I have picked out some of the more interesting points I got from the seminar:

Modified hayasuburi: the goal of this exercise is to bring the left foot up as quickly as possible during a strike. The starting position is with right foot a step in front of the left with weight on the right foot, and the arms in normal chudan-no-kamae. The exercise is to bring the left foot up while the arms make a kihon men cut. When doing this modified hayasuburi continuously, the left foot will move up and back quickly as one makes the kihon men cut. The right foot remains at the same spot throughout this exercise.
Debana-kote exercise with tenugui: the goal of this exercise is to teach the player how to strike debana-kote using a small and quick snap of the shinai. First, fold the tenugui into halves several times and then place it at the tip of the shinai. And then hold chudan-no-kamae. The exercise is to slightly flick the shinai up, and quickly strike the tenugui while it is still up in the air.
Tsubazerai exercise: the goal of this exercise is to get the players to experiment with the possible reactions that one can gain from his/her opponent by pushing or applying pressure on the opponent's kote in different direction. The exercise is done in a pair, and both sides practice the exercise at the same time. There is no need to actually make a strike, as the goal of this exercise is to appreciate the possible reactions gained in response to a pressure applied on the opponent's kote.

Kunio Shizawa Sensei Trophy on the left,
the individual trophy I get to keep on my right,
and the women's team championships medal

Ending on a High

2008-12-09T16:34:00.009+11:00

The 2008 NSW State Kendo Championships was held last Saturday. This year was the first year that I did not have to organise for the running of the event, so I could indulge myself to a training program that I developed for myself and focus purely on preparing for the competition. It was really great to be able to do that. I have done everything that I wanted - good keiko, good gym workout, good food, good rest, and most importantly, I was thinking good. I could not ask for a better preparation.

The night before the competition, I made some rice balls to take to the championships and rested really early that night. It must have been some 9 hours of solid sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I felt so nice, relaxed and energised.

I entered in the Women's individual's event and the Dan individual's event. My first event, which was the women's event did not start until after lunch, so I had plenty of time to compose my mind and support my club mates in the kyu grade matches after the early morning shinai weigh-in and the opening ceremony. And of course, I kept eating my rice balls throughout the morning...

Pool matches
In the women's competition, I was placed in a pool of 3 competitors. In my first pool match, I started a little bit sluggishly. My feet were not moving as quickly as I would like. But slowly, my body became awake, and I won my first pool match with two tobikomi-men.

I had a rest after my first match while the other two competitors in my pool fought against each other. I was able to take up that opportunity and geared up all the energy in my body and my mind to really explode in the next match.

Explode I did. As soon as I started the next match, I quickly moved in to launch a tobikomi-men.

"Men-ari!"

Then the match restarted again. My opponent attempted to execute a kote-men straight away, and I executed nuki-men.

"Men-ari!"

And that was it. It was a really quick match (I was later told that 4.66 seconds was the official time). With that performance, it really boosted my confidence and spirit up a few notches.

Semi-final
In the semi-final, I had my match against Chiaki, who flew in that morning from Melbourne just for the competition. I launched the first attack in the match - a tobikomi-men again. The strike was powerful, but Chiaki managed to raise her shinai up to block it just a few millimeters from the target. I continued my zanshin forward, and the follow-through momentum took me into the tsubazerai situation. I was there trying to set up for the next cut. Chiaki, however, stopped and said "You've got the point!" I was perplexed.

So I turned around and looked at the judges. And the flags were up! I looked at Chiaki, and she looked at me. I whispered quietly to say sorry about the point. However, that was all I could do. And because I was still in the middle of a match, I had to quickly forget about that, re-focus, and not let that sympathetic feeling carry through and affect my performance.

Chiaki and I have fought each other so many times that we knew what worked and what didn't on each others. A minute or so into the match, both of us were in chudan no kamae trying to seme into each other. I remembered that I was trying to invite Chiaki to come for an attack, particularly for a kote. And I was hoping to execute nuki-men if she came into the attack.

And she did!

This time, however, she changed her timing slightly, delaying her kote attack for a fraction of a second. So my arms rose up a fraction of a second too early, and so she landed a very nice kote on me.

'Kote-ari!'

Now at 1-1, it would have been nice to end the match with some kind of a brilliant cut. Unfortunately, maybe a little bit of an anti-climax, Chiaki stepped out of the court twice. And so, I was awarded another point, and ultimately the match to go through to the final.

Final
I have been in this event's final for a number of years now, and for the past two years, I have been tripping over in the last hurdle. So I really wanted this match badly. I knew I had what it takes to win the title, but it was probably whether I had enough confidence to perform like how a winner would do. This time, I have prepared everything I could the way I wanted - and I just needed to perform it on the court in the match that mattered the most - to make good cuts, good tenouchi, good zanshin, good spirit. I wanted this match!

Fighting Daseul in the final was always a challenge. She also trained very hard and was a good fighter. So I knew I needed to perform on the top of my game if I really wanted to take a point from her. I was moving around the court quite powerfully, but as expected, the match eventually went into encho. I could hear many people were cheering for me throughout the match, and it really helped me to fight on. So thank you to all of you who supported me throughout the competition.

Both of us were moving very cautiously at this stage. I told myself not to do silly things to ruin what I have set up already (which I have done a few time in previous competitions). At the end-stage of the match, I remembered that I attempted a semete-kote but ended up in tsubazerai situation. Daseul then attempted a hiki-men, which I blocked and chased her up with a tobikomi-men, who was still moving backwards from her hiki-men. I really leaped into the men cut with everything that I have got. I really wanted it badly.

And thank goodness. It landed! 'Men-ari!'

Ohhh, finally!!! Finally, I made it through. Oh, thank you to all of you, no matter where you are from, who helped me and encouraged me along the way to prepare, and make it through to the title.

Thank you!

Dan Individuals
The Dan individuals event followed straight after the Women's final. Now, it was much more enjoyable for me as I have achieved what I really wanted to get out of this Championships. So no matter what result I got in the Dan event, I would still be happy provided that I performed to my best level in those matches too. And I think I did. I won my first pool match with two debana-kote, but lost my next pool match with a well-timed kote. However, I was satisfied with the way I performed.

Ending on a High Note
My club did very well in this State Championships. The Dan Individuals competition was eventually won by Daisuke, with Ray Kato coming equal third, Mrs. Cross came third in the women's event, Kenji the super kid won the under 16 title, and Nobuko took out the fighting spirit award. So it was a successful day for my club.

Sydney Kendo Club groupie happy snappy photo
Photo taken by Twins Yiu

Afterwards, the 'Plum Girls' went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant to celebrate the completion of the last major event of the year. What a satisfying finish for the 2008 kendo year (and for my hungry stomach too)!

Let's hope 2009 will be even better! Brazil, here I come!!!

Beware: Get Snapped and Smashed!

2008-11-30T20:00:00.006+11:00

It is so good to be at the end-of-year. My end-of-semester university exams, all seven of them, are finished. And I am half way through my degree. Time really flies. I am glad to say that my passion towards my study has not changed. I am still thoroughly loving every aspect of physiotherapy, and looking forward to when I become fully qualified in two years time to practice and help people to recover injuries and become stronger.

Feeding the Zanshin Monster
Now back to kendo... Last month, I have set myself the goal of improving my zanshin. In the past month, I have been focusing on exactly just that. Although it has only been a few weeks since I set this goal, I could feel the quality of my keiko has lifted up several notches. When I initiate a cut, I am no longer focusing purely on hitting the target. Now, I can envisage my follow-through zanshin at the time I launch my cut. To let my cut and my body fully express the hunger of taking that point, completely immersing, committing into the attack, during the attack, and after the attack - just like a hungry lion pouncing on its prey, wrestling it until the hunger is satisfied. ROOOOAR!!! It is such an uplifting feeling. This, I have to say, makes me feel bloody good!

Tenouchi
There has been a particular problem that has been bugging me for a long time - Tenouchi. Various sensei have kindly pointed out to me repeatedly in different occassions that my cuts are too light. I knew it has been a problem, and I have tried to add that extra snap in the wrist in my cuts to make them more solid. However, it has been too much of a conscious effort that, as soon as it comes into jigeiko session, that extra snap of tenouchi has all but disappeared. This, however, is about to change. Well, actually, the change is already happening... thanks to the newly added daily routine of suburi.

Apart from the training inside the dojo, I have been very diligent outside the dojo. On top of my daily gym workout (even during the exam period), I have been doing suburi with the goal of improving my rather weak tenouchi. I wasn't after quantity, speed, or endurance, but quality - the wrist snap in each cut. As such, the number of shomen suburi that I do is not particularly great - ranging from 300 times to 800 times in 100 chunks. The speed of completing each 100 chunk is not fast. As I said, I wasn't after how many suburi I make and how quickly I can get through them. Instead, I am looking for a quality snap in the kensen in each strike. I took my time to make each cut as sharp and snappy as possible, with all energy from the body transferring to the kensen.

Last Wednesday, it was so encouraging to hear from Mrs. Cross at the end of the training session that she could feel my tenouchi!!! It was the first time ever for me to hear this kind of comment on my tenouchi. It really made my day! Finally! My tenouchi's improvement is showing in my keiko. Personally, I have found myself in a stronger position when coming into an ai-men situation after I started my suburi-tenouchi practice routine. Now, with the stronger tenouchi, I am building a more complete package in my strike.

Zanshin + Tenouchi... State Championships here I come!!!

Feeding the Zanshin Monster

2008-10-31T21:06:00.005+11:00

With the end-of-year exams approaching, it has, at times, been quite tiring to attend kendo night training sessions and then do further study late into the night. Then waking up early in the morning for my regular gym session at the university before attending the morning classes. I have, however, kept up my discipline, the promise to myself to push myself harder because I want to be fit for kendo training, and to perform well at the World Championships next year. I want to do well. And I know that to achieve my goals, I must discipline myself physically and mentally.

After the Australian National Squad training earlier this month, I realised that there was something important that I have been neglecting and lacking. It's Zanshin. I have been too focused on landing a nice solid cut. Once a cut was made, I was too complacent that my mind and body seemed to have switched off.

Mind you, I was doing the follow-through motion. But it was kind of like follow-the-motion type of movements. If I were to judge myself, I'd say, 'Vivian, you could do better than that'. Yes, I know. I know I could do better than that . I have done a perfect zanshin before, and I know how a perfect zanshin that follows a cut feels like... it is like a tsunami-wave overpowering and sweeping everything on its path. The unquestionable feeling, the exuberant display of confidence and determination from the start to the finish of the cut. That itself, generates an overwhelmingly positive feeling in me, which makes me feel even more confident for the next cut. And so the positive reinforcement goes on.

And I want to feel that again!

So, in the past few weeks, I was concentrating on just that - Zanshin. Whether or not the cut connected, I would make myself power through, with total conviction. I tell myself I will practice like this until that day when this becomes completely natural and automatic.

I will also show zanshin even if my cut misses. Even though I may not be able to achieve that ippon physically, I can still try to achieve the mental ippon. That way, my opponent would feel more threatened, knowing that if I did connect that cut, it would be an unquestionable ippon. Making my opponent more nervous, and thus, building myself a more powerful position.

So this is where I am at now - Feeding my hungry zanshin monster.

Btw, I just fed 50 eager and cute little ghosts at my front door this evening with lollies. Happy Halloween!

Plummy Plum Power

2008-09-28T11:05:00.025+10:00

It's been a month and it's time to give an update on what's been happening in the past month. There are 3 main parts to this update:

Sports Psychology
ACT Kendo Seminar
Dae Han Moo Do Kwan Kumdo Tournament

SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY
A few weeks ago, I attended a sports physiotherapy seminar on Sport Psychology on Athlete Injuries. The presenter was the current Sports Psychologist for the Australian Swimming Team, who recently accompanied the team to the Beijing Olympics. The talk was very interesting and I found many points highly relevant to those of us who attend regular competition, but at times find it difficult to perform under pressure.

Focus on the Process - the Controllable
During the talk, the presenter repeatedly emphasized the need for an athlete to focus on the controllable process rather than the uncontrollable final outcome. Good athletes put their focuses and energy to control the controllables. But often, many athletes have the misconception that they can control injury and illness, what the coach thinks, and how the other competitors will perform, and ultimately the overall outcome. For example, an elite athlete may say, 'I really need to finish the season well, I need to prove it to the coach, I need to prove blah blah blah…' All of a sudden, this athlete has greater anxiety and self-doubt, because he or she is attempting to control the uncontrollables. As a result, the automatic response is increased muscle tension. Increased muscle tension increases load to the body, which makes the athlete more susceptible to injuries and lower the performance.

As such, as an athlete, we should focus on the process rather than the outcome. It is the the process that we can control - we can build up our skills, speed, strength, and stamina. But we can't control the outcome - things like what the coach thinks, what our teammates do, or how our competitors perform.

Embrace Pressure
Another point being made in the presentation was how to deal with pressure. Athlete has to learn to make uncomfortable feelings, such as repetitions, stress, pressure & pain, to become more comfortable. For example, standing up behind the starting blocks in the Olympic final is not generally a comfortable feeling. Why? Because the sprinter cannot afford a stuff-up. If the sprinter stuffs it up now, he will have to wait another four years for the next Olympic Games. And the whole world is watching. And there may be the thought of not wanting to be flopped by any of the Jamaican sprinters. Well, yes, it is an uncomfortable situation. None of us like feeling uncomfortable, and we tend to avoid uncomfortableness. But if an athlete wants to perform well, he or she must recognise that this is part of elite sport, and he or she got to accept and get used to feeling uncomfortable and perform under pressure.

Those athletes who thrive and perform under pressure are risk-takers. And they got to get used to performing under pressure. On a good day, we can all perform well. But it is the bad days when the athlete is under the hot water & high intensity of pressure that distinguishes and exposes the true character of the athletes.

Ultmiately, sport is survival of the fittest. Whoever is able to hold it together long enough, both mentally and physically, to do the training required to develop the skills to get out there and perform will do well.

ACT KENDO SEMINAR
I attended the ACT Kendo Seminar hosted in Canberra on 20-21 September. Two visiting Sensei from Japan conducted a fantastic seminar:

Isato Matsuda Sensei, 8 Dan Kyoshi - Nara City Board of Education Physical Education Guidance Director
Nobuhiro Ozaki Sensei, 7 Dan Kyoshi - Coach at the Osaka Sangyo University kendo club.

It was one of the most thorough weekend seminars I have attended, covering aspects from kendo keiko, uchikomi and kakarigeiko to kata, shiai & shinpaning. For simplicity and clarity, I have put the more notable points here under the relevant headings.

Suburi

The purpose of suburi is to perfect the movement in each cut. We should treat suburi as part of keiko, not as a general warm-up. Always imagine that you are striking an imaginable target in suburi.

Upper Body

Shoulder, arm and wrist should be relax to allow energy to transfer from the body to the monouchi (tip of the shinai). This is also affected by the way you grip the shinai. The shinai should be gripped with the ring and little fingers, in the way that Chiba Sensei has taught (see August '08 blog entry). When I grip the shinai without the kote protector on, I have perfect distribution of grip strength. However, once I put my kote on, I reverted back to the bad habits of gripping like making a fist, which I didn't notice until recently when Jonathan Cross Sensei kindly pointed that out to me. Now I am always checking my grip to make sure it is correct. And I was able to notice the huge difference it makes to the way I cut.
Extend arms (i.e. straighten the elbow) as much as possible when cutting.
When making a strike, cut through the target. e.g. for men-uchi, cut through to the chin.
In taitari, keep hands down at waist level. It is dangerous to the opponents to extend arms at or above head level.

Lower Body

Keep the left knee straight
Foot weight distribution ratio ~ 60(left):40(right)
Use short, rapid footwork rather than large long strides. Short rapid footwork maintains the body's centre of mass to move in a smooth horizontal plane, whereas large long strides result in the body bobbing up and down.

Kata

Bow: 30 deg to kamiza; 15 deg to kata partner
When putting the kodachi down, take 4 - 5 steps diagonally backwards. Make sure that you don't show the inside of the legs to the kamiza when you kneel with one leg down to put the bokuto on the ground.
The major difference in holding a bokuto and a katana in taito is that: for bokuto, the end of the grip handle should be in the centreline. Whereas for katana, the tsuba (not the end of the handle) should be in the centreline.
When taking the five small steps back from the centre, make sure that on the last step, you pull the right foot back just a little bit. So in a sense, you are taking 5.5 steps back from the centre.
The kiai duration differs depending on the strength of the cut required, which in turn is then dependent on the target to be cut. For example, louder and longer kiai to cut through men; smaller and shorter kiai to cut through kote.
In Kata #2, when both sides come into the centre to meet, the two bokkens cross deeper than the normal yokote position. Shidachi only needs to lift arms just high enough to see the target. Aim to cut through the wrist.
In Kata #3, both sides should only raise the bokken from gedan when they meet in the centre. A common mistake is to start raising the bokken while taking the three steps to meet in the centre. The shidachi receives the initial thrust by uchidachi by pulling the body back with one large step. Then, the shidachi straightens out the elbow to make the first of the two thrusts to uchidachi's chest (ire-tsuki). Shidachi then continues the momentum with a second thrust executed with kurai-zume, which is translated as "a way of closing in on the opponent by means of a stronger spirit and posture without actually executing a waza" (Japanese-English Dictionary of Kendo). Thus, there is no actual bending and re-extending the elbow in the second thrust. In receiving the two thrusts, the uchidachi points the tip of the bokken to the shidachi's throat. The rhythm changes throughout this kata. In the first thrust by uchidachi and the ire-tsuki by that follows, the speed should be fast. Also, the three forward steps taken by shidachi in closing in to uchidachi should also be fast. The rest should be at slow to moderate speed.
In Kata #4, the three steps before making the aiuchi-men should be small and slow. Not running into the forest as seen in movies! If the swords meet too close in aiuchi-men, it is the uchidachi's responsibility to adjust the distance. However, the best scenario is when the distance is correct without having to make distance adjustment.
Haso no kamae - (L) & (R) elbows are roughly one fist distance away from the side of body. (R) fist is about one fist distance away (and slightly forward) from the (R) chin. The blade should be facing the opponent.
Waki no kamae - (L) fist directly in front of the belly-button. The weight distribution should be 50:50. Common mistake is to put too much weight on (R) foot. The (R) heel should be slightly off the ground.
In Kata #5, shidachi's kensen points to uchidachi's left wrist. In the men cut that follows, Uchidachi attempts to cut through to the chin. However, due to shidachi's suriage deflection, uchidachi's bokken drops down.
In Kata #6, when shidachi moves from gedan up to chudan, shidachi pressures by taking a step with the kensen pointing to the left wrist. When the uchidachi is defeated, the uchidachi should allow the kensen to drop. Don't keep the sword live.
In Kata #7, the first thrust to the chest shoud be executed with ki-atari, which is translated as "to attack the opponent by showing the intention to strike or thrust, and then watch how the opponent's mind reacts and predict his/her moves." (Japanese-English Dictionary of Kendo). After shidachi strikes men, only uchidachi loses eye-contact. Shidachi maintains eye contact throughout all the kata.
During the changeover to shodachi, the uchidachi should be waiting in sonkyo with the bokken in right hand.
In kodachi, shidachi assumes ire-mi where the right shoulder faces to the front and the left shoulder is drawn back. In this way, the tip of the kodachi will be at equal distance as the longer bokken when putting both uchidachi and shidachi side-by-side.
In kodachi #2, shidachi applies the kansetsu waza (joint lock) with a downward pressure on uchidachi's elbow.
In kodachi #3, shidachi applies the kansetsu waza with the left hand putting a bottom-up pressure just proximal to the uchidachi's elbow joint. And the right hand applying a downward pressure at the tsuba-moto.

Shiai & Shinpan

In team competition, the two teams should have a 9-step distance apart for the team bow.
The timing of the 'hajime' call by the head judge is very important. The head judge has the role of facilitation - to bring the best out of the players. Hajime should be called at the time when both players are both full of spirit.
Sometimes, the foot of the shiaisha may be just a little bit behind the starting line. In that case, the head judge need not signal the player to step up to the line as it interfere with the player's concentration and spirit. Only signals to the player to adjust the starting position if the player steps in front of the starting line or is too far back from the starting line.
In jogai (step out of court), the head judge should call 'yame'. Otherwise, the clock will keep ticking.
For jogai, the assistant judge should not put the hansoku flag out before the head judge call 'yame'. In the case that the head judge did not see the jogai, the assistant judge can call 'yame'.
If the head judge did not see a jogai or any other dangerous situations, the assistant judge can call 'yame'. This will stop the clock. Even though the assistant judge has called 'yame', the head judge should call 'yame' again as the head judge is the head of the shiaijo. Then 'gogi' should be called.
When the head judge announces 'hansoku ikkai', both assistant judges put the flags down. A common mistake is that the assistant judges leaves the flag up until hajime is called.
In the case where one or more judges did not make a response in relation to another judge's point decision, the head judge should call 'yame. gogi'.
For situations, such as fist on blade in tsubazerai or shinai turn to the side, even if the assistant judges see that there is a problem, they cannot call hansoku or yame. The head judge is the only person that can call yame, gogi and award hansoku for these situations.
For all hansoku except jogai, gogi should be called before awarding hansoku.
When adjusting a twisted shinai (which can only be carried out by the head judge), guide from either the tsuba or tsuka. DO NOT touch the blade area.
Watch cut AND zanshin before awarding a point. If the judge raises the flag straight after the cut, even if the zanshin turned out to be bad, point has been awarded and cannot be taken away.

