Squad #3: Overweighted

(Warning: long entry)

The long awaited monthly shiai keiko at squad practice---!!

Me is getting a flu again. As the Dept of Health kept telling people, "This is the peak season - people having symptoms of flu and cold should wear their masks!"... I just wasn't that aware of it - until, of course I caught the virus for the 2nd time in 2 months!!

So I wasn't in my best shape on Sunday. The day before I did practiced in the afternoon, but I skipped Thursday as I have to finish some freelance work. But the "500 hayasuburi on days without keiko" scheme is still up and running. I am at Week 3 now.

When I finished changing it was only 10.10am on Sunday. There is a morning keiko, 8.30am-10.30am I think, with 10+ local and Japanese 6/7dans and loads of others queuing up. Sadly most of them went at 10.30am, as they are not related to the squad training. Tho I spyed outside the door for quite a while. It looks like quality stuff.. I was quite tempted to join but how the hell can I wake up at 7am?!

Back to the shiai practice... There were 10 participating this month. At least 4 people were "watching" due to various injuries. But there were 2 video cameras there so we all got to see our shiai later!! Shinpan were the following 6Dan sensei: Lai, Tanaka, Yoshida, Shigawa (who is tough enough to get ippon from Kishigawa sensei!!!), Kawada... Kishigawa-sensei was there sitting at the side observing only.

This time the format was firstly 2 pools of 5, then the best 8 go on to straight KO. 4 mins match.
I was the first person in my pool and therefore fight the 1st and 5th match. Despite having a long break to recover, I am fighting Eda-sensei (!) and Derek Chan who was in the 12th WKC squad.

It's probably not the best situation to have your first ever practice with your sensei in a shiai situation!... She *knows* my tricks... But when I was in the shiaijo, I told myself to "show her my best". I did a little of that shiai bending stuff, but mainly I cut (or at least tried) big with koshi. Getting Ippon was so ever difficult - she keeps doing kote-de-kote, so my tokui waza doesn't work at all! I lost to a super big men. At tsuba-zeriai Eda sensei is tricky, probably because she knows I can do hiki-waza (and therefore I can't!!). But then in return I scored a BRILLIANT debana-men on an ai-men situation, slightly before full-time. At encho, I lost to another super big men (was attempting tsuki but too damn late!!).

While spending considerable amount of time *coughing* severely at the side, I waited and watched the 2nd to 4th match of my pool. Previously at squad training it was mainly paired practice, and I was always at the girls group... So it was quite nice to be able to watch other people's kendo, especially in a shiai context.

Derek, my next opponent, finished his 2-0 match in 20 seconds...

He probablt felt a bit nervous facing me with a foreign zekken. Despite him having lightening speed Men, I was quite surprised I can actually block/counter a lot of it. I certainly gave him a lot of trouble, as he couldn't finish me off quickly. Eventually he got the first men. But then standing still at issoku-itto, I have a sudden urge to do Tsuki.. and at the last 0.01 second of doing so I instead cut Men. Taa-daa!! 3 flags up, Jenny got a Men again! It was AMAZING. Derek 1 - Jenny 1

It is not very usual for me to score 2 men and no kote in a day, especially I was fighting people at the 3/ 4Dan+ level...

Funny enough, while people usually sayi no cheering at the side... Agnes-senpai (Eda's dokai) shouted at the side, "Fight on! You need to win to get thru the pool--!!"

The other thing I noticed was - NEVER fight with an ankle support! Once I went for de-kote... My right ankle slipped like me stepping on banana skin, and I MISSED........ Grrr. I injured my right ankle before (I can't even walk for 3 days) so I can't let that happen again. Note to self: NO ANKLE SUPPORT NEXT TIME!

Anyway. I lost to Men in the end, and was out of the game, got the odd job of recording scoreboard, and mitori-keiko.

There are only 3 more rounds to go for the "Best 8".

Leo, the dohai from my home dojo, beat Eda sensei 2-1 at encho. He then got KO by Derek in 20 seconds. What an irony...

Derek actually finishes his 20-second (2-0) for 2 more rounds - until he meets Yim at the final, and got beaten 1-2 at encho.
______________________

So the game finished at 12pm sharp and we are going for another queuing keiko...

I finally got Lai-sensei. He is an interesting person to fight with, because he actually "fights" with you. Comment after practice is that, I am cutting too soft. He said, well, you can fight soft, but at the moment of impact you have to give out your energy.

Also got Kishigawa-sensei this time. The practice was short and it was only running through Men-uchi. Half way thru he stopped and corrected my left hand grip (!). "Jump! Jenny, jump!" That's what he says at oikomi...
______________________

As there is no pub session at 12.30pm, we gathered around at the tuck shop of the sports stadium.

While lecturing Derek in Japanese, K-sensei suddenly switched to English for me, "Derek's Men is very difficult to get, huh?"

He then asks for my shinai. (uhm??)

"Aahh. When I saw you fight, I immediately think your shinai is too heavy. You can't jump far and is letting your shinai controlling you. This kind of shinai is either for highschool boys or big European girls. Not you!!"

This is something new for me. There goes my advice of the day: My shinai is overweight. If I don't change my shinai, I cannot improve my kendo (what the ???????)

Back at Derek. K-sensei says he is fast, but he hasn't got enough seme... Always going in "Yaaah- Men".

It's like that little palm-slapping game. Even if you are really fast, you can't hit your opponent's hand when your attacks go in a certain pattern. You need to be unpredictable for your attack to work.

Vinx Lam, aka Lim, went out of the game 1-2 (encho) vs Yim at semi-finals. Quoting Kishigawa-sensei, "Lim improved the most in the past few months." Uhmm. That reminds me to train harder. I really need to focus more on practice... I am just hoping that my "work hours" is more stable...

I'll try to put up some snapshots from my shiai when the video is available. Provided if my posture isn't terrible.

Everything you do is Practice

Earlier on today Bishop at Edinburgh Kendo Club, Scotland sent an email about a radio broadcast at the BBC Sports with Honda-sensei. It was really nice to hear both of their voices again, after 2 months of leaving the UK. (I love technology)

It was the .ram clip at "Listen to the Show" on March 26th here (fast-foward to 0:37 minutes):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/sportsweekly/

The interview ends with Honda-sensei saying, "...Every day in the world is a practice. You wake up, wash your face... Everything you do is practice."

Thanks to the messages from my dear readers. Life is back to normal for me. Although I choose to skip last Sunday's squad training, take some time off to look after my emotionally exhausted grandmother. I suppose NOT being able to practice is also "practice" (quoting Honda-sensei). Even though I like kendo very much, I still have other priorities in life.

Last night I signed up for the squad shiai practice the next Sunday. It has been 3 month since I fought in a proper shiai... That and it has been 14 months since I fought a shiai in Hong Kong (last time being finishing my taisho match 2-0 in 10 seconds...haha). So I am really looking forward for it.

For this week I am increasing a little bit of difficulty to my daily 500 hayasuburi. I will take as little rest as possible in between a set of 100. Today with Stereophonics as BGM, I finished 500 at the fifth song, under 20 minutes! That saves a lot of time.

Heard about Inoue Shigeake-sensei's visit to Hong Kong next week. Seems like there are loads of frequent visits of holiday-makers/sensei from Japan. I haven't decided if I am joining yet - if there are work-related or funeral-related issues (especially it is Chingming Festival next Tuesday - one for the dead!!) I need to deal with, then I can't spend too much time in the dojo...

It's March/April and already 24oC - I am wearing t shirts and shorts at home, but how am I going to survive the long summer..???

Life-giving Breath, Life-taking Breath

There isn't a chance for longish jikeiko in these 2 months. Most of the time in the dojo it is mainly paired basic practice, with minimal amount of waza and mawari-keiko. As a result I feel slightly lost in touch with the "competition mindset" which everyone says that's the kind of kendo I am having. Next week there will be a shiai keiko at the squad, so maybe I am going to test out how my progress is, when for the past 2 months all that I am doing is simply kihon.

In today's practice I took a lot of time telling myself to breath properly. Hold it as long as I could while doing a series of cuts, etc. And in between when people rotate around, I used that few seconds to take deep breaths. It helps, I reckon. I actually feel like the first person to jump out and have a go again when sensei said "free practice for the last 10 minutes".

In addition to that, I got the demo request for hiki-waza. This is the first time here I did hiki-waza in kihon. Long time ago in Brighton Ota-senpai told me that the only way to learn hiki-waza is to steal it from other people. So I am glad that something I stole from the UK is working here!

When I got home tonight at around 9pm and had a few bites of my late-dinner, my father called from the hospital. A few minutes later, my grandmother there told us how grandfather took his last big breath of his life. In the 2 months I am back here, I have visited the hospital more than I visit the dojo. Eariler in the week seeing grandpa half-sitted in bed catching his breath (as he is 81 and is having major heart+lung failure), when he was spending his entire time doing nothing but lying in bed, I kind of connect this "breath-catching" scene to what happen when I don't control my breathing properly during practice. Somehow I can feel how painful it is not being able to get air into the lungs.

Breathing is one of the most basic human activity, and we learnt it when we were born. If we lost control of it, we suffer. Perhaps being able to breathing properly will lead to a more enjoyable life?

RIP, grandpa.

"Koo Janai"

Today is another day of kihon, with no specific focus - but my priority of getting my breathing right is working okay. Seems like my daily hayasuburi routine is starting to work.

Was told to have bigger step (or, more movement) when doing hayasuburi (just 30 today) and also during kirikaeshi (both attacking side and receiving side).

Also noticed: my kirikaeshi is so sh!t. Over the other side, Leo, who happened to be in my group when I first started kendo 3 years ago, can go fast and sharp. Uhmm, gotta catch up with my dokai!!

..And when I am tired I dragged my left foot too much - especially that last jikeiko with Tanaka-sensei. "Men wo___________, _________. ___________ Awasete__________! Koo Janai. _______ Wakarimas ka?"

Can't get 0.01% verbally but it isn't too difficult to watch. Doing it is another thing though...

There were only 7 people in bogu today. Eda-sensei said the Tanaka couple also live quite far from the dojo, and we should try to attend the Thursday class and listen to his advice. Oops, no more complain about going home late night and have dinner at 11pm again!

Something to read

While the ever-entertaining Kendo World Forums is down (again?!), without getting everyone bored with my suburi schedule, here's some interesting light readings I found...

Kendo Goes Global: Participation in Internationals at All-time High (August 15, 2003)

Alexander Bennett: A Journey to the Heart of Kendo (August 11, 2003)

Mooto News: Is Japan's Kendo Dynasty Indestructible? (July 30, 2003)

* * * * * EDIT * * * * *

Here's a response to an email from reader Andre:-

Just to clarify: "taking one breath on every 10 hayasuburi cuts using two kodachi" is probably my bad exaggeration (uhmm where is my English??)...

