Being indecisive has only one advantage, it allows you to change your mind 180-degree when you weren't really thinking hard enough before.
...After considering various scenerios and talking to a few people about my concerns (as in previous entry), I felt a lot less confused and finally sent my name on the 13th WKC selection list. (on the day of the deadline)
I thought about, at least before Aug, the options I can have at freelance that can keep me going.
I thought about the benefits of travelling with the team. It's probably a mistake not to go on the trip with Sumi-sensei to Beijing coming next month. Apparently government fundings had made everything in budget. Sorry folks but that gets into my non-kendo tour in Thailand late Apr.
I thought about looking really fit and muscular in the summer.
I thought about getting kicked out before the selection -but maybe signing up will actually fire up my commitment..!
I thought about working on my Sandan.
I thought about the little lecture Sumi-sensei gave out last time... That thing he said about Zanshin, being able to get up and go again after being knock down. What an inspiring way of thinking.
I thought about making the next squad, still probably can't make Sun morning but should be ok next Tues.
Yosh....!!
Friday, March 31, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Decision Time
By Friday I need to submit my name and be counted in the 13th WKC squad selection. There was this massive squad email, together with my dojo's recommendation email, that kept me thinking for all times.
Frankly it is not the most convenient time to think. My wisdom tooth is so sore that I went to the dentist today (tooth still in and sore), made a painful effort talking on the phone and going to Nihongo class... Adding to the freelance work in hand that I am not sure whether the client is going to pay for - there's simply no reason why I should be packing for the squad tonight. That's why I have time to sit and type stuff.
Nor it is the best time of the year to commit to regular attendance in the squad. Be it continuing my freelance career or taking on an internship, work is going to be terribly unstable with ridiculous working hours (been there, done that). Even though I planned to get to Fukuoka, there is no promise about what I am going to live on after June (Without work, seems like money in the bank is only enough for till then, and that is without any further dental expenses)...
Chances is that I can find work somewhere anywhere during this period of time, but being an up-to-standard squad member can be, well, out of my imagination.
Seeing my performance (with 2 mins of video review) at recent taikai, I wonder where I'll go anywhere better within 4 months' time (when the squad will be officially selected). Not devoted, no improvement, no good at shiai, below-average attendance, no cash... the list can go on and on. Is there a point signing up and got kicked out before making it to the selection, let alone training till the end of the year and got scored against within 10 seconds?
Finally, I didn't even go tonight. Doesn't that speak a lot about my attitude right now?
Maybe with a 99-degree fever I am just hallucinating...
Frankly it is not the most convenient time to think. My wisdom tooth is so sore that I went to the dentist today (tooth still in and sore), made a painful effort talking on the phone and going to Nihongo class... Adding to the freelance work in hand that I am not sure whether the client is going to pay for - there's simply no reason why I should be packing for the squad tonight. That's why I have time to sit and type stuff.
Nor it is the best time of the year to commit to regular attendance in the squad. Be it continuing my freelance career or taking on an internship, work is going to be terribly unstable with ridiculous working hours (been there, done that). Even though I planned to get to Fukuoka, there is no promise about what I am going to live on after June (Without work, seems like money in the bank is only enough for till then, and that is without any further dental expenses)...
Chances is that I can find work somewhere anywhere during this period of time, but being an up-to-standard squad member can be, well, out of my imagination.
Seeing my performance (with 2 mins of video review) at recent taikai, I wonder where I'll go anywhere better within 4 months' time (when the squad will be officially selected). Not devoted, no improvement, no good at shiai, below-average attendance, no cash... the list can go on and on. Is there a point signing up and got kicked out before making it to the selection, let alone training till the end of the year and got scored against within 10 seconds?
Finally, I didn't even go tonight. Doesn't that speak a lot about my attitude right now?
Maybe with a 99-degree fever I am just hallucinating...
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Bits n Pieces
1) I haven't been to kendo for the whole week until today (Sat). Actually I was late for 1/2 hr, but then compensated by joining the beginner's class... Somehow my fitness level has dropped, as I can feel my shinai getting heavier and heavier towards the mawari-keiko rounds. I couldn't even managed fitting in 30 mins of cardio-exercise on the days without kendo...
2) On average this month after the Asian Tournament I had only made about 1 practice a week. Should be really getting more practice, like what the coach said (echoes in my head). Now even though I am still struggling with unstable "workload", I am also planning to go with the Tue/Thu/Sat training pattern. Sumi sensei is visiting next month, and with another taikai (individuals) coming in early May, and a squad visit to Fukuoka, all I want is to get back into it. Due to various excuses, I'd been neglecting my hobby and loosing the passion for quite a while, but really, I should be fixing this problem now.
3) Oda-san gave me the Asian Tournament video with the match I lost on it. Gee, I looked awful, and I simply don't know what I was doing there...!!
2) On average this month after the Asian Tournament I had only made about 1 practice a week. Should be really getting more practice, like what the coach said (echoes in my head). Now even though I am still struggling with unstable "workload", I am also planning to go with the Tue/Thu/Sat training pattern. Sumi sensei is visiting next month, and with another taikai (individuals) coming in early May, and a squad visit to Fukuoka, all I want is to get back into it. Due to various excuses, I'd been neglecting my hobby and loosing the passion for quite a while, but really, I should be fixing this problem now.
3) Oda-san gave me the Asian Tournament video with the match I lost on it. Gee, I looked awful, and I simply don't know what I was doing there...!!
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Operation OPU
Squad email: "...The attendance is a MUST (no excuse) for all people that intend to participate in Taiwan's WKC, no matter male or female (seems there are 7 female). Their attendance & performance will be considerated during selection..."
Friday: Skipping my last 30 minutes of Nihongo class, I rushed through a busy road to get to this special keiko. Visiting was 25+ kendo club members from Osaka Prefectural University.
The first thing I got told was "Where have you been? Haven't seen you in the squad for exactly a month!!!!!!" from Kishikawa sensei. It seems like some people are forgetting why "career" is more important than having regular exercises... which is what kendo is like to me recently without the squad. I did keiko last Thur+Sat though...
A good hour was wasted taking group pics and doing demo-intro session for the venue's provider (Baptist University's gym - and their Japanese Culure Club). The demo was actually good fun. There were 5-6 girls on the OPU team and I fought 4 during jikeiko time. They aren't of the top Tai-dai (Sports Uni) unbeatable type, yet they are still good and sharp.
Saturday: This keiko was in the afternoon from 3.30 to 6.30... but thank god its been delayed and stuff. Starting off with 5-6 in a group going kirikaeshi and kihon for 30 mins, shiai-keiko for 1 hr, and then jikeiko for another 1 hr. Not as exhausting as the squad itself because there were plently of queuing time. The shiai-keiko was again in the male/female format (a lot of girls I haven't seen before turned up from other dojo), but fights are in 2 min Ippon-shobu. I fought 4 times - all losts, but I doubt some of the cuts that I should have scored, etc. Argh.
Sunday: This is also the day for the local club's team tournament, with me being on the squad team of my dojo (Leo, me, Amy, Angus, Michael). Our club is rather small comparatively with only 3 teams, as the others are having teams up to "H". Well, we got more kids though.
The OPU students got the odd jobs of making 3 scoreboarding teams, and have one or two members got dragged to fill up local teams without enough players.
Our team got lucky and went straight through to best 16 against City University A.
Leo 1-0
Jenny 0^-0
Amy 0-1
Angus 2-0
Michael 0-2^
So that's a draw. On daihyo-sen (golden goal), Angus lost and we are out. To be honest, all of us were responsible for the lost of the team... Say, if I hadn't bounced out of court and got that hansoku, we could have been through without daihyo-sen... Too late now.
I have no idea why I kept having big guys as opponents. His kendo was quite straight (but still the too much power type..). 3 minutes went and not much waza worked (on both sides). Comment from Kishikawa sensei was: You're cutting without seme. You didn't wait for your opponent to move first. You need to train more!! - all rather obvious points...
So we had a big lunch and a good laugh at the side watching the matches. Worth mentioning was Ng who smashed more than a couples of de-kote. I lost this de-kote waza completely and it's through watching him that I realize how important to really get to the squad more. Ng belongs to the hardcore group, and he's become so successful in the recent tournaments.