Oji-waza
Matsuda Sensei guided us through the practice of a series of oji-waza:

Men-taisuru waza with men cut
Men-taisuru waza with kote cut
Kote-taisuru waza with men cut
Kote-taisuru waza with kote cut

For opponent who keeps the arms low after men cut, one can usually counter with suriage-men and kaeshi-men. However, these counter-attack measures do not quite work for opponent who raises the arms up high after men cut. For these opponents, nuki-do or kaeshi-do would be more effective.
Appy a downward pressure on the opponent's shinai. If the opponent reacts by pushing up, release the downward pressure and cut do immediately as the opponent's arms lift up.
For Kote-taisuru waza with kote cut, there are kote-suriage-kote and kote-kaeshi-kote. Matsuda Sensei said that there has been a decline in the use of these waza, because they are considered more difficult to execute, and the shinpan have been unable to recognise these good cuts. A note for the shinpan from Matsuda Sensei is that shinpan should be able to recognise these types of cuts and award points for these more difficult techniques.

Personal feedbacks from Matsuda Sensei:

Good matawari and suburi in general.
Hands were too stiff when striking men. Need to transfer the energy to the monouchi.
In uchikomi-geiko, it is good that I cut point by point, but I need to string all these points together with sharper and shorter turns to go for the next cut, and the next cut after.
In the kakari-geiko demonstration with destabilising pushes where I was the kakarite and Ozaki Sensei as motodachi, Matsuda Sensei commented that my cuts were a little weak at the moment, but that I have good light and fluid footwork.
Need to move and strike faster and harder.

The Plum Team
(Photo taken after a couple of destabilizing beetroot + champagne)

Sydney Plum Team

Seminar Group Photo
(Photo supplied by Twins and Kassandra)

My sprint success at the closing rei

DHMDK KUMDO TOURNAMENT 2008
Last Saturday, I participated in a local kendo tournament hosted by the Dae Han Moo Do Kwan Kumdo Club. The Sydney Kendo Club was very well represented in every category. For me personally, I participated in the Women's Individuals, Women's Team & Dan Open Team events.

The day started well for my club with Luke Lee snatching the Kyu Individuals Title.

Next up was the Women's Individuals. I won all my pool and knockout matches by 2-0 to eventually advance to the finals where I met Daseul. We had a long battle in the final, which lasted for about 10 minutes. In the match, both Daseul and myself were fighting rather cautiously, with both sides attacking with their more comfortable waza. Personally, I think I lacked seme and was too repetitive in that match. Ultimately, I could not build up to a strong distinctive powerful ippon cut. The last point was conceded when I attempted a gyaku-do which got stuck under Daseul's tare, and she grabbed the opportunity nicely and delivered an ippon hiki-men. So Daseul won the Women Individuals' title, and I came second.

Following after that was the Dan Individuals competition. Our club performed strongly in this event, taking out 3 of the top 4 places. Aussie Ray Kato won a thrilling final against fellow clubmate Daisuke, with Jayson taking out equal third.

With the conclusion of all individual competitions, the team competitions began. After eating a yummy beef and bamboo shoot rice lunch box after my women's individuals competition, I felt much more energised and ready to rock with the Plum Girls. (Just don't ask about how this name came about.) Anh was our senpo, Jessie was jiho and I was taisho.

Our first pool match was against MDK Team 1, I had a re-match with Daseul in my match. In this match, I was able to build up the seme and felt much more in control in this match. I took the first point with a men cut, but Daseul equalised to 1-1 with a hiki-gyaku-do. With that, our team won by one point difference in the overall team score.

Our second pool match was against Wollongong, who was only able to field two players. I fought Shoko in the taisho match, and took the match 2-0 with a hiki-men and a tobikomi-men.

With the wins in the pool matches, the Plum Girls advanced into the final facing MDK Team 2. Leading up to my match, my team had 1 win 1 loss, so it came down to my match as the decider. I felt I was in control throughout the match, and eventually took out two points with a kote-nuki-men and a debana-kote to take the Plum Girls to the Women's Team title.

Go, the Plum Power!

The Dan Open Team Competition followed straight after that. My team - SKC Team 1 consists of Daisuke (senpo), Jayson (jiho), myself (chuken), Toshio (fukusho), Ray (taisho) fought UNSW and MDK Team 2 in the pool matches. We had a very good start, winning all 10 games against the two teams in our pool to advance to the final. For me, I won my chuken match against Jackson of UNSW with two debana-kote, and a debana-kote and a men-kaeshi-do against Bennett of MDK.

The Dan Team final against MDK Team 1 was a thriller. It came down to the final match between the two Taisho. Daisuke and Jayson made a strong start by winning their senpo and jiho matches respectively. In my chuken match, I faced Dwight but lost to a debana-kote and a men. From the feedbacks I received later on, I need to vary my game and tactics a little bit more to keep my opponent guessing. In the fukusho match, Robin of MDK fought extremely well to equalise the overall team score to 2-2 with a one point advantage to MDK.

For SKC to win, Ray, the newly crowned Dan Individual champion, must win the taisho match. And he did it in spectacular fashion, taking the first point with a nicely-timed men cut. But the last point was definitely the most exhilarating. It could not finish off more beautifully, with both sides going for aiuchi-men and Ray coming out on top, snatching that deciding moment to bring SKC to the team championships. Hooray!

So that's my report for the past month. Until the next entry, I will leave you with this amazing drum solo performance from a 12-year-old.

Founders Cup & Chiba Sensei's Seminar

2008-08-16T14:23:00.003+10:00

Founders Cup - 2nd August 2008
The past few weekends have been filled with kendo events one after the other since coming back from New Zealand. I attended the national kendo squad training down in Canberra at the end of July. Then, there was the Founders Cup, which comprises the state team championships, grading and seminar, in the following weekend. I represented the Sydney Kendo Club in the Women's Team event, where Mrs. Cross was senpo, Jessie as chuken, and myself as taisho.

I love this photo! It's so cute.
(photo taken by Dave Banbury @ Founders Cup)

In the group draws, Sydney Kendo Club played ACT Kendo Club and Wollongong Kendo Club, and we won both team matches, with myself winning both my Taisho matches 2-0.

With that, we moved straight into the women's team event final, where we played the defending champion team from the Korean club Dae Han Moo Do Kwan. My teammates fought very well, and were leading 1-0 coming into my Taisho match. As a team match, I know that if I could hold on to that one point advantage and played safe, my team could win the women's team title. So, just hold on, play safe, and don't make risky cuts. That was what I was telling myself.

So off I went into my Taisho match. As soon as I stood up and yelled my kiai, I tried to apply pressure and initiate my cuts - like the way I normally play. Then, suddenly after two to three attacks, I came to realise that why was I making all the initiation to attack. If someone needed to step up and attack now, it should be my opponent, whose team was down one point. But I could tell you, it was so difficult to hold on to that point safely. My head was telling me to 'hold on, hold on'. But my whole body just wanted to leap out and launch an attack. It might sound a little strange, but I have to admit that I like playing in team situation where I have to fight from a point down. I perform better when there are more pressure for me to get that one point (or two). So, fighting in this situation actually made me a little uncomfortable. I was thinking too much in my head to 'hold on'.

My opponent was fighting very well. She was applying a lot of seme into me throughout the whole game. And eventually, she scored a men-uchi.

Suddenly, the whole situation changed. Now my team was 1-1. 'I must get at least one point back to win the team', I told myself. Maybe a little bit of panic and indecision.... As soon as the second point restarted, I was trying to attempt a gyaku-do. However, as soon as I lifted my arms up to fake that men cut, my opponent seemed to have sense it and decisively landed a beautifully timed de-kote on me. 'Kote-ari'.

Ooouhh. Just that one moment, the whole result changed and everything ended. I lost my match, and because of that, my team lost the state title.

I was very disappointed. I wish I could bring home the title where my teammates have fought so valiantly in the previous matches. But I guess I have learnt and discovered a whole lot more about my emotions in team shiai. Each position in the team has very specific role, and to be a good Taisho, one must be able to act decisively and confidently whether the team is leading or trailing by a point. When different situation arises, one must be able to adjust their game and style of play quickly while still holding that composure. Calm emotions - I think, is the biggest challenge to deal with to become a good taisho.

There were also a couple of things that I picked up from the last match and from the feedbacks that were kindly given to me by my friends.

Apply more seme on my opponent
I seemed to have loosening up my centre and allowing my opponent to come into her attacking zone too easily. Be more aware of the position of my kensen position during training. Keep it strong in the centre.

Sydney Kendo Club women's team
(photo taken by Dave Banbury)

Chiba Sensei & Oda Sensei's Sydney Visit - 3rd - 6th August 2008

It has been nine months, and it is great to have Chiba Masashi Sensei and Oda Katsuo Sensei in Sydney again to conduct a series of kendo and iaido seminar.

Grading Observation
On Sunday, 3rd August, I picked the Sensei up from their hotel to the training venue. When we arrived, the State kendo grading was in progress, and we all observed from the spectator stand. It was good to be sitting next to Chiba Sensei as I received a lot of feedbacks based on what he was observing in the Dan level grading. And here they are:

Tenouchi - many cuts are stopping just above the target. We need to apply more tenouchi, ulnar-flex our wrist to aim at cutting through the target. For men-uchi, cut through to the chin level. In kote, cut below the wrist.

Finger grip strength distribution - people are gripping their shinai too rigidly with too much strength, which affects their cuts, especially the do cut. We need to practice having a flexible soft grip. Special attention must be paid to the grip strength of each individual finger on both our right and left hands. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is no strength, and 10 is the maximum strength:

Left hand

Little finger: 10
Ring finger: 10
Middle finger: 7
Index finger: 0
Thumb: 0

Right hand

Little finger: 5
Ring finger: 5
Middle finger: 3
Index finger: 0
Thumb: 0

Timing of foot lift - Many people are lifting their right foot up as soon as they lift their arms up for attack. This is incorrect as the early foot upward movement sends an early signal to your opponent about your attack. The right foot should slide forward and lift up just when you are about to strike.

Connection with your opponent -In 4 Dan grading, one must check their opponent's breathing rate, movements, amongst many other things. The tips of the shinai should be 'talking' to each other - moving back & forth. At the 4 Dan level, purely moving in and cutting without engaging and forging a relationship with your opponent will not result in a good outcome.

Seminar: "Seme --> Opportunity --> Attack --> Move in"
Over the 3-day seminar, Chiba Sensei introduced us to various ways of practicing seme with a partner and how to attack based on your opponent's reaction on your initial seme.

Objective of kendo - to use seme or spirit to control your opponent.

Effective fumikomi - left knee must be fully extended to generate strong push-off for strong fumikomi.

Creating Opportunities - In kendo, we must try to create opening and opportunities to make an attack. All successful attacks all follow the pattern of "Seme --> Opportunity --> Attack --> Move in". During the seminar, Chiba Sensei progressively build up on this idea by having the class attack an open target. In the next level, the kakarite destabilises the motodachi's shinai to control the centre and attack. In the highest level, the kakarite creates the opening by seme'ing into the motodachi to get a reaction from the motodachi. When the motodachi reacts, attack whatever is opened. For example, to create a men attack opportunity, one can seme into the kote by moving forward using the right foot (but do not bend down as this becomes too obvious to your opponent). When the opponent reacts and covers their kote, their men becomes exposed. Immediately seize this opportunity and cut men.

Seme - When you seme, seme into the stomach as this is more threatening than lifting the shinai tip up. However, one must have a flexible wrist control to follow up the seme from stomach level to strike a snappy men cut. Attacking with a stiff and rigid wrist will not work as the movement will be too slow.

Questions & Answers
At the end of each seminar, there were time for Questions & Answers from the class to Chiba Sensei. Here are some interesting points I picked up from these sessions:

Sayumen - A question was asked with regard to sayumen. "After cutting a sayumen, should we bring the shinai straight up or bring the shinai back up at the same path we cut sayumen?" The answer from Chiba Sensei was that both ways are correct depending on the stage of the person's kendo development. For beginners, we tell them to bring the shinai straight back up. However, as we progress to higher level and cutting with increasing speed, it is impossible to cut and bring the shinai straight up. To continuously cut sayumen at high speed, one must cut and bring the shinai back up the same path as one just cut down.

Zanshin for kote - Maintain correct posture after cutting kote. So that your body does not collapse after the kote cut. A good analogy is to "cut kote as if you are going for kote-men".

Hand grip in do-uchi - To allow the greater range of movement in executing a do cut, the left hand can slide up the tsuka immediately before the do strike. However, many people do this by releasing their left hand completely off the tsuka, and this is incorrect. A valid do strike must be executed with both hands. There may be situations where the left hand lose contact with the tsuka momentarily, but the left hand should grip the tsuka back again immediately.

"Myth: tenouchi is like wringing a wet towel". WRONG! - This analogy is often used in Japan to teach young children, who tend to have weak hand grip strength and hold their shinai in such a way that the two V's between the thumb and index finger of their hands do not aligned and their elbows flaring out. And so, the wringing-the-towel visual analogy may be useful in teaching children how to grip the shinai properly. However, adults do not have the same grip strength deficiency that young children have. Most adults can turn their palms in so that the two V's of their hands aligned properly. With an already correct hand grip position, if we also use this analogy, it often contributes to excessive pronation of the forearms and tensing of the shoulder and forearm muscles. So, this analogy should not be used in the adult population. A point to add to the "wringing-towel" analogy is that it is not possible to turn your wrist in when holding a real katana.

"In Tsubazerai - how bent should the elbow be?" The elbow should not be bent at all. When your opponent pushes you back, keep the elbow extended to keep the distance and control.

"Gyaku-do - what is the correct zanshin?" Some people say that one should move diagonally backwards to the left, and some people say that you should move diagonally forward to the left. In reply to this question, Chiba Sensei demonstrated the zanshin for gyaku-do by closing in the distance between him and the opponent. So close that Chiba Sensei is literally staring his opponent right in the face. This is the safest and most convincing zanshin as it gives his opponent no space to execute any cuts.

Chiba Sensei, me, Oda Sensei @ Sydney Tower

New Zealand National Kendo Seminar

2008-07-28T12:42:00.005+10:00

Breaking the Silence
Since the conclusion of the 2008 Australian National Championships and Seminar in late March, I have immersed myself into university study and have completed my first official clinical experience with one of the largest hospitals in Sydney - working separately in both the Hand Physiotherapy department and the Neurological Physiotherapy department. Working in these departments really made me more appreciative on how lucky I am to have strong and functional body to carry out everyday tasks independently and enjoy life. I have also been fortunate enough to find the opportunity to work with The King's School weekend rugby every Saturday. It is a complete different experience to the clinical work I face in the hospital. Here I see players injure right in front of my eyes - concussion, fractures, dislocation, spinal injuries, cuts and bruises, and sometimes a lot of blood. Fortunately, under the guidance and supervision of several experienced sport physiotherapists and paramedics, and a sports physician working at the school during those sports days, I am gaining more experience and knowledge on dealing with these types of traumas.

Due to all this, I have to trade-off my kendo training time. I have been training only once or twice a week during the university semester. However, I was still keeping up my cardiovascular and strength training at the university gym every morning before lectures began. So I was still able to maintain my 'kendo instinct' and keep up with the training demand during the training sessions.

To the Kiwi Land
After the Autumn university semester finished, I made a quick decision to go to New Zealand in July. Coincidentally, there was the opening of the Auckland Kendo Club's new dojo and the New Zealand national kendo seminar at the same time, which turned out to be the largest kendo event in the Kiwis kendo history. So off I went to New Zealand with my bogu and had a wonderful time training with a very nice and welcoming kiwi kendo community.

New Zealand National Squad Training, 11/07/2008
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to join the New Zealand National Kendo Squad training on Friday, 11th July. There were about 20 - 25 squad members training, led by Martin Lee Sensei. The training began at 10am with jogging, stretching and suburi, and moved on to uchikomi practice for the rest of the morning session. In the afternoon session, we moved on into scenario-based waza session.

A few interesting points that were emphasised during the training:

Perform each suburi with total conviction
In hiki-waza, move away quickly from opponent. Keep a safe distance so your opponent is not in the position to pose danger to you after you perform hiki-waza. To make hiki-waza practice more realistic, motodachi should try to chase down the kakarite who performs the hiki-waza.
The practice of 'active' defence / blocking - be able to apply pressure in your defence when your opponent's attack. Project pressure forward onto your opponent.

At around 3pm, the Japanese delegation led by Inoue Yoshihiko Sensei arrived at the dojo. And the squad immediately carried out a 3-player women's team and 5-player men's team shiai competition. As there were only 5 ladies in the squad training that day, I was so happy when Martin asked if I would like to play twice. But of course! So I got to play in two different positions for my team, as both senpo and taisho.

In my senpo match, there were a lot of tsubazeriai situations, and I had some troubles dissolving and moving out of them. I went for an attack and my opponent would block and try to stick to me into tsubazeriai positions for most of the match. So I spent an awefully long time stuck in tsubazeriai. It was with a great lot of effort that I could finally break myself free from tsubazeriai. Anyway, I was able to score a men-uchi after some time, and straight after restart, I claimed the second point with a debana-kote.

In the taisho match, it was a more energetic and exciting match, and I felt a good connection and intensity were established with my opponent. Again, I claimed my first point with men-uchi. In the the second point, I tried gyaku-do which happily came out with good result.

Inoue Sensei's Observations
After the conclusion of the team shiai, Inoue Sensei gave the squad some advices from his observation of the matches.

Inoue Sensei pointed out from the beginning that there was too much time spent in tsubazeriai in the senpo match. He then prompted us to think why this was happening. The reason, he said, was due to the lack of momentum carried by the body in the attack. So when the two bodies collided, the resulting body clash could not generate enough power for the two colliding bodies to bounce off each other. Thus, resulting into a sticky tsubazeriai position.

Inoue Sensei also pointed out that the attacking distance was too close, especially for the taller players. He suggested that the taller players should try to take advantage of their height, and attack from a longer distance.

Goudou Geiko
At 4pm, there was a 1-hour goudou-geiko session, and all the visiting Japanese Sensei were motodachi in this session. I had the opportunity to keiko with Oda Katsuo Sensei 7 Dan, Nishi Sensei 7 Dan (son of Nishi Sensei 9 Dan), and Shibayama Sensei 7 Dan. It was really wonderful to keiko with these Sensei. Even now, I can still remember clearly how Oda Sensei's strong control of the centre dissipated all my attacks. And I just couldn't go faster than him in ai-men situation. And then there was Nishi Sensei's straight and unstoppable men cuts, and Shibayama Sensei's pinpoint kote cuts on the smallest opening. It was so wonderful to train with these high calibre kendo Sensei. And made me realise once again how much more I need to train in order to reach their stage of kendo.

New Zealand National Kendo Seminar (Day 1), 12/07/2008
Saturday was the official opening of the New Zealand National Kendo Seminar. After some speeches and introduction of the visiting delegations, the seminar went straight into the kendo kata session.

The Auckland Kendo Club

The visiting Japanese delegation, with Inoue Yoshihiko Hanshi sitting in the front

Spot me!

We were extremely fortunate to have Inoue Yoshihiko Sensei, Kendo Hanshi 8 Dan, who is the head of the All Japan Kendo Federation Kendo Kata committee, to teach the seminar participants kendo kata in the morning session.

I have read Inoue Sensei's writings prior to this seminar: the Kendo Kata series published in the earlier volumes of the Kendo World magazine, and also Kendo Kata: Essence and Application - a book also published by Kendo World Publications. Inoue Sensei teaches kendo beyond simple procedures and techniques, but goes into the reasons and meaning behind every movement. And from there, he relates the spirit of each movement to the development of human character. It is very beautiful and extremely stimulating to listen to Inoue Sensei's teaching. He is the most inspirational kendo Sensei I have ever met. His teachings go beyond kendo, and even people from non-martial arts background have been dazzled by his speeches. I am not exaggerating. If only I had video-taped the whole weekend to show you all... oh, but bugger my little handycam, it ran out of battery when I needed it the most.

For the whole morning session, for well over two hours, we only practiced kata from ippon-me to sanbon-me, but it was the most in-depth, most thorough practice of any kendo kata training I have ever done.

Ippon-me
Jodan is the heaven kamae, the all powerful stance with the sword-tip pointing up. When assuming jodan no kamae from chudan no kamae, raise your arms up like the sun rising slowly and majestically from the horizon. Don't rush and assume jodan carelessly in an abrupt movement - an analogy is that the sun does not just pop up from the horizon to the sky in one go.

The cut executed by uchidachi is a strong cut with full conviction, as this attack requires the sword to cut through the very hard human skull, and all the way down and through the human torso. As such, the uchidachi's kiai 'yaa' should reflect the strength and power in that cut.

Shidachi should counter-cut uchidachi's attack immediately. The kiai 'tou' should follow immediately after 'yaa' with no break in between. This is because if shidachi allows a long break after uchidachi's attack, uchidachi would have enough time to re-adjust or even follow up the first failed attack with another attack.