To describe it better, I really focus on breath counting today... On the first 30 it's around 8 cuts inhale, 2 cuts exhale. There are of course, moments where I just hold my breath. But this breathing pattern gets messy from the 60th cut onwards - roughtly the time when I feel "lets take a break". However by mentally staying calm while enjoying the music beats, I can actually last the whole 100 hayasuburi, even though the inhale-exhale rate is much faster (yet under control).

Other things I notice on my third day of 500 hayasuburi (I *hope* from now on the days I can't get to the dojo I'll be going through this):-
1) Rammstein isn't playing 1 beat per second - and I am cutting more than 10 cuts in 10 seconds, so I am actually doing 550+ cuts.
2) It's getting like summer here so I need a shower before dinner.
3) I probably need a new CD soon.

"Reise, reise"

"From now on we will focus on developing the following things: stamina, techique, discipline... For stamina, everyone should keep on doing exercise at home because we simply don't have enough time to do that in the dojo. If you don't work on your physical capacity, you cannot build up your techniques."

This is the advice to the squad from Kishigawa-sensei yesterday and somehow I think it is directed to me. I obviously lack some stamina, as it shows when things go intense.

Before dinner tonight while stuck at some freelance work, I fancy doing some exercise for 1/2 hour. The ceiling is low at home and therefore I pick up 2 kodachi for some haya-suburi (no idea if weight distribution is different but the weight is similar to one whole bokuto anyway).

To make it more "entertaining" I put on the new Rammstein CD "Reise, reise" on the Hi-Fi. My goal is to do 100 haya-suburi on every song played. A song is around 4 minutes so I can take a short break before doing another set again.

I have to stop at my 270th cut because I am going too fast, have no ki-ken-tai-icchi and out of breath. Then I think of a better plan. There is a minute-second counter on the Hi-Fi and I should watch it and cut once a second. Also I start taking one breath for every 10 cuts.

So for 100 haya-suburi the counter was going from 0:00 to 1:40 (that's 1 min 40 sec, i.e. 100 seconds, i.e. 100 cuts) ... then I can take a rest and have another go. In the end I finished my last 30 haya-suburi at the 6th song, "Amerika"... Totalling 500 haya-suburi under 30 minutes.

Squad #2

Anyone who attends the Sunday squad training regular enough is already a member of the squad. From what I see this is the deal - once you are inside the dojo, you instantly become part of the group.

Though this is only the second time after that major taikai happened last month, as I only started to belong the group mid-way like a transferred student. So when Kishigawa sensei asked everyone to put comment and suggestions for future squad practice, I was only there to listen. According to fellow attendees, when Kishigawa sensei first took over the squad training a year ago, the practice went so hard that only 10 out of 30+ people survived...

Today's Squad was much more closer than their normal training. At least first off before all these lecturing, everyone was asked to do 50+30 hayasuburi with 2 shinai. "If anyone pause halfway or without enough kiai, we'll do it again." As a group, everyone suffers for everyone, so to speak.

Someone suggested earlier about not knowing what to score in shiai, when to defence and when to attack. K-sensei responded by saying at our stage we can't offence and defence at the same time - it's either attack or counter-attack.

I was with the women group (7 out of 30+) most of the time. Started lightly with men/kote-uchi.

Then it was groups of 3-4 with one person as motodachi. First off, kakari-te cuts men, then motodachi have to move away (by using footwork). Next, motodachi does blocks everything until kakari-te (cuts anything) gets an Ippon. Finally, motodachi has the full counter-attack abled, just like kakari-keiko. Half way through K-sensei shoved me to the "other" female group (there were only 2)... meaning pairing with 2 yondans.. Just totally exhausted with pulled ad-muscles.

The other two just kept on going. I felt such a drag being in their group... One of them told me to control my breath and cut using one breath. But...Apart from that one pananormal time I actually got a kote-men out of nowhere, (is it really what they meant by "when you are tired your real kendo shows?) it was so painful that I can't even stand up straight..

Eventually I got kicked back to my original group. There was shinkokyu time in between (because I finish my Ippon faster against girls at my level) so it wasn't too bad.

After that was series of ai-men from to-ma. I think my waist is not turning "in" enough, as my run-through path is so angled to the right after I got the Men.

At mid-day the el finale was uchikomi-keiko. Pattern: men-hiki-men/kote/do, repeat, kirikaeshi (one string men, one string do), then men. K-sensei again complained, "Everyone is tired. But don't forget your opponent is equally tired. If you can cut when your opponent is tired, you win." ... So while our spirit went a bit up, we got to do that uchikomi again.

The finishing 30 mins was always queuing-for-sensei type of jikeiko. I spent most of the time in the queue (resting) and fought Wong-sensei, who is tall, hits hard, and talks like a bully(!). My entire day focused on using "koshi". I keep telling myself to keep my left foot on the same spot whenever I cut, and when I cut I lift my right big toe up first before pushing my kensen up. Surprisingly, I actually got 2 brilliant kote-men... even though I lost debana-men straight away when he called for Ippon. After class comment: "Good performance today - just keep coming." Phew.

When I was in a queue, I watched a lot of K-sensei against everyone else. Against people with bad kamae, he just stood there, took his time and cut men. Even Tanaka-sensei who moves like a wooden board can't get all his cuts as sharp. Or Agnes-senpai who received a strong harai-waza that sent her shinai flying from one end of the dojo to another, and then received perfect tsuki every time she moves... Somehow I think it is a confidence thing... Against a good sensei you feel crap - and ended up with a crap kamae and crappy cuts. When I foguht Wong-sensei, all I was thinking is to stand upright, koshi, right big toe, left hand. I didn't realize my kote-men went so brilliant until running pass him, kiai-ing on top of my lungs.

Maybe because I can't listen to Tanaka-sensei's Nihongo class yesterday, I have to really LOOK at what he is doing. So I ended up copying him on a positive way. I even start experimenting what he said his tokui-waza was when he was in Shiai - kote-do.

Koshi, koshi!!

After a 11-day sick leave from the far-away dojo, tonight I dragged myself back in there.

I felt I have recovered at least 90%, if not 95% - but it shows after stretching, running around and doing suburi, that my energy level is rather low... Especially there was a short session of Tai-atari: I thought I have been trained to withstand that, but I completely lost my feet when my partner Lo, a big girl, crush into me... x_x Eda-sensei said I should hold my breath when doing tai-atari...

Tanaka-sensei took over the class with bogu (tonight there were only 6 of us?!). We spent quite a lot of time on Kihon. Starting from the natural chudan-no-kamae, to suburi (3-stage: up, cut, zanshin), and then men-uchi, kote-uchi, do-uchi (without men). Sensei emphasized on the position of the hands should be "out, stretched" and not cramped down.

Then in the practice with men on, after 6 kirikaeshi (I sucked), we went through the same kihon men and kote-uchi. Sensei told me to keep the angle of my shinai lower (!)...

There was a bit of kote-suriage-kote refreshment. So far I have no idea why they keep doing men-kaeshi-do instead of do-uchi only. What I learnt about why Sensei can be so sharp at it is that, he turns his waist 45-degree quickly after blocking, to create a big space to pass through. "Koshi, koshi da!!" Tanaka-sensei shouted.

The Kote-men rensoku-waza's aim is not on the kote, but men. I got the "hayaku" comment. Basically in order to create an opening for men, the kote-uchi should be really light and bouncy - so bouncy that it bounces the shinai up for you (instead of you doing big furi-age).

Funny enough the entire class was conducted in Japanese with minimal translation. Personal advice was purely Japanese, yet I managed to catch a few words (just keep on nodding).

The class went quickly and we finish off with 5 rounds of mawari-keiko (really short), and kakari-keiko 2 rounds against Mrs. Tanaka. My fumikomi is shite at that point, so is my breathing.. *cough cough*...

After class the kendo conversation continued (without beer..hmmm). We were given Matcha cakes from Chiba by Eda-sensei where she went last week... While Tanaka-sensei took the chance of having Eda as a better translator, explained to us about what went wrong generally.

My grip is bad... I tend to twist my wrists too inwards, while the radius (hmm the bone on the arm... I need a diagram) should be flat at the wrist joint to the hands. When raising shinai, think about pointing forward, rather than pulling back.

Only with a good kamae you can be ready to get an ippon.

Also that we should keep everything natural. Like, whenever we walk, if we stop and hold our hands as if holding our shinai - we should be at the correct position already. Think about using koshi to talk in order to keep our steps light and quick. Also use koshi to stay square - the same as when we are at kamae, right shoulder shouldn't be pulled forward. When we do men-uchi, if we don't use koshi, it'll all be using arms muscles and we'll start leaning forward...

etc. etc. etc.

Eda-sensei pointed out we can also think about how to stand at kamae when using the train (!)... I thought I am the only person on earth addicted to that point... I was wrong.

Homemade Dojo

There has been another month since I have picked up my iaito again. Just how can I cope with the conflicting training schedule on Sat (iaido class at Kishigawa-sensei's and kendo at Eda-sensei's at the same evening, different locations...)?!?

I was about to hire the community squash court again today, but ended up taking my father's advice and use the living room instead. Just move some furnitures and rubbish around... DA-Da!! I got a 3mx3mx3m space (wooden floor) for 1-hr of Iaido practice before going to bed.

My temporary "dojo" is tiny but hey I find out you don't really need much space anyway. I still can do most Seitei there, with the exception of #7, #10 & #11. Unfortunately most Koryu has steps and movements that for safety reasons... better leave them.

The TV screen is flat enough to give me a good mirror reflection, so I can actually check out my posture sometimes. Because the ceiling happens to be high enough, and that my iaito ain't that long, there is no bulb-braking accidents. Just that once the chiburi got caught at the bookshelf, and the other time when I pull my sword down it "slashed" onto the sofa.

Today's main goal is just to "keep my iaido there". I *know* some of my dokai + kohai in London will be taking their Ikkyu/ Shodan this month. It's a shame that I can't catch up my grading with them (especially I actually started a month earlier than everyone). But I am not giving up (yet). I still want to get blackbelt-ed in a year or two... :'(

Another 500!

Despite a few dry coughs, an hour before dinner today I went thru another 500 suburi. It was 20 on the right knee and then 20 on the left, until the count went up to 100, and then I did 40 sit-ups in one go. So totally it was 500 suburi with suburi-to, plus 200 sit-ups, and today's background music is Dir en Grey (...J-rock, visual-kei). A slight improvement from yesterday.

There is squad late night on Tues (9.00-10.30pm?!) but if I get there 1.5 hr one-way for that 1.5 hr, when I get home it'll be at mid-night. How am I suppose to deal with that once I start working fulltime??

Save that for daydream...

Re-hab

To my disappointment, I could not attend the Sat practice and Sun squad as I am still sick. Sat was the worst with serious stomach ache that sent me to the doctor. A kendo weekend wasted.