Waiting till after the finals (Macau A vs Hong Kong A - winning), I got "selected" to fight in the friendly matches HK vs OPU on the ladies court. I fought senpo first off (vs Ikeda) and then jiho (vs Nakakawa) the 2nd round, both losing 0-2. The first match wasn't too much control there at all. (Kishikawa comment: What the hell are you doing?!?! You have 3 minutes to study your opponent. No need to be in a hurry.) The second round was slightly better. At least I tried something new, like hikimen that pops. I lost a rather slow-and-oh-the-shinai-is-too-heavy ai-men. The other point was a de-tsuba from my opponent that got scored (shushin actually came afterwards and said sorry(!)). Our HK side did rather badly, losing 0-12 against the 6 OPU girls, and then 1-3 on the 2nd round.
Accumulating the tireness from the 3 days without proper sleep, and having projects deadlines to meet this week, I skipped jikeiko and headed home.
Friday: Skipping my last 30 minutes of Nihongo class, I rushed through a busy road to get to this special keiko. Visiting was 25+ kendo club members from Osaka Prefectural University.
The first thing I got told was "Where have you been? Haven't seen you in the squad for exactly a month!!!!!!" from Kishikawa sensei. It seems like some people are forgetting why "career" is more important than having regular exercises... which is what kendo is like to me recently without the squad. I did keiko last Thur+Sat though...
A good hour was wasted taking group pics and doing demo-intro session for the venue's provider (Baptist University's gym - and their Japanese Culure Club). The demo was actually good fun. There were 5-6 girls on the OPU team and I fought 4 during jikeiko time. They aren't of the top Tai-dai (Sports Uni) unbeatable type, yet they are still good and sharp.
Saturday: This keiko was in the afternoon from 3.30 to 6.30... but thank god its been delayed and stuff. Starting off with 5-6 in a group going kirikaeshi and kihon for 30 mins, shiai-keiko for 1 hr, and then jikeiko for another 1 hr. Not as exhausting as the squad itself because there were plently of queuing time. The shiai-keiko was again in the male/female format (a lot of girls I haven't seen before turned up from other dojo), but fights are in 2 min Ippon-shobu. I fought 4 times - all losts, but I doubt some of the cuts that I should have scored, etc. Argh.
Sunday: This is also the day for the local club's team tournament, with me being on the squad team of my dojo (Leo, me, Amy, Angus, Michael). Our club is rather small comparatively with only 3 teams, as the others are having teams up to "H". Well, we got more kids though.
The OPU students got the odd jobs of making 3 scoreboarding teams, and have one or two members got dragged to fill up local teams without enough players.
Our team got lucky and went straight through to best 16 against City University A.
Leo 1-0
Jenny 0^-0
Amy 0-1
Angus 2-0
Michael 0-2^
So that's a draw. On daihyo-sen (golden goal), Angus lost and we are out. To be honest, all of us were responsible for the lost of the team... Say, if I hadn't bounced out of court and got that hansoku, we could have been through without daihyo-sen... Too late now.
I have no idea why I kept having big guys as opponents. His kendo was quite straight (but still the too much power type..). 3 minutes went and not much waza worked (on both sides). Comment from Kishikawa sensei was: You're cutting without seme. You didn't wait for your opponent to move first. You need to train more!! - all rather obvious points...
So we had a big lunch and a good laugh at the side watching the matches. Worth mentioning was Ng who smashed more than a couples of de-kote. I lost this de-kote waza completely and it's through watching him that I realize how important to really get to the squad more. Ng belongs to the hardcore group, and he's become so successful in the recent tournaments.
Waiting till after the finals (Macau A vs Hong Kong A - winning), I got "selected" to fight in the friendly matches HK vs OPU on the ladies court. I fought senpo first off (vs Ikeda) and then jiho (vs Nakakawa) the 2nd round, both losing 0-2. The first match wasn't too much control there at all. (Kishikawa comment: What the hell are you doing?!?! You have 3 minutes to study your opponent. No need to be in a hurry.) The second round was slightly better. At least I tried something new, like hikimen that pops. I lost a rather slow-and-oh-the-shinai-is-too-heavy ai-men. The other point was a de-tsuba from my opponent that got scored (shushin actually came afterwards and said sorry(!)). Our HK side did rather badly, losing 0-12 against the 6 OPU girls, and then 1-3 on the 2nd round.
Accumulating the tireness from the 3 days without proper sleep, and having projects deadlines to meet this week, I skipped jikeiko and headed home.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Show Off Stuff #2
A nice piece of "Ganbette" paper on the wall of my home studio... Most definitely looking nicer than any of my budo menjo... Besides, that's HK$100 scholarship!!
...That's spending a whole Monday revising, right after the Asian Tournament Weekend. I also spent that day writing my composition. Not surprisingly, it begins with "Watashi no Shumi wa Kendo desu..."
Another 4 months to go before sitting for JPLT yonkyu... The date for the test seems to be on the Sunday before the 13th WKC...!
...That's spending a whole Monday revising, right after the Asian Tournament Weekend. I also spent that day writing my composition. Not surprisingly, it begins with "Watashi no Shumi wa Kendo desu..."
Another 4 months to go before sitting for JPLT yonkyu... The date for the test seems to be on the Sunday before the 13th WKC...!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Asian Tournament Weekend
Friday
... Came in at 9pm for this 7-10pm godou keiko session before the actual competition. Last nihongo lesson before the end-of-term test so I had to.
Seeing massive queues for sensei everywhere, all I could do was to spot people and said hello... Finally I got to practiced with Terry Holt-sensei who came all the way from London.
The keiko actually stopped at 9.30pm for people to get changed + get back to hotel by coach. So thats one keiko I got after travelling in a rush... Argh.
----------------
Saturday
... Meant to come and watch shinsa, but overslept obviously (having dinner at midnight last night was no good). Panicked for a while with one fo my shinai going 6 grams underweight with a 37 tsukagawa instead of a 38 one...!! Anyhow for both days I've been only fighting with the other no-as-well-balanced shinai which is 3 grams above standard.
This was the day for 2Dan+below 3-person team matches. Fanny dropped out of my team last minute, being "too exhausted from work"... I was the Senpo with the elder of the Wong twins (who just passed nidan I think) as chuken. Replacing Fanny came Prof. Tsang who just got 3Dan earlier. Haven't talked to him before but he's a rather entertaining person, keeping the rest of us awake.
The entire HK squad from Team A to G did group warm-ups together beforehand. Kishikawa-sensei told us to focus on the things he's said about shiai - move around, seme, getting the right chance, study your opponent, make ippon, etc. One other thing worth mentioning was about "keeping yourself warm". I wasn't going to repeat the same mistake I made at earlier shiai-keiko. Everyone got a nice new HK Team windbreaker, which I'd been wearing for the whole weekend.
My Team C was in a lucky pool, fighting Macau B and Guangzhou D (theoratically, Team A is the strongest, you know...) I crashed both my opponents MM-0, and overall my team went 3-0 & 2-0. No idea why my de-gote went rather disfunctional, but the four tobikomi-men worked wonders. Especially the rather heavyhanded opponent from Guangzhou who kept bashing on the back of my head 3 times when I bent to one side at tsuba-zeriai... I thought I should sacrifice getting bruises to take a deep breath, and cut men when he backed into chudan (I did). After the match, Yung-sensei told me to face the opponent instead of turning my head away, which made better sense...
Next up at the Best 8 match, we were against New South Wales A. Great - me fighting someone twice my height again - their Senpo was Yoon, and was nicknamed "the Bear"by our HK squad :p Nevertheless, our Team B Senpo, Amy, previously gained one 2-0 win against him, giving me a thought of putting up a good show too.
In the end, it was me 0-0, Wong 0-2, Tsang 1-1. Our team lost by 0-1 overall. Bye bye, medal.
Although it's nice to have everyone watching Bear vs Rabbit at the side, telling me about "what a good fight" that was, I do wish I've done more. Kishikawa-sensei said that I should be more confident about scoring, instead of holding for a draw. Indeed, both Amy who fought Yoon previously and the Taiwanese Senpo who fought him after I did, scored KK-0...