Meaning of Ippon-me, Nihon-me, and Sanbon-me
The first three kata actually shows a progression of the mind - the juggle between the display of physical prowess & technical skills and the display of compassion and the ultimate objective of the way of kendo.

In Ippon-me, shidachi takes the life of the uchidachi with a strike to the shomen. In nihon-me, shidachi takes shidachi's arm even though he has the choice to take the life of uchidachi. In sanbon-me, shidachi uses tsuki to control uchidachi, literally making uchidachi stares death in the face. But shidachi's compassion gives uchidachi a chance to live, and in the process to reflect on the meaning of life. As you can see, the degree of compassion transcends to the highest level as the kata progresses from ippon-me to sanbon-me.

Introduction to Iaido, Uchikomi Keiko
In the afternoon, we had a two-hour introductory session to Iaido led by Katsuo Oda Sensei. Oda Sensei showed us all the basics - from how to secure the katana in the obi, to the many ways of drawing the katana and putting the katana away, and finally a demonstration of kata #1.

Tenouchi, and the coordination and use of fingers and wrists are very important in Iaido, just like in Kendo. To make a crisp cut with a 'swooosh' sound with the katana, or a smooth drawing of the katana from the saya, mastery of the tenouchi is essential.

Following the Iaido session, the seminar moved on to the Kendo uchikomi-geiko session, where we practiced many rounds of basics and kirikaeshi.

Auckland Kendo Club - Opening Ceremony
The Auckland Kendo Club's official opening ceremony started at 7pm that evening. After speeches were delivered by Graham Sayer Sensei (President of the Auckland Kendo Club), Inoue Hanshi, and the Consulate-general of Japan, we then enjoyed the brilliant and exciting performance of the Chinese Dragon Dance, the Taisho-Koto (traditional Japanese musical instrument) demonstration, the two kendo demonstration matches between the local Sensei and the visiting Japanese Sensei, and an Iaido performance by Oda Katsuo Sensei Iaido Hanshi. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a wonderful and fun time drinking and mingling.

Yamaguichi-san, Alicia Cavan, me (L-R)

Before the Official Opening of the Auckland Kendo Club

Guests at the Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony - cutting the ribbon

Cheeeeeers! Oda Sensei on the right

Ken Wells Sensei (far end) and Graham Sayer Sensei before their demonstration matches with the visiting Japanese Sensei

Graham Sayer Sensei during his demonstration match in the Opening Ceremony

Alan Stephenson demonstrated Kendo Nippon Kata at the Opening Ceremony

About the speeches that were delivered earlier in the evening, I was particularly moved by Inoue Hanshi's speech on 'the meaning of dojo', and would like to share this beautiful speech to everyone who reads here:

"In relation to the speech given by President Sayer about the dojo, I would just like to comment about the meaning of what a dojo is: a dojo is a place for people to conduct the study of their life.

When we speak about this study, it is really the study about one's own heart. In the process of this study, we acquire the elements that make us human beings.

From the very beginning, from the time that we were born, we come to this “road” of life with a very pure heart, but in the process of growing up and coming of age, there are a lot of effects on our lives, things that we learn and the understanding that we come to have, and in this way, that pure heart of ours, we can say, becomes soiled or takes on some mistaken understanding about the meaning of life.

With time and the impact of the events that have occurred in our lives, some troubles accumulate in our hearts - some misunderstandings, confusion, illusions. However, we must have the desire and spirit to refresh ourselves, renew ourselves, and regain that purity: this is the meaning and purpose of our study of kendo.

In the history and development of the Japanese traditional cultures, there is a very specific type of theatre, called the Noh theatre. In the Noh theatre, in the early stages, there was a great Zeami Motokiyo. Zeami served to define what Noh theatre would become, formalizing Noh in his treatise the Kadensho.

Zeami articulated three points about the approach one should have in their life and study:

From the very beginning, the pure heart – do not forget the simple, uncomplicated, pure heart that we are born with, try to regain that, to find that once again.

The second element, from moment to moment in our lives, not just broad theoretical concepts, but in practice in everyday life - from moment to moment, to see the wonderful things in our lives, to be aware of them, to keep your heart full of wonder, you must never lose this.

The third element, even throughout your life, when you become senior in age, you have accumulated a wealth of experience, you've seen all, you’ve studied all, even then, look upon life, and find unexpected moments, see the fantastic nature of things, be surprised, continue to be full of emotion, and continue to see the beauty of one's life.

From the time that we are all born, and all throughout our lives, even until the moment that we die, be a person who is full of emotion, full of the joy of life. This is the thing to learn.

Today, I think all participants must remember that during our severe practice, a young child caught my attention. From the distant part of the room I looked over and heard his voice calling out so clearly 'yaaaaaaaa meeeennnnn'. It was so enthusiastic. It was this pure, heart full of passion that I wanted to point out to you all. Pease remember it

All of us acquire some education, and there is the impact of the environment over the years, and as a result our hearts become more complex. I want you to take care, to not lose that pure voice, that unobstructed, simple joy of doing things.

I would like you all to have this freshness of your life, to revere life. To have that pure voice that rings out. When you possess this and you are confronted with another person, in all tracks of life, if you have this emotion, this feeling, you will project this out, and engage the heart of your counterpart with it. They will be able to feel your heart as well. This is the kind of human being that I would like to ask everyone to try to become, to strive to become.

In the process of our study, also keep in mind that we would like to find that purity of life through practicing earnestly, and polish ourselves as human beings. We should strive to polish our hearts, wash away the confusion, and regain purity. A human being can do this in a way, like hearing music or seeing some beautiful art. The moment that we are confronted with some beautiful thing, we will have a fullness in our hearts, emotions pour forth, and as a result of this experience we can feel the joy and beauty of life. A heart of a person is the same thing, with it, you can move and inspire others, your joy can evoke joy in others.

If we each do this, and more and more people refine themselves, elevate themselves, become enlightened in this way, we will have a society full of such wonderful people, and society itself will become enlightened. This is the study we undertake, to make an enlightened society, bright and full of optimism. This must be our aim."

-Inoue Yoshihiko hanshi

Oda Katsuo Sensei and me

VVVVVVVVVVVV, so Japanese...

Look

Mika Inoue Sensei

New Zealand National Kendo Seminar (Day 2), 13/07/2008

Asa-geiko
Asa-geiko began at 6am the next morning. With the previous night's partying and staying up till 1am, I only had about 3 hours of real sleep before getting up again for the asa-geiko. However, once I put on my men and made my first loud kiai of the day, I felt energised and great for the early training. It was wonderful to have the chance to keiko with Graham Sayer Sensei, Ken Wells Sensei and Alan Stephenson Sensei from New Zealand, and also several visiting Japanese Sensei. At the end of the session, all the 5 Dan & below kendoka were made to do rounds and rounds of kakari-geiko against the motodachi. With more than 100-people packed into the dojo, the training atmosphere was absolutely awesome. It reminded me of the training atmosphere in Japan. That was absolutely awesome.

Scenario-based kendo practice
Following a break after the morning training session, Inoue Hanshi led us to a scenario-based kendo training session. All participants were paired up with a partner of similar grade. The training built from simple one-sided planned attack, to attack-and-counter-attack of increasing intensity and complexity. Inoue Hanshi used several demonstrations between various pairs of participants to emphasise on the importance of intent, commitment and preparedness in succeeding in an attack. Put simply, it is the state of mind that distinguishes the best from the rest.

With the completion of the second part of the morning training session, all the participants enjoyed an extended lunch-break while Inoue Sensei had a long interview with the TV crew from Asia Downunder - a popular TV show in New Zealand. The extended break was probably a good thing for those who would be participating in the kendo and iaido grading in that afternoon. For me, I was able to relax and enjoy while the locals go for their grading.

Documentary on YouTube from Asia Downunder

Inoue Hanshi being interviewed by Asian Downunder TV crew

Alicia Cavan - current New Zealand women's champion, who successfully graded to 3 Dan on the day

Yamaguchi-san and me

Writing up kendo exam essay

Inoue Hanshi cerebrated his 80th birthday (which was a few months ago) with the Kiwis with a banana boat. hehe, so cute. He is great fun to be with outside of the dojo.

Well, the next morning after the last day of the seminar, I found myself lost my voice completely. Yes, I couldn't make a sound at all. All I could manage to communicate with another human was by whispering or through writing. Oh, that was so tough.

So, maybe as a fitting end, I will let the photos do the talk about my tour of the North Island of New Zealand. Oh, New Zealand is so beautiful. I want to go back there again.

Wishing Well - Kerrikerri, northern region of the north island of New Zealand

Russell, Bay of Islands

Somewhere in the north of the north island

My Kung Fu Panda pose - photo taken at the Waimangu Volcanic Valley, near Rotorua

Victory and Friendship

2008-03-26T16:32:00.027+11:00

What an Easter weekend! My body is completely exhausted right now. But I love it, I love the process of getting my body to such exhaustion. Sitting here right now, I am happily enjoying my first relaxing moment of peace since the Nationals ended. Sitting here right now, to reminiscence the events that happened over the past five days at the Australian National Kendo Championships and Seminar. To celebrate victory and friendship.

The training in the past month had seen some ups and downs, but I had a very good last week of training leading up to the Nationals. The last two training sessions at Five Dock last Monday and Willoughby last Wednesday both reassured me that I was mentally and physically ready for the National Championships at the end of the week. I was feeling 'on fire' on those two training sessions. My legs were moving, my spirit and concentration were high, and I knew that nothing could stop me besides myself. If I were to play in the Nationals on those two evenings, no doubt I would have done very well.

Meeting Bulldog - 21/03/2008
Easter Friday saw the beginning of the biggest annual kendo event in the national calendar. I assisted in the result collation during the National Dan Grading examination. In the afternoon, there were the volunteer meeting, competitor registration, shinai weigh-in, shinpan seminar and AKR annual general meeting.

While sitting on the floor busily distributing tasks and t-shirts to the volunteers during a lunch time meeting with the volunteers, a pair of hands from behind my back came leaning over my shoulder. I turned around.

"Hey Turt!" And there she was, Kate, my dear friend greeting me. (well, for those of you who don't know, I love turtles / tortoises. And hence the name.)

"Oh, Bulldog!"

I was so glad to see Kate (she is known as Bulldog in the Australian Team), and to share the next few days together on- and off-court. Some people were very surprised how well we get along with each other, how she could possibly come to stay at my place during the Championships especially when we were to fight so furiously on-court in the next two days. They even asked if we grudged at each other over the breakfast table every morning. When Kate told me some of the 'concerns' that other people had over our relationship, I was actually very happy to hear, because deep down, I knew that this kind of friendly rivalry is very rare, especially in nowadays sporting world. So the 'concerns' of others only reaffirmed our special friendship and rivalry.

Women's Individuals - 22/03/2008
Kate and I both got up at 6am, and arrived to the venue at 7:20am to set-up the championships arena. Thanks to the great team of volunteers who turned up so early in the day and work tirelessly throughout the championships to make the hall set-up and running of the championships go so smoothly.

The Opening Ceremony started at 9:15am, and following straight after that was the Kyu Individuals competition. NSW did exceptionally well, grabbing 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, with 5 NSW members in the top 8. Congratulations to my very own clubmate, Luke, for winning the title; Nick coming 3rd; and David for coming in the top 8. It was a great start for NSW in the Championships.

Unfortunately, I was not able to watch the later stages of the Kyu Individuals as I had to warm-up for the Women's Individuals that followed straight after the Kyu's.

I had been waiting for this day since the last national championships, and I really wanted to perform to my best on the day. When I started to do some warm-up at 11am to get ready for the Women's Individuals, however, I could feel that my legs were a little weak. My mind was ready, but my body was not. I thought, maybe it was due to the running-around earlier in the morning, or maybe I ate my breakfast so early that day that the fuel left inside me was running low by late morning. In any case, I was, at the time, experiencing some difficulties in getting my body ready. I really wish I could munch on an energy bar before my match.

As a result, I did not put my bogu on during warm-up to conserve energy, and only did some suburi and mental visualisation to prepare my body and mind.

The women's individuals competition started at 12noon. My first match in the pool was up against Kumie Dawkins (Victoria). Although I won the match 1-0 with a nuki-do, deep down I was struggling physically. My legs were not really under my control. They were just weak. And although this was a big taboo, I actually had some 'what if I lost' thoughts half way through the match when the score was still lock at 0-0.

Fighting against Kumie Dawkins in the pool match

My second match in the pool was up against the up-and-coming young Queenslander Dale Fisher. I saw her other pool match against Kumie, and I could see she has got power and good techniques. I was expecting a tough match with Dale. Fortunately, I scored two quick points to advance to the knock-out phase.

The first knock-out match was against my 'obaa-chan' Chiaki ('obaasan' = grandma; Chiaki keeps calling me 'grandpa', so I have to retaliate somehow.) Unlike the first two pool matches, I have fought against Chiaki many times, so we knew each other styles quite intimately. I knew if I stayed calm and patiently wait for the good opportunity to cut, I should be in for a good fight. And also, historically, I haven't lost to Chiaki in encho situation. So another way of looking into the match was to stay as long as possible. So patience and rational decision were the keys to this match.

Me (right) against Chiaki (left) in the Qtr-finals

We both attacked and defensed quite equally in the 3-minute duration of the match, and so ended up in the encho situation. And fortunately for me, history repeated itself, and I scored men-ari straight after encho to advance to the semi-finals.

And there, I met Kate in my semi-final match. I have been anticipating this match, and really wanted to take this match to advance to the final. I was really determined to throw everything I have got on the court, leaving nothing behind. But Kate would step up every time in reply, applying pressure and leaving no opportunities for me to attack. In the end, the match went into encho. I cannot remember how long after encho, but I was attempting to cut men. Thinking about it after the match, the cut was not fully committed with my hand and body moving upwards instead of forward. With that, Kate the Bulldog punished me with a devastating debana kote.

Kote-ari!

During my match against Kate

It was a heart-breaking moment. I could still remember the despair going through my head as I walked back to the starting line to end the match. 'Another 12 months. I cannot wait anymore. It's going to be so long.' But I knew, I could not change the result now. It has become history. No matter what happened, I must face it and move on.

After that match, I moved to the court-side silently watching the women's individuals final between Kate and Claire Chan. How I wish I could be on the court at that very moment. I will have to train and prepare myself better for the next Championships.

In the end, Kate won the Women's Individuals title. Claire Chan came 2nd; Claire Homsey and myself came equal 3rd.

With the completion of the Women's Individuals event, I was free for the rest of the afternoon. Kate, however, also entered in the Dan Open Individual's event, which she played some brilliant kendo and did extremely well to come 3rd place. Brett Smith, our national team coach, won the Championships - what a nice way to celebrate before his wedding in two weeks time. \(^o^)/

Sydney Harbour Cruise
That night, 155 AKC participants attended the welcoming dinner on a Sydney Harbour Cruise. It was great to see the big turnout. And contrary to the weather forecast, there was no rain, which made me really happy as I have been a little bit worried about the weather.

A photo with Chiaki and Elaine while I was still sane

haaaai yaaaah!

DaSeul, K-Lo, Elaine, and me

A NSW groupie photo in front of the Sydney Opera House

Towards the end of the cruise, I was with Kate at the time when Arpad came up to me and said something along the line... 'your match with Kate, I just like how Kate kept charging into you when you were trying to do that Japanese thing of re-composing before the next cut. I just like how Kate charged right into you, so you could not settle in. None of your composure stuff.'

At the time, it was a little hard to swallow the comments as it came a bit too sudden and unexpected. But I thought, maybe Arpad was right. Kate had been continuously charging in, applying pressure every second in our last match. Why couldn't I do the same? Why should I relax, re-set, regain composure before launching the next cut. There should be no need to regain composure, when I should be composed at ALL time.

Women's Team - 23/03/2008
Kate and I arrived to the Championships venue at 8am on Easter Sunday. I ate plenty of cereal that morning to make sure I had enough energy to last through the women's team competition. In fact, that morning, I felt exceptionally good. Maybe it was the combination of the relaxing and fun time I had on the cruise the previous night, plus the yummy cereal. I was really ready. I even did warm-up with Luke to prepare for his Kyu Team final match, of which the NSW team took the title.

When the ladies start going back to the warm-up room to put on their bogu and get ready, I was already ready. Ready to just go out and fight anyone I faced.

I still remember the 'concerned' but rather funny look on Shoko's face when she walked into the warm-up room. She came over to me and asked if I was alright, as I was sitting in the corner of the room on some gym mats, all by myself, with my men and kote on, fully ready, and watching over the other state teams getting ready.

I did some more paired up warm-up practice with Shoko before our first team match against ACT at 10:20am.

ACT had a strong women team this year, and Reika of ACT snatched a win in the senpo match 1-0. DaSeul came back strongly to then win the chuken match 2-0. So when it came to my taisho match, the overall match score was 1-1 with NSW leading by 1 point.

My taisho match was up against Sharyn. I still remembered how I conceded a point to Sharyn in the last nationals when she followed up my men cut with a hiki-kote. I told myself to keep going 'forward, forward, forward' the whole time, especially after the cut. And tried to applied as much pressure as possible throughout the match. I scored the first point with a hiki-men, and sealed the team victory with a second men cut to advance to the Final.

On the other court, the Victoria team won their match against Western Australia who has advanced from their pool after Western Australia won a very close battle against South Australia in the Representative match.

So the Women's Team final was between NSW and Victoria, where Victoria has held the title of this event for at least the past ten years.

This year, however, NSW has fielded a strong women's team. It is a welcome addition to have the fast and exciting youngster DaSeul on our team. DaSeul was our senpo, Shoko as chuken, and myself as taisho. And on the other side, the Victoria team has Chiaki as senpo, Claire Chan as chuken, and Kate as taisho.

YAY! A re-match against Kate for me. This time, I was feeling good, very full of energy, and really ready to jump into action on court. Plus, my stomach was not empty, so I felt extra good.

Leading up to my taisho match, the NSW team was trailing 0-1 in the overall team score. So I must win my match to give NSW a chance.

As soon as I came up from sonkyo, my mind was very much in the middle of the game. I was trying to apply pressure every moment. Going forward, forward, forward, to fight straight on, squarely against Kate right in front of me.

BAMM!!!

I launched myself into a men cut, literally throwing myself in. And this time, there was no answer from Kate. I scored a men cut five seconds into the match. That was just what I needed so badly. It was a start that I wanted all the time. Now, NSW and Victoria were locked at 1-1 in the overall score.

The match restarted again, and I had no other thoughts but completely focusing on pressuring Kate to succumb and make openings. It was a very intense game. Both Kate and I were really seeking that one perfect striking moment. It was such a great match, and I really enjoyed every moment of that high intensity. I pressured in, and waited patiently for my moment. And almost towards time, I took one step in, and Kate reacted a little. Then I took another step in. This time, I could sense Kate was going to launch into a cut. And instantaneously, I debana-kote'ed as Kate launched into a men strike. BAM-PAM. And the flags went up. I beat Kate's men with de-kote by just a fraction of a second. 2-0.

NSW WON!

What a great feeling! Not only was I happy with the win, but everyone on my team was so happy. DaSeul was crying as soon as I scored the de-kote. And for Shoko, what a nice way to finish her last time at the nationals by taking out gold.

During the women's team final - Kate (left) and me (right)

YAY!

The NSW and Victoria Women's Teams

It was a memorable win for me, and many people came to congratulate me afterwards. Amongst them, Arpad came over too, but he didn't congratulate me at first. And was saying how sloppy my cuts were in the last match, blah blah blah... in the end, he finally stopped his jesting, and said that I played very well in the last match. And I attributed part of my win to him - the words he gave me the previous nights. It really spurred me to keep the pressure up throughout my last taisho match.

So that was my National Championships in 2008.

Later on that morning, Sano Sensei from UNSW won the Veteran's event. Then in the afternoon, NSW came runner-up in both the Kata Team, and Dan Team events.

Kunio Shizawa Sensei, Kendo Professor of Nippon Sport Science University
on a private visit during the 33AKC

David Mirus, from Sportshots took many photos throughout the 33AKC. You can view the photos at http://www.sportshots.com.au by clicking on the 'Gallery' tab > then select 'Kendo' in the category box.

For full results of the Championships, you can go to http://www.nswkendo.org/akc2008

National Seminar, 24-25/03/2008
Following the national championships, I also participated in the national kendo seminar, which was led by Shigeoka Sensei.

The motto of the seminar was 'relax'. Shigeoka Sensei said everything he was going to teach is easy. 'So please don't think it is hard. You can do it!'

Footwork
The morning session on the first day concentrated on footwork. After practicing a few forward and backward suriashi. Shigeoka Sensei introduced us to a 'game' - to play with footwork, which consisted of:

3-step diagonally to the right, then 3-step diagonally to the left.
1-step diagonally to the right, then 1-step diagonally to the left; this is much harder then the 3-step version as it requires great footwork coordination.
Footwork to cut in the north, south, east, west directions.

A point that Shigeoka kept reminding the class was to keep both feet parallel.