However on Sunday afternoon (after all the kendo hours..) I feel much better and have the mood to grab my bokuto again... But my hands ended up with the suburi-to. Back in my tiny room I find a spot without ceiling bulbs, blasting out Slipknot from the speakers, I did 500 suburi with the suburi-to. With this think piece of wood the only thing I focus on is pulling it outwards using the "tanden" (actually I have no idea if I am using the correct set of muscles, but there we go). For the downward cut, the piece of wood is so heavy that it falls by itself without me putting any force behind it. When I pick up my normal bokuto it is like a toothpick, and I feel like waving it at 3 cuts a second! :D That's gotta cure the too-much-right-hand bad habit...

After the 500 suburi I did another 100 sit-ups.

With a bit of sweat, my only other wish is to put on my bogu and have a bash!!!

Attached a photo comparing my normal bokuto with that thick piece of wood - I am not sure if it qualifies to be called a suburito or something else, but it is double size of a normal bokuto:-

*cough*

It seems like sickness comes periodically. According to my diary, in Jul, Sept, Nov 04 and Jan 05, there was a week in which I was "very sick", to the point where I have to skip kendo (!).

This is one of the weeks. At this very moment while I should be at the dojo, I am coughing my lungs out. This is the 3rd consecutive week that I did not show up for a Thurs practice. I must have let Eda-sensei down... :(

Tho this is Hong Kong and I can't really attend the class coughing everywhere. There was this SARS epidemic and I cannot terrorize fellow dojo mates...

To compensate for the missing class, I did 300 suburi today using a heavy suburi-to hidden at home. I think squad training this Sunday should be harder than the previous week. I hope I can be back in shape by then and survive more hayasuburi.

*COUGH*

Squad Reboot

Somehow I feel extremely guilty not showing up at my home dojo last Thurs because of an early job interview that Friday. But this Sat + Sun's training I do feel I am improving on certain things. It's not like when people say "I didn't train but I am still good" - anyway I hope when my job sorted I can have practice on a more regular bases.

As in last weekend's Asian Tournament, Kishigawa sensei (Brazilian nanadan, HK Team Coach) specificly asked "Why I didn't turn up to the squad in a month?"... I was just so damn afraid what will happen if I don't this week. Other kohai girls at my home dojo said they watched before and the training is way too hard - though reckon I will probably "survive". Anyway, here I come!!

In between the 10.30am break when those who are there for the squad training went back into the dojo, I quickly greet Kishigawa sensei (and of course saying, "I am joining today!")

There was a bit of lecturing before warm-up. Mainly for those who fought last weekend at the tournament. Time for Hansei (reflection), "why there is no ippon" As a helper/ spectator I must say I don't know how hard they have been working on, but seeing the fresh, younger HK team 2nd Dan & below division at 1st place, the veteran team in the ladies division at join-3rd, I believe they deserve what they have been training for. Sensei finishes by saying (harshly), "You need to know what you want to improve in order to improve. There is no point coming to the squad training thinking you are going to improve just by coming. You are just wasting your time." That was directed to everyone in sight, but that is what I should particularly be aware of, especially this is my first day here.

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Warm-up is the same as my home dojo (I guess Eda-sensei just borrow that). Push-up, sit-up, hang-on-bar-and-raise-legs, squad jump, all 20 times, in bogu and with kiai. It wasn't that fun if there was no one else doing it with me. Sometimes I imagine going for men-uchi and it does help. I know I am crap at push-ups, but for sit-ups I can handle with ease (maybe I can go for double... hold on... let me just shut up..)

Forget to mention: apart from Kishigawa sensei, today assisting were Tanaka sensei and also Lai-sensei (thank god some one lighten us up in Cantonese..) At the student side there were around 20+ people, in which there are 5 girls, 2 of them my senpai (at around Yondan level). Many squad members who were fighting last week wasn't there - guess they are just taking a break.

This squad session straight after a major tournament was probably a toned-down version of what normally goes (as I was told..). Mainly it was non-bogu basics. Around 30mins of hitting the stack of tatami and focus on ki-ken-tai-icchi and the use of koshi, then paired practice of getting chu-shin at isoku-itto, and 100+50 haya suburi, before getting into jikeiko for the last 30 mins.

The "tatami hitting" practice totally kills as sensei was not satisfied with any of our coordination at all (including the two yondan female senpai standing next to me)... After the session my right inner thigh all the way to my back was so damn sore.

The 100+50 haya suburi was great. I realize I haven't done any since last time at UCL club..! Tho I was told my downward swing is too low and I should be swinging more outward.

Jikeiko was a little bit too short because I spent all my time queuing for Kishigawa sensei, and as a result I only managed that one. Surprisingly, it went alright. The previous guy got 3 consecutive perfect tsuki (!) so I was quite bothered.. But when it was my turn all I want is to show my best, especially what I have been working on recently: posture, footwork, speed and accuracy.

At 12.30pm we rushed outside the gym and say thankyou to the sensei (and ask for comments). However Kishigawa sensei said nothing in particular apart from asking what grade I am. Experience tells me that is a sign of me being either better than he though or completely sub-standard. I was still with my old zekken (will be changed in a week or two), so in his mind probably I was actually representing British Kendo...!

"I'll be back"... hopefully. I still need to fight Eda-sensei!! People there keep asking where she was, and I was told even if a little sickness Eda will train as usual. Guess she was really sick. But I keep coughing when I got home too.. grrr!

Different people, different places

This weekend I've been helping out at the HK Asian (Regional) Invitational Kendo Tournament, the second largest kendo event that I have ever been to (the no. 1 is of course, 12th WKC).

Before the shiai on that Friday night was Godou Keiko. I got strongly advice by my sensei to "go practice with the girls, especially the university students"... Though it was really crowded and I practiced with one from Shigakukan Daigaku (3 years ago they visited Mumeishi before - but of course not the same group of students). At other times I had a go with boys and girls from Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore at all levels. It was so crowded that I stepped on/ hit on the back of my head more than 5 times... They had 2 gyms for keiko but I chose NOT to get stuck at queuing for 5Dan+ motodachi (because sensei said "go with the girls"...). So that was 6 keiko in 2 hours. Not too bad.

Shinsa was on Sat morning but I didn't go due to some family matters. Tho I heard everyone from my dojo passed - expect a Japanese boy who just happened to drop his shinai in the middle of his nidan shinsa...

In the afternoon there was an over-run referee seminar that shows a lot of interesting things about refereeing - like how flags should be rolled up and stuff (that I usually don't notice much..). The Sat afternoon went the 2Dan & below 3-men team matches. There is no one in particular that I am watching out for. Most of the time I was practising my calligraphy skill with a marker pen on the scoreboard... and taking photos everywhere. There were 30mins jikeiko but chose to watch more and go around for more photos (so that the day after I don' t have to).
At the welcome party buffet with free beer (since all helpers get free accomodation at the same hotel) I had my first decent English conversation in a month with Dr Alex Bennet and Michael Komoto... They came to do research/survey with Uehara sensei about views on Kendo in different parts of the world... If I didn't talk to them, I probably won't feel how hard it is to be responsible for such important research to promote kendo in foreign countries.

Then I moved table and got introduced to the HK team coach, Kishigawa sensei (Brazilian).He does not remember me at all (no one does - since I only practice a few times every year...) but apparently my sensei has been talking about my name a lot. He complained, "You've been back for a month, I don't understand why don't you attend any squad practice!!" I had nothing to say apart from kept nodding my head...

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The other morning I got an extra task to "get people on the chartered bus"....!! Everything - everything that happened on Sunday reminds me of the 12th WKC.

Say, the day starts off with 8 girls screaming at their pairs at 4 courts... It was the 5-person team events, with Ladies first. When my court finishes I hopped over to see the HK team A with my sensei as Chuken. In the semi-finals they went to a tie against Singapore A. The Singapore Taisho has brilliant kote-men, but the only point she lost was against HK' s Taisho's nuki-do (timed so well that goes in between her 2 cuts of kote-men)... Tho in the end at "golden goal" HK (A) losted by a point.

Final was Osaka Prefecture Uni vs Singapore.. Level is quite different, and I found it was a lot less exciting than the previous matches. I guess it's the matter of "fighting someone as good will push your skill to the max" type of thing...

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I finished with the names of scoreboards early before the pools of the Men's event, so I did get more time to go around the back and watch whatever I like (privilage of a helper). The most interesting people are at the court where Dr.A and Komoto-san went refereeing this day - a few jodan players and also one Nito (!). Also I was surprised that both Beijing and Shanghai can fill up another (strong) team all with Japanese surnames. Unlike HK where you get businessmen mostly, I think at the other cities they do have a larger university student presence (just like London).

At one side of the Semis was Shigakukan A vs B. All 5 matches went really tense. There I witnessed another scored TSUKI (last time being WKC).

FInal was Shigakukan A vs Osaka Pref. Uni's team. Everyone stayed really close and watched breathlessly. On the Taisho-sen, Shigakukan was 1 point up so they hold until the last second - and therefore they were the eventual winner.

------------------------------
At the semi-finals and finals I was really focusing on observing how they all move and do fumikomi. I did not analyse it much but I found the sound they all made amazing. At the Godou keiko I intentionally found Dr. A and Komoto for a bash - and I can feel my fumikomi myteriously went stronger too. I am cutting stronger, responding quicker - even though most of the time I lost 1/100 sec of debana waza, but I can still pop the cut.

Tho Dr. A's comment was that, I am not going 100% into the cut. "You are like a cat that only does things to annoy me. The best thing to do against a cat is to pour a bucket of water!" urhmmm.... Points noted. I got tsuki-ed 3 times as well... grrr.. And I have to stop having sensei or senpai giving analogies using animals!!

Shinsa

After the normal 7.30-9pm tonight, Eda-sensei asked us to "practice more kata"... So despite having a totally empty stomach, I choose to do it with them. I could have escaped but ended up staying... until 10pm!

Tanaka sensei made the class into mock Shinsa, showing them how the correct reigi is, and everyone had a few brief fights for 1 min... and we went on and do 1-min mawari keiko for a few more rounds. I heard there are 100+ taking that grading in 2 days...

Points to note are mainly about not losing mentally. Not feeling losing at least. A shinsa Men has to cut 100% with zanshin - not floppy here and there and footwork went everywhere (I know he's talking about me)...

Sensei doesn't want people taking grading having an injury 2 days before.. So we switched to kata practice for 1/2 hr. I got grabbed by a girl taking shodan, a women taking nidan, and a senpai taking sandan (!!). My self-comment is that, I lost half of my nanahome already. Oh well...

After class we got stuck outside the gym (still in the building of the sports centre) where Eda-sensei asked us to do kata ON OUR OWN... Empty air with imaginary opponents... For a moment I think that'll be good for my Iaido, so I stayed and went through #1-7 for both sides.

-- No I am not taking Shinsa again!! Not now!! AAaaaaaah---!!