For the ending godou keiko, I fitted 3 fights out of 30 mins, which is a slight improvement from yesterday. Struggled to find old friends that I know, but in the end just got dragged by random. Except for Vivian Yung on the NSW team whom I managed to find in the sea of indigo. She caught me with her killer de-gote more than a few times. Following all her matches the best I could for the entire weekend, somehow I feel more moviated. Finally I met someone of the same age + same kendo age to get onto an impressive level for everyone. For me, that means a long, tough way to go.
I spent the dinner party with the NSW team - god knows why none of the HK squad turned up, except some of the sensei + kendo association committee members. Argh.
---------------------
Sunday
... All HK squad members were told to come early for a group warm-up at 8am, meaning that I had to get up at 6.30am. I did not remember when was the last time I woke up so damn early...!
The 5-person Ladies Team event kicked off at 9am. I was the chuken on Team B - Takahashi, Fanny, Me, Mrs Horibe, Fifi. Our opponent was a mixed team with a member of JAL, one from ANA, and 3 from Minoo, Osaka... I did a quick glance and sitting on the chuken position on the opposite side was the ANA - Shingo(sp?) zekken, who was one of the girls grabbed me the day before at jikeiko..!!!
On the back of her hakama, "Dai-33-Kai Gakusei Kendo Taikai Shutsujo Kinen" & "Niigata Daigaku - Shingo Keiko"...
With Takahashi losing by 1 point, and Fanny winning 2-0 in light-speed, I fought the 3rd match. It felt long, but I eventually lost 0-2. One hiki-men and another de-gote. Although Mrs Horibe also won 2-0 rather quickly after me, Fifi lost out 0-2. Our team got KO-ed with a 2-3 result overall, and we all switched our attention to the A team on the other court. (They lost too, sadly)
Conversation with Kishikawa-sensei:-
K: Jenny..!!
J: ...You watched?
K: Of course.
J: Sorry I lost...
K: ...Your team drew but on the lead by one point - so you shouldn't be fighting in a hurry. Especially your opponent is of more-or-less the same level as you are...
J: Yeah I know. Actually I fought the same girl yesterday at jikeiko. She got me sharper cuts...
K: So you didn't study your opponent, but your opponent studyed you.
J: Argh.
-----------------
It was too dark to take photos with my SLR. I spent the rest of the day supporting those on the Men's team.
Incidentally, NSW fought JAL B on the first round, and Yoon was against Shingo...!!! The match was a 1-1 draw, but the girl got knocked over 3 times by the Bear. She definitedly gained sympathy from the audience... Watching from 2 shiai-jo away, I told myself, I lost to her, but my kamae was much better. (what losers comfort themselves with...) Anyhow I am not going to fall over in the shiai-jo again..!
Sitting on 2 shiai-jo away, it was rather exciting to see Ng on our C team winning 3-0 (shushin suddenly cancelled an Ippon - for no reason!!) against the chuken of AsiaKC (Winner of the Day)... The other team consists of some Daigaku OB members, and they are really good.
B team lost in the pools by points. It's a shame that 4 teams were in a pool and only 1 team came out... So the wins must be really great in order to secure a place in the best 8 -- which was almost impossible.
A team went all the way through to joint-3rd, being beaten by Beijing A the Japanese sensei team.
Our very own sensei team (Tomioka, Johnny [who won Daihyo-sen at the 2Dan+below event earlier], Yoshioka, Yung-san, Kishikawa) also lost by points. But somehow I think all these "sensei" hadn't really tuned back into shiai-mode, and fought in a rather reserved/ defensive way instead. They fought Taiwan A + Thailand A (All-Japanese sensei team again). Adding to that, Kishikawa had been ill, sitting on the bench most of the time. He won his 2nd match 2-0 in his usual style, but WHY did he lose to that so-so taicho on the Taiwanese team...!!?!? The refereeing weren't that great at all, with all these 5dan suddenly got dragged to be shimpan (god knows how many sensei who were supposed to be the shimpan went playing instead!?). Bad, excuse. Argh. I jokingly told Kishikawa afterwards, "Sensei, you haven't practiced hard enough..!"
So that ended the weekend with me heading home early due to a fever, missing some good keiko with Komoto-san, Emiko and the lot. It's my first experience to fight with a Hong Kong team zekken, and hopefully it won't be the last...
... Came in at 9pm for this 7-10pm godou keiko session before the actual competition. Last nihongo lesson before the end-of-term test so I had to.
Seeing massive queues for sensei everywhere, all I could do was to spot people and said hello... Finally I got to practiced with Terry Holt-sensei who came all the way from London.
The keiko actually stopped at 9.30pm for people to get changed + get back to hotel by coach. So thats one keiko I got after travelling in a rush... Argh.
----------------
Saturday
... Meant to come and watch shinsa, but overslept obviously (having dinner at midnight last night was no good). Panicked for a while with one fo my shinai going 6 grams underweight with a 37 tsukagawa instead of a 38 one...!! Anyhow for both days I've been only fighting with the other no-as-well-balanced shinai which is 3 grams above standard.
This was the day for 2Dan+below 3-person team matches. Fanny dropped out of my team last minute, being "too exhausted from work"... I was the Senpo with the elder of the Wong twins (who just passed nidan I think) as chuken. Replacing Fanny came Prof. Tsang who just got 3Dan earlier. Haven't talked to him before but he's a rather entertaining person, keeping the rest of us awake.
The entire HK squad from Team A to G did group warm-ups together beforehand. Kishikawa-sensei told us to focus on the things he's said about shiai - move around, seme, getting the right chance, study your opponent, make ippon, etc. One other thing worth mentioning was about "keeping yourself warm". I wasn't going to repeat the same mistake I made at earlier shiai-keiko. Everyone got a nice new HK Team windbreaker, which I'd been wearing for the whole weekend.
My Team C was in a lucky pool, fighting Macau B and Guangzhou D (theoratically, Team A is the strongest, you know...) I crashed both my opponents MM-0, and overall my team went 3-0 & 2-0. No idea why my de-gote went rather disfunctional, but the four tobikomi-men worked wonders. Especially the rather heavyhanded opponent from Guangzhou who kept bashing on the back of my head 3 times when I bent to one side at tsuba-zeriai... I thought I should sacrifice getting bruises to take a deep breath, and cut men when he backed into chudan (I did). After the match, Yung-sensei told me to face the opponent instead of turning my head away, which made better sense...
Next up at the Best 8 match, we were against New South Wales A. Great - me fighting someone twice my height again - their Senpo was Yoon, and was nicknamed "the Bear"by our HK squad :p Nevertheless, our Team B Senpo, Amy, previously gained one 2-0 win against him, giving me a thought of putting up a good show too.
In the end, it was me 0-0, Wong 0-2, Tsang 1-1. Our team lost by 0-1 overall. Bye bye, medal.
Although it's nice to have everyone watching Bear vs Rabbit at the side, telling me about "what a good fight" that was, I do wish I've done more. Kishikawa-sensei said that I should be more confident about scoring, instead of holding for a draw. Indeed, both Amy who fought Yoon previously and the Taiwanese Senpo who fought him after I did, scored KK-0...
For the ending godou keiko, I fitted 3 fights out of 30 mins, which is a slight improvement from yesterday. Struggled to find old friends that I know, but in the end just got dragged by random. Except for Vivian Yung on the NSW team whom I managed to find in the sea of indigo. She caught me with her killer de-gote more than a few times. Following all her matches the best I could for the entire weekend, somehow I feel more moviated. Finally I met someone of the same age + same kendo age to get onto an impressive level for everyone. For me, that means a long, tough way to go.
I spent the dinner party with the NSW team - god knows why none of the HK squad turned up, except some of the sensei + kendo association committee members. Argh.
---------------------
Sunday
... All HK squad members were told to come early for a group warm-up at 8am, meaning that I had to get up at 6.30am. I did not remember when was the last time I woke up so damn early...!