Kirikaeshi
After a short break, the class put on the bogu and practiced variations of kirikaeshi for the rest of the morning. The points that were brought to attention include:

Relax!
Execute sayumen in both correct angle and cutting side of the shinai
Kiri-musubi: both side executing sayumen at the same time
One-breathe kirikaeshi

The reason for practicing one-breathe kirikaeshi is that: in shiai-situation, you often come into situation where both opponents keep exchanging flurry of cuts in, say, 5 seconds. This represents the one-breathe circumstances. And the final men-cut in the one breathe kirikaeshi is to see how well you can finish that exchange and take out the ippon.

Also, in one-breath kirikaeshi, it is very difficult to keep your spirit up high all the way from start to finish. However, we must try to maintain and carry that spirit all the way to the final men cut. As in shiai, we must maintain our spirit all the time, as score are made when opponent relax their mind.

Receiving Kirikaeshi
There are many ways to receive kirikaeshi, depending on the level of your opponents. For advanced player, Shigeoka Sensei would use kiri-otoshi (cut down) to receive the cut. This is the hardest way for the kakarite to execute kirikaeshi as shinai are being knocked downwards every time the motodachi receive a sayumen.

For beginners, Shigeoka Sensei would use the suriage way, which is executed in an upward sweeping motion. This method of receiving sayumen is the easiest for beginners to execute sayumen as the upward sweeping motion assist the kakarite to swing the shinai back up for another strike.

A few other points:

Don't go into rhythm. Keep kamae and left foot stable.
Bring left foot up quickly with each step --> this determines how well you will do in shiai.
No helicopter swing in executing sayumen during kirikaeshi.

Men-uchi
Shigeoka Sensei kept on emphasising that there is no need to use strength in cut, and introduced us to the idea of relying on the shinai's own weight to cut. He then instructed us to try a few rotations of executing a 'No-strength' men cut that relies purely on gravity to pull the weight of the shinai down. As easy as it sound, it was actually much harder than most people in the class thought. People were finding it extremely difficult to not use strength at all, and many were surprised how much excess strength they use in the normal men-cut.

One-step Men-uchi
This can be quite difficult for many who have been relying on momentum on taking an extra step to cut men. In order to help make the practice of one-step men-uchi a little bit easier, Shigeoka Sensei suggested the class to lift the right foot up the floor a few millimeters before going for the men cut. That way, there was no way one can move their left foot.

Waza Session
In the afternoon session, we practiced various waza, including:

kote-men
kote-do
kote-do against kote-men
kote-suriage-men
kote-suriage-kote-men

Jigeiko Session
And at the end of the day, we had a short free jigeiko session. I was the first to line up for Yano Sensei. And following that, I had jigeiko with Kevin Chin (Melbourne Uni), Shigeoka Sensei, and Ryuji Nakamura. I had great keiko with all of them, which was a great way to finish the first day of seminar.

Comments from the Sensei:

Shigeoka Sensei: hold the kensen position to the throat as long as possible before lifting up to strike men.
Yano Sensei: most emphasis was on men, so try to develop and build up a variety of waza from men. e.g. cut men, then follow up with another technique.

Kata 緩急強弱
There is a phrase in Japanese called 'kan-kyuu-kyou-jyaku'　緩急強弱　or slow, fast, strong, and weak. The first two modes are particularly important in executing kata. Fast and slow movements should be distinct. Don't try to rush the movements as kata is, afterall, for demonstrating the elegance of movements in kendo.

In kata, uchidachi (teacher) has the responsibility to guide shidachi (student) in executing correct techniques; not necessary verbal instructions, but using body movements as a guide. e.g. make sure that shidachi is ready to cut before lauching into 'yaa'; and adjusting distance, etc.

Jigeiko Session
The seminar finished off with one final jigeiko session. And for me, I had the opportunities to jigeiko with Brian Brestovac Sensei (WA), Joe Semmler Sensei (ACT) and Sano Sensei (NSW). What a nice way to finish off the five-day kendo onslaught with some good jikeiko.

Birthday Dinner for Shigeoka Sensei after Monday's seminar

Group photo at the end of the 2-day National Kendo Seminar

And hey, this post is longer than 3 words!

Seven Days

2008-03-15T21:26:00.002+11:00

Forward, forward, forward.

Be With The Best

2008-02-18T22:06:00.003+11:00

I wrote the last post when I just started the kangeiko period at the International Budo University in early January. Since then, so many kendo events have happened. I went to another high school week-long kangeiko. Then, kangeiko at Juntendo Dai in Chiba, Asian Zone Referee Seminar in Hong Kong, observing the All Japan Mens Kendo Team 4-day private training sessions. Whoa, the past month was like a whirlwind kendo tour. SO incredible.

IBU Kangeiko, 8-11 Jan
I attended the first four of seven kangeiko sessions at the International Budo University. Unfortunately I could not attend the last three because I had to travel to Tokyo on that weekend. Anyway, on the last two days of kangeiko at Budai, I was able to practice with three of the main Sensei there - Makita Sensei 8 Dan, Ijima Sensei 8 Dan, and Iwakiri Sensei 7 Dan.

I received some feedbacks from Iwakiri Sensei during and after the practice:

During men-uchi, left hand's terminal position should be in the centre-line. At the moment, my left hand tended to be off the centre-line, so the strike appeared to be slanting somewhat.
Experiment with narrower foot stance. This will allow more powerful and effective leg push-off.
In kamae, aims to point the kensen towards the opponent's throat. At the moment, the kensen is off-centre, so my targets are exposed to my opponents.
During kote-uchi, fumikomi at the same time as the strike. Then move towards the opponent quickly to close off distance, and prevent opponent's to execute counter attack.

Nittaidai at IBU?
On my final kangeiko day at Budai, I woke up at 4am and dragged my very sleepy body to the dojo. While the students were doing their initial 1 hour of kirikaeshi and kakari-geiko, I noticed some visitors who did not turn up to the other earlier kangeiko sessions that week. And they seemed to be female visitors too, which made me doubly curious. As I walked closer to see, I was totally surprised by what I saw. The face looked so much like my buddy from Nippon Sport Science University when I first came to Japan for kendo training 2 years ago. 'No way. Maybe I am too sleepy. Can this be real?' That person looked at me, and I was kind of staring back at her (while thinking deep to myself). Suddenly, both of us came to a smile. Yes, she was Hosokawa from Nittaidai. And there, Shinzato Chikano Sensei - the Nittaidai female team assistant coach was there too. What were they doing in another university? It was so crazy to meet them again, so unexpectedly, in another university.

Later I found out that they came with Okada Sensei - Nittaidai's women team coach, to meet and have keiko with Ijima Sensei, who was a former student of Nittaidai. Coincidentally, the Nittaidai female team won the All Japan University Female Team Championships last year, so I was so happy to be able to directly congratulate them all. Plus, because of their visit, I was able to witness an incredible keiko.

Okada Sensei's Fight
I was lining up for Ijima Sensei when he was having a jigeiko with Okada Sensei. Ijima Sensei was, without a doubt, a very strong kendo player, and it was extremely hard to break his centre for a cutting opportunity. If one went for a cut without killing his shinai, one would definitely get stab, or worse, received a mukai tsuki back. It was a pretty scary sight and it was fairly easy to imagine that many people might get frightened, changed their style to cheeky, dodging, half-hearted type of attacks, or back out completely. Thus, diminishing the level and power of kendo for many intimidated opponents.

Fighting against such a strong Sensei, Okada Sensei did not change his style at all. You could even feel, from the side, how strong his spirit was. Okada Sensei's kendo was so beautiful. Even when Ijima Sensei did mukai tsuki over and over again to counter Okada Sensei's attempted strikes, Okada Sensei did not change his posture at all. Occasionally, you would see some beautiful cuts landing beautifully on the targets. But in this keiko, there was something more than landing a cut on the target. It was that strong spirit. No matter how many times Okada Sensei got stabbed, he would still continue to move forward with the same spirit, attacking with unwavering determination. Ijima Sensei's shinai might have stabbed Okada Sensei tens of hundreds of times, but they did not kill Okada Sensei's spirit. And that, I think, was so beautiful. It was a beautiful demonstration of kendo from the heart, right in front of my eyes. That keiko was illuminating. I really treasured what I saw on that day, and I hope that spirit I captured will stay with me forever.

Scratching my head to find my Nittaidai friends at Budai kangeiko

Shinsato Chikano Sensei, me, Hosokawa

IBU students listen to Ijima Sensei's lecture

A photo with the current IBU bekkasei

Yoshiyama Mitsuru Sensei's Grading Seminar, 12 Jan
I visited Yoshiyama Sensei in Tokyo while he was conducting a weekend grading seminar there. So I tagged along and listened to his lecture, plus participated in the practical and keiko sessions afterwards. It was a meaningful session even though the lecture was given in Japanese. Since the seminar, I have been checking how tidy I put my kendogi, hakama and bogu on, whether my men himo lengths are perfectly even, how I look when I take 3-step into sonkyo, how I rise up from sonkyo, etc. Basically, the seminar prompted me to pay more attention to all these finer details now. With everything properly done and appearing nicely, honestly, I can feel the difference in my confidence level. So it is worth taking the time to take care of all the little things all the time.

International Goodwill Kendo Club, 13 Jan
Through friends, I had the opportunity to keiko at the International Goodwill Kendo Club, which holds monthly keiko-kai at different place all around Japan. This time, it was held in Tokyo, so it was close enough to travel and practice with many high grade teachers. There must be something like ten 8 Dan Sensei, plus twenty 7 Dan Sensei, and many many more 6 Dan Sensei. That place was so full of high grade Sensei, it was quite hard to imagine back in Sydney. Anyway, I practiced with 5 Sensei during the final one hour keiko session - Nomasa Sensei, Tenno Sensei, Terai Sensei from Chiba, Ozawa Sensei, plus one more who I couldn't remember the name.

Some of these Sensei were very kind and genuine, and spent quite some time to keiko with me, and patiently gave me feedbacks, and then let me try again, even when the queue was growing behind me. I really thank and appreciate these excellent, genuine Sensei. Anyway, below are the feedbacks I received during this keiko session:

Bring the front and rear feet closer together. People with feet far apart tends to bring their rear foot up one extra step before making the strike. Although I did't have the problem of taking one extra step, it reduced the effective cutting distance that I could potentially make. (Terai Sensei)
When striking men from kamae, my kensen tended to dip just before launching to strike men. Try keeping the kensen at the same level all the time. (Terai Sensei)
Extend arms when striking kote. Don't bend elbows. (Terai Sensei)
During an 'up-down up-down' kensen moving pattern with your opponent, it is a good opportunity to break the pattern and attempt a strike when your opponent's kensen is moving up from the lowest point. That is, while your opponent's kensen is moving up from the lowest point, you can grasp this moment to launch an effective attack from the kensen's lowest point. Break the pattern, and break your opponent!

At the International Goodwill Kendo Keiko-kai

Terai Sensei

Kangeiko at Nagasa High School, 15-20 Jan
Nagasa High School is 30mins drive from where I live, so I had to get up even earlier than the IBU kangeiko days.

The 3:30am days... that was tough. It was snowing on some mornings too. So tough training on ice cube feet for a super samu-gari person like me.

Anyway, I made it through, completing every single days of kangeiko of that high school. In the end, I received a certificate for attending all sessions too. YIPEE!

During those days, I tried to pay attention to the things that various Sensei feedback to me in the previous week. I paid most attention to keeping the kensen in the centre line, foot stance, and good posture from 3-step into sonkyo all the way to 3-step out in every single keiko. Also, drawing from the spirit I captured from Okada Sensei's fight the previous Friday, I had been more patience and used more time on applying seme for a real attacking opportunity.

There was this one particular jigeiko with Sasaki Sensei 7 Dan - an enormously fun and funny character, during and outside keiko, which I enjoyed the most for a long time. With Sasaki Sensei, I had a very high intensity, great connected keiko as both of us were trying to find the moment to execute one perfect and fully committed cut. His men cut is straight and beautiful. And when a Sensei of his ability engaged completely and came to attack you instead of just making oji waza, it was tremendously fun. Ah, I felt so good during and after that jigeiko with Sasaki Sensei. Just loved it!

There is also one thing I learnt from Sasaki Sensei, and that is: A good sensei remembers the details of every keiko with every single person. And thus, a good sensei should be able to make sound and constructive advice to students.

Feedbacks from other Sensei:

Commit fully to every cut. Follow through with hands in front. (Nishikawa Sensei)
Be patient. Don't rush. (Takahashi Sensei)
Rather than knocking the shinai, with a good chance for your opponent to figure out your rhythm, try use more seme to make opponent moves the shinai themselves.

Watching the students from Nagasa HS warming up

Me getting some kangeiko action

Group photo on the final day of kangeiko at Nagasa HS

Breakfast after the last day of Kangeiko

YAY! A certificate for completing all my kangeiko sessions.

Hong Kong Asian Zone Referee Seminar, 26-27 Jan
Michael was able to arrange to attend the Asian Zone Referee Seminar for research purposes a week before the seminar, so I happily packed my bogu bag and went along to attend as a shiai-sha. ^_^ It is great to go to Hong Kong - one: I can meet and play kendo with many Sensei from all around Asia; two: I can eat the many yummy food in Hong Kong. Hooray!

Enjoying mango saigo with Michael

The instructors dispatched by the FIK to this two-day seminar were Murakami Hitoshi Sensei 8 dan hanshi, Nakata Yuji Sensei 8 dan hanshi, Fujiwara Takao Sensei 8 dan hanshi.

For a two-day seminar, there were obviously many referee instructions, guidance and feedbacks made during the seminar. So it will be a whole book if I write everything I heard hear. So I will keep it short by including those points that I find particularly interesting.

Good tsubazerai position is tsuba to tsuba, not fist to fist.
Shinpan should be able to understand the difference between 'ability to do' and 'cutting'.
Shinpan should be ready from the time 'hajime' is called, as point can be scored immediately after start. Unprepared shinpan may miss a good point.
It is bad if all three shinpans are on one side of the court. If all three shinpans are all on one side of the court, the chief shinpan should say 'yame', and the three shinpan should reset their positions. However, this situation should be prevented.
In the situation when a previously awarded point needs to be cancelled, the chief shinpan should raise the flag which was previously awarded a point. Then, lower that flag and wave off while saying 'torikeshi'.
Every shinpan should be able to see both shinpan and both players (i.e. all 4 people).
For 'no point' decision, wave the flags in front of you for about 3~4 times.
If wrong score flag is raised, lower that score flag and raise the correct flag immediately.

There are many more interesting points made during the practical sessions. However, I won't go into them, because there are just so many different situations in real shiai. As the Sensei all said, practice shinpan, and watch how good shinpan judges are the keys to become good shinpan.

Shiai-sha ready for action

With some of my Hong Kong shiai-sha buddies, Ng and Chan

some kind of robocop. Mmmmm...

Referee participants from all over Asia

A shiai-sha groupie photo

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Now, the ladies photo

During the seminar, I had plenty of opportunities to do shiai practice with members of the Hong Kong Kendo Association. It is great to do shiai practice in this setting, because the people watching the shiai are all Sensei from various Asia countries. So, not only did I had good shiai opportunities, sometimes, I would also receive feedbacks from Sensei about my kendo.

For kote-uchi, do not stop after hitting. Move in quickly, or execute kote-men. (Kato Sensei, 7 dan kyoshi)

Kamei Tooru (亀井徹) Sensei, 8 dan kyoshi
While I was taking a break during shiai practice, one of the Japanese delegate, Kamei Tooru Sensei 8 dan kyoshi, came to me and we talked for a little bit in "Japanglish". I told him I am from Australia, and he said my kendo was good. So I was happy to hear. In any case, it was so nice for this 8 Dan Sensei to come and talk with a shiai-sha like myself, so I decided to line up for Kamei Sensei in the free jigeiko session at the end of the first day. I knew next to nothing about Kamei Sensei until Michael told more about him after the first day of the seminar. He has came 2nd in AJKC, won the All Japan 7 dan Championships 3 times in a row before getting his 8 dan recently. He is one of the current All Japan Mens Team coaches too! WOW!

With Kamei Tooru Sensei, 8 Dan Kyoshi

At the last free jigeiko session, Eda Chen Sensei, the super woman Secretary of Hong Kong Kendo Association, managed to bow to Kamei Sensei first, so she got the first spot in the queue. I was second after Eda. Kishikawa Sensei - the current Hong Kong Team Coach, who famously won has Taisho match against the Japanese team captain when he was the Brazilian team captain, also decided to have his first jigeiko with Kamei Sensei. So I was in the queue behind Kishikawa Sensei and Eda. For me and many others, it was a rare and exciting opportunity to watch an awesome keiko between Kamei Sensei and Kishikawa Sensei. And it didn't disappoint. both Sensei's kendo was so beautiful to watch. You could feel the high intensity from the side. However, watching Kamei Sensei knocking Kishikawa Sensei's shinai off his hands was significant. You could hear my other fellow shiai-sha lining up behind me were quietly saying 'oh no...' (in Cantonese) for what they were lining up for. And then, after watching Kamei Sensei knocking Eda's shinai off her hands and flicking her shinai away prepared my mind not to relax during kamae situation. Kamei Sensei's otoshi waza was just so sudden and strong.

Finally it was my turn to jigeiko with Kamae Sensei. Of course, he also otoshi'ed me but I was lucky to have watched the two shiai before me, I managed to grab my shinai back with one hand, preventing it from dropping on the floor. But it was a very powerful otoshi waza. Had my mind not prepared for this, my shinai would have knocked down on the floor like the previous two keiko. It was a great keiko, and the excitement brought the best kendo out of me.

With Murakami Sensei, 8 Dan Hanshi

During the farewell dinner on Sunday night, Kamei Sensei mentioned that there would be a 4-day All Japan Mens Team training near where I am staying in Japan. So I asked Kamei Sensei if I could come along and observe, and he agreed! Woohooo!!! So I went to observe two days. It was incredible to be let in to watch the Japanese Team training. There are definitely not many foreigners been able to see their training, let alone letting another country national team member in. I think I might be one of the first few, if not the first.

Photo at Lee Yue Mun - famous for seafood

Photo outside the restaurant for the Farewell Dinner

The Japanese delegation singing in the party

Murakami Sensei using a spoon as a prop for mic

The Japanese delegation singing in the party

The animated Motoyashiki Sensei 8 dan dancing at the party

With J Chan from Hong Kong

With Kato Sensei from AJKF

With Yosuke Hamasaki, who has the farthest tobikomi-men jumping distance I have ever experienced.

All Japan Mens Team Training, Katsuura Kenshuu Centre, 31 Jan & 1 Feb
And so, I was allowed in to watch the Japan Squad private training sessions later that week.

Every morning and afternoon sessions started off with stretching, warm-up and suburi with heavy bokuto. The suburi comprised of :

100x shomen-uchi (forward cut and back cut)
100x sayumen
100x shomen-uchi (forward cut only. After each cut completes, one continuous motion to step back to the next cut)
100x 5-step forward men-uchi + 5-step backward men-uchi
100x matawari

Key points about all these suburi include:

When lifting the bokuto over-head, kenzen should never point down, but always skyward.
Be sharp at terminal position for each strike, and hold for a moment. This requires good tenouchi.
Imagination of opponent.

Other main points I remembered include:

The Sensei are always emphasising the importance to bring the left foot up fast with each move.
Execute men-uchi with the feeling of tsuki. The body should move forward in the same way you go for a tsuki. Keep body's centre of gravity at the same horizontal level throughout the attack. (Furukawa Sensei)

To my surprise, the contents of the training were actually quite similar to how some of the local clubs back in my hometown, and many Japanese universities train. There were absolutely no secret techniques, feinting technique sessions in this All Japan squad training. All the techniques practiced during those two days I observed were orthodox textbook techniques. Beautiful, elegant, strong and proper. And the Sensei demanded that from the players too. I was actually very surprise that, at such a high level national Japanese training, the Sensei would still constantly remind these champion players to bring their left foot up quick, tenouchi, etc. Even the champions were being reminded of these basics of kendo. It was, in a way, very inspirational for me to see this with my own eyes. All of us, as kendo men and women, all trying to perfect the same basics. The only difference was that the group of people I was observing were super-charged, famous All Japan Champion, World Champion, etc... with many many renowned legendary Sensei scrutinizing these champions every single cut and move. The Sensei demanded each delivery of cut to be the highest possible quality too, and the squad members would throw in all they have got into every cut. The atmosphere of the training was very intense.

The shidou geiko sessions between the players and Sensei were always interesting. Amongst the 10+ Sensei there, Funasu Sensei - last year's All Japan 8 Dan champion; and Furakawa Sensei - former AJKC Champion, were two that left me unforgettable keiko.

Funasu Sensei was strong and terrifying. He would beat the legs of the players - even players who were just queuing up waiting to keiko with him. And when a player went down on the floor from exhaustion, he would come and just keep beating the legs, and you would see the players just yanking their legs in mid-air desperately trying to avoid being beaten and to get up as quickly as possible.

Furukawa Sensei's kendo was also strong too, but to me, he had a different kind of attraction. His kendo was so elegant, so refined, so effortless - the suriage-men, the footwork, oh - it was like he was dancing, kid's play for him. But don't get the wrong idea from me, he liked challenging the players, taitari the player to the wall. Then, foot-sweep, and BAMMMMM, the player would be on the floor, and Furukawa would sit on them, smiling. And the player would be tapping his hand frantically like in judo to signal 'release'. It was a very funny sight.