When I finish and say bye to sensei, she told me to keep the next grading in mind (1.5 years to go... that soon?) Because there is no competition to go to, right now, for me, so I can work on more basics. I must admit that is what is lack in London - with less than half of the sessions I went every week is purely about basics.

There are 100+ foreigners coming for Godou keiko tomorrow, and sensei particularly reminds me to "go get the Japanese university girls" - because there aren't many here, as in any other place outside Japan. Much like endangered species that everyone has to pay extra attention to.

"Education is endless"

This afternoon I used 3 hrs just to make a return journey from home to the dojo on the island side of HK. It was a "helpers' seminar" aiming to prepare people to do time-keeping, scoreboarding and other bits for the HK Asian Invitational Tournament coming the next weekend.

Initially I find it is a waste of time as I have LOADS of experience helping out at the courts, especially I had been doing 3 ful days of ribbon-tying (including doing role-calls for upcoming players) at the 12th WKC.

Those few sensei there and other seniors have indeed made things ever so complicated. In the UK you only need to sit there and do it. Are HK people more retarded??

Though there are a few things I learnt today:-

1) Eda-sensei has made me a Cantonese-English translator... I haven't made a decent conversation in English for a month, and yet she dragged me to sit next to a foreigner/beginner to explain what is going on.

2) At the shinai check, there are some dodgy people who would wet the tsukagawa and therefore making their shinai slightly heavier!! Be careful for those who do shinai-checks...!

Yeah, so I did learn something today.

Belly Button

Today's vigourous warm-up has been tuned down to less than 10 mins before going into bogu.

However at that shomen-suburi+fumikomi exercise, which I completely suck at today, Eda-sensei reminds everyone to keep on breathing. Breathing means moving the tare up and down. (and I wonder if that'll show your opponent that you are coming...?)

Kihon and waza with bogu was done: kirikaeshi, men with various maai, kote, men-kaeshi-dou. IMHO the kote cuts have brought my tokui-waza to another level. Kensen has to slightly press for the centre, and when you raise your kensen, cut when your opponent tries to bounce their kensen back. So it's not just jumping into the cut anymore... because you have to make sure you are in control first.

When there is a clock on the wall, it is just a force of habit that I check it every minute. I wonder what's coming next after the first hour into the practice. And then it came mawari-keiko... For another hour???

Thank god it was only 30 mins, but it was rather tiring as Tanaka-sensei shouts "mawaru" after very short intervals. I think it was only 1 min or so, as I was only able to do less than 10 cuts in a single keiko. The point being "not to think or wait for too long... when you get up from sonkyo you have to be ready to go". Urgh. I wasn't paying enough attention to improve my kendo in the middle rounds, until there is a short break when Tanaka complains. When I heard he said about our keiko doesn't look like shinsa (because 6-7 people are going for it) or shiai or anything, it wakes me up a bit. I shift my focus into cutting Men from Toi-maai, which helps me moving my right foot. Also I am quite aware of that "left hand OUT for upward swing, not just up" to build up my seme. Tho for the moment it only works for lower grades or slow people...

At the end of the practice Tanaka-sensei said we should focus on 2 things - more left hand and more hara. For the "hara" part he described the movement as a "pushing up from the belly button". Imagining that will help our footwork. Fumikomi has a slight skimming on the right foot before the actual stamping, then the left foot is immediately drawn forward. If hara is not enough our movement after the cut will be very unstable and off-balance. Time to build up beer-belly... uhmm

The last 1/2 hour was devoted to kata where I get to brush up my rokuhonme and nanahonme with a kohai going for nidan. But most of the time was spend pairing with another female kohai and a Japanese guy going for Shodan. I was surprise their first grading isn't Ikkyu but Shodan...

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It was when Tanaka-sensei swap with Eda-sensei at the mawari-keiko session that I notice just how many girls (non-kids) in my dojo!! Over at the kid's group there are 3 motodachi: Eda, Mrs Tanaka, Mrs Horibe. In my group today was: Noroi-san, Takase-san, Lisa, Jane, Lo and me. What an amazing scene - 9 women out of 20 guys!

Tired..?

I come 10 mins earlier for tonight's 7.30pm practice and found 2/3 of the kendo group (around 10+ people) already there. When I was doing suburi at the side, Eda-sensei signed me up to help out the 2005 Asian Tournament next weekend...

Tonight's warm-up session (without shinai) lasted for a total of 30 mins..! I am starting to slightly get used to the push-ups and pull-ups.. but then a few shuttle-runs around the dojo (dance studio size) is a little bit too vigorous.! The entire bogu-ed group also get to do the fumikomi+run thru exercise: men, kote-men with empty-hand swinging. The more my kendo being broken down into the basic of the basics, the more my mistakes and bad habits are showing... My main focus is to kick more of my right foot out on fumikomi.

With shinai there is an exercise with only lifting the shinai up by using danten.

My shomen-suburi+fumikomi is awful tonight. Tanaka-sensei at one point really stopped me and told me I am dragging my left foot because the left side of my waist isn't there... Also that my right foot HAS TO move as soon as I start lifting my shinai up.

Because on this shomen-suburi+fumikomi exercise we stop at Men level and have to check our kamae, Eda-sensei asked us to pair up and cut each other (!!)... Also we should treat all types of exercise as if it was a shiai, or shinsa, or keiko, and not like it is part of the warm-up. "There is only 1 hour left - why do you want to save up your energy?"

Then only kote was put on for kote-uchi. Using more left hand to lift up will help avoiding opponent's tsuba.

There were more time for kaeshi-do. Blocking should be out and the block should knock opponent's shinai out of your center (their shinai therefore would not be able to stop above your head).

Men is now on. Yakusoku-keiko was in the format of: motodachi cuts men, kakarite has 3 options: de-kote, kaeshi-do, nuki-do. I tried doing everything, but the timing for kote is different when I expect they are hitting first (unlike my tokui-waza, which is just a straight cut)... Also I find it v v v v hard to adjust the distance for going kaeshi/nuki-do when the opponent is going soooo forward. Now I think back -- I was only expecting a cut, and not mentally preparing for my waza..

Then there was some Ai-men time. Lost count: zero... Whoops, hold on.... maybe it's a bias opinion... But my shinai always lands in the center and on top of their men.

Tanaka-sensei joined our group at keiko time after leading the beginners group. It was in mawari-keiko format until a few rounds later, people start to take a rest. Tanaka said facing him we'll have to do the proper reigi from bowing outside court to sonkyo, because it is important to treat every keiko as if it was shinsa. But when fighting Tanaka, he really stops me for ten times when my ki-ken-tai-icchi isn't there. On the upward swing for men-uchi, now I notice that, it shouldn't be an "upward" motion after all. Tanaka demonstrated by pulling my left kote OUT to the front. It feels so different (and so correct).

Immediately following Tanaka was Mrs Tanaka - I was knackered and started to lose all of my ai-men. The staminer of this older lady (well, below 50?) is impressive. It was this feeling of "I don't wanna lose to an older woman just because I am so out of breath" that kept me going. Tho I can only shout HAI--! when she tells me to use "more left hand.." Aww..

After class there was non-alcoholic conversation about kendo outside the gym... Mainly it was Tanaka sensei picking on everyone's little mistakes, using closer-to-none Cantonese/ English. Mine being not able to keep kensen in the center when I lift up, and also my eye+head follows how my kensen moves (!!)...

In the changing room Eda-sensei mentioned after the Asian Tournament, the Sunday squad training will resume to normal and I should join. She (sentimentally) said I should keep on training as regular as possible... Because "when I get older I cannot do the same type of speedy shiai kendo as I am doing it now"... She also understands how people coming back from foreign countries usually have better stamina and such, as we all jump straight into jikeiko, but our basics are to be worked on. Sometimes if you focus too much on speed you'll lose your form, or if you work too hard on your form you can't have the same speed for everything. "The compensation of having the lack of..." - so to speak.

First time my LEFT ARM feels sore after I get home tonight. Maybe I am starting to do it right? :D

Iai alone

Haven't done ANYTHING practically for my iaido practice lately. I did ask Eda-sensei about it, as she is the secretary of the HK association. She mentioned a name briefly but I didn't have a chance to get further info...

Last Sat I also heard a sempai saying, "Phew, I just came for a 2nd round.. I was with Kishigawa-sensei practising Iaido..." Just why the hell did I not ask him about it?!?!

The other night when I couldn't sleep, I tried to run thru the koryu Sahla-sensei taught me the day before I left. I found out my memory on the koryu kata is ...starting... to .. fade...

Therefore as a temporary solution I booked a squash court in a government-run gym one traffic light across where I live. For 1 hour off-peak it was only HK$36... which is around GBP 2.5!!! This afternoon at 2.58pm I got changed at home and walked over there in full hakama+keikogi.

For seitei #1-12 I ran through approximately 5 times each. Did some kihon exercise as well. But the koryu kata really bothers me. I didn't practice much in the UK already, and I can't recall the fine details now....... Guess it's time to order a book... urgh

And I do seriously need to find out about Kishigawa sensei's practice (and if he does a different koryu than Muso Shinden Ryu, I am doomed..)

My new profile pic was taken after 1-hr practice outside the gym in the park. That's my neighbourhood on the background.

Getting to know them

This week has been dominated by more local + traditonal family activities because it was the Chinese New Year, including a 3-day + weekend public holiday. Kendo only resumes on Sat. I have been back for 3 weeks and yet only started the second practice...! I am very ashamed..

Arriving slightly earlier on Sat, I wait for the adult class to start outside the gym with the rest of the people. Because people here are not used to go and have a drink after class, the only chance to get to chat is before the class, and before everyone head for the changing room when the class finishes.

As I warm myself up, there was a Japanese girl (who sometimes got the translator job) practising kata with a Japanese woman (dunno who). Tanaka-sensei was looking after them.

Seemingly in 2 week's time, there is grading coming up. Also that's the Asian Invitation Tournament weekend, with teams coming from Japan, Taiwan, Beijing, all the way to Thailand and Singapore fighting in friendship matches.

Oda-san talked to me a bit in English and then went on to investigate how to perform an effective kaeshi-do waza with the others. Tanaka-sensei came over and pointed out that our waist should turn and our right foot should step away as soon as the shinai lands on the dou. It's a regular cut down to waist level - only because when we turn to the right, distance changed and therefore we can hit opponent's dou.

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During warm-up time, I get slightly more used to the timing of suburi+ fumikomi. Eda-sensei said it'll help us using more lower-body power if we practice this suburi with the weight distribution shifted to 80% left, 20% right. But then, it's harder to have strong fumikomi.

I am starting to think, that this type of exercise without going through after strike, was taught by Masatake Sumi Sensei last Dec when he came to HK for the Asian Zone Referee Seminar... I have done similar things last time at IKET Edinburgh.

For Kirikaeshi, those sayu-men cuts should be treated as individual cuts, i.e. every cut is an Ippon.