The 5-person Ladies Team event kicked off at 9am. I was the chuken on Team B - Takahashi, Fanny, Me, Mrs Horibe, Fifi. Our opponent was a mixed team with a member of JAL, one from ANA, and 3 from Minoo, Osaka... I did a quick glance and sitting on the chuken position on the opposite side was the ANA - Shingo(sp?) zekken, who was one of the girls grabbed me the day before at jikeiko..!!!
On the back of her hakama, "Dai-33-Kai Gakusei Kendo Taikai Shutsujo Kinen" & "Niigata Daigaku - Shingo Keiko"...
With Takahashi losing by 1 point, and Fanny winning 2-0 in light-speed, I fought the 3rd match. It felt long, but I eventually lost 0-2. One hiki-men and another de-gote. Although Mrs Horibe also won 2-0 rather quickly after me, Fifi lost out 0-2. Our team got KO-ed with a 2-3 result overall, and we all switched our attention to the A team on the other court. (They lost too, sadly)
Conversation with Kishikawa-sensei:-
K: Jenny..!!
J: ...You watched?
K: Of course.
J: Sorry I lost...
K: ...Your team drew but on the lead by one point - so you shouldn't be fighting in a hurry. Especially your opponent is of more-or-less the same level as you are...
J: Yeah I know. Actually I fought the same girl yesterday at jikeiko. She got me sharper cuts...
K: So you didn't study your opponent, but your opponent studyed you.
J: Argh.
-----------------
It was too dark to take photos with my SLR. I spent the rest of the day supporting those on the Men's team.
Incidentally, NSW fought JAL B on the first round, and Yoon was against Shingo...!!! The match was a 1-1 draw, but the girl got knocked over 3 times by the Bear. She definitedly gained sympathy from the audience... Watching from 2 shiai-jo away, I told myself, I lost to her, but my kamae was much better. (what losers comfort themselves with...) Anyhow I am not going to fall over in the shiai-jo again..!
Sitting on 2 shiai-jo away, it was rather exciting to see Ng on our C team winning 3-0 (shushin suddenly cancelled an Ippon - for no reason!!) against the chuken of AsiaKC (Winner of the Day)... The other team consists of some Daigaku OB members, and they are really good.
B team lost in the pools by points. It's a shame that 4 teams were in a pool and only 1 team came out... So the wins must be really great in order to secure a place in the best 8 -- which was almost impossible.
A team went all the way through to joint-3rd, being beaten by Beijing A the Japanese sensei team.
Our very own sensei team (Tomioka, Johnny [who won Daihyo-sen at the 2Dan+below event earlier], Yoshioka, Yung-san, Kishikawa) also lost by points. But somehow I think all these "sensei" hadn't really tuned back into shiai-mode, and fought in a rather reserved/ defensive way instead. They fought Taiwan A + Thailand A (All-Japanese sensei team again). Adding to that, Kishikawa had been ill, sitting on the bench most of the time. He won his 2nd match 2-0 in his usual style, but WHY did he lose to that so-so taicho on the Taiwanese team...!!?!? The refereeing weren't that great at all, with all these 5dan suddenly got dragged to be shimpan (god knows how many sensei who were supposed to be the shimpan went playing instead!?). Bad, excuse. Argh. I jokingly told Kishikawa afterwards, "Sensei, you haven't practiced hard enough..!"
So that ended the weekend with me heading home early due to a fever, missing some good keiko with Komoto-san, Emiko and the lot. It's my first experience to fight with a Hong Kong team zekken, and hopefully it won't be the last...
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Squad #21: This Fire is Out of Control
This is the last squad practice before Asian Tournament. Got my valentines dating schedule arranged so that I can train once more tonight.
Oddly enough, we've got Franz Ferdinand playing LIVE in the main arena of the same building... Sensei actually said, hmm, the music is good - do warm-ups at their beats! When we went quiet during shiai (like the gogi time and stuff), I can really hear them sing with people cheering out loud. Yeah I know I am not really focusing...
I did go to Inoue-sensei's seminar last Sunday (no blog entry). We followed the similar format for shiai training today after some shortened warm-ups (yay) and waza-keiko, i.e. team match, followed by jikeiko-shiai-style.
Honestly I felt the need to train tonight with last Sunday's speedy lost against Jay, and losing de-kote x2. I tried to blame my left contact lens being broken when I opened the case... and fighting with a blurry vision made me want a rematch tonight.
Instead I got Fifi (also yondan) this time. Lost a Men-nuki-do on the first point, and then I got my share of de-gote on the 2nd point. The 3-min match finished as hikiwake.
That 30-mins was spent observing the rest of the teammates fighting. It suddenly feels a lot more like a national team as a whole, as we've all been training together for quite a while. Also I got the chance to check out the kendo on the boys' side. With the male/female group format for the squad, I hardly ever practiced with the boys, really.
Over the days I've been trying to do more of that moving footwork. Only proven to work better if I am really relaxed. Otherwise my balance wasn't really there with my feet at the wrong place..!!
At the shiai-keiko, I fought Yu-sensei, Agnes, and Kishikawa-sensei x2. Recalling what happened last Sunday, with my fingers still cold before my match, I know that I should really fire myself in shiai mode if there's not enough warming-up. Especially it'll be cooler this weekend...
I think I fought much better on my 2nd round against Kishikawa-sensei. Well, he's been going for 30 mins, so somehow maybe thats why I can finally hit his kote! This round I felt that I can spot his openings a lot better, but I wasted a few supposedly-good chances - cutting too soft, no kiai, etc. No ippon there but I pulled out a good fight towards the end of the night (the time when yame was shouted and everyone telling you to ganbatte...)
Yoooshiii---!! Fighting both 2nd Dan & below + ladies division. Team list not announced yet. Pantient...
Oddly enough, we've got Franz Ferdinand playing LIVE in the main arena of the same building... Sensei actually said, hmm, the music is good - do warm-ups at their beats! When we went quiet during shiai (like the gogi time and stuff), I can really hear them sing with people cheering out loud. Yeah I know I am not really focusing...
I did go to Inoue-sensei's seminar last Sunday (no blog entry). We followed the similar format for shiai training today after some shortened warm-ups (yay) and waza-keiko, i.e. team match, followed by jikeiko-shiai-style.
Honestly I felt the need to train tonight with last Sunday's speedy lost against Jay, and losing de-kote x2. I tried to blame my left contact lens being broken when I opened the case... and fighting with a blurry vision made me want a rematch tonight.
Instead I got Fifi (also yondan) this time. Lost a Men-nuki-do on the first point, and then I got my share of de-gote on the 2nd point. The 3-min match finished as hikiwake.
That 30-mins was spent observing the rest of the teammates fighting. It suddenly feels a lot more like a national team as a whole, as we've all been training together for quite a while. Also I got the chance to check out the kendo on the boys' side. With the male/female group format for the squad, I hardly ever practiced with the boys, really.
Over the days I've been trying to do more of that moving footwork. Only proven to work better if I am really relaxed. Otherwise my balance wasn't really there with my feet at the wrong place..!!
At the shiai-keiko, I fought Yu-sensei, Agnes, and Kishikawa-sensei x2. Recalling what happened last Sunday, with my fingers still cold before my match, I know that I should really fire myself in shiai mode if there's not enough warming-up. Especially it'll be cooler this weekend...
I think I fought much better on my 2nd round against Kishikawa-sensei. Well, he's been going for 30 mins, so somehow maybe thats why I can finally hit his kote! This round I felt that I can spot his openings a lot better, but I wasted a few supposedly-good chances - cutting too soft, no kiai, etc. No ippon there but I pulled out a good fight towards the end of the night (the time when yame was shouted and everyone telling you to ganbatte...)
Yoooshiii---!! Fighting both 2nd Dan & below + ladies division. Team list not announced yet. Pantient...
Friday, February 10, 2006
Countdown Keiko
After today there will be 3 keiko left before meeting those at Asian Tournament. I wasn't too focused at work, and it's rather surprising that I got there earlier than usual, i.e. not late.
This practice is really very kihon from footwork to basic cuts. Of course that means I can concentrate on improving smaller details, like balance, coordination, etc. I know the worst thing about me right now is my kiai... It's getting into a habit that I find it hard to get rid of...