Anyway, the training at the end of the second day was especially tough. The squad members were just utterly exhausted with in the last 30mins of training. And there were many calf and achilles tendon injuries too. This session was carried out in 5-min chunk. Each 5-min chunk consisted of continuous jigeiko, kirikaeshi, men-uchikomi keiko, kakari-geiko. After one side finished the 5 min-chunk, the other side will execute the same routine. However, if you got paired up with a Sensei, you get double-shot - which means that you do two 5-min chunks in a row. And pairing with a Sensei was gruesome for certain. I watched how last year's All Japan champion - Teramoto did his 10-min chunk with Furukawa Sensei. Furukawa Sensei ran him down so much, Teramoto was barely able to lift his shinai to swing for the next one when Furukawa Sensei would knock his shinai off, or taitari into him. But even when these squad members were so tired from these tough training, that didn't kill their spirit. I just had to admire their never-say-die fighting spirit. They just kept coming back. In a way, it was so beautiful to witness all these... the All Japan champ and world champ are human afterall, that they do get tired, but to see the incredible spirit of just keep coming back is just beautiful.

The 4-day training schedule of the All Japan Men Squad

The All Japan Men Squad photo

Suburi

Gathering for instructions

R. Uchimura having jigeiko with Kamei Sensei

The first aid corner

Juntendo Daigaku Kangeiko, 2-Feb
Through a kendo acquaintance, I attended one Saturday morning 5:30am - 7am kangeiko session at Juntendo University in Chiba. It was a 1.5 hours session, consisted of stretching, warm-up, 20mins kirikaeshi, 20 mins kakari-geiko session, and free jigeiko session. It was great to see many former students of the university supporting the kangeiko session. There were probably some 30 OBs who went. I was the only female and overseas players not from the university. Anyway, it was great to have a chance to jigeiko with many Sensei on the day.

Feedback from Nakamura Sensei - head of Juntendo Dai:

I am a bit stiff during the jigeiko with Nakumura Sensei. Try to relax shoulder and grip.

Later that day, I caught the shinkasen with some Kendo World members to Nagoya for the Chubu Taikai, which was held on the following day.

Travelling can some time be a bit tiring.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Alex Bennett and me

Chubu Taikai's front entrance

Anyway, it has been a rather long post, so I think I will let the photos do the talking from now. Enjoy!

I love this photo taken at Hokoku-ji Temple - the bamboo temple in Kamakura, Yokohama

Another photo from this Bamboo Temple

Let's pray for all the best in 2008 and beyond!

Happy Kangeiko

2008-01-08T08:10:00.000+11:00

I just came back from the kangeiko - special winter early morning training from 5am - 7am at the International Budo University (IBU) this morning. I came back home feeling so good, the most enjoyable keiko since I arrived to Japan a month ago.

10 mins Kirikaeshi session

40 mins Kakari-geiko session

40 mins Kakari-geiko session

40 mins Kakari-geiko session

40 mins Kakari-geiko session

Since coming to Japan in early December, I have been going to various local kendo clubs in Chiba, to the Mistubishi Dojo in Tokyo (the slipperiest dojo in the world I believe - more like ice rink), the New Year Keiko in Kyoto and another training session in Kyoto. There are so many great Sensei and good players here. I have the most wonderful opportunity to keiko with Chiba Sensei, Sato Sensei (Chiba Sensei's Sensei), Nomasa Sensei at the Mitsubishi Dojo, plus a whole list of Kendo Greats, and many many strong players from different clubs. And honestly I have been struggling with my inexperience when facing Sensei with strong seme keiko after keiko. I tried to be composed from the start of every keiko, but it did not take long for me to get sucked into attacking, and in the end, the Sensei exhausted me in no time. Sometimes I wondered if I am worth 3 Dan or if my kendo has worsen. Even the high school kids seemed more energetic than me and have the stamina to go on for much longer. Honestly, I was quite lost... until this morning.

I am in action

When I played the girls from IBU (finally someone who were similar age, and girls too), it seems so much easier. I was feeling myself again, playing my own kendo against fast, young and energetic kendo. It was great fun. And I faired quite well too, taking both ippon at ippon-shobu against the two girls I played this morning. So, my kendo is still on par with the university kendo students. And I should have belief in myself, that I am improving, step by step, from the many keiko and advice I received from the many experienced, respectable Sensei I have met and will meet, continue to challenge myself against strong players, and become stronger.

Receiving advice from Mitsuru Yoshiyama Sensei
at the New Year Keiko at a local dojo in Kyoto on 1st Jan

Michael and me
at the New Year Keiko on 1st Jan

Michael, Yoshiyama Sensei, me, Alex
at the New Year Keiko on 1st Jan

Anyway, I am very much looking forward to this whole week of kangeiko at IBU. Next week, I will attend the kangeiko at a high school in the next town. I hope my kendo will improve and become stronger with each training.

Karaoke with Chiba Sensei - what a great singer!

It has been a while since I write my blog entry, so I have received a lot of advice since then and have put them in point forms.

Needs stronger tenouchi. Cuts are too light at the moment. -Yano Sensei
Try to close in the distance, seme in, and get a reaction from your opponent. If your opponent react, it is an opportunity to attack. If your opponent does not move, try seme more. - Yano Sensei
My kamae tends to lean forward. Try shifting weight back to left foot. - from a Sensei I keiko at Mirai HS, Kamogawa
Aim for one cut one kill, kote-men is weaker than going straight for men, or kote. - from a Sensei I keiko at Mirai HS, Kamogawa
This piece of advice was received 3 cuts into the keiko. (First men cut I did against this Sensei, I received a stab in the chest. Second cut I did, I got mukai tsuki. Third cut, my cutting intention was weaker than the first two.) It is a big taboo to be scared in Kendo. Don't be afraid. Keep coming. - from a Sensei I keiko at the New Year Keiko in Ogura, Kyoto.
Do not extend arms too far out during kamae -Yoshiyama Sensei

With the Kendo Research Group on Boxing Day
(front-left) Ozawa Sensei, Honda Sensei, Yazaki Sensei
(back-left) Me, Alex, Uehara Sensei, Sensei from Yamagata, Michael

Jodan Masters

2007-11-05T12:11:00.000+11:00

Apart from the many hours of study in preparation for the final semester exams, I have been able to keep up with regular kendo training and daily gym routine most of the time. Earlier last week, I got the results of my mid-semester anatomy practical exam. I was really nervous as I scrolled down the result page to find my student number. I really did not think I did well after walking out from the laboratory on the exam day. However, upon seeing my score, I was so relieved... I came 4th in the year (out of 150 physio students). It is a much-needed confidence and motivation booster, especially when tomorrow is the first of my seven final exams in the next two weeks. Wish me good luck.

Chiba and Oda Sensei: Sydney Visit
I decide to take a study break now and write about the recent Sydney visit of Chiba Masashi Sensei, Kendo Hanshi 8 Dan and Oda Katsuo Sensei, Iaido Hanshi 8 Dan / Kendo Kyoshi 7 Dan. The Sydney kendo and iaido players were very fortunate to have these two prominent, well-respected sensei leading seminars on two evenings. And I was able to be the demonstration hitting dummy and receive Chiba Sensei's snapping cuts with front-on view throughout the seminar. On top of that, I had the opportunities to accompany the two Sensei outside the dojo - to sightseeing, meals, etc..., thus was able to learn and listen to things that would not normally be possible to hear during the limited time inside the dojo. The "second dojo" as the two Sensei called it - allowed me to ask more questions, for the Sensei to explain the deeper aspects of kendo, to tell their stories of enduring training under harsh conditions, and ultimately climb to where they are at now. It was very inspirational to listen to the mind of the two great Sensei.

Sydney Kendo Club - group photo

Big Kendo & Iaido group photo

Moral of the Stories...
Of the many stories that Chiba Sensei told me during his visit, there was this one story about the native American Indians...

In this parable, the Indian was sitting quietly on the ground. An American passed by and asked the Indian what he was doing. The Indian replied that he was quietly waiting there so that the soul that he had left behind could catch up to where he is .

The moral of the story was that, we often forget our origin as we move on in our life. No matter how much has changed, we must not forget our origin. You may ask how does this apply in kendo? Through our kendo study, we receive help from many different people - our Sensei, Sempai and peers. Kendo cannot be done by one person, but is the contribution of many people. So, no matter how successful we get in our kendo career, we must not forget the many people that have helped us from the beginning and along the way. Our Sensei have, so selflessly, pass on their knowledge and skills to us. For us in return, simple gestures like coming up to the Sensei after keiko and offering to pack their bogu and fold their hakama could be a way to show appreciation and thank them. Although this is small in return to the kindness that our Sensei has showered upon us, it is a way to practice and always remember our origin. The Sensei might kindly decline and say that they would do the packing themselves. But that kind of simple gestures and the humble thought, will be noticed by the Sensei.

A personal story of Chiba Sensei. When Chiba Sensei announced his wedding with his Olympic medallist wife, the whole Japanese media naturally got extremely interested of this high profile wedding couple. The Japanese Prime Minister at the time personally offered to be the match-maker (仲人) of their wedding ceremony. However, Chiba Sensei kindly declined, and instead, asked the governor of the Nara Prefecture, who introduced him to his wife in the first place - to be the match-maker. Although many politicians and the media questioned why Chiba Sensei would decline such offer from the Japanese Prime Minster, Chiba Sensei personally felt that it was because of the governor of Nara Prefecture which has made it possible for him to meet his wife. So he chose to do this because he knew that he should not forget the origin (初心).

A little story about Chiba Sensei
Chiba Sensei was a left-hander, so he gave jodan a try and started practicing this kamae in his third year of junior high school. At the time, his jodan sensei would only show him the movements. There was never actually any teaching through speaking. His jodan Sensei was very tough on him. During practice, he would practice continuous katate striking practice, and his Sensei would knock his shinai out of the place everywhere, and made him continue the striking practice over and over again.

Chiba Sensei recalled one particular training session at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Kendo Section. At the time, he was in his early 20s. His Sensei in the Police dojo asked the group to do shomen suburi without specifying how many repetitions. After 500, Chiba Sensei's shoulders were starting to get tired, but his Sensei did not indicate the group to stop. After 2000, Chiba Sensei's head was starting to get dizzy. However, it was only then that his whole body became relax from exhaustion that he found the right way to cut shomen. In the end, his group finished with 4000 continuous shomen.

Chiba Sensei won his first Championships at age 22 - and since then, he has continuously placed in the top 3. In total, he won 3 All Japan Championships, and came in the top 3 numerous times. The media even coined a term for that period as the 'Chiba Era'.

The pressure from the media and the expectation for him to achieve was very high. So my friend asked Chiba Sensei how he coped with the pressure during that peiord. Chiba Sensei said that instead of thinking to win, which tends to tense up the body, he was thinking that he could not lose.

Due to the overwhelming success of his jodan in the kendo arena, rule was changed and mune-tsuki (chest thrust) was introduced as a valid target. This change of rule led to the demise of the jodan era. As we all know now, however, mune-tsuki is no longer valid due to safety concern.

Tips from the Jodan Master
Chiba Sensei continuously emphasised the importance of mastering the basic chudan-no-kamae before learning jodan. Back in his early jodan days, Chiba Sensei would still assume chudan-no-kamae at the beginning of each match. He would only change to jodan-no-kamae after he got an ippon.

For those who aspire to learn jodan, here are some advises from the Jodan Master:

One must excel in chudan, before attempting jodan
If you are contemplating to learn jodan, you must have the will to do 500 continuous katate-suburi every day. Yes, continuous. It does not matter whether there is a solid target to strike on or you are practice the strike in the air. If you don't have the will to do this, then forget about doing jodan.
Doing katate-men is like drawing the bow open to shoot the arrow - need to open up the chest.

TECHNIQUES
I have received a lot of feedbacks and new training ideas from the Sensei:

Kamae:
My left fist position in chudan-no-kamae was too low. Chiba Sensei adjusted my left fist to a level left to my belly-button, and about one fist distance to the front. I could instantly feel that my shoulder and grip were more relax in this arm position.

The action to execute men-uchi from this kamae is like punching both fists out.

Hand grip:
The gripping strength of the right and left arms should be about 30:70. More with the left and less with the right. Only the last two fingers of both hands should be gripping the shinai. The middle finger should only be gripping with the shinai with smaller force compared to the last two. And the thumb and index finger should be completely relax.

Tenouchi:
Chiba Sensei suggested us to practice doing tenouchi 50 times a day.

Men-uchi:
When doing men-suburi, we only need to bring the left fist as high up as just above the forehead. There is no need to lift the fists any higher than above the forehead as that will end up as wasted movements.

A very good analogy for the men-uchi cutting motion: execute men cut as if you are throwing your wrists away.

To teach people how to strike men properly, Chiba Sensei suggested to grip the shinai (both hands) to the very bottom of the tsuka. That will teach the students to extend and straight both arms (no flaring elbows). Once they can execute this motion correctly, normal shinai grip can be resumed.

As far as police-based kendo is concern, there is no such technique as sashi-men. A good men cut must consist of a strong wrist-snapping action to strike the target. Sashi-men is more a high school technique which relies on speed.

To strike a good men cut with strong seme, hold the kensen to the opponent's throat level, and execute the wrist-snapping action at the final moment to cut men.

Sayu-men:
Cut at 45 degrees, otherwise, the sword will bounce off due to shallow cutting angle.

Kote-uchi:
After cutting kote, the shinai should be in a position such that you are in a good position to cut men immediately if the earlier kote cut failed.

Kirikaeshi:
Motodachi governs the speed of action, so motodachi has an important role in controlling the speed and distance of the exercise. Remember, kirikaeshi is a pair exercise.

Chiba Sensei suggested to leave taitari out of the kirikaeshi routine until one has mastered the basics and become competent in doing taitari.

Bogu:
Obviously, putting on the bogu correctly is very important. However, we must also practice putting them on quickly.

General:
Chiba Sensei suggested us to do wrist warm-up exercise by striking targets in an angle. For example, sayu-men and do on both sides. This will loosen up our wrist and will allow us to make more dynamic striking movements.

Keiko:
Remember that the shinai represents the sword. If we practice by aimlessly hitting and whacking the shinai in the hope of landing the target, this would have make a real sword chipped or bent, and one would not be able to use the sword for long and the sword would probably be too bent to put it back into the saya. So always remember to cut as you would cut with a real sword.

MUSHIN
In Kendo, one can only improve through continuous repetitive training. To become better than the rest, one must train harder than the rest. Both Chiba Sensei and Oda Sensei have practiced to the stage where they can execute a cut without plan - mushin. A subconscious reflex that only after they made the strike did they realise what they have done.

One can strive to reach the mushin stage once the basic concepts and movements have been mastered. Kyu grade kendo does not count as mushin as their kendo repertoire is still relatively empty and cannot be called mushin. So mushin, as Chiba Sensei said, starts from 'Square one', and not from 'Square zero'.

KEIKO MIND - how to keiko with lower grades
When doing a 5-minute keiko session against players of lower grades, Chiba Sensei suggested to us the following practicing pattern:

First 2 minutes: continuous attack.
Next 2 minutes: lure your opponent and trap your opponent into attacking a specific target, 'come on, come on'. Once your opponent take the bait and go for your intended cut, you can practice execute the counter cut.
Final minute: allow the your opponent to strike continuously.

The Secret Side of 8 Dan Sensei
Who would have thought that Chiba Sensei is so good at massage. Me and some of my lucky friends were able to experience the magic hands of Chiba Sensei.

Due to some mis-interpretation, Chiba Sensei and Oda Sensei thought that I am studying massage instead of physiotherapy. And so, they have been asking me to give them a massage. So I had to find my friend to teach me the correct Japanese phrase, so that I could explain to the Sensei what I was actually studying. Anyhow, I did actually do a community massage course a few years ago, and so I shamelessly offered Chiba Sensei a massage. After about 10-15 minutes, when I finished giving the back, neck and head massage. Chiba Sensei indicated to me to turn around and seiza. And he started pressing on the pressure points on my back and neck!

Suddenly, he held my head in place with his hands. And 'clack-clack-clack'. He twisted my head to the left in a quick, swift, snappy motion - the kind of motion you see in action movies where people finished off their enemy in hand-to-hand combat by twisting their neck... O_0. Then Chiba Sensei tried to twist my head to the right too. Naturally, my neck tensed up because I was still shocked from the first twist. 'Relax', he knocked on my head. 'clack-clack-clack'. He twisted my head to the right.

Chiba Sensei then asked me to try turning my head. Oh, it felt so smooth. And incredibly, my head's range of motion have increased substantially, restored back to normal. I have had some kind of neck motion blockage for quite some time, and sometimes, it has contributed to neck pain. But Chiba Sensei has fixed all that in one go. Okay, two twists. It was like magic.

So, after fixing me up. He proceeded to fix 3 of my friends. We all felt strangely good after the click-clackings.

Chiba Sensei said he learnt these techniques from his judo-seikei friend - who specialises in fixing judo-related injuries. He said he always goes to his friend to get his body fixed before major competitions. I asked him if it was scary to try to do the head twist on another person at the first time. haha, he said 'of course'! But now, I think Chiba Sensei is really enjoying twisting other's head.

The next day when I once again thanked Chiba Sensei about the massage he gave the previous day during yum cha. He was so happy and went up to the yum cha trolley lady, and cracked her neck too. It was purely hilarious. The yum cha trolley lady was so grateful she kept thanking the doctor. Chiba Sensei said he might come to Sydney again next year, so if that's the case, he will come and crack her neck again. haha. What a joker!

Ganbei

Kendo elbows

Note that both 8 Dan Sensei have big bump in their elbow due to repetitive trauma (ossification) to that region throughout their kendo career. But I think the 8 Dan Sensei are pretty proud of that.

Also, apart from being a sword master, Oda Sensei also holds 8 Dan in a different kind of jodan (Jokes in Jpn = 冗談 or 'joudan'). He has been constantly throwing out Japanese word jokes throughout his visit in Sydney. And btw, he is also a curry master too, according to Chiba Sensei.

Anyway, that was my exciting time with the two great 8-Dan Sensei. As my friend puts it, it was like receiving private tennis lessons from Roger Federer.

Riding High

2007-10-14T13:26:00.000+10:00

I have been going to the university gym early in the morning almost every weekday for 2 weeks now, and it has contributed greatly to my recovery of form in kendo. I felt so energised in the past week of keiko. The stamina and good flow of spirit are coming back to me again. I could feel it. Hooray!!!

Thursday, 4 October @ UNSW
Cross Sensei once again commented that my men cut was too light, and showed me how to train for a stronger wrist snap for the kind of small men cut that I do. He suggested me to set up a hitting dummy (with spare men on) at home, and train my wrist strength by continuously snapping the tip of the shinai on the men target. The focus is to get a good solid cut with nice BAMM sound.

Monday, 8 October @ Five Dock
I found my focus. My kendo is coming back alive again!

While driving to the dojo, for some reasons, I kept on thinking how it felt like on the morning of the womens competition in my last World Championships... How the whole team walked from the hotel to the championships venue, the way I felt on the way to the shiai-jo... I wanted that feeling so much again.

I told myself, I can re-live that feeling again if I really want to. So let's try it tonight.

The keiko was fantastic that night. Since starting my gym routine a week ago, my stamina has gone up substantially. I was able to play and concentrate fully from start to finish. So it was very satisfying.

During keiko, something happened. I suddenly realised that I need to focus on the kensen movement, instead of focusing entirely on wrist flexing and how fast I flex it. Ultimately, it is the shinai tip that cuts the target. And also, I only need to clear the shinai tip from opponent's shinai to cut the target.

Wednesday, 10 October @ Willoughby
Itakura Sensei led the training tonight and the class practiced a lot of basics - footwork, kirikaeshi, men-taitari-men, hiki-waza, uchikomi geiko, etc. During the hiki-waza session, the class were divided into groups of 3. The routine that we had to do was 10x men-taitari-men continuously on the two motodachi spaced on the left and right side of the kakarite. The idea is to execute the 10x men-taitari-men, from side-to-side, as fast and strongly as possible.

I did 3 rounds of this routine, and Daisuke showed me the proper footwork to allow quick turn-around to launch the second attack. The footwork is like this... after completing hiki-men and the follow-through step-back, pivot to the left on the rear foot (i.e. left foot) to do a 180-degree turn to face the opposite motodachi. After the pivot, you should be back to the normal kamae position with right foot in front. This, however, is only a very brief moment as you immediately launch into a run-up men as soon as your right foot lands on the ground after completing the turn.

Saturday, 13 October @ Willoughby
Training was so enjoyable as I felt so full of energy, and was able to do each round of jigeiko like my first. With my improving stamina, the intensity is also rising in my keiko. I am happy with my keiko once again.

During the waza session, Payne Sensei led the class to do maki waza. It has been such a long time since the last opportunity to practice this waza, and my wrists were very rigid to do the waza smoothly. After a few rounds of practice, however, Chris told me that the ones that I spiraled in around his shinai while executing the maki-waza felt much stronger. This means that a strong maki-waza not only requires good wrist action, but also a total commitment of the body to move in.

During the jigeiko session, I practiced a wide varieties of men cuts - sashi-men, push-pull men, katsugi-men, etc. I am also riding on Monday night's high - focus on kensen movement and wrist snap in order to make shaper kote cut.