It was kihon as usual but with a twist --- Men-kaeshi-dou!! An additional point to note is that the men-block should be more forward and "out", rather than cramping down the hands. Giving yourself space means you are in control of the distance, and prepare for the next cut (dou).

At jikeiko time, both Tanaka and Eda-sensei were looking after the other half (kids) by being motodachi, and therefore we were left to fight against each other. I got the chance to REALLY pick up girls... I mean I walk over to all 3 of my female kohai and said onegaishimas. It was jikeiko a bit, then I made some comments (like my usual line, "don't hit men-gane.." ).

Jikeiko time was short as Tanaka-sensei wants to show people going for shinsa what to be aware. It'll be 2 years before I am going for mine, so I just sit there and do my mitori-keiko... To my surprise, more than 10 people are actually going to get graded from ikkyu to sandan.

There was 1/2 hr kendo kata time in the end. It was again, mainly for the people going for grading, nevertheless I got paired up with Johan (a foreigner shodan with American accent) and went thru kata 1-5 with the rest of the class... I can't do mine smooth as I haven't done any since my Nidan...!! Well, blame the wakaba people who are always doing that bokudo kihon thingy..urgh..

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As it was the 4th day of the Chinese New Year, "red pockets" were given out by Eda-sensei.
I have to skip the end-of-practice chatting and hop over to the other side of the harbour for another gathering dinner. This time, with those from the aikido dojo which both my father and younger brother belong to (and I very occationally showed up). Now with a few more married members giving out red pockets :D

This is the FIRST beer-keiko I had in Hong Kong after I've moved back. There was a poor guy who can't drink got forced to down half a glass of red wine and a glass of beer - and he ended up throwing up in the toilet 4 times in a roll, besides being made fun of. With 8 glasses of beer in me, I started to wonder whether my alcohol capatiblity will also go downhill because of lack of practice...

[note: A beer glass in HK is like a 1/2 pint glass..]

*****************
Earlier in the week I finally got to read in detail Honda-sensei's Tactics in Kendo II article online.

http://www.kendo.org.uk/articles/tactics/02/index.shtml

And I found out the vocab I need to learn is Tokui-waza...

"It is also assumed that practitioners at this level have some Tokui-waza (waza that they are good at and use with confidence to score). In addition to tactics with feint actions, what practitioners at this level are recommended to try is to develop their Ji-geiko with thoughts of when or in what situation they should use their Tokui-waza. Here I would like to ask you to stop reading for a while and think:
2 How long after the start of Ji-geiko or Shiai do you attempt your Tokui-waza?
3 What are the conditions of attempting your Tokui-waza? e.g. distance, timing
I would also like you to think about what type of opponent you think that you can / cannot score by your Tokui-waza. "

Good stuff. That's the reason why I am writing what I am writing now!!

Hello Hong Kong

As I was slightly too busy and tired after moving country and applying for a job that I didn't get in the end... I took a 2-week break from all practices.

This Sat I went to my base dojo in Hong Kong - last time I was there was 13 months ago...

In the changing room I spotted 2 girls wearing their bogu. They were not in bogu last time I saw them, so it is nice too see them again, and I was looking forward to practising with my kohai (at last!!).

The only person I contacted before hand was Eda Chan-sensei, the female team captain for the last WKC, 5th Dan, and also secretary for the HK assocation.

When I went to greet her and pick up some registration forms, she adviced me to get to the weekly team training on Sun morning (yikes..! =_=" ) - mainly because there is not a lot of girls practising kendo..! Well, sounds familiar...

She went on to explain a little bit about the training. 9am-10.30am: jikeiko. 10.30am- 12pm: training. "... Sometimes it's quite tiring. We had done 100 times only kirikaeshi before. But it'll be good for your kendo..." Guess... It is inevitable to get to there eventually (1.5 hr away from home.. Sunday morning...zzzz), and especially when I want to get into the 13th WKC team..

The warm-up we had was much more interesting then the last time I done it in Hong Kong. I reckon that is because this year they've somehow changed the national team coach (or at least, the training method and routine). Nothing too hardcore, but everyone had to do a few sit-up, push-up, pull-up, etc. - with kiai. We were asked to re-do some just because kiai wasn't strong enough!

There were children's class before this adult session, but the level of my group of 12 has a range of kyu grades to 3rd Dan. The dojo was filled with half Japanese and half locals, with Eda-sensei overseeing, and also a visiting Tanaka-sensei. Funny enough, Eda-sensei teaches in Japanese + English + Cantonese.. Not confusing but just funny :D

We did some fumikomi exercises. The most difficult one being a one-step-one-cut shomen-suburi WITH FUMIKOMI, and you have to stop on the downward strike. It is very easy to be dragged forward or off-balance if you are not using enough of your hara. Also without hara the fumikomi gets weak.

Then goes fully armoured kihon. Men-uchi, kote-uchi, kote-men at various speed and distance. My kote-uchi pops so much and I am really happy about it (and kiai in ecstasy was heard)...

At the 2nd half of the practice was jikeiko. As Eda-sensei was leading the children's group doing other kihon, the most challenging person was Tanaka-sensei. His face, age and posture reminds me of Salmon-sensei from Mumeishi London ... Anyway, I was having this attitude of "showing my best" again, and it helps my concentration and spirit. Fighting him really makes me feel that I am not working hard enough. Everything he said, to me or the others, was too familar. Say, I have to go more forward, use more hara, and lift shinai forward first before raising it above head for seme. Or for everyone, too much right hand (esp on the upward swing, shinai went like hitari-jodan, which is a no-no). I completely lost all my ai-men... Well, not completely - I was only 0.01sec slower, and it's not like my cut doesn't even pop.

Once, only that once, I made that stupid fumikomi - he shaked, opening himself and taking my very-straight Men.

After taking off bogu the rest of them got to do kata but I escaped (erhmm just this once, as I was rushing to some end-of-year family gathering dinner). When we took off our bogu, the Japanese speaking Tanaka-sensei asked where I trained. I said London for 3.5 years. And he told me my timing is quite good.

Cool. For a moment I feel rather proud of my training.

Sayonara Keiko [2]

(As carry on after Jan 22's Iaido class...)

The 2-meter long naginata I brought in is still in Wakaba's store room. I left it to Hahn-morris who is trying to set up a club in London. After Iaido class I pick it up one last time and had a few farewell swings... It had accompanied me through the summer before I was in Brighton and also when I was in Brighton. A couple hundreds of suburi variations... Now, I really miss it :(

When I pack my stuff and move over to the kendo court - guess who I first saw - SOTARO HONDA SENSEI ---!!!

Apparently, that Sunday was one of the monthly squad training that I happened to miss as predicted last month. So it was very surprising to see the squad coach being here. He was there to join today's Wakaba practice.

Other special guests include Steve Bishop from Edinburgh and his wife Lyndsey (who is my long-term rival by now :D) . Paul Budden showed up for a couple of time, so let's say he is visiting regularly, and happened to be there too.

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Back to the dojo again, as usual Wakaba's practice kicks off at 2pm with everyone holding a bokuto. For some reason Masagaki picked on ME to teach 3 beginners, who happened to be all girls (must be intentional). We sticked with the bokuto kihon keiko first. Honda Sensei was observing right next to me, in which I jokingly responded with, "Nothing special to watch over here... Can you look elsewhere?!?!"

... A few minutes later Honda-sensei joined into my little study group and took over the teaching (thank god!! I can't stand the embrassment!!) In the end it evolved into a mass education, i.e. Honda-sensei telling everyone in the dojo about points to be aware of. And then we all did kihon #1-3 again and again.

I donated my crappy bokuto to Wakaba dojo, simply because I got some in Hong Kong and that would spare me some luggage weigth limit...
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The usual 1-hour juniors + beginners session before the adult mawari-keiko was merged into one. Honda-sensei as a visiting teacher spent some time showing the correct way of footwork, distance and how to effectively do suburi. His "This is fishing.. This is baseball.. The swinging action is the same in kendo suburi..." shinai whooshing is still quite refreshing to me, as he has previously displayed the same thing in last year's Ladies Seminar.

Sometimes it's good to attend seminars, where you get the opportunity to calm down and listen, and then practice repeatedly on the same thing, while everyone else is also doing it. This is away from the normal jikeiko where you have to set certain goals to what you want to do there, or else you ended up just fighting whoever that comes in front of you. Well, nothing wrong with that, but I won't say that is education. You learn by doing to club practices, visiting other clubs, doing to taikai, seminars, etc. But the focus or goal of learning varies from one another, and therefore to maximize what you want to learn, it is important to get to different places and events.

The session with bogu on in which I joined in, emphasized on how to perform a valid cut. The concept of "Kime" was introduced... Basically, "Hit + Kime = Cut" ...or how to transform the hit of a bamboo stick into a sword cut, by using the kendo elements, such as te-no-uchi, kiai, zanshin, etc. etc.

[It has been a long time since that happened... I regret I have forgotten so much because I didn't have the time to write everything down...]

Then the class progressed into us queuing up for motodachi - doing kirikaeshi and some uchikomi keiko [sequence forgot...urgh].

I happened NOT facing Gibson for quite a while (just a matter of luck - I also haven't practiced with Miyamura and Masagaki for months). But this last "practice" I had with him, just me doing kirikaeshi, I was completely surprised that on the first straight Men-cut, I was able to "pop" his men loud..!! My wrists are probably much stronger now, and that my reach and sense of distance has improved since last time I faced him. So I was very pleased.
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Due to Honda's special lesson, the jikeiko time was shorten to 40 mins or so. As this was *really* the last time I would fight anyone I face, everyone had my maximum level of concentration. So I did try extremely hard to kill anyone in sight.

Practiced with (and additional notes):-

Younger one of the Fujisawa Brothers - I won a lot of kote and twice kote-men...

Matsuoka - Really intense fight.. Almost like kakari-keiko. I found out that if I keep attacking, he can't pick on my openings, and that if I keep attacking, I can see more of his openings..!! Lost a few men but my kote works quite well.

Steve Bishop - There was this kote-men that I really scored with a smile from both sides. And right after that, Bishop got a clean kote, but immediately he stopped and said, "there was no Kime on this one"... I can't stop laughing at that!!

Matsuda - This was probably the first time I feel I am doing something right, about showing my best kendo in order not to let anyone down. Matsuda-san is a well-respected female sempai for everyone and especially for me, so this is one of the more serious yet enjoyable fights of the entire month ..Now I see why I lose my ai-men because my right hand punches too much on the downward swing, and also that I am not using enough left hand. When going for ai-men against a senior, I tried mirroring what my sempai does, which shows my mistakes without them telling me what not to do. Yet, I won a kote and a hiki-men which is quite cool.

Some beginners... - I only cut men, but well-timed clean ippon only. Because it is proper..!

There must be a few more before I got to the last person, but I can't really remember clearly what happened... too long time ago...grr

But it's also because the last fight was just too long that I can only remember this one: Alex Sahla..!