The ending 3 jikeiko with the girls are actually rather enjoyable. I was serious against all of them and vice versa. They'd have a good practice before shinsa, and I was preparing myself to shiai. It was more than half a year ago that I set my feet in a shiai court. Not sure if it's pressure or nervousness... Anyhow I'll need to overcome that.
There are a few dojo mates going for grading on the 18th - I think I should go and support them. Maybe it's time to watch out what I'll need for sandan too (that being a year away tho).
This practice is really very kihon from footwork to basic cuts. Of course that means I can concentrate on improving smaller details, like balance, coordination, etc. I know the worst thing about me right now is my kiai... It's getting into a habit that I find it hard to get rid of...
The ending 3 jikeiko with the girls are actually rather enjoyable. I was serious against all of them and vice versa. They'd have a good practice before shinsa, and I was preparing myself to shiai. It was more than half a year ago that I set my feet in a shiai court. Not sure if it's pressure or nervousness... Anyhow I'll need to overcome that.
There are a few dojo mates going for grading on the 18th - I think I should go and support them. Maybe it's time to watch out what I'll need for sandan too (that being a year away tho).
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Squad #20: Fight the Boss!
Following the Chinese New Year break last weekend, I join the squad this morning again. During weekdays it's been even harder to make to the evening practices, as I've been doing some freelance work which requires a very strange work schedule... With the delicious Chinese New Year food over the days, I definitely need more keiko to drop that extra 7 lbs I gained!!
Eda-sensei went to Fukuoka at a seminar with Sumi-sensei I think, and me, Leo and Amy from Seishinkan dojo were told to look after Pik + Jane, as they've been invited to the squad. "Rumors" said that everyone who attend the squad would be in a team for the Asian Tournament. Still, I'll have to wait till the last training before the Taikai (Feb 14) to find out whether I am really on it...
It was a well-attended training today, with about 18 of us. Thanks to the upcoming shiai-keiko which usually takes up more time, we got half of the "normal" warm-up cut down to, half of the suburi variations, and then 100 hayasuburi.
Even thought it was as physically+ mentally demanding, the kihon and waza-keiko part all went really quick. It feels like there's about 45mins left for shiai keiko...!
We were then divided into 2 groups, one went with Wong-san for juniors of less shiai experience, and 10 of us seniors went to the Kishikawa-sensei group, with Lai-sensei at the shimpan side. First of all we had a 3-person team pool. Somehow me, Leo + Amy were in the same team. It feels great to be with them who all started kendo the same time at the same dojo.
I was the Taisho and the first round I fought Mr Chan (Derek's father - should be 5 Dan or something). Quickly after shodachi, he opened himself up and I just went for my trademark Tobikomi-kote. At nihonme, it was an Ai-men, only that I came down faster from further away. Mr Chan is of taller, so I am rather happy to get this Ippon. Well, KM:0 for me in 20 seconds!
Second person I was up against was Matsuura-san (who is I think, about 4-5Dan, and I used to see him wear some Yokohama Daigaku zekken...) This match was actually a reverse of what happened the first round because I sooooo quickly losted a debana-men and then an ai-men. I did experiment with moving more with the feet and the sword, thought it seems like the wrong time to do so!
The general comment is that we are not going 100% for the cuts, and lack the confidence to convince the shimpan that we've scored. I saw the same thing for myself too, but it is really difficult to overcome this problem in the game.
Not sure why everyone is expecting it, but Kishikawa-sensei told everyone to go on the opposite site, because he's going to eb alone on his "team", fight the 10 of us!!!
The first round he smashed all of us 2:0 except Ng, who surprisingly caught him offguard twice, and took 2:1 off the boss! As for me, I learnt to stop standing like an idiot, which helped delaying my defeat.. I mean at least the match went rather long and exhausting, it was a sharp de-gote, and then a very silly tobikomi-men I lost.
For Round 2 (still, Kishikawa vs all 10 of us), Sensei went into Jodan which sent everyone into a very exciting mode. There were individual Ippon scored on our side, but unfortunately none of us really made 2 Ippon in a match. I was the 7th on the queue, and the first to actually attempted tsuki. Fighting sensei *always* become so intense that I feel I can't really reach into him. Everything went so fast ...and I forgot what ippon I lose out on...
3rd round. I was the first person to notice Kishikawa sensei using right-foot-forward Jodan at the start of each match, and at nihonme he swopped hands and went into Gyakute Jodan (i.e. left hand on top..!). Anyway, despites all these strange stuff happening, he still destroyed us with either 2:0 or 2:1. I tried to be smart and went for do/gyaku-do but with no luck. Argh.
After class, Sensei did advice me to work on more of that move-around footwork. I should also be reading the opponent more during the match (say, in the first 2'30'' of a typcial 3-min ladies match), there's really no need to go so fast...
2 weeks to go.
Eda-sensei went to Fukuoka at a seminar with Sumi-sensei I think, and me, Leo and Amy from Seishinkan dojo were told to look after Pik + Jane, as they've been invited to the squad. "Rumors" said that everyone who attend the squad would be in a team for the Asian Tournament. Still, I'll have to wait till the last training before the Taikai (Feb 14) to find out whether I am really on it...
It was a well-attended training today, with about 18 of us. Thanks to the upcoming shiai-keiko which usually takes up more time, we got half of the "normal" warm-up cut down to, half of the suburi variations, and then 100 hayasuburi.
Even thought it was as physically+ mentally demanding, the kihon and waza-keiko part all went really quick. It feels like there's about 45mins left for shiai keiko...!
We were then divided into 2 groups, one went with Wong-san for juniors of less shiai experience, and 10 of us seniors went to the Kishikawa-sensei group, with Lai-sensei at the shimpan side. First of all we had a 3-person team pool. Somehow me, Leo + Amy were in the same team. It feels great to be with them who all started kendo the same time at the same dojo.
I was the Taisho and the first round I fought Mr Chan (Derek's father - should be 5 Dan or something). Quickly after shodachi, he opened himself up and I just went for my trademark Tobikomi-kote. At nihonme, it was an Ai-men, only that I came down faster from further away. Mr Chan is of taller, so I am rather happy to get this Ippon. Well, KM:0 for me in 20 seconds!
Second person I was up against was Matsuura-san (who is I think, about 4-5Dan, and I used to see him wear some Yokohama Daigaku zekken...) This match was actually a reverse of what happened the first round because I sooooo quickly losted a debana-men and then an ai-men. I did experiment with moving more with the feet and the sword, thought it seems like the wrong time to do so!
The general comment is that we are not going 100% for the cuts, and lack the confidence to convince the shimpan that we've scored. I saw the same thing for myself too, but it is really difficult to overcome this problem in the game.
Not sure why everyone is expecting it, but Kishikawa-sensei told everyone to go on the opposite site, because he's going to eb alone on his "team", fight the 10 of us!!!
The first round he smashed all of us 2:0 except Ng, who surprisingly caught him offguard twice, and took 2:1 off the boss! As for me, I learnt to stop standing like an idiot, which helped delaying my defeat.. I mean at least the match went rather long and exhausting, it was a sharp de-gote, and then a very silly tobikomi-men I lost.
For Round 2 (still, Kishikawa vs all 10 of us), Sensei went into Jodan which sent everyone into a very exciting mode. There were individual Ippon scored on our side, but unfortunately none of us really made 2 Ippon in a match. I was the 7th on the queue, and the first to actually attempted tsuki. Fighting sensei *always* become so intense that I feel I can't really reach into him. Everything went so fast ...and I forgot what ippon I lose out on...
3rd round. I was the first person to notice Kishikawa sensei using right-foot-forward Jodan at the start of each match, and at nihonme he swopped hands and went into Gyakute Jodan (i.e. left hand on top..!). Anyway, despites all these strange stuff happening, he still destroyed us with either 2:0 or 2:1. I tried to be smart and went for do/gyaku-do but with no luck. Argh.
After class, Sensei did advice me to work on more of that move-around footwork. I should also be reading the opponent more during the match (say, in the first 2'30'' of a typcial 3-min ladies match), there's really no need to go so fast...
2 weeks to go.
Friday, January 27, 2006
45 Minutes
There's this unexpected traffic jam around the Chinese New Year market in Victoria Park, causing serious delay on my bus journey. It was 8.15pm when I stepped into the dojo floor, and I joined in at the kirikaeshi rounds.