Isaac Bober sempai, a former SKC member now living in Adelaide, turned up to the Willoughby training. It was so great to see him and keiko with him again as it has been a long long time since he left Sydney. And congratulations to Isaac, as he is going to get married next week. Hooray!

It's a Wonderful Life

2007-09-29T19:17:00.000+10:00

Last Thursday, I attended the UNSW evening training for the first time in a long long time. Sano Sensei asked me at the end of the training if I had been overseas in the past few weeks. I wish I could go somewhere holidaying. Instead, I was still in Sydney, but tucked away under a pile of textbooks. Though I had a non-kendo related good news to report, I came first in biomechanics in my physio year. So the hard work was all worth it. Woohooo.

It must have been the longest blog break I have ever taken, and almost 6 weeks since my last post. I was so busy studying for university in the first 3 of those 6 weeks, I didn't play any kendo except attended an intense weekend national squad training in early September. Thank goodness it was held in Sydney, so I didn't have to travel interstate.

Seme-ashi Advice
The week before the national squad training, I really wondered if my fitness and kendo condition would be okay to go through the intense two-day training. I could feel the toll for the lack of training in the earlier sessions. But by the second day, that good kendo feeling started to come back again. Especially after I taped my foot up during the morning break time, I was able to slide my foot and fly across the dojo floor happily again. Woohooo!

One major thing that I learnt from the weekend was doing jigeiko with and observing Yano Sensei's way of seme. He advised me to try using the right foot (seme-ashi) to test my opponent. If my opponent reacts when I slide my foot in, then I have just created myself a good attacking opportunity. If my opponent does not react, then I can try pressuring in more, or I can tuck my right foot in and then try sliding in again - until my opponent feels the pressure.

DHMDK Kumdo Championships, 15th September
I had to attend to some university matters so I could not attend the earlier individual events of the competition. Happily I was in time for the Team Competition.

Our club kyu team fought a valiant fight, especially in the finals to snatch the kyu team championships title. Watching our kyu team members fought with such positive spirits was quite inspirational to the dan team. And we hoped that the positive spirits could motivate us to replicate the same success.

There were 6 clubs participated in the dan team competition. We fought University of Sydney Kendo Club in the first round. My team, consisting of Jayson, myself, Daisuke, Toshio and Taek fought in that order in the first round. I did so so in that game. Being the first game I played in 2 weeks, I could feel my cut was a little rusty, and eventually ended in a draw. Daisuke and Taek both won their match 2-0 to take us to a narrow win over USYD, and onwards to the finals.

In the finals, we fought the host - Dae Han Moo Do Kwan. I adjusted the team order for the finals, with Daisuke fighting first, Jayson as jiho, myself as chuken, Toshio and Taek as fukusho and taisho respectively.

What a wonderful line-up. We won a convincing 5-0, taking 9 points to nil in total! The team played some of the best matches I have ever seen.

And there, the club won all 3 major dan team championships this year - Korean Kumdo Championships, Founders Cup, and DHMDK Championships.

Me and Jayson
Photo: David Banbury

Over the moon after winning the team final
Photo: Twins Yiu

An ecstatic triumph
Photo: David Banbury

Looking at the video that Kassandra kindly taped in the championships, I realised that my front and back foot were too far apart. This reduced the potential of my maximum jumping distance. So I have been making some conscious effort to change my foot stance in kamae during training nowadays.

This is the gyaku do that I did to win my match 2-0 in the final.

Back to Normal Training
After my second-last mid-semester exam finished two weeks ago, I have sort of gone back to more normal training frequency of 3-4 times a week. Unsurprisingly, my kendo has become a bit rusty, but hopefully, with more normal training frequency, I could get myself back to normal 'kendo' shape before the State Championships in December.

At the moment, I have to re-programmed and accustomed my body to the different varieties of techniques that I was good at and those that I was previously working on before the the unintentional kendo break. It is a slow process, sometimes frustrating, but with the help of my fellow kendo friends and a bit of belief that I am on the right path, I am sure that I will get back to that fired-up ready-to-rock feeling.

More Men Power
Both Cross Sensei and Master Choi commented on different occasions during the past two weeks that my men cut lacked power or the snappiness. I will really need to pay attention to my wrist work and make an effort to snap my men cut from now on.

Something totally unrelated, but I was watching two movies last night with my two kendo buddies, and now I suddenly have the urge to watch the classic 'It's a Wonderful Life' again. So there you go, the title of this post.

So that's it for the moment. So long until the next update.

Yatta! New Horizon

2007-08-21T12:02:00.001+10:00

A whole lot of things have happened since the last update 2 weeks ago. There were the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force visit to Sydney, my 3 Dan grading, Founders Cup team championships, etc...

Monday, 6 August @ Five Dock & UNSW
The kendo delegate leader of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force contacted the Association a few weeks ago that they would visit dojo around Sydney this week. So I was very excited the whole day, looking forward to the Monday evening's keiko. When I rocked up to the dojo that night, I was in total shock. Goodness me, I thought there would only be 5 or 6 visitors, but no, there werer 23 of them! Woohooo!!!

The hall in Five Dock is usually roomy enough to cater for about 8 pairs of people doing jigeiko. Tonight, however, there were 20 pairs doing jigeiko at the same time. And with most of the navy visitors young and fast, we were literally bumping into each other every 10 seconds. Hiki-waza was not a good idea in such a small confined space when you couldn't see what was behind you. You simply could not back out, so it really brought the intensity up, by forcing you to make a real effort to pressure in and go for the next cut. With spirited kiai echoing from every corner of the dojo, and the high intensity and energy flowing around, I had an extremely enjoyable keiko with many of the visitors.

Group photo with 23 visiting Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force visitors

Photo taken by: Mashiba

After the Five Dock keiko finished, I took Daisuke and Yoshi to UNSW for the last 30mins jigeiko session. What a great kendo night!

Wednesday, 8 August @ Willoughby
Six navy officers visited the Willoughby dojo. After a short suburi and uchikomi-geiko session. We had jigeiko for the rest of the night. I was able to play all 6 visitors.

After the keiko finished, we went to the nearby Willoughby pub for a cool down biru-geiko session.

Feedback from Maeda Sensei:
Maeda Sensei noticed that my men cut was not straight - I twisted my body to reach out more with my right arm. So he adviced me to pay more attention on doing a straight and square men cut during practice.

Group photo at Willoughby

And after biru-geiko...

Thursday, 9 August @ UNSW
I had a bit of fever, and decided during the day that I would rest for the night. However, I still went to UNSW, driving Daisuke and Elaine to the training, and watching the Navy officers having their last training session in Sydney before sailing off to Darwin.

There were a lot of people turned up to the training that night, so the dojo was quite full (though it was still far from the Monday night Five Dock scene just days ago).

My 'moment of glory' of the night was banging on the taiko every 2 minutes for the short mawari jigeiko session.

Saturday, 11 August @ Wollongong - 3 Dan Grading
I drove Ceciljia and Elaine to Wollongong. And for the whole 1.5 hrs trip, we were screaming on top of our lungs like crazy, doing the JAWS theme song, but will a kendo twist. It was so much fun and I certainly had a lot of exercises to my abdominal and facial muscles from laughing so much.

A seminar was held in the morning , where Sano Sensei led the Dan group; Payne Sensei with the Kyu group; and Rixon Sensei took the beginner group.

In the Dan group, Sano Sensei drew our attention on maai (distance) and how to take the centre by using seme and waza.

Following the seminar was the junior 'balloon' competition and the state association's AGM.

At 2pm, registration for grading began. There were 90 people grading from 6 Kyu to 3 Dan. Amongst them, nine people tested for 3 Dan. Two grading panels were set up - one for 6 kyu to 2 kyu; the other for 1 kyu to 3 dan.

After about 1 hour of watching the 1 kyu to 2 dan exams, it was finally my turn to try for 3 dan. My first match was against Dwight from the Burwood Korean kumdo club, and my 2nd match against Rocky from University of Sydney Kendo Club. I felt quite happy with my first match performance - I was confident and landed a few cuts in my first match. However, I wasn't quite sure about the second one - I felt I was a bit rushed and couldn't find my own rhythm during the match with Rocky, who launched some rapid attacks throughout the match.

I was the first to finish both my 3 dan jitsugi matches, and so I was able to enjoy and watched and enjoyed the performance of other 3 dan exam participants.

After all the dan grade jitsugi exams finished, we waited for about 10 minutes and finally, Rixon Sensei announced the grading codes of those who passed the jitsugi section to prepare for the kata examination.

In Japan, 3 Dan only has to do Kata 1-7. But in Australia, on top of Kata 1-7, we are also examined on Kodachi 1-3. Again, I was paired up with Dwight, and performed the shidachi role. Thanks to the help of all the sensei in the past months, I was able to complete the kata portion with great confidence.

With the completion of both jitsugi and kata sessions, I handed in my exam paper on 'the importance of kirikaeshi' to the grading panel.

While the grading panels were collating and finalising the grading results, a free jigeiko session was arranged. I had a keiko with Yuko Tanaka who was having a short holiday in Canberra in the previous week. Her favourite tricks were feint-men to kote and kaeshi-do. It was enjoyable to play her again, and I was keen to taste her tricks and see how I fared this time since our last keiko in Tokyo in January. Unfortunately, the 30 minutes jigeiko session was over too quickly and so we only had a short keiko with each other. Nonetheless it was enjoyable. Ah, but it would be nice if we had more time...

And so, the results of the grading were announced. A total of 78 people passed the exams ranging from 6 kyu to 3 dan. Amongst them, 6 passed 3 dan. And I was one of them! Yatta!!!!

(L-R) me, Elaine and Ka-bi enjoying our gelato at the seaside restaurant near the Wollongong lighthouse

Argggghhhh

Sunday, 12 August @ Wollongong - Founders Cup Team Championships
An early morning rise again. This time, I had the companionship of Elaine and Daisuke in the 1.5 hrs drive, and arrived to Wollongong at around 8:30am.

When I arrived to the venue, Itakura Sensei notified me that I would be in the Dan Kata competition with Nishimoto-san. As time drew closer to the kata competition, Nishimoto-san was nowhere to be seen. So instead, Daisuke was quickly nominated to be my kata partner, and we did a super quick run-through of Kata 1-7.

Of course, with that little preparation and partnership, there were quite a bit of stuff-ups during the kata competition. Basically as soon as we performed ippon-me, we both knew it was over. All we could do was to enjoy performing the rest of the kata routine (without anymore stuff-ups). The funniest thing from this hilarious impromptu kata partnership was that, on two occasions, Daisuke made a slightly incorrect move and apologised so loud that I think everyone around the court could hear. In normal situation, the pair would carry on the rest of the kata routine as if nothing wrong happened. But this time, however, there was no intention to cover up the stuff-ups whatsoever. In Ropponme, our kote-suriage-kote partnership completely failed, however, Daisuke suriage'd me again and again until he successfully suriage'd me. Ah, my goodness. Poor Daisuke, he was so traumatized after the impromptu kata performance that he vowed to win all his matches in the afternoon's dan team competition.

For the rest of the morning, I shinpan'ed for the womens team competition and also managed to do a bit of study on the side.

At around 2pm, the Founders Cup Dan Team competition began. In my team, we had Daisuke (senpo), Jayson (jiho), myself (chuken), Toshio (fukusho), and Yoshihiro (taisho).

Our first match was against Han Rim Won. Our team performed strongly, winning the first round 4-0. For me, I drew my match 1-1. During the match, I did a tsuki which landed dead on the tsuki-dare. I was really hoping that the referees would give me a point on that, but maybe my posture wasn't convincing enough... but it was encouraging to be able to tsuki on the target under pressurised situation.

In the semi-final, we faced last year's winner - University of Sydney Kendo Club. In my match, I played against Louis Estrada who was a nito player. He is certainly an up and rising star, and it really amazes me with his lightning fast learning and improvement rate. Anyway, back to the match... I won my match with a gyaku-do - my first ever gyaku-do point in a competition setting. In the end, my team won with an overall score of 4-1.

Last year's Founders Cup, I fought Ka-bi (UNSW) in the senpo position. This year in the Dan Team Final, Ka-bi and I crossed sword again. But this time, both of us were in the chuken position.

Daisuke started off our final campaign strongly, taking out his opponent convincingly 2-0. Jayson carried on the momentum by winning his match 2-1.

After fighting a chudan player and a nito player in the previous two rounds, I had to fight Ka-bi the jodan master in the final. I tried to move around and threaten Ka-bi as much as possible, but in the end, Ka-bi was the stronger one, taking both points with beautiful katate-men.

Toshio drew his fukusho match. With 2 win : 1 draw : 1 loss, our team had a nice lead coming into the taisho match - Yoshihiro Fuchita vs. Michael Henstock. It was an extremely exciting and beautiful match to watch. I was able to sense the intensed tension going on between the two. Michael took the first point with an extremely convincing tobikomi-men cut. Yoshihiro then equalised with a lightning fast kote. The time was ticking by... could Yoshi hold on to the team score lead, would Michael come up with another ippon... the tension was certainly running very high by that point. Then, Michael launched into a tobikomi-men, and Yoshihiro saw that and countered with a nuki-do. PAMMM!!! Do-ari. Yoshihiro took the last point of the Championships, and our team won the Dan Team Final!

Thanks to David Banbury and Twins for the following photos.
Click here for more Founders Cup photos taken by David Banbury

Daisuke, Jayson, me, Toshio, Yoshihiro (R-L)

After winning the semi-final

Winning the Finals

Receiving the Rex Lawley Memorial Trophy from Betty Lawley

Yoshihiro, Toshio, me, Jayson, Daisuke (L-R) at the Presentation Ceremony

Gold to Sydney Kendo Club

With Betty Lawley and Steve Lawley

Yuko and me - taken after our jigeiko on Sunday afternoon

Ahoy! Captain!

2007-08-05T15:18:00.000+10:00

This week has been an exciting kendo week for me. I had 5 kendo sessions this week without feeling stressed for time. It feels very nice.

Monday, 30 July @ Five Dock & UNSW
Two high caliber kumdo teachers from Korean, Yoon and Ung visited Five Dock on their short private stay in Sydney. During the one-hour mawari-geiko session, I had the opportunity to jigeiko with Yoon. His kendo was very powerful, orthodox and elegant. The one thing that particularly impressed me and the difference between his kendo and mine was that, his attacks were continuous. He didn't stop after scoring an obviously valid point. His cuts continued on. The analogy would be like a lion going for his prey. After catching the target, he would not let go, but continued the relentless attack. That was a big and obvious mentality between his and my kendo, which I can learn from.

Keiko with Toshio was also particularly enjoyable that night. Toshio was playing jodan, and so I had the nice opportunity to experiment how to fight against jodan players. I trialled the position and angle of my shinai, and the seme from left kote then cut right kote tactic with some positive outcomes.

Afterwards training at Five Dock finished, I went to UNSW for their last 30mins jigeiko session. I had jigeiko with Sano Sensei and Gideon, and only had time to practice 3 men cuts each with Jackson as time was up.

Wednesday, 1 August @ Willoughby
That night was internal club team selection shiai. I had two fights - first one with Chris, and the second one with Taek.

While waiting for my games, I remembered the positive feeling at this year's National Championships during my wait to fight Kate the Bulldog in the womens team event. That strong desire to fight Kate made myself felt very strong - physically relaxed yet mentally focused.

And so, I told myself to enjoy and look forward the fight with Chris and Taek. And it worked quite nicely. I felt that I was playing nice, straight kendo, though at times during the shiai with Taek, I did feel that I was rushed by Taek's fast and continuous attacks a little too much, and wasn't able to control the overall rhythm of the game. Nonetheless, I was happy to win both matches 2-0, giving me a nice lead in the club's Dan team selection ladder.

Friday, 3 August Morning @ The King's School
I got up at 5:50am in the morning and arrived to the school at 6:50am.

Following on last week's first lesson, I decided to expand on the topic of suburi, footwork with the emphasis on coordination.

After a quick warm-up stretch, we reviewed what the class learnt last week - shomen suburi, with the emphasis on straight and big swing to the mid-line of the body, straight left knee and raised heel.

After the quick review, I led the class to practice suriashi along the length of the hall several times. Then, I combined the shomen and footwork practice together, by asking them to cut shomen and suriashi all the way to the end of the hall. Eventually, I taught them the footwork on how to turn around nicely to change direction 180 degrees to quickly cut again.

The kids were very observant and so they were able to perform the tasks I asked them to do quite nicely. And so at the end of the training session, I asked them to pair up, with one side as motodachi while the other practice cutting with the correct part of shinai, follow through after cut, and turn around to show zanshin.

Honestly, I am quite impressed by the learning rate of these Year 8 kids. Hopefully, many of them will decide to stay on and become a strong kendo players in the future.

Friday, 3 August Afternoon @ University of Sydney
Friday is the laboratory day for me in University. After my anatomy and neuroscience labs finished at noon, I stayed in the library and studied until the 3pm kendo training in the university main campus 30mins drive away.

Mark Kim led the class of about 40 players. Quite an impressive class turnout. After a great deal of time practicing footwork, the class was split into bogu, non-bogu and beginner groups.

Those in bogu practiced many many rounds of kirikaeshi combined with hiki waza. It was a tough stamina intensive session. Jigeiko session followed after a short break.

It is nice to jigeiko with those who I don't usually jigeiko with, and so those jigeiko were very stimulating and enjoyable.

During my jigeiko with Shunsuke Yamagata, he told me that he was able to see that I was coming either for men or kote, as the distance just before those cuts were distinctly different. Thanks for Shunsuke, as I am trying to make my men cut looks like kote cut and vice versa. I will have to take more care with the cutting distance.

Another memorable moment was the debana morotte-tsuki that I landed nicely on Ken when he came for my men. Oh, that connection to the hands during the tsuki. It was such a great feeling.

Saturday, 4 August @ Willoughby & West Lindfield
In the morning Willoughby session, I taught the beginner groups for ~30mins before joining the main group for jigeiko.

The main ideas that I tried to get across to the beginner group was correct foot stance, striking posture, coordinated cut, and the footwork in kirikaeshi for both motodachi and kakarite.

After teaching the beginner group, I put on my bogu and had jigeiko with Itakura Sensei, Sano Sensei and Ka-bi.

After my last jigeiko with Ka-bi a few weeks ago in Willoughby, I remembered to keep a close eye on Ka-bi when we got into sonkyo - just before standing up to fight. As soon as I saw him wearing that cunning smile again, I knew he was going to do throw out his sonkyo trick again (which he successfully got me dead on last time).

In sonkyo, as soon as both of us started the upward movement, I knew I had to throw myself in to launch a men cut as he would be coming in the cut my men. Ta da! And it turned out to be just that. Ka-bi the big joker. It was enjoyable to fight Ka-bi, as always. Unfortunately, with the limited time, we had to do ippon-geiko, and Ka-bi took the point with a nice men-nuki-do.

The club team selection was scheduled at 1pm at West Lindfield - 10mins drive from Willoughby. So in between the two sessions, I was able to practice Kata 1-5 with John, who will be going for his 1 Dan exam next Saturday.

After the short kata practice, I drove Daisuke to the dojo in West Lindfield. There, we had a nice picnic style lunch very kindly prepared by Kassandra. And I, had my two big servings of Sai-Mai-Lo plus some hot noodle as well. Oh, yummy!

At 1pm, we had individual warm-up before the 1:30pm start to the shiai matches. There were about 9 Kyu shiai matches and 6 Dan shiai matches. As I had already played my 2 shiai on Wednesday night, I only had one more shiai to play on that afternoon - against Fuchita-san.

I know Fuchita-san is a very strong player, who is technically much more superior than me. And so, I told myself before the game to keep myself steady, attacking only when I felt confident and safe to do so. Nonetheless, Fuchita-san, who played very strongly in his other two shiai matches, also took two nice points from me - men-nuki-do & hiki-men to finish off the game.

Fuchita-san scored ippon with men-nuki-do

With the conclusion of the team selection program, the club's dan and kyu teams were announced. I am very happy to be selected as part of the team with my very strong teammates. To my surprise, Itakura Sensei also announced that I would be the captain of the team. What a great honour to be with a team of such high caliber. I am looking forward for our team to perform well in next Sunday's state team championships. Gambarimashooooou!

Kendo with the King's

2007-07-29T18:24:00.000+10:00

Since the last update a week ago, there have been two significant happenings. Both from kendo, the first was an enduring intense soreness that I haven't had for at least 2-3 years, the other was teaching kendo at The King's School.

Saturday, 21 July @ Willoughby & East Roseville
I had a full-on continuous six hours of kendo training. Yes, continuous - that means, no break. That was crazy. And I ended up in an excruciating, enduring intense muscle soreness in my quadriceps the next 3 days.

This was how it happened...

Every year in August, there is a state team competition called the Founders Cup. This year, my club has been very enthusiastic about competing in this event, and there were more members wanting to compete in the team event than the available 5 team spots. So, for the first time in memory, a Selection Program has been put in place in the club to evaluate and select members to represent the club to compete. It is marvelous to see the enthusiasm, and having a training program to train together will really build up the team spirit.

I put my name down to the Selection Program to trial for the team. The Selection Program, led by Itakura Sensei, runs for 3 weeks. I attended my first Selection training last Saturday.