Sahla, as a sensei, intentionally queued for me...

At the beginning 30 sec of the fight right after sonkyo, it was quite normal. But then whenever I want to move (and cut), he saw me coming and just block all of it. Sahla has the most annoying type of blockings for beginners - his te-no-uchi is so strong that when he hits on my shinai, I could feel my waist turning...

"TAME" - no good, he said. I should use more of my "hara" and use my whole body. Once he even screamed "NO" before I nudged forward. Yikes..

That was when everyone else changed their partner when Sahla and I went for what he described as "Shinken shobu" - cut anywhere.

It happens to me before... Like, the first ever time I fight him in Wakaba or something. That was when my killer kote uchi was really good. That was he just stand there opening his mouth when I finished my cut and go for zanshin. That was last summer.

Obviously, being so frustrated doing just ONE cut in the previous 4 mins or so, my killer kote wasn't there.

And then Sahla pulled out some of his weird kamae - jodan, gedan, hasso, migi-hasso, wakigamae.... This is the once and only keiko that he is using that on me. I wonder if it is because I am leaving, or because I am improving to a level where he thinks is situable for me to fight in "his way".

I really tried to do Tsuki-men. I guess twice I managed to touch his mune, and ended up being pushed around at tsuba-zeriai.

We ignored the rotation signal and continued with where we were, which is at the back + side of the dojo. I purposely kiai before everyone changed to their correct partners, just to show Sahla I was still alive.

And once, just that ONCE, when he tried to throw me off balance by pushing my hands to my men, I made a sudden move and cut a clean HIKI-GYAKU-DO...!!

That was sooooo brillant. Sahla even dramatically sank to the ground!! :D

The first time he said "Ippon?" to me (after me smashing his kote that that first practice) - I also won that Ippon by Gyaku-do. In emergency, this is my favourite waza.

The others went for another rotation when Sahla was satisfied with that Ippon. Then he said, "now, kakari-keiko"... Aaawww..! I guess I tensed up too much in the last 10mins+. After a few cuts I pulled my left calf muscles... And have to rest at the side. (don't know why it has created another dramatic scene at the bench...) Also I think somehow it was because of the Iaido practice with too much sitting in Tatehiza.

Therefore I have to sit on the bench when they finished with mokuso. Honda-sensei was thanked by the club for the teaching today.

Sahla had his second embarrasing farewell speech for me. Saying something like "... have a strong spirit to fight against guys twice her size..." uhmm I appreciated that!!

---------------

I limped through the changing room and get to the pub on someone else's car. The alcohol intake had the pain under much control... In the pub I returned that log of wood.. I mean that National Iaido Taikai (mudan) trophy to Helena Khan at Iaido. I have to thank her for organizing the farewell dinner tonight.

Actually I brought LOADS of cash to buy everyone a drink. But Sahla came over and paid for that..!! Argh, last thankyou plan ruined.

Then there was another long farewell speech by Sahla again. He presented me with a signed (with everyone's note) card and a wakaba tenugui. Also, the best kendo gift I had ever had - a kendo keikogi with "Musokan Jenny" sewed on it. Size 1. Musokan is the name of Sahla's Iaidojo.

Honda-sensei incidentally joined in my farewell dinner too. When he left I told him, just as I told a lot of the national team members, "See you in Taiwan. Even if I am not fighting, I'll still go and watch."

Ciao, London.

Sayonara Keiko

The week before I left, I arranged some overseas shipping company to ship a few boxes of my belongings home. My plan was to ship my bogu by sea - because it is too heavy to be carried onto the plane. However, the first email I got after coming back from Ireland was:-

"Jenny, I know you said you don't want to have a farewell party. But last weekend we've got 20 people interested in having a dinner with you after practice..."

So my initial plan was ruined, and I spent the entire day before I left the UK in the dojo, instead of picking and cleaning up. (Oh well, those things are better to be left until the last minute anyway!!)

*****
(hmm its already Feb and still haven't finished writing this entry??!!)

The night before was my final practice at my home dojo Nenriki. The day was spent doing various suburi as warm-up and then all are spilt into groups of 4-5 for simple uchikomi keiko. Everybody takes turn to be the motodachi. There were still a number of "beginners group leftovers" from last year, surprisingly, so in order to accomodate all levels, the sequence was:-

Men, kote, dou, kote-men, kote-dou, men

My entire time there was just to focus on actually taking cuts from kakari-te properly, making sure that they know what they are going to cut, engaging them into the next cut, etc.

Then there was about 3-4 rounds for "seniors" - i.e. shodan+ to do kakari keiko against one another. Beginners have taken up more then 1/2 of the population of the dojo. When I started 3.5 years ago it was only me and 1-5 others. No more than that. Now - everyone is in bogu...

After that came rounds of mawari-keiko. I was made to stand right to the end and not rotate - so that everyone had a chance to practice with me for a few minutes. Keeping the fact that next time when I come back I need to make them say, "hey Jenny you've improved," I skipped the usual sneak-out-breather and focus every fight of mine at 150%. I must give them my best.

Hit rate of killer-kote waza was lower comparing to lsat week at Ireland, but at least my posture was better.

The final few minutes were devoted to what is known as "Nenriki Kiss" - rows of full kirikaeshi against everyone... Oh this time only against "seniors", so it was about 10 people? Oliver, Dan, David, Neil, Adrian, Tristan, Will, Charles, Mike, Hiro, Vic. The last 3 reeeeeally kills, and I significantly slowed down after the 4th (suddenly thought of that "50% speed, 50% posture" phrase from Honda-sensei). Whoo-ha. Such feeling of success!!

At the usual thankyou time, I remember telling Charles, who was a veteran of the club and taught me a lot when I was a beginner..:-

"When you receive my kirikaeshi but cutting back, it reminds me the first time I did kirikaeshi. Thank you."

****
(Off work on Sat - continue to that Sat Jan 22)

This day my bogu bag has been the heaviest for the last 3.5 years of kendo. Apart from the regular bogu +iaito for practice, I also brought in my naginata to leave it to Hahn-Morris who is trying to set up a club in London for that, finally. Also for Iaido I returned my Nationals trophy to Helena Khan. I kept wondering if I can still manage ANY iaido in Hong Kong - because I haven't heard of it when I practice there.

With that heavy luggage, I was obviously 5 mins late for iaido at 1pm....argh..

It was a normal session for free practice of Seitei BUT Sahla grabbed me at the corner and started a *special* 30mins 1-on-1 class (!!). Mainly he was flooding me with koryu... Uhmm I mean Muso Shinden Ryu's first 4 Chuden in Tatehiza. Ukigumo was his favourite out of all the koryu, Sahla said. It was 2 weeks ago and I still remember (I have to - sensei will be disappointed if I wasted his time!!), if not the exact detail, at least the steps.

Hardest challenge is the Zanshin at the end of the kata.. Slowly squatting down into a semi-sonkyo / tatehiza position, and HOLDING there. It really hurts my thighs.. Awww.

After going through the four new kata, Sahla and I did all four in one go together.. He is as always, just too confident, fast and smooth. Whenever there is mass do-it-together opportunity, I always ended up thinking, boy, I wish I was half as good as my sensei.

At the final line-up Sahla particularly mentioned about my leave. I really wanted to forget the embarassing speech but it was along the lines of "role model" and "everyone should learn from her dedication", etc. I just kept bowing and smiling...

The day continues onto Kendo - see next entry :)

Hello Ireland (and bye everyone)

No! I haven't given up this diary... yet!

This has been a busy month for me as I had to prepare moving back to Hong Kong. Therefore everything secondary to life has been abondoned for a while...

Well, by that I don't mean kendo!

The Irish Goodwill Taikai at the 14-16 Jan weekend is the first and last kendo event in 2005 when I am still away from home. I already "planned" to get there in Dec as soon as I had decided to go home. Opportunity arrives - and so - there I was, the last time, with most people I know from the rest of those who like kendo competitions from the UK, along with the Irish kendo people there.

This is also one of the very first time I didn't attend a Taikai with the mind of winning or scoring. I didn't even go with a team!! My job there was to uhmm take photos (I bought 4 rolls of film AND my digital)... Usually the day before a Taikai I would train really hard and focus on building up some "killer-waza", aka the waza I am best at and most comfortable with, say, with 90% hit rate, etc. A lot of times I will wake up extra early and allow times for hangover recovery, traffic delays, etc. This time, I was more at mitori-keiko mode. To watch and support those who needed.

The night before there was goodwill keiko. Fought 2 locals with ease. I only spot another local women out of the 40+ people in the small gym... In total there were only 5 girls fighting in the Taikai. A bit disappointing but you don't got to choose girls to be with you. 5 is better than none. If I am after girls I would have picked up ballet instead.. anyway...

As in any other situation, just when you give up there is a light ray shining down right in front of you. Daa-daa--!! I was recruited by Oxford team B on the spot! Thank god I had bought along my lucky nasu shiai tenugui with me!

First fight was with Dublin Club. It's good to fight with people I didn't know. But I feel I had under performed. It was a draw.

Second fight in the team pools was with Kodokan B. I fought the same lady, Molloy, whom I did demonstration at the IKET at Edinburgh about 1/2 year ago. Sometimes at the side of the shiaijo, the urge of winning is soooo strong that you can just feel you are going to score. This is one of the moment -- I haven't been in a formal taikai since Sep 04. But this is the last chance.

1:0 me scored Debana kote!!

My team probably came second out of 4 teams in the same pool, and therefore for the rest of the day I was mainly taking photos and videos of other people. This is actually more enjoyable comparing to the boring jobs of scoreboarding or ribbon-tying (d'oh! that reminds me of the 12th WKC... Tying ribbons for 3 days straight...zzzzz). Carrying a camera walking around the shiaijo gave me the opportunity to find the best view too!!

I can't really comment on the rest of the fights of the day. That'll be my last memory of what everyone's kendo is like before I left. Next time we meet again, I wish I can tell everyone, and everyone can tell me, "whoa, you are much stronger now!!"

Taikai was short and very fortunately we have 45 mins of jikeiko time. It was in a 5 mins rotation format (so no sensei/senpai will be occupied with the same person for too long). I found it particularly helpful for those who can't manage to stop!!

I fought a lot of people. Locals, senpai, kohai, old friends who I haven't practiced with for a long time, etc. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS: I reeeeeally pop-ed everyone's de-kote at sho-dachi (first cut after sonkyo). YEEEESS!! So happy... Oh hold on.. except for the last practice with Hayes who just ran into me. Damn I was very bother not to kept some record-breaking memory...

************
On Sunday there was goodwill keiko BUT I changed my mind last minute. That Sunday my boyfriend and I spent the day touring around Cork the city. There is never enough travelling and dating - life is too short for regular activities like kendo.

(okay.. the rest of the month is slowing coming.. stay tuned.)