When I got fully warmed-up, there were only 20 mins or so left. That exercise of "Finding chushin -> Hit Men" really got me into the game. I think I did some good solid cuts with loud fumikomi, which kinda compensated that extra 1/2 hour I spent in the traffic jam visualizing kendo. Even though I had about 30 mins of exercise every day, I haven't been in the dojo for 2 weeks, so it's feels great being able to swing the stick again.
...The chushin thing got me think of Sumi-sensei and what he talked about earlier, about being able to do seme without your shinai pointing at your opponent's throat/eye/centre/etc. But so far I can only see an opening by getting and dominating the chushin... So what sensei said is quite far ahead, honestly.
Only did 3 jikeiko at the ending minutes with some kohai girls. I wonder why I repeated told the 2 girls that their kamae is off-centre. With them standing like that, I found out I can actually jump one massive step and hit men outside of issoku-itto, and without shinai touching.
When I got fully warmed-up, there were only 20 mins or so left. That exercise of "Finding chushin -> Hit Men" really got me into the game. I think I did some good solid cuts with loud fumikomi, which kinda compensated that extra 1/2 hour I spent in the traffic jam visualizing kendo. Even though I had about 30 mins of exercise every day, I haven't been in the dojo for 2 weeks, so it's feels great being able to swing the stick again.
...The chushin thing got me think of Sumi-sensei and what he talked about earlier, about being able to do seme without your shinai pointing at your opponent's throat/eye/centre/etc. But so far I can only see an opening by getting and dominating the chushin... So what sensei said is quite far ahead, honestly.
Only did 3 jikeiko at the ending minutes with some kohai girls. I wonder why I repeated told the 2 girls that their kamae is off-centre. With them standing like that, I found out I can actually jump one massive step and hit men outside of issoku-itto, and without shinai touching.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Total Suckage!!
With my bogu bag packed and standing right in front of the door, at 9am this morning, I decided not to go to squad's shiai practice this Sun morning (with the local Japanese). For the entire week I've been sneezing, blowing my nose, folding tissues into buckets of won-ton... I've already taken the last 2 days off "work" and thought I catch up a little on that now!
Kendo rule no. 1 = stay healthy.
P.S. I've been back in Hong Kong for a year now... Not progressing much in many aspects of life, but did learn a lot about myself.
Kendo rule no. 1 = stay healthy.
P.S. I've been back in Hong Kong for a year now... Not progressing much in many aspects of life, but did learn a lot about myself.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Squad #19: Move it
Althought some are the familiar faces, it feels like there's a 2nd team attending the squad on a Tues. I think we got about 14 people tonight, plus the sensei(s) from other dojo, so the space actually looks more filled up than on a Sun.
With Kishikawa-sensei joining into the suburi warm-up rounds, we get more haya-suburi variation. While turning my head observing how sensei does it, my footwork is all messed up from the 100th onwards... At the last 50 normal ones, I clearly remember closing my eyes, jumping almost on the spot. I just keep counting 1-2-3-4 and swing - a very strange moment in life where there is nothing I can think of (no mind, eh?)...
On to the strings of renzoku-waza (forward and back), I notice how bad my judgement of striking distance is ...especially on the backward ones (can't seem to combine renzoku with hiki-waza)... But my left leg is literally shaking by itself at chudan, probably due to the low level of blood sugar... Might need to invest on some isotonic drinks (or maybe a meal) before the keiko starts.
"If I dropped out now, there would be an odd person out, and that person cannot practice..." I keep telling myself to last a little bit more before I would fall over. I guess that's what I won't be considering if this weren't the squad.
Thank god for this only lasts 45 mins, and the next thing up was shiai-keiko. Different pairs get dragged out while the rest of us take a breather. At the 3rd round I was up against Eda-sensei (!). No one gets ippon for about 2 minutes, but I feel that we were using almost the same strategy from tsuba-zeriai (like, cutting the same target at the same timing...) But Eda-sensei pressured a lot on me which makes her on the dominant side 70% of the time.
The area is then splited into a jikeiko side, and a shiai-keiko on the other. 3 courts (1 shinpan each) at a time. The scene reminds me of the UK squad shiai league I had more than a year ago.
... And I don't even remember when's the last time I fought in a shiai setting..????
Eda-sensei finds me for a rematch. She's really doing the "move around" footwork which causes a lot of confusion in my head and also I am so not sure when she's coming... I only got a late men after she missed a de-gote. But she got a men before that and also another de-gote. Result - 2:1
Kishikawa-sensei also joins into the shiai-keiko side. When it's my turn, I *always* move out of fear because he keeps moving (with his feet, and also his shinai). I didn't lose on shodachi (unlike some kohai) but still it's tobikomi-men and a de-gote for him. The de-gote was the type that feels like a tap but damn spot-on. Result- 2:0
It is exhausting so I stand there and observe for a while, before unwillingly taking my men off for a blow on the nose... There's this allergy I have which makes me go blow my nose ever so often (I missed Sun sneezing non-stop at home in the morning)... Then I am back on again, fighting Fok, who is a tall sempai and I was most definitely not in focus on this match. I have no idea why I wasn't moving in for a cut or something. Result- MM:0
I was standing at the wrong spot probably, and get asked to go against Kishikawa-sensei again. The sempai/shinpan got told not to count 2 of the ippon... and in the end no ippon was given, which makes the keiko last for aaaaaaaaages. On this second challenge I switched slightly back from the renzoku-waza we just did, to shiai mode. At least I have unsuccessfully attempted kote-men and tsuki... Just that most of the time K-sensei can just take a 1/2-inch step away from the cut, and my shinai just stratches his men-gane top, nodo-tare, mune, etc. It feels like the accomplishment of the day is being able to *touch* him with my shinai tip... If an ippon were counted on this one, the result will be 10:0 or something...
Back to the side I watched Sensei fights the other people. He does 4 smashing do-uchi at shodachi on some tall kohai, and the two-legs-up-jump men-uchi on another kohai who didn't move forward after cutting kote.
It still wasn't safe enough to going cheer-leading. Kishikawa sensei said, "Oi, Jenny!" and I was against him for the 3rd time... (why arent there people in the queue?)!!!
I am still trying things out with the renzoku-waza, which opens myself up with a heavy smack on the right-dou at about 30 second. I quickly loses nihonme, by literally standing at issoku-itto-no-maai when sensei turns around... Yet another case of bad maai. Result - 2:0
Post keiko review:-
1) More koshi...
2) Shiai is the sport part of kendo and we need to score on the opponent with any possible strategy. Being flexible with footwork and wrists is one of the things that makes a player slightly more unpredictable.
At 2am with tensed up shoulders, I still feel rather excited. One of the good things about being a freelancer is that, I don't need to wake up early!
With Kishikawa-sensei joining into the suburi warm-up rounds, we get more haya-suburi variation. While turning my head observing how sensei does it, my footwork is all messed up from the 100th onwards... At the last 50 normal ones, I clearly remember closing my eyes, jumping almost on the spot. I just keep counting 1-2-3-4 and swing - a very strange moment in life where there is nothing I can think of (no mind, eh?)...
On to the strings of renzoku-waza (forward and back), I notice how bad my judgement of striking distance is ...especially on the backward ones (can't seem to combine renzoku with hiki-waza)... But my left leg is literally shaking by itself at chudan, probably due to the low level of blood sugar... Might need to invest on some isotonic drinks (or maybe a meal) before the keiko starts.
"If I dropped out now, there would be an odd person out, and that person cannot practice..." I keep telling myself to last a little bit more before I would fall over. I guess that's what I won't be considering if this weren't the squad.
Thank god for this only lasts 45 mins, and the next thing up was shiai-keiko. Different pairs get dragged out while the rest of us take a breather. At the 3rd round I was up against Eda-sensei (!). No one gets ippon for about 2 minutes, but I feel that we were using almost the same strategy from tsuba-zeriai (like, cutting the same target at the same timing...) But Eda-sensei pressured a lot on me which makes her on the dominant side 70% of the time.