9am - 10am
This first Saturday session was non-committed - that means attendance to this training would not count towards the final scoring system. So there were only four people turned up - Dave Banbury, Luke and me. Itakura Sensei led the training.

We ran around the two big sporting fields adjacent to the dojo for 20 minutes. After catching our breaths, we did 5 minutes of steps, 2 sets of 30 full squats. Then we picked up our shinai, and did 15 minutes of suburi until it was 10am.

10am - 12noon
Payne Sensei could not make it to training today. So Itakura Sensei led the training again. There, we did a lot of uchikomi practice, with the final 45 mins on jigeiko. The intensity was high throughout the training session, so it was very enjoyable, though I was quite tired by the end of that session.

12noon - 1:15pm
I practiced kata 1-7 and kodachi 1-3 with Michael Henstock for our 3 Dan grading preparation, while Sano Sensei watched on to give us invaluable feedbacks.

1:30pm - 3pm
Itakura Sensei led the eight people who turned up to the 1.5 hrs special squad training in East Roseville. Here is a rough idea of what we did:

6 full sets of kirikaeshi (along the full length of the hall)
2 sets of continuous men-taitari-men (along the full length of the hall)
2 sets of renzoku-men (along the full length of the hall)
2 sets of renzoku-kote (along the full length of the hall)
Twice 2 sets of 5x kihon-men (with the emphasis on realistic situation)
Twice 2 sets of 5x kihon-kote
Twice 2 sets of 5x kihon-do
Twice 2 sets of 5x kote-men
Twice tsubazarei waza
Kaeshi waza
Men-taisuru waza
Kote-taisuru waza
many many sets of uchikomi geiko

I was completely exhausted at the end of the training, especially after 6 hours of full effort of training. However, I was very proud to complete the training. Plus, with an empty stomach, I was ready to devour my tomato sauce baked garoupa rice at "Black Cow" with my fellow training buddies who braved the day after the last session.

During the afternoon training session, Daisuke Taira showed me a really cool and effective tsubazarei waza that you often see in fast Japanese high school kendo competition videos, where they come cutting your men from one side, and at tsubazarei, they magically step behind you with their lightning footwork, unstabling you with their hip turn and hand-punching movement, and when you try to balance yourself by extending your arms, they execute their hiki-men or hiki-do on you. All done so quickly and fast, like a magician.

It is so hard to write out in words on how to execute this totally slick moves without pictures or seeing it for yourself. But if you have seen or experience what I have described, I am sure you know what I am talking about. Yes, that funky move. Anyway, Daisuke has showed me and taught me the moves. It is quite difficult to get everything done well, coordinated and quickly. Now, I will just have to practice doing it.

Anyway, that 6 hours resulted in 3 days long of intense muscle soreness in my quadriceps. I couldn't walk downstairs without agony, going from standing to sitting was pure excruciating. My quads were utterly exhausted. Through recommendation, I went to the pharmacy on Monday to get some aspirin for pain relief. The soreness finally dulled on Tuesday and I was completely ready again for the squad training onslaught on Wednesday night.

Wednesday, 25 July @ Willoughby
There were 8 people turned up to the 6:30pm - 7:30pm fitness training. Afterwards, I practiced the 10 kata with Toshio for the next 30 minutes. From 8pm - 9pm, Itakura Sensei led the uchikomi practice.

Good news, I didn't have any muscle soreness after that training. It was great to go through the storm and now enjoyed the serenity.

Friday, 27 July @ The King's School
That morning, I taught a group of nine Year 8 boarding school students and their mentor/teacher for the first time. The class was scheduled at 7:15am. So I got out of bed at 5:40am, eager to meet my new kendo buddies for the first time.

The preparation leading up to the class was smooth. I put a shinai order to Japan on Monday afternoon, and 3 days later on the Thursday afternoon the box of shinai arrived - perfectly in time for the boys to take their first lesson.

So in the first lesson, I taught the boys the basics of how to hold the shinai, chudan-no-kamae, kihon-men, tachi-rei and sonkyo. As my students were a group of 13-14 y.o. (besides their mentoring teacher), I have to design how to teach in a way that will get their maximum interest. And I figured, the less I speak, and more by letting them doing the movements, the more enjoyable it would be for them.

Also, I let them pair-up, and correct each other, which can improve their understanding of what is correct by observing their beginner model executing the movement. To be able to tell the friends what is incorrect will result in greater chance of themselves doing the technique correctly. And I think it is important to develop this skills when they do self-practice at their own time.

Not that the boys had this problem (they were quite smart and observant ), but I was sitting here thinking about how to teach beginners to avoid the "flaring left elbow" and "too much right arm" problem during a men strike. I have a good solution to that. If a beginner is having the "flaring left elbow" problem, ask them to do suburi with their left hand only. After a few left-hand only katate-men suburi, they should be able to realise the correct left arm/elbow position in a men strike.

Genki little samurai at their first lesson

Saturday, 28 July @ Willoughby & East Roseville
The training structure was similar to the previous Saturday, with a full-on program from 9am to 3pm. However, this time, I had been able to recharge my energy with Kassandra's "Sai-Mai-Lo" - a super yummy refreshing chinese dessert, with sago, melon, lychee in it. Ah, so yummy!

From Kata to Tsuki

2007-07-20T01:41:00.000+10:00

Monday, 2 July @ UNSW
Michael arrived to Sydney on Sunday. So I took him to the first keiko of his trip to UNSW on Monday night. It was a rather big class, with members from USYD joining us.

Sano Sensei led the class to focus on doing proper and meaningful suburi. He challenged everyone to try:

Execute every shomen in one smooth motion, with the suriage-men feeling.
Stay in starting position for as long as possible. Once the cutting motion is initiated, it should be fast and fluid until it returns to the starting position. Stop at the cutting height for as long as possible until the next cut.
Try holding on to the starting position longer than the people next to you before executing the next shomen.

Mike Henstock, myself, Jackson

The jigeiko session was especially enjoyable in this session. I had jigeiko with 8 people. First one was with Ken Chen, who recently won the Chinese National Kendo Championships. Ken has an unusual style in that he waved his kensen quite a lot. I tried something different tonight by attacking his shinai a lot. It turned out to be quite successful in disrupting his preparation to cut and deflecting his actual cuts.

My goal of the night was to practice same initiation motion for both men and kote. Overall, it was a successful session with some encouraging results to my kote cut.

After-keiko supper at a Korean Restaurant in the City

Wednesday, 4 July @ Willoughby
Wednesday the kata night at Willoughby. Michael led the whole class to practice Kata 1 - 4 and explaining the meaning and concept behind each move. It was especially valuable as my 3 Dan grading is coming up soon, and it is great to practice kata in such details again.

Kata 3
After shidachi deflects uchidachi thrust, shidachi should take two distinct steps forward without thrusting the arms out.

Kata 4
In wakigamae, the blade should face diagonally downwards away from the body, slanting in 45 degree angle.

Afterwards the kata session, Nishimoto-san led a short 15 minutes mawari-geiko session.

Thursday, 5 July @ UNSW
After a 20 mins warm-up & suburi session, we put our men and kote on. First, we started off with a few kirikaeshi. Next, we had mawari-uchikomi geiko over and over and over again... with the final 5 rounds in ai-kakari-geiko. I was really puffing for air in the final few rounds.

Moving on to the waza session, Michael introduced 2 kote variations.

For opponents with tight inflexible shinai grip, you can press on opponent's shinai sideway (omote side). If they react by pushing back really hard, simply let your kensen slide up. Your opponent's reaction force will make their shinai drift off the centre. Thus, exposing their kote.
For opponents with soft kamae where kensen does not touch, you go with shinai raising straight up and down, but move your entire body to align with sagittal plane centered on opponent's right kote. This is done by crossing the right foot over the centre line to step towards opponent's right foot. Now, the opponent's kote is clearly square and straight in front of you.

Thursday night keiko at UNSW

Saturday, 7 July @ Willoughby
Continued on practicing kihon kote.

After-keiko lunch at Toraya, Chatswood

Monday, 9 July @Five Dock & UNSW
Michael and I went to Five Dock for the 1-hour jigeiko session in Five Dock before rushing to UNSW for the 9pm - 9:30pm free jigeiko session. It was a good night of practice, full of action.

Wednesday, 11 July @ Willoughby

Warm-up session

Itakura Sensei led the class to practice Kata 1 to 4 for the first half hours. Then Michael led the senior class to practice Kata 5 - 7 and Kodachi 1 - 3. A few points to note...

Kata 6
Shidachi lowers the bokken to level parallel to the floor. It does NOT go all the way to gedan.

Kata 7
Some people advocates that the shidachi should execute the do cut in the 2nd step. However, for most senior Sensei in Japan, they execute the do cut in their 1st step.

About turning the circle to go back to starting position. It is always tricky to end in the centre of the dojo. Often, the pair ended up somewhere more towards the shidachi side. Here is the trick to finish Kata 7 nicely in the centre of the dojo.

Uchidachi - take the 5 steps to the starting position in straight line. This is because uchidachi is further away from the starting position and need to utilise efficient movement to get back to starting position.
Shidachi - begin the first step by taking a subtle step backward 45 degrees to the left to provide adequate distance for the uchidachi to move forward and diagonally back to the starting position. Shidachi's right foot then goes laterally at a right angle the sagittal plane of his alignment with uchidachi.

Kodachi 1
Shidachi's kensen should aim between uchidachi's eyes.

Good shidachi will take a big step back to assume jodan as zanshin.

Kodachi 2
Shidachi slides the right foot one-foot-length forward, with kensen pointing to uchidachi's chest. It is important to clearly differentiate the different level of shidachi's kensen in Kodachi 1 & 2.

After deflecting uchidachi's men cut, shidachi takes a diagonal step forward. Be careful of the distance here. For me, too often the distance is too far from uchidachi. Thus, difficult for me to grab uchidachi's elbow to complete zanshin.

Shidachi's blade should be next to waist pointing towards uchidachi's throat. The blade should slant diagonally downward away from body.

Kodachi 3
Shidachi assumes gedan-hanmi-no-kamae immediately in one smooth movement. The little finger should touch the leg.

When flipping uchidachi's bokken, Shidachi should aim to cast it out to the diagonal right (suri-otoshi).

Uchidachi immediately steps forward with the left foot and strikes shidachi's right do. Shidachi steps forward to the diagonal left, opening the body up to the diagonal right. At the same time, the right hand, which is holding the katana vertically, moves in a horizontal sweeping motion to block uchidachi's do strike. The kodachi should end of about two-third down the uchidachi's blade.

After the shinogi slides up uchidachi's blade, the two blades should be perpendicular to each other, forming a cross.

The three-step movement should be in line to the direction of the two bodies. A common mistake is to move sideway to where the bodies are facing. Also be careful of the distance between the two bodies.

Thursday, 12 July @ UNSW
In this session, Michael taught the class on how to become good motodachi - the correct manner to receive cuts. A good motodachi should promote the kakari to develop correct cut. Good motodachi will adjust the distance, if necessary, to make sure that the kakari is cutting with the right part of the shinai. Here are several technical points on how to become good motodachi:

Always start from to-maai, without the kensen touching.
Stay in straight line to receive kakari's cut. Don't step sideway when the kakari is about to cut. If kakari is coming in very fast, the motodachi can start to move slightly earlier with the "5-step" technique - move back with rear foot first, take 3 steps straight backward, with step 4 & 5 curve out to the side.
During uchikomi geiko, don't change the target-opening once the kakari has initiated his / her attack. For example, when the motodachi has the men opened, and you have just launched into attacking men, and suddenly the motodachi moved his hand across to open kote. This creates a lot of confusion, and it is mighty frustrating. Remember, it is not a test on reflex here. It is about developing good correct cut.
To receive kote, don't move the right arm far across the opposite side of the body. It is very unrealistic when the kote is way off centre.
To receive kote-men, open the kote in the usual way. Afterwards, move the shinai to the right (i.e. crossing the centre-line of the body) to receive men cut.

Supper after keiko

Saturday, 14 July @ Willoughby
I had 4 jigeiko during the free jigeiko session - Mark Stone, Sano Sensei, Michael and Payne Sensei. Here are some photos with Michael...

Jigeiko with Michael

Got tsuki'ed dead on during jigeiko

My turn to practice...

Yes, Michael opened for me, but I am quite happy by the fact that I didn't miss the target.

Mokuso

At Genki Ramen, Artarmon

Hanging around talking kendo in Artamon after lunch

Monday, 16 July @ UNSW
On the way to keiko, I was listening to the ABC newsradio report on the Socceroos (Australian National Soccer Team) performance at the Asian Cup. The Socceroos lost to Iraq 1-3 in their pool match, which was a shock to everyone as the Australian Team is one of the favourites to win the Cup.

A sport commentator (sorry, I couldn't catch his name) analysed the match performance and presented a very interesting insight. He said that 95% of the game is determined by the mental toughness of the players. He said that Australian Soccer has always been enjoying its underdog status in the international arena. And the Socceroos thrived on its underdog status.

On the other hand, the Australian Cricket Team has always been viewed as favourite to win in any international cricket tournaments. They are mentally adapted to the pressure to win and thrived on it. Therefore, they can do well year round.

In this Asian Cup, however, the Socceroos is viewed as favourite to win. It is an unusual situation for the team who is not accustomed to being viewed as favourite. The pressure to win, inability to adjust their mental state to handle the different expectation, etc... ultimately resulted in the inability to deliver results.

I am now reading a journal on mental toughness from the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. I will try to share some interesting ideas once I finished reading it.

At the dojo...

Sano Sensei taught the class 1-2-3 timing:

At 1, upswing for motodachi; unmoved for kakari
At 2, downswing for motodachi; upswing for kakari
At 3, motodachi's shinai is deflected by the upswing of kakari; downward striking for kakari

This 1-2-3 timing can be applied to oji waza situation, such as suriage-men, kaeshi-do, etc.

Stamina was a bit flat tonight as a cold is developing with blocked nose and ears. So I tried to focus on seme and vary between men and kote cut.

Tonight, I tried the pull-push men cut - a variation of men-cut which I don't usually use. It turned out to be quite successful in tricking the opponent's timing.

Exam Results are Out

I got my first semester physiotherapy results back on Monday. Yahoo!

Biomechanics A 75 Distinction
Designing Health Research 82 Distinction
Foundations of Health Psychology 74 Credit
Functional Anatomy A 80 Distinction
Introductory Neuroscience 91 High Distinction
Molecules and Energy 83 Distinction
Motor Performance and Learning 85 High Distinction

Eiga, my buddy. Let's take a photo together.

Kihon Kote Realisation

2007-06-30T23:11:00.000+10:00

I am so happy to update the blog in a totally relaxed and happy mood right now. This is because I have completed all eight university exams, with the last Anatomy laboratory exam on yesterday morning. WOOHOOOO!!! It is so wonderful. I cannot express how free and light I feel right now. 3 weeks of Holiday. TOP THAT!

I tell you, it is such joy to care about nothing but to totally enjoy kendo this morning, without the constant subconscious pressure of work and schedule. So free and light. WOW. And the 3-hour lunch chat with my kendo friends afterwards in Chatswood. Oh, how wonderfully enjoyable. Such is the simple pleasure and joy in life.

WICKED GOAL: Kote that looks like Men
Contrary to my intense exam schedule, I have been to quite a number of training sessions in the past three weeks since the AKC. Not only did the kendo training helped keeping me sane during the intense exam period, I have also found the new purpose in my kendo again - a more concrete one than ever before.

The loss in Melbourne has made me think more deeply about my kendo. It has prompted me to reflect, admit and face my weaknesses directly and honestly. I knew where my problems lie, and was very eager to devise a plan to resolve the problem. And from the self-reflection sessions in the past weeks, I am so happy to tell you that I have found THE stuff that I want to perfect, and that is - a kote that looks like my men.

Now is the end of the sneaky unsightly kote era for me. Now, I will learn to go back to practice kihon kote cut - straight, simple, elegant, and more importantly, to complement my men cut. So that, once I master it, I will have a powerful men and kote combo.

Thursday, 14th June @ UNSW
There were only about ten people training that night due to last weekend's national championships / seminar, plus the beginning of university exam period for many. Ka-bi led the training that night and we focused on kaeshi-do in the waza-drill session.

Saturday, 16th June @ Willoughby
During the jigeiko session, I tried to practice basic kote that initiate like my men with some success from time to time.

Monday, 18th June @ UNSW
During the normal training session, the class practiced kihon cuts.

From 9pm - 9:30pm free jigeiko period, my goal was to practice kote that initiate like my men cut. However, I didn't have much success that night.

Thursday, 21st June @ UNSW
There were about 30 people training that night, with many came from USYD. It was great atmosphere.

We did 3 rounds of kirikaeshi, 10 mins uchikomi-geiko, and kaeshi-do during the waza focus session.

Ka-bi led the training and we practiced kaeshi-do during the waza drill session. It was wonderful to cut do, do, do, do.... over and over again. By the end of that session, the men-kaeshi-do swing was so natural during the jigeiko period.

Jigeiko with Ka-bi was fantastic. I was able to focus and varied well that night. I did more attack to the shinai than usual, and was able to make consistent good snappy cuts. Also, I was alert and in keeping appropriate distance and applied seme. Overall, I felt quite dynamic that night.

Goal of the night for me was, once again, to practice kote that initiated like men. I had some encouraging success that night, with the realisation that the most effective way for a kote cut to complement my men cut is to cut from above my opponent's shinai, i.e. on top of the kote. The old habits of cutting from underneath my opponent's shinai for a sneaky kote point is too weak and unconvincing, and worst of all, the sneaky kote looked 100% opposite to how I would initiate for a men.

This sounds so basic, but honestly, it was my first ever time to really comprehend and fully understand how the most simple basic kote cut will be my most powerful weapon in the long term. And realising this through my own experience has left a very powerful effect and impact on me right now. It is like learning how to balance on the bicycle for the first time. That realisation. Ah, it feels so nice.

Saturday, 23rd June @ Willoughby
Continued my kote practice from last session.

Monday, 25th June @ UNSW
The class practiced basic cut during the first 2 hours of training - kirikaeshi, kihon-men, kihon-kote and kihon-do.

In the extra 30mins free jigeiko session, I continued my practice on kote waza. Not much success though. So I asked Sano Sensei for feedback after the training. He told me that I haven't threatened my opponent with my men cuts, and therefore, my opponent didn't react much to make a decent opening for me to cut their kote.

So if I can make some very strong men cuts first and make my opponent scared of my men cuts, then they will try to protect their men more the next time I initiate an attack. So then, there will be greater possibilities of them to expose their kote while preempting to block my men. Then PA-KOON!!! I can easily cut a nice straight kote.

Thursday, 28th June @ UNSW
Sano Sensei led the training by asking the class to concentrate on men cut at first, to get the coordinated one smooth movement. Next, he introduced us to his 'mock-kote' practice. He asked the motodachi to keep the centre, and the kakari to do a straight on kote. The main purpose of this 'mock-kote' practice wasn't about actually hitting the target, but to get us understand the effective distance to the opponent's kote and the very small distance that the shinai needs to clear in order to go over to the other side of the opponent's shinai and cut kote. With this, there is very small exposure of your own kote when initiating the kote attack.

'Wow', I thought to myself. 'Did Sano Sensei design this session for me?' This is exactly what I wanted to practice. So it was a very productive and useful training session for me.

Saturday, 30th June @ Willoughby
I started kendo exactly 6 years ago, so today marks my 6th anniversary in kendo. \(^o^)/

There were so many sempai today that I didn't have to be motodachi.

And so, I had a really great time going around to keiko against all the strong motodachi. I jigeiko with the young Japanese 3 Dan who has extremely fast kendo. His kote-men. So smooth, fluid, swift and powerful. Then afterwards, I went to keiko with Itakura Sensei, Sano Sensei, Payne Sensei, Ka-bi, Doug, and Mark Stone.

The keiko with Ka-bi today was so exciting. The connection and intensity were there. In the end, both of us got so fired up, and we eventually went on to full kakari-geiko. And so, when the drum banged to signal the end, Ka-bi said, '10 seconds. Vivian, are you ready?' Heh, bring it on, Ka-bi. I was feeling so pumped I just wanted to swing my shinai. Ai-kakari-geiko? That's exactly what I desired. PA-BAM PA-PA-PA-BAM... We were like two mad people going full on against each other. Wow, so exhilarating to end the keiko feeling so high.

And so, with this, I will finish here on a 'high' note.

32nd Australian Kendo Championships, Melbourne

2007-06-16T15:26:00.000+10:00

The 32nd Australian National Kendo Championships was held in Melbourne last weekend during the Queen's Birthday long weekend. And I participated in the womens individuals, dan individuals and womens team events.

Friday, 8th June 2007
It was the last day of the university semester. After finishing the morning anatomy laboratory class, I went home to pack for my evening flight to Melbourne.

It was pouring rain in Sydney the whole day - a treacherous condition with quite a few big dramas happening around central NSW.

My flight was scheduled to depart at 8:30pm, so I got to the airport at around 7pm. However, due to the weather condition, it ended up departing at 10pm, so when I got to the YHA youth hostel in Central Melbourne, it was almost 12am. I got into my room, and found that Cecilijia was already fast-asleep. I put my luggages down, slipped straight into bed, and slept like a log all within 5 minutes.