Hatsukeiko (Iaido)

This was done 12-4pm at a purpose-built aikido dojo in Stoke Newington, London. Heading the class is Sahla-sensei. We all thought he is not going to make it due to work location, but then whoops, he appeared. Assisting was Al from Paris, old student of Sahla, a 4th Dan senpai.

The place is so darn far and I was lost + late for 20 mins. What a bright start.

When I got changed and came out to the practice area - the 6 others were still doing Mokuso in Seiza. Apparently, they have been doing it for 20 mins straight.

Ok, then they stopped. Sahla said to me, "... because you are late, Jenny, you have to do it on your own. Now, go sit at that corner, facing the wall so that you are not checking the clock!!"

D'oh! I tried not to think of anything. But it is hard when the other 6 people are "warming up" with their Jodo. Xxxx-no-kamae, EEh, Yeeeh, Whoosh, Wheep, etc. etc. I have no idea what they are doing with my back turned against them.

"Yame." Then I rubbed my calves as much as I can before getting into any other crazy stuff.

Yes, and I thought I was coming into an Iaido class?!!???

"Today's training is to find out what your Shugyo is about..."

In no particular other, here are the things we did with a bokuto for the next 2 hours, non-stop. At some point I was thinking of stopping, stepping out of the dojo for a breath, and even stepping out of the building and go home. When it was cold I lost focus, get frustrated when I under-performed, and get angry with everyone in sight. All was done with freezing fingers and toes, as indoor heating was turned off!!:-

* Sonkyo, Hidari Jodan, Migi Jodan, Migi Hasso, Hidari Hasso, waki gamae - Holding on the spot for 5 mins each. The sonkyo bit was repeated.
* Haya-suburi (swap legs version) 20 shout-counting x7 people = 140 times
* Facing and cut to the right then 180-degree to the back, right then 180-degree, etc. etc. Super spinning suburi. Increase speed as you go for more.
* Facing forward and using right-hand only, cut to the right all the way to the back, swing back above head, swap to left-hand only, then cut to the left all the wat to the back, etc. etc. Increase speed as you go for more.
* Squat-jump suburi across the dojo x 10 times
* Spreading legs, furikaburi, lower the hips and cut all the way down to the floor x100
* kote-men-do-tsuki sequence ^N
* Big front foot step for kote, and quickly followed by men pushing the back leg to normal stance. ^N
* Haya-suburi (again!!!) 40 shout-counting x 7 people = 280 times
* Haya-suburi facing each other, one goes up when the other one goes up ^N
* Facing each other one standing, one squatting. Standing person do haya-suburi (still swapping legs). Squatting side performs block with bokuto and cut kaeshi-do. x30
* Standing and facing each other. One side cut 20-degree down to waist level, the other side using upward swing (like kasumi-kamae), block and cut back. The opposite side do the same... ^N

And then we had 15 mins of break...

Things get slightly better for the next 1.5 hours. At least there is something we are "Learning" and not suffering. Sahla went through the 12 Shoden set of Muso Shinden Ryu Iai. Last time I went through all 12 was when I still practice in Brighton under Vic Cook Sensei (Spring 2004 ). So I forgot quite a lot already. This session was great because it reminds me of the Shoden set before I head back to Hong Kong in 3 weeks time...

After the 12 forms, we all did solo-demonstration (errrhh Embu style) Any 3 forms. I did Shoden's Shohatto, Inyo Shotai, then Seitei #7. Obviously my Shoden is still pretty crap. I also shaked A LOT because of frozen fingers. Also the floor was plastic-covered so I can't slide that smooth...

It was nuts. We must be nuts to do this sort of thing for 4 hours to celebrate New Year. But I am very thankful for that, especially I don't have much quality Iaido training left in London.

Pre-hatsukeiko!

To celebrate the first day of the year 2005, I happened to pick up a bokuto and did 500 suburi. I won't say it is a bad start, as I still got 4 hours of Iaido Hatsukeiko tomorrow.

... Either that or I am being lazy and been eating too much since Xmas.

Top Ten New Year's Resolutions from Mingshi

There is a list I made elsewhere about getting a job and learning how to cook... but this one is for kendo so I put it up here:-

10.
Do 1,000 suburi daily. Well it's not hard to do 1,000 suburi. Just that you have to find a spot that you are comfortable with, and play Rammstein for 45 minutes or so. Meaning spend less time watching TV. But the weather has to be warmer to begin with....Ergh... I know this is just a joke.

9.
Read about Japanese History - from ancient to modern.

8.
Learn Japanese (properly, not just from manga and anime this time, please). At least some grammar.

7.
Get a female kohai that I am really proud of.

6.
Get into Hong Kong National Team and increase my chances to fight at 13th WKC in 2006. But the weekly team training is on a Sunday morning (family day for me) and it's a 1.5-hour bus-ride one-way. Gggrrr.

5.
Be nice and tolerant to new people I am going to meet and practice with in kendo in Hong Kong. Afterall I am new to them not the other way round.

4.
Keep doing Iaido, even if the sensei isnt all that brilliant as what I had in London/Brighton. A wasted talent wasted all the previous sensei's time.

3.
Stop hopping around or use too much right hand to punch the shinai forward. Improve footwork. Try not to get pushed around or fall down to the floor. Etc. etc. etc... Just don't do things all the senpai has told me not to all the time.

2.
Do more Tsuki.

1.
Visit Japan. Two friends invited me already - one in Tokyo and one Yokohama, so finding keiko should be easier.

Rainen mo ishou ni Ganbatte ne!!!

Mukae Tsuki...

That was on Saturday, the end of year practice for Wakaba.

My Iaido session went shite as I was not focusing at all after a 2-week break. I am starting to worry about what my Iai will be like after I move back to Hong Kong. Apparently, there isn't a high-grade sensei there either, and practice is much like self-indulgence... uhmm

After the Iai went the children/beginner's practice. End-of-year practice in Wakaba means balloon fights! I was not fighting there of course (but was taking pics - will upload to my site later). Balloon fights reminds me of the first time I saw kendo LIVE at Hyde Park, London. Somehow it brings back nice memory with me being a beginner.

Their practice time finished earlier than usual and we escaped to the "party area" for food! Those kendo mothers made really good Japanese food. It was 3pm and I hadn't eaten anything since 9am...! I couldn't resist and consumed a lot of the nice food there - rice buns...

Just when I started to feel a full stomach - we were called back to the dojo for mawari-keiko..!

Especially when you are not paying full attention on what you should be working on during jikeiko, chances of showing your worst habit is v v v v v high.

I joked to Paul that when I am *that* full, all I will do in the dojo is stand there and Tsuki people.

... God knows why he actually use that against me!!!

That was the first Mukae Tsuki I took.

"It was your fault. You said you are only going to Tsuki people!" Paul replied.

And then the next person I was up against was Scotty..! The fight went ok actually, but suddenly one of the kote he got went straight underneath my tsuki-dare. Because of that I bite on my mouth. Yikes.

After a bit of rest I went in to the rotation again. Not very long did I get my 3rd Mukae Tsuki from Jones. Well I won the first THREE cuts first. Men, Hiki-Men, De-kote!!! But after a few more clashes he aimed for Tsuki but missed to underneath my Tsuki-dare (again).

I suppose it's because of my bad posture that leads to my opponent(s) shinai all went underneath and not on the Tsuki-dare.

**By the way, Mukae Tsuki is the term to describe you run into your opponent's kensen. Most of the time it's when your Men cut has no Seme. Anyway, lesson learnt.

Don't Give Up!

This Friday is the last 2004 practice in my home dojo. Attendance is "average", nevertheless it has been a great session.

I completely skipped the warm-up... Was writing more email and completely lost the time. I knew on Sat and Sun I won't be at home so email gets the priority.

When I went in it was already mawari-keiko time. Getting in when my hands and feet are all cold is not helping. Many of the fights are sub standard, especially the one against Wright - that was even worse than the unexpected keiko yesterday (lost an elbow-do but at least I got one Tsuki there!!).

The second half of the practice was mainly jikeiko. One good thing about Nenriki is that the space is pretty open and you pick whoever you want (unlike Wakaba where it's on rotation all the time, or at Mumeishi where you spend most of your time queuing for sensei). I was queuing for Matsuoka when he was fighting Takizawa.

People said you can have an advantage by height. To a certain extend I agree. Apart from the obvious "reach" factor, somehow, I reckon it is about confident. Most of the time in Wakaba, against someone shorter (mainly kids) I can cut big men, either fast or slow.

Watching the two Japanese senpai from the side makes me analyise why some people have so much worry about everything, and some feels so happy about anything...

Matsuoka's funny laughter after cutting Takizawa's men - several well-timed ones. Sometimes the pracice stopped for a while when Matsuoka wants to explain. I don't have that privilage since he can't seem to communicate well enough in English (my guess).

Actually, fighting Matsuoka is a lesson by itself. Things in Kendo are most of the time best described by hitting/getting hit. Especially from someone who is already used to teaching in his local dojo in Japan. Some other Japanese senpai, even though their kendo is great, do not have the same teaching experience. Therefore by fighting those, you get beaten up, but not inspired.

With regards to the "Ashi-sabaki wa zenzen ni dameda" comment (Footwork is absolutely no good...), I focused on my left foot a lot more, and as a result my renzoku waza are so much faster. Still, Matsuoka beats me up. On many occations there were clashing sound of shinai ten times or so - followed by one sharp ippon from Matsuoka. He likes picking openings. Say, if you pause in the middle he gets his favourite moment to cut you back. Despite my random kote-men/ kote-do cuts, I clearly lost 10+ men, 2 katate-tsuki and one katate-han-men! #%^$@!! Very frustrating to go on.

"Don't give up!" Matsuoka said in English. The only other things he said were, "Onegaishimas", "Ippon" and "Arigadogozaimas" - excluding countless laughing kiai.

My low-level Ippon was won after 3 Men of his - a kote-men that come in accidentally straight.

Cutting Edge

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/cuttingedge/

This Japanese sword exhibition at the British Museum has been there for a while. And this day I finally get a chance to pay a visit there.

As someone who practices Iaido, sometimes I feel embrassed not being able to talk about different parts of swords, names of fittings, etc. etc. To me those are the tools and gadgets - and using the cheapest-of-all sword in the division still get me a First at the Nationals.

Nevertheless this is an exhibition in the museum and not some display of currently available sword models. For everything modern there must be a historical background. There I learnt about different period and schools of sword making - and all those poetic ways they used to describe hamon (wavy lines of folding at the edge). They even have one of the "demon sword" Muramasa on display. Previously I've only heard of it on computer games. Got to see the real thing is a completely amazing experience.