The area is then splited into a jikeiko side, and a shiai-keiko on the other. 3 courts (1 shinpan each) at a time. The scene reminds me of the UK squad shiai league I had more than a year ago.
... And I don't even remember when's the last time I fought in a shiai setting..????
Eda-sensei finds me for a rematch. She's really doing the "move around" footwork which causes a lot of confusion in my head and also I am so not sure when she's coming... I only got a late men after she missed a de-gote. But she got a men before that and also another de-gote. Result - 2:1
Kishikawa-sensei also joins into the shiai-keiko side. When it's my turn, I *always* move out of fear because he keeps moving (with his feet, and also his shinai). I didn't lose on shodachi (unlike some kohai) but still it's tobikomi-men and a de-gote for him. The de-gote was the type that feels like a tap but damn spot-on. Result- 2:0
It is exhausting so I stand there and observe for a while, before unwillingly taking my men off for a blow on the nose... There's this allergy I have which makes me go blow my nose ever so often (I missed Sun sneezing non-stop at home in the morning)... Then I am back on again, fighting Fok, who is a tall sempai and I was most definitely not in focus on this match. I have no idea why I wasn't moving in for a cut or something. Result- MM:0
I was standing at the wrong spot probably, and get asked to go against Kishikawa-sensei again. The sempai/shinpan got told not to count 2 of the ippon... and in the end no ippon was given, which makes the keiko last for aaaaaaaaages. On this second challenge I switched slightly back from the renzoku-waza we just did, to shiai mode. At least I have unsuccessfully attempted kote-men and tsuki... Just that most of the time K-sensei can just take a 1/2-inch step away from the cut, and my shinai just stratches his men-gane top, nodo-tare, mune, etc. It feels like the accomplishment of the day is being able to *touch* him with my shinai tip... If an ippon were counted on this one, the result will be 10:0 or something...
Back to the side I watched Sensei fights the other people. He does 4 smashing do-uchi at shodachi on some tall kohai, and the two-legs-up-jump men-uchi on another kohai who didn't move forward after cutting kote.
It still wasn't safe enough to going cheer-leading. Kishikawa sensei said, "Oi, Jenny!" and I was against him for the 3rd time... (why arent there people in the queue?)!!!
I am still trying things out with the renzoku-waza, which opens myself up with a heavy smack on the right-dou at about 30 second. I quickly loses nihonme, by literally standing at issoku-itto-no-maai when sensei turns around... Yet another case of bad maai. Result - 2:0
Post keiko review:-
1) More koshi...
2) Shiai is the sport part of kendo and we need to score on the opponent with any possible strategy. Being flexible with footwork and wrists is one of the things that makes a player slightly more unpredictable.
At 2am with tensed up shoulders, I still feel rather excited. One of the good things about being a freelancer is that, I don't need to wake up early!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Show Off Stuff...
So from now all the way to the future 3 years, I'm a certified first-aider. Whoo-hoo!!
Also today I secured another freelance design project, and it kinda balanced out my "income" for this month. Since I don't have to work full-time in an office, I'll probably go to keiko as often as I can, and should be quite up for the Asian Tournament coming up.
Uhmm that accidental background of the photo above with my Nihongo textbook, reminds me of my next test 2 days after the tournament... argh!!
As I got this first month of 2006 sorted, it seems to be a good start for the year. Finally good luck is coming to me!
[edit]
For the troublesome Mr Anonymous, here's the other side of the coin. Are you not satisfied???
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Squad #18: A New Beginning
Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!
Hatsukeiko on the first day of 2006 - also the first squad training I headed for after having a 4-month break.
Arrived a lot earlier to stretch because I woke up 8.15am sharp, and I forgot whether the squad starts from 10 or 10.30am... (better be early than late). So I was watching a little bit outside the dojo. There were 2 of the Furuse kids from my dojo who went into the 9.30am keiko, probably because their parents (who were also watching from the outside) had no better plans for the New Year..!!
At 10.30am we got a relatively good show of 10 people, only that it's a bit lonely for me as I was the only girl, and got paired up with one of the twins from Yu-sensei's dojo, who's actually quite tall.
We started in a circle with various suburi and the well-expected 200 hayasuburi. My footwork went completely crap after 120 and then I was only counting even numbers at the last 30... Luckily no one got picked on and we didn't have to repeat that again..!
With men on we then used the full length of the dojo (just a little bit longer than the length of a
shiaijo) to do various kihon and waza. A lot of the previous teachings of Sumi and Furukawa sensei was applied here. It was just slightly advanced practice that I've seen in my own dojo, only that the rest of the fellow squad were following much better. We also did various renzoku waza that required a lot of footwork and flexible wrists.
Towards the end of the waza keiko, we've ai-uchi waza running which noised up the dojo a little bit more, and also a string of yakusoku uchikomi.
There weren't too many sensei staying... so the queuing format was dropped, and we got mawari-keiko against 4 sensei instead! It's quite interesting that I could give all I had in that 2 mins of keiko, took some good breath in another line for 2mins, and go back in again for 2 mins. Apart from being quite out of breath, I also found myself going back from tsubazeriai to issoku-itto... while I should be at Toi-maai to keep away from the danger of being hit!!
After fighting all 4 sensei, the squad training finished with everyone doing the ending kirikaeshi and stuff.
Kishikawa-sensei was having a flu (him?!) so he was watching everyone from the side and giving advice with no bogu on. According to him, I am still having a bad grip (not twisting in and not flexible enough...), tooo tense, not enough lower body power, etc. etc. etc.... yeah the same old story I have been hearing in the recent months. Is that a sign of having no improvement...?
But when being asked how was today's keiko... I said I was surprised I can still follow ok (not saying that being out of squad training for so long. Some said it's either me not being serious enough (?!) or my physical condition hasn't gone bad, which is weird since I've also cut down on the exercise at home... Anyhow - at gathering lunch when people got asked about their goal this year, I expressed the unstable work condition I am having now - and it'll be more than satisfying if I can keep showing up at the squad every now and then, until the end of the year for the WKC.
... Those sensei spent quite a lot of their lunchtime calling Japan, saying happy new year to all the Japanese sensei who have visited the city before (must have heard "Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!" more than 10 times in a roll sitting just next to Eda-sensei...!). Sounds like there's gonna be 8th Dan sensei visiting us in Feb, Mar, Apr and May... With the competitions and everything else running, this is definately going to be a very busy kendo year.
Hatsukeiko on the first day of 2006 - also the first squad training I headed for after having a 4-month break.
Arrived a lot earlier to stretch because I woke up 8.15am sharp, and I forgot whether the squad starts from 10 or 10.30am... (better be early than late). So I was watching a little bit outside the dojo. There were 2 of the Furuse kids from my dojo who went into the 9.30am keiko, probably because their parents (who were also watching from the outside) had no better plans for the New Year..!!
At 10.30am we got a relatively good show of 10 people, only that it's a bit lonely for me as I was the only girl, and got paired up with one of the twins from Yu-sensei's dojo, who's actually quite tall.
We started in a circle with various suburi and the well-expected 200 hayasuburi. My footwork went completely crap after 120 and then I was only counting even numbers at the last 30... Luckily no one got picked on and we didn't have to repeat that again..!
With men on we then used the full length of the dojo (just a little bit longer than the length of a
shiaijo) to do various kihon and waza. A lot of the previous teachings of Sumi and Furukawa sensei was applied here. It was just slightly advanced practice that I've seen in my own dojo, only that the rest of the fellow squad were following much better. We also did various renzoku waza that required a lot of footwork and flexible wrists.
Towards the end of the waza keiko, we've ai-uchi waza running which noised up the dojo a little bit more, and also a string of yakusoku uchikomi.
There weren't too many sensei staying... so the queuing format was dropped, and we got mawari-keiko against 4 sensei instead! It's quite interesting that I could give all I had in that 2 mins of keiko, took some good breath in another line for 2mins, and go back in again for 2 mins. Apart from being quite out of breath, I also found myself going back from tsubazeriai to issoku-itto... while I should be at Toi-maai to keep away from the danger of being hit!!
After fighting all 4 sensei, the squad training finished with everyone doing the ending kirikaeshi and stuff.