Saturday, 9th June 2007
Surprisingly I had a very nice comfy sleep, probably due to the fact that I was so tired after the long journey from the previous night. Cecilijia and I got up at 6:30am. I went to reheat my pre-packed breakfast I brought from home.

One thing I had to mention was the fantastic facilities in this YHA. It was well beyond my expectation. It got 7 fridges for their guests to store their food, numerous microwaves... basically, all their facilities were very nice and clean. I was quite impressed.

OK, back to the story, David Banbury, Ceciljia and I started trekking to Kenshikan at around 7:20am for the 7:30am bus transportation to the competition venue. At Kenshikan, we met many inter-state people who stayed in the Kenshikan overnight - including the Michael Jackson, Ka-bi, Andrew, Ephragm, Elaine and Gideon from NSW.

After a 20mins drive, we got to the competition venue.

I got the championship programme at the reception and quickly checked my draws. They were pretty good draws I thought, and I also found a photo of me taken by Dave at last year's Founders Cup on the front cover of the programme. That was pretty cool.

The opening ceremony started at around 9am. Following straight after that was the Kyu individuals competition. That morning was quite chilly. So while the Kyu competition was on, I was trying to keep myself warm by jogging around in the adjacent warm-up arena.

The Kyu individuals finished at around 12:15pm, with the 16-year-old talent Paris Davey from Queensland taking out the title, and 3 ACT players filled up the rest of the podium spots.

Womens Individuals
With the earlier than expected completion of the Kyu grade competition, the womens competition had a 15-minute earlier start than schedule. I was in the second pool on court B, up against Alison Craven from Western Australia and S. Kelso from Victoria. I won both matches 2-0, all with men cuts to advance to the knockout round.

In the first knockout round, my opponent was Sharyn from ACT. After the 3-minute whistled was blown, we were still locked at 0-0. So we had to continue on to encho. From there, I launched a men cut, and Sharyn caught the moment and countered with a hiki-kote. Two flags went up, and that was it.

It was really disappointing to end this year's women individual campaign so early for me. Losing the match was fine, but dealing with the conflicting emotions that came with it was difficult. I was quite disappointed that I could not maintain my last year's result, not to mention my desire to surpass it. During the whole match, I was trying to play positive, straight and proper kendo, and it was really disappointing that I was not able to create and take a single scoring opportunity.

From this, however, I was able to learn. I have talked to various sensei and sempai later that day and they have given me some valuable feedbacks. I have been lacking variety in my game - a problem that I knew since the last World Championships. In fact, 'expand my waza repertoire' is one of my kendo goals for this year. With the recent schedule, however, I have missed too many kendo training sessions, and this has, more or less, affected my ability to adjust, vary my game in this competition. Itakura Sensei advised me that I need to plan and use my limited training time in the dojo very well from now on. With the changing circumstances in my life, it is now a focus on quality rather than quantity. It would be difficult for me to go back to the 5-6 training sessions a week that I used to enjoy. Now, it is more about having a clear goal and purpose in each training session. Maybe focusing on one aspect and spend a quality amount of time to master that aspect. I won't be able to rely on repetition training anymore, so I must train smart to get the maximum value out of each training session.

Anyway, to finish the story, Susan Bonar from Western Australia became the newly-crowned women's individuals champion after a 17-minute battle against Kate Sylvester from Victoria.

Thank you to David Banbury for taking all the following wonderful photos!

Womens Individuals (I am on the right)

Womens in the individuals (I am on the right)

Here I come... DOOOO!!!

My tobikomi-men in the womens indivduals

Another one

Attempting a Gyuku-do

I am coming...

In tsubazerai

Lock at tsubazeria...

Another photo in tsubazerai

Womens individuals (I am facing the camera)

Here I come again...

There was quite a long time before my pool match in the Dan individuals competition. So I had some good time catching up with Kate the Bulldog. It was nice to hear that her study is going well and that we are both learning some very similar topics in our study, the ATP and Krebs Cycle and all that. It is definitely nice to have a kendo buddy who is just as serious about improving her kendo and doing well in university - someone who is in the same boat, so to speak.

Dan Individuals
After a bit of waiting, my Dan Individuals pool matches were finally on. My first opponent was Darren Boyd from ACT. Darren scored a hiki-men on me from tsubazerai in the early-half of the match, and I equalised with a debana-kote in the second-half to close the match at 1-1. Next up was against Ron Walker from Victoria. It was a nice match, and I really enjoyed the match against Ron. He is a big tall guy, but he doesn't rely too much on strength. Very nice and clean kendo with no pushing or shuffling.

Drawing from my other matches' experience, I was moving around better and varying my game more in this match. I was able to create a number of opportunities for myself and there were a number of flag that was raised. However, because the cut was light or I wasn't able to follow up my zanshin, I missed those valuable opportunities to score. Towards the end of the 5-minute match, Ron scored two beautiful kote to end the match.

It was nice to see Ron do well next day to win the Veteran's individuals competition, with my club mate Toshio Nishimoto in jodan coming second.

Now, continuing with the Dan Individuals competition... there were quite a number of excellent and exciting matches. It was enjoyable to see Kate fighting so strongly and advancing to the knockout round to play against Brett. Then there was the excitingly close match between Brett and Sugimoto. The final between Nick Bartlett and Ka-bi was purely exhilarating to watch. I really enjoyed watching these kenshi displaying such strong and elegant kendo for the rest of us to enjoy and learn from. Congratulations to Nick who fought so brilliantly to win the Dan Individuals title.

Me in the Dan Individuals

Me facing Darren Boyd in the Dan Individuals

Attempted a hiki-do

Debana-kote from me

Against Ron Walker in the Dan Individuals (I am on the right)

32AKC Dinner Party
That evening, Kate drove Cecilijia and me from the competition venue directly to the dinner party venue in her 1976 Charger.

All the 32AKC participants attended the party. During the party, individualised and numbered gold pins were presented to all those who represented Australia in the past World Championships, with no. 1 being the first Australian representatives. For me, my number is W008 (which means the 8th woman to represent Australia in the World Championships). YAY!!! I like my number 8.

My obaa-chan Chiaki, me, Kate the Bulldog

Past Australian WKC representatives who attended the Saturday party

Sunday, 10th June 2007
Sunday was the team and veteran individuals competition day. The Kyu Team competition was first up in the day, with the NSW Kyu Team finishing second.

Womens Team Competition
Following that was the Womens Team competition. The NSW Womens Team was drawn to play the Victorian Team.

For the NSW womens team, we decided our team order in the very last minute. All the time prior to the team event, I have been thinking about doing chuken, and there were people suggesting me to do senpo. But once I saw the draw and knew that we will play against VIC team first, all I wanted was the position that I could fight Kate. I really want to fight Kate. For me, I see her as having very nice and strong kendo. And I know, that we will have a nice shiai together. And I just want to fight Kate.

So when we finally lined up in our team order for the competition, I looked at Kate, and I could see that she was surprised to see me in the Taisho position. She was stunned for a moment. I am guessing that she was probably expecting to fight against Shoko. But NO. I want to fight you, Kate. And here I am.

It was absolutely exhilarating to get my wish and fight Kate. I really enjoy every moment on court. We both fought with spirit. It was so nice to be able to forge a connection, a strong intensity, while we were in our chuden, searching and exploring that small opportunity and grab the point.

But who would have though the 3-minute would pass by so quickly. It felt like 1-minute. That nice intensity... ah, I just wish the match could just go on...

So my match with Kate ended in 0-0. And with that, it marked a nice ending to my 32AKC campaign.

For the rest of the day, I watched the rest of the competitions with my friends, and cheered the NSW Dan Team to victory. A super awesome effort to Michael Henstock, Dave Bunder, Takashi, Ka-bi and Stuart for playing so inspirationally to bring the Dan Team title back home.

At the award ceremony, the following prizes were awarded to the NSW team members:

Dan Team winner - Mike Henstock, Dave Bunder, Takashi, Ka-bi, Stuart
Kyu Team runner-up - Mike Criniti, Erphragm, Dave Banbury, Elaine, Phillip
Veteran's Individuals - Toshio Nishimoto
Dan Individuals runner-up - Ka-bi
Dan Individuals 2nd runner-up - Takashi
Fighting Spirit Awards (2 out of 4 went to NSW players) - Mike Henstock, Elaine Chan

I was awarded the John Butler - Achievement in Kendo Award, which is quite an honour for me to see my name engraved amongst all the other significant figures in the Australian Kendo history.

Accepting the John Butler Award

Accepting the John Bulter Award from Richard Ward, AKR President

Next 2 weeks - Exams!
This is my exam schedule for the next 2 weeks. Wish me luck!

6/18 Mon 09:00-11:10 Neuroscience
6/20 Wed 09:00-11:10 Biochemistry
6/21 Thu 12:30-14:40 Design & Health Research
6/22 Fri 12:30-13:40 Biomechanics
6/25 Mon 12:30-14:40 Motor Performance & Learning
6/27 Wed 12:30-13:40 Psychology
6/28 Thu 12:30-13:40 Functional Anatomy (written)
6/29 Fri 11:00-12:00 Functional Anatomy (laboratory)

Living High In Intensity

2007-05-26T13:49:00.000+10:00

Willoughby Training - 26-May

Wow.

I just returned home from this morning Saturday's Willoughby keiko. And I can tell you that, right now, I am feeling so high. I love the intensity of every single cut today. The concentration, the focus, the determination... they were at my best. Regardless of my opponent's level of kendo, I made sure that I gave my 100% focus on the person in front of me. And my goals were to do straight and strong kendo, plus to practice a few special waza that I am trying to perfect.

The jigeiko session was very enjoyable today. I was very focused and alert throughout the whole training session. The keiko with Jayson, in particular, was purely exhilarating. I haven't keiko'ed with Jayson for a long time. He possesses very nice kendo which is always a pleasure to watch. And combining that with the intensity he displayed in his game, I was very happy to fight him today. We fought with real intensity, just like what we would do in a real shiai, and so I was able to test the effectiveness of some of the new techniques I have been practicing. That was really good.

Afterwards, I engaged keiko with Chris 'taitari' Barbe, and Payne Sensei before the end of the training. Payne Sensei reminded me not to drop my body after executing a kote cut.

And that was today's training.

Last Two Weeks Updates

So what have been happening in the past 2 weeks since the Korean Kumdo Competition. Well, I got my neuroscience mid-semester exam result back, and I came 4th out of 380 Physiotherapy plus Exercise & Sports Science students. So I am really happy.

Training-wise, I have only been able to attend three kendo training sessions, including today's one. The other two were at University of Sydney last Friday and at Willoughby last Saturday.

Neck Pain - Getting Physio Treatment

I have been having some issues with my neck after the training in University of Sydney two weeks ago - a day before the Korean Kumdo Championships. After that particular training, I had been getting some neck pain. It got better for a few days so I didn't worry too much about it. Last Saturday after Wiloughby's training, however, the pain was giving me a lot of trouble, the range of motion in my neck was substantially reduced due to the pain, and was even hurting when I was laughing at some of Kassandra's golden phrases of the day. The joy and the pain all mixed together in one go. So crazy.

So I went to see my physio, David Garrick at the Sport Physio section of the North Sydney Orthopaedic & Sport Medicine Centre in Crows Nest. When I was an observational physio student at that clinic last year, David taught me a lot of things, so I was very happy to see him again. And was hopeful that he would be able to help me with the neck pain.

I explained the symptoms to David and we both thought that I strained the muscles along the spine. He gave me a hot pack to relax the muscle before doing the physical assessment. There was no pain when he palpated both sides of the neck, but then the pain was re-created when he pressed the center of the spine, especially the C3-5 sections. David said it was very hard to pinpoint the exact problem there... it could be muscle or ligament damage, or might be cartilage problem. However, all we needed to know was that it was soft tissue damage and not neurological pathology, as I didn't have any pain or tingling sensation down my arms or dizziness up in my head.

After some massage and mobilisation to the C3-5 spinal sections, David prescribed me a chin tuck-in exercise to facilitate gliding of the apophyseal joints and to restore the full range of motion (ROM) in my neck.

In the follow-up Wednesday visit, my condition has improved significant with much greater ROM. However, there were still some pain and discomfort at the end of ROM. So David did some more mobilisation around the C3-5 spinal sections. There was one extra technique he used that day, which worked like magic. In sitting position, I was told to flex and extend my neck several times while David manipulated the C3-5 section of the spine. Afterwards, when David told me to try extend my neck like in normal situation, the pain was completely gone. It was so impressive.

David also did a Mulligan spinal mobilisation technique on me. It was a slightly riskier technique, which could not be applied to people who have artery problems, especially the elderly. Anyway, with him holding my neck, I was told to breath in. During the moment I breathed out, he did a sudden movement to my neck, and I could feel a click in my spine. That was so cool! I wanted to learn that too, but David said I won't learn this technique until I get into the postgraduate physiotherapy course. Oh well, I will just have to wait a little longer. But I will wait.

Counting Down...

Only two weeks to the Nationals!!!

10th Korean Kumdo Championships

2007-05-15T09:40:00.000+10:00

It has been an energising and colourful two weeks since the last post. I have started to visit and train in my own university's dojo in the main campus. Besides going to a different dojo to train, I also attended the State Squad Training down in Wollongong last Tuesday night, and competed in the Korean Kumdo Championships on the weekend. The experience I got out of all them were very pleasant and positive, so I am very happy.

University of Sydney Kendo Club
Two Fridays ago, I decided to visit my university's kendo club after my biochemistry exam to de-stress, rejuvenate and to see the training activities ran by the club. When I stepped into the dojo, I was very surprised to see so many people training. There were some 40 people, with the class equally splitted into bogu and beginner classes.

I must say the energy and enthusiasm displayed by all the players there were infectious. Everyone was very keen to learn and play kendo, and so I had a very good training session there.

I returned there to train again last Friday, just before the Korean Kumdo Championships on the following day. I really enjoy the training there and am considering to attend the Friday's training session of my university on a regular basis from now on.

State Squad Training - Wollongong
There was state squad training last Tuesday down in Wollongong. After my 5pm lecture finished, I drove straight to Wollongong for the training. About 10 squad members turned up to training and we had 30 mins of waza session, with the rest as shiai geiko and free jigeiko.

In the shiai-geiko session, the focus was to practice playing in a team situation. Paul Rixon Sensei told us to initiate high success rate cut, and refrain ourselves from making brashed and risky moves. In a team situation, it is better to have a draw , instead of risking too highly and lose point for the team.

The training finished at 9:30pm. And by the time I got home, it was 11pm and I clocked up 220km in one day.

10th Korean Kumdo Championships, 12-May
It has been a while since my last competition. With the recent reduced and irregular training frequency, I was honestly quite nervous about this competition. I didn't know whether I could play well and there were just too many unnecessary worries in my head.

I participated in the Womens Individuals and the Dan Individuals events. Kyu and children competitions were first up on the day, so there was quite a while before the Women's competition.

While waiting for my match, I knew deep inside me that I was way too nervous. Some people asked why would I be nervous for a local competition when I have competed in bigger championships like the Worlds. However, to me, I see all competitions are the same. If there is a desire to achieve a goal, there must be some kind of emotional, mental and physiological effects on the body.

To suppress my nervousness, I decided to direct my focus and energy to something more pleasant and positive. I told myself that my goal in this competition was to play as strongly and positive as I can, to show everyone my best kendo, so that no matter what the final result would be, win or lost, I could walk out feeling like a winner.

That change of thinking instantly gave me a rush of positive energy, and I was really looking forward to my match against any players. Whoever they were, strong or weak, I didn't really care. I just wanted to go out there and show my strong and straight kendo to everyone who was watching and supporting me from the side.

I played four matches, each winning 2-0, before reaching the Women's Individuals finals. As I expected, my opponent was Shoko from Wollongong. I was very prepared this time mentally, and I was ready to play my best kendo without any worries or fear - just total commitment to every single cut I am going to throw in. The match result turned out very positively and I won the match 2-0 with two men cuts. The whole process from the pool matches to winning in the final was just great.

Now, with less than 4 weeks to go, let's hope that I can take this positive energy with me and continue on to achieve greater in National Championships in Melbourne.

During the competition - I am on the right.
(photo taken by David Banbury)

Men-ari!!!
(photo taken by David Banbury)

Me and my trophy - with Brendan Kee (ACT) next to me
(photo taken by Thao)

A happy snap with Thao
(photo taken by Thao)

Training & Mental Practice

2007-05-03T18:47:00.000+10:00

Thank you for all the personal emails and supportive messages during this busy period. Even though I can't reply as quickly I would like to, I really treasure the kind messages. They really mean a lot to me.

So What's Been Happening?

What a jam-packed, exciting and bustling life for me in the past few weeks! The mid-semester exams have started 2 weeks ago, with the first being Biomechanics. Last week was Anatomy Practical exam.

I got my biomechanics results back yesterday and I ranked 3rd out of 147 physiotherapy students. So I am quite excited about that. It is certainly be a big motivator for me to study harder.

Tomorrow it will be biochemistry exam and next Thursday will be Neuroscience exam. So wish me luck! :D

Trainings

With the busy and intense university schedule which coincided with various other recent special events, my kendo training frequency has suffered somewhat. I have only been able to train once a week in the past month on Monday night at UNSW. Yes, it has been frustrating, but I must learn to keep my spirit up, and utilise the limited training time to the maximum.

Although I haven't been able to train in a dojo, I have been watching some kendo videos. With the strong insistence of my friends to upload some more personal kendo videos on to YouTube, I have uploaded the following three. They are recorded during the 2004 and 2007 Nippon Sport Science University's Japanese Martial Arts Demonstration in Sydney.

I particularly like the 2004 video clips, and I refer to it as my kendo encyclopedia, with all different basic cuts and waza, in slow-motion and full speed. The thing I get inspired the most is that the students all perform every waza so straight, so nicely. The uchikomi-geiko is executed with big, straight, correct cuts - speed and power without compromising posture.

2004 Nittaidai Demo - Part 1

2004 Nittaidai Demo - Part 2

2007 Nittaidai Demo

In the past month training inside the dojo, I have been specifically focusing on:

Suriage-men - I am slowly getting the hang on this waza now. So at training I am trying to practice as much as possible to reinforce the feeling within me.
Gyaku-do - Yes, it is something special and different for me. I was inspired after watching a couple of kendo videos, and wanted to master this technique and use it in surprise situation. At the moment, I am having some trouble getting the shinai out after executing the gyaku-do when I use it as an oji-waza. When I use it as shikake-waza, I need to experiment better on how to seme in to create a reaction from my opponents. So still in the trial and error phase for me with gyaku-do.

Night Training in the Park
I have also been going to the local park after my study late at night to exercise and keep my fitness up. I love it when it is completely dark with only the moon and stars shining above. It gives me a sense of peacefulness and a time to reflect after a day of busy schedule.

My normal routine at the park is to jog 10 times around the sports field to keep my cardio fitness up. Afterwards, I do ashi-sabaki training - suriashi, okuriashi, lunges over and over again, along the length of the football field side line. By the end of this ashi-sabaki session, my legs would be quite exhausted. So then, I go into suburi and visualisation training.

Anyway, after I finish writing this entry, I will go to the park for a jog and enjoy the beautiful Autumn night in the Southern Hemisphere.

Mental Practice

Talking about visualisation, I recently gave a presentation at the university about the power of mental practice in enhancing performance. Coincidentally, there was a thread on the Kendo World Forum which was about mental practice, so I wrote a little bit of what I have learnt in my research project on this area. The thread is http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13769&page=3

Here is what I wrote...

"Mental practice is a fascinating and exciting technique. One of the major explanations for how mental practice works is using the neuromuscular hypothesis.

When you mentally imaging an action without active physical movement, it actually triggers physiological response in the body. One of the way to measure this is using EMG (Electromyography), which measures the muscle activities.

Researches have found that during mental practice WITHOUT any active physical movement, the brain actually sends electrical signal, through the neuromotor pathways, to the effecting muscles. The researchers were able to record spinal reflex activities and also EMG activities in the muscle groups responsible for the particular action you are imaging.

As a result of this priming of the neuromotor pathways, mental practice can help establish and reinforce appropriate coordination, and ultimately enhance performance....

In several major experiments on the topic of mental practice, researchers have found a couple of very interesting points, which we might incorporate these ideas into our own kendo training.

Internal / external imagery - internal imagery (imaging from 1st person point of view) is better than external imagery (from an observer point of view). More electromyographic activities are recorded during internal imagery.
Behavioural vs Environmental Focus - focus on behaviour (such as muscle tension, palmar sweat) elicits more physiological response than focus on the physical environment (such as where things are).

To be effective in mental training, you must be quite focused and aroused to get the maximal benefit.

So if you are half falling asleep, you may not get the maximum benefit of mental training. To get a good result, you should be quite focused and mentally aroused to 'feel' how your perfect ippon is like - how the tip of the shinai transmits that really nice feeling to your arms and body, the feel of that strong and beautiful fumikomi, the loud and spirited kiai, the perfect ippon BAMMMM sound on the target, the fluid motion of your cut, the perfect zanshin after the ippon. These are the things you may like to try imaging yourself, and best when you set a nice and quiet place to allow you to focus on it."

So until the next entry, I hope this will leave something interesting for us all to consider and incorporate into our own training.