This exhibition is curated by my own kendo sensei Victor Harris. He is now retired but had been a keeper of the Japanese Antiquities Dept for a long while, probably since he was active at the IKF. Also he was the first person to translate "Book of 5 Rings" into English. To gain my respect a sensei isn't like a teacher standing there lecturing people. Harris talks little but undoubtably his knowledge, experience and devotion in kendo, Japanese culture, history had impressed anyone in the world, both inside and outside of Japan, and inside and outside of kendo.

Last Dance

Although not in shape, I was in the mood for my last squad training at Rickmansworth (NW London). That flu virus has been in my body for the pass 4 weeks, stopping me doing work-related stuff and also regular kendo. But because I have a bad feeling about not being able to attend the squad next month, or probably any month after because I have to leave the country... That's why I choose to get there for the entire weekend.

Adding to that was the "shiai league" practice format. Everyone in attendance fights against each other in 4 min matches. I missed the last kendo competition for my iaido grading - so I have the need to build up my shiai technique. Not just the fighting part, but also observation. I also like the atmosphere and pressure of watching/being watched. Sometimes you need to balance between "dueling" with another person, and performing in front of referees, etc.

A slightly disappointing turn-out of girls... grrr... But we tried our best to fight each other first. A handicapped system was used - a girl will be one point up against a guy. So in order to win a guy HAVE TO score 2 ippon. It went funny when I thought I drew but the flag went up for me. Haha.

The first day I spend a good 40 mins just to do timekeeping. Also that I was having a fever and only be managed 2 fights and have to blow my nose after fight every partner. Not completely enjoyable. But the next day, despite losing A LOT of my match really quickly, I focus more on my posture and footwork.

As far as I can remember, here's my scoreboard. I didn't even fight 12+ matches to make myself into the league (d'oh!).:-

Day 1

Win 1:0 - Halls. First match and 4-min draw, then one point up by handicapped. Not v happy.
Lose 0:1 - Vinelott. Lost a Men. I suddenly became really really aware of my "head tilting" bad habit because more than 3 times I was almost pushed on the floor after cutting Men. I am not going to let that happen to me again!!! Also I was dramatically ducking ... not good impression at all.

Day 2

Win 2:0 - Hanson. At last, this is the first real 2-0 match for me since March!! I was mainly relaxing my shoulder and timing her cuts. First one was kote-nuki-men. Second one was my fav jump-in kote. The one I used to finish my match in 1o sec in Hong Kong last Jan. Now I got it back. Yoshi!
Lose 2:0 - Bishop. Just when you are really happy about a 2-0, you lose out a 2-0. Again, against Bishop my rival, who did exactly the same Ai-men that I lost against her at the Nationals in Sept (thats how I came join-3rd)!! And then another one where I just stand there looking like an idiot!! Nooooooooo -- I want to commit seppuku..
Draw 0:0 - Holt. Both me and Kim was equall sick at that time. Kinda timed some cool Doh cuts which I didn't score.
Lose 1:2 - Watkinson. Last time I fought him was in Aug 03 before he get to Japan for study. Did challenge him the night before, but can't believe I lose out so quickly. Yikes. A kote, and another one that landed on my tsuba... Uhmm... revenge next time...
Win 1:0 - Fisher. He came 3rd in the end, so I was quite pleased that I drew him. Wanted to do more, especially gyaku-doh, but wasn't sharp enough.
Lose 1:2 - Hayes. Lost 2 men. I can see it coming. I realise I have a fear of Ai-men...
Lose 1:2 - Scott. Lost hiki-men and hiki-kote (?)... I don't remember!! Because he is good at hiki-waza I was quite keen on getting him there... but... at the last point I also did a hiki-waza and crushed onto the bars at the back of the gym. Doesn't help :p
Lose 1:2 Gibson. With this 1:0 handicap point, I was developing some kind of "tactical thinking" that I should hold his point as long as possible. But 4 mins is a long way, besides Gibbo is not an idiot. I blocked 5 of his Men but then turned into a blocking mode, leaving my kote wide open.. Lost kote in 2 consecutive occations - one ura, one omote (because I waved around my shinai on both sides....)

That went my 10 fights.

******************

Honda-sensei came to my dojo last Friday. But still I didn't get to fence him this weekend. I just think that I didn't improve much since last time I fought him (Sept). Escaped from the embrassment... I look onto other people at keiko time....

Tajima from Nagamitsu. He is so straight :( He taught me about holding the center against a "stiff" opponent. Of course the easiest way to do it is knocking shinai out of the way, eg. Harai waza. But also I can move to the side WITHOUT MOVING THE KENSEN. Because I am quick-ish but not strong with hands, perhaps I should try more of this.

Kishigami from Cheltenham. Kinda annoyed by me attacking too often - but ineffectively. He said I am moving whenever the opponent moves. But the whole idea is to make the opponent move and then pick them off. In terms of "ri-ai" (reasoning?), if the opponent is disturbed by my movement, I won already.

Bishop (not my rival, but her husband!) at Edinburgh. I think I got him after he fought Tajima... As the old saying goes, "always pick on a man when his is down". Hahha. An enjoyable fight so to speak, as comparing to the last one (July). I was faster to do a few kote-nuki-men on him, in which he responded when we were at tsuba-zeriai: Stop hitting me! :D

Wake from Lancaster (?). He is "tall" so I get over there and say onegaishimas. Different in height is not a particular advantage, I suddenly realised. It only matters if you are able to manipulate it, and extend your advantage as much as possible.

Day 2:
Budden. I enjoy the moment of slience when we get up from sonkyo, followed by my kiai which went in echo in the entire gym (as no one was ready yet). A long while not fighting him, but he still got a lot of soft but quick kote on me (my arms are a bit stiff..)

Bell at Nagamitsu. Not enjoyable... I think I lack the acceleration with my legs on the downward cut. As a result Bell did 3 consecutive times of suriage-hiki-men on me. Grrr. But I a few times I got him hiki-kote. One more thing is that he was in Chudan. Last month he fought the last minute with me in Jodan. But this month I was too crap to get him fight me with Jodan.. :(

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Honda was saying they are going to organize a trip to Paris next Spring. I *really* want to go because it's the Paris Taikai with koryu and all that. But the chance for me to stay after Jan is closest to zero. Even if I got a job I will have my passport stuck at the immigration office, probably... A bit too far ahead to think of right now, but I really enjoy carrying my bogu traveling, fighting people I don't know. Like this weekend.

This weekend was probably the last time I see everyone from all over the country. The next kendo event will be in Feb (?). I'll be disappeared by then.

Step in

Tonight Honda-sensei (British Team Coach) came to my dojo for a visit. He didn't lead the class, but instead he became part of it, like, joining in the mawari-keiko and also uchikomi-keiko. Sadly I was *coughing* all the way and have to take off my Men for twice - and in the end completely fed up with that. So I missed the first few rounds of kirikaeshi and also the Enjin shiai (or what is it called - shiai in a circle).

What I find quite interesting (my word: you have to be there!) was about uchikomi-keiko. Honda always emphasize on 100% posture at squad practices before. Uchikomi-keiko is not about speed but correctness. Therefore the focus should be of proper form, straightness, etc.

One thing is that after each cut at uchikomi-keiko, you need to turn back and do another cut. But before heading for the second one, you need to take ONE MORE STEP first. If you turn and cut immediately, you lost the distance and posture. Also there is no pause when you turn for the next cut - you can do it slowly but not stopping in the middle. Everything should be done as a smooth flow.

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Besides the flu I am having, everything was alright. I remember last night at UCL Gibson was telling the beginners not to perform fumikomi underneath their whole body - but more forward. Light bulbs came up when he said that. Like today, I can cut so much further just because I step OUT and not on the spot.

I got Matsuoka and Inuzuka-senpai SHODACHI!! HAHAHHAHAAAA. Takizawa-san (aka Ai, who attends Hizen/Wakaba) started to join in every week at Nenriki and trains with me every single practice. It was good today with 3 girls in the dojo, at last!! Anyway, Takizawa was complaining that the other two Japanese senpai were not fighting her seriously. NOW that I got both of them SHODACHI as a warning to them!! Usually I can focus very well in Jikeiko for 10 sec and do very strong cuts - but after that time limit I just ran out. Lost a lot of Ai-men or Debana waza. Especially to Takizawa... because she is actually much shorter than me...

Yooooshi----!! Squad training this weekend. Probably my last dance.

Sick leave...

It's been most unfortunate time of the year that I am sick - for like, 4 weeks or something!?! I haven't fully recovered still, especially last week there were 2 nights that I actually came home after 2am in the morning, shivering at the night bus stop, waiting in the dark...

Because I don't have 100% of my energy (maybe not even 60%... grrr), I can't enjoy a practice much. Every other keiko I have to reluctantly take off my Men to blow my nose. What a waste of time...

Adding to that, my footwork is still crap, although I have been focusing on it now. Also I sooo frequently lost my Ai-men, because I have a tendancy to tilt my head backwards before launching forward. Bad habits are hard to get rid of - especially when you don't really practice often enough!!!

I want to be stronger. Because I get sick all the time...

A Waste of Time

It's getting more difficult to keep up with everything now... and I am not even working!! Life runs in snail speed here. Now I devote more time in front of the computer designing stuff - which is why I have little updates over here...

Anyway... It is already mid-Nov. I was graded 2nd Dan last month. But I don't think I am doing very well at that.

I used to be the first person arriving at the dojo, cleaning the floor and all that. But now I just made it in time, such as, when they are already doing warm-up. I used to be the one leading warm-ups... Sigh. I keep blaming the traffic, but I should work on my scheduling as well.

Last weekend I persuaded Matsuoka and Inuzuka senpai to get to squad training with me. It's a long journey to the NW of London. I invited them in the pub (which wasnt the ideal place to do that) and they actually turned up!! Sometimes it's a bit sad to have to go to kendo on a Sunday morning - while I could have done something else better. So I really appreciated my senpai to go with me. Ok even though they came not because of me...

That Sunday was fun. At least I fought Honda sensei and also Bell in Jodan. And then my left ankle was not going too well - so I dropped out at the last 30 mins or so. Missed the kakari-keiko round. Damn.

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While being on a few pints again the next week, me and Matsuoka senpai was chatting in the pub again. He is struggling with his English - just like me struggling with my kendo as well.

At one point he was saying in Japanese (someone translated that for me - which annoyed Matsuoka a bit), "Jenny is not doing anything but kendo. So much time.."

But it was after another pint that we got to talk about the matches at Shiai practice the night before. It started as a conversation of "what do you think about my shiai last night?"

"Jenny you need to improve your footwork. Even you are going to Wakaba, squad training and even helping in UCL, you are not working on your ashi-sabaki. I think it is a waste of time. Understand?"

Even taking 1,000 men cuts on the head will not wake me up - but this honest advice from a half-drunk senpai did what I need. There are of course, other senpai who will just encourage me by saying "Jenny you are going really good." But in fact for me to improve I'd like an honest senpai who can pinpoint what I should be focusing on.

It's no good being too nice to me. I always don't get the message if the statement is not just a random response.