Kishikawa-sensei was having a flu (him?!) so he was watching everyone from the side and giving advice with no bogu on. According to him, I am still having a bad grip (not twisting in and not flexible enough...), tooo tense, not enough lower body power, etc. etc. etc.... yeah the same old story I have been hearing in the recent months. Is that a sign of having no improvement...?
But when being asked how was today's keiko... I said I was surprised I can still follow ok (not saying that being out of squad training for so long. Some said it's either me not being serious enough (?!) or my physical condition hasn't gone bad, which is weird since I've also cut down on the exercise at home... Anyhow - at gathering lunch when people got asked about their goal this year, I expressed the unstable work condition I am having now - and it'll be more than satisfying if I can keep showing up at the squad every now and then, until the end of the year for the WKC.
... Those sensei spent quite a lot of their lunchtime calling Japan, saying happy new year to all the Japanese sensei who have visited the city before (must have heard "Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu!" more than 10 times in a roll sitting just next to Eda-sensei...!). Sounds like there's gonna be 8th Dan sensei visiting us in Feb, Mar, Apr and May... With the competitions and everything else running, this is definately going to be a very busy kendo year.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Banging Against the Wall
Oops. Forgot to blog - but I did go to the Xmas Eve keiko last Sat. We got a relatively good turn-up (12 in bogu plus a few newbies), which made it look less like a "Lonely Hearts Club". Us girls got another group on rotation (Noroi, Takase, Jane, Lisa, Jacquna (sp?). Even though they were all my junior, I got quite excited winning all the yakusoku keiko rounds (be it ai-men or ippon-shobu). In turn, that did give me the thought of showing up for the squad-training...
But then, I missed the Tuesday night one doing something stupid (playing with cats underneath the dining table - and injured the muscles along my back... argh)
So this is now Thurs, the last keiko of the year 2005.
As usual, I missed the first 15 mins, but I joined in when they started picking up the shinai.
A few rounds of suri-ashi men up and down the dojo, then some men-uchi and kote-men against empty air. The leading senpai said something funny about Tenouchi towards the end of the cut: "when some sensei said 'squeeze like a towel', that's actually a handkechef and not a bath towel, so you don't have to try too hard!" Indeed. Since I got this comment about over-twisting my forearms, I am working on squeezing with the fingers/ hands instead... Do feel relaxing around the elbows now.
Eda-sensei came in at 8pm, who tell us "men-tsuke".
Now using the full-length of the dojo, we did a few more suri-ashi men men men men men men men. Wong-san dropped by the gym and watched us for a bit. For some reason we all try to look good and serious.
Then for a change we all found a line on the floor and did fumikomi-men-with-no-running-through (i.e. Sumi style). Eda-sensei told us to just stop where we stomp on and measure how far we jumped. Something like this:-
To my surprise, my couple of fumikomi that came in with men-uchi straight and stable, were as far as my shinai+ one kote fist... (4 feet!!!) So, really, no more excuses of fighting any closer, and I should be more aware of how far I can actually reach.
Another exercise we did was to band against the wall... Well uhmm "one-step taiatari"... and it was actually against the spongy ones. This was to let us feel the force to give+receive in correct taiatari (by ourselves!), and with the right footwork (since you can't possibly end up with your left foot in front). So the 12 of us all lined up against the wall and start running into it like mental patients...
At paired practice I was with the "women and children group" (Jane, Lo, Takumi, Aka - Ng's son). The time was short, and with just a few rounds of kirikaeshi and men-uchi, we quickly got into jikeiko.
It was after class that Ng (kohai at squad) told me that this is his son's first keiko in bogu. Well, I wasn't that hard. Not being a kid's motodachi for a while, I only remembered to kiai louder when there is no kiai, and keep walking forward when he's all backing up not hitting... It's probably quite hard for Aka as he wasn't showing too much interest when I saw him on a Tues before the squad. Ng hopes he can have more fun with some kids over this dojo.
Takumi (Utsunomiya) was always the hard one, as he was most of the time the only 9-year-old on a Thurs, and with his mom watching from the side. He also won 2005's HK individuals at his age group... Anyway, I really like to forget cutting men to take his kote and do as he thought no one could!
Against Lo, I guess she's improving as well, that we struggled quite a while until I got the first de-gote. But that waza isn't working too well now as she's learning kote-nuki-men... So the lesson is to really work on one waza against a certain type of person, because "tokui-waza" doesn't always work!!
After that we can queue for anyone, so I got to wait for Kwok, a visitor from Silicon Valley who was here on holiday and was only practising today. Strange thing happened - he and a senpai were fighting and then backing to my side, which ran me to the wooden bars at this wall of the dojo... Suddenly blood was on the floor... I twisted my right foot around, and saw some splinters from the wooden bars piked in there. Just when I thought I should last this keiko without sitting down, I just had to. Mrs Utsunomiya offered me a wound plaster, and I just took off my men and kote and pressured my foot for ...until when Yame was shouted. Funny enough I just found out yesterday that I passed my first-aid certificate from St. John, and today I find it being "very useful"
Here's a semi-gross picture - end-of-year shock!! ...Well the wound was not big but it gets a bit swollen now (and sorry that's a copy of Communication Arts on my bed...):-
I hope that doesn't affect my plan going to the New Year's keiko/ squad the coming Sunday. We already got a special invite from Eda-sensei:-
"Dear squad members,
Please note we may plan our last overseas training trip (financial year before 31st march 2006) to Chinese Taipei. [snip]
We have talked to government officials recently in a general meeting once a year to review on our performance. It is very important all squad members to participate in the overseas trip and to achieve good results in the shiai...[snip] Our performance may affect the amount of fundings for the next financial year.
It is every squad member's responsibility to practice hard and to achieve good results, as you are no longer treated as one of the ordinary members.
See you all on the New Year day keiko!
Eda
P.S. the 2009 WKC will be held in Brazil. "
She's thinking so far ahead... Argh.
But then, I missed the Tuesday night one doing something stupid (playing with cats underneath the dining table - and injured the muscles along my back... argh)
So this is now Thurs, the last keiko of the year 2005.
As usual, I missed the first 15 mins, but I joined in when they started picking up the shinai.
A few rounds of suri-ashi men up and down the dojo, then some men-uchi and kote-men against empty air. The leading senpai said something funny about Tenouchi towards the end of the cut: "when some sensei said 'squeeze like a towel', that's actually a handkechef and not a bath towel, so you don't have to try too hard!" Indeed. Since I got this comment about over-twisting my forearms, I am working on squeezing with the fingers/ hands instead... Do feel relaxing around the elbows now.
Eda-sensei came in at 8pm, who tell us "men-tsuke".
Now using the full-length of the dojo, we did a few more suri-ashi men men men men men men men. Wong-san dropped by the gym and watched us for a bit. For some reason we all try to look good and serious.
Then for a change we all found a line on the floor and did fumikomi-men-with-no-running-through (i.e. Sumi style). Eda-sensei told us to just stop where we stomp on and measure how far we jumped. Something like this:-
To my surprise, my couple of fumikomi that came in with men-uchi straight and stable, were as far as my shinai+ one kote fist... (4 feet!!!) So, really, no more excuses of fighting any closer, and I should be more aware of how far I can actually reach.
Another exercise we did was to band against the wall... Well uhmm "one-step taiatari"... and it was actually against the spongy ones. This was to let us feel the force to give+receive in correct taiatari (by ourselves!), and with the right footwork (since you can't possibly end up with your left foot in front). So the 12 of us all lined up against the wall and start running into it like mental patients...
At paired practice I was with the "women and children group" (Jane, Lo, Takumi, Aka - Ng's son). The time was short, and with just a few rounds of kirikaeshi and men-uchi, we quickly got into jikeiko.
It was after class that Ng (kohai at squad) told me that this is his son's first keiko in bogu. Well, I wasn't that hard. Not being a kid's motodachi for a while, I only remembered to kiai louder when there is no kiai, and keep walking forward when he's all backing up not hitting... It's probably quite hard for Aka as he wasn't showing too much interest when I saw him on a Tues before the squad. Ng hopes he can have more fun with some kids over this dojo.
Takumi (Utsunomiya) was always the hard one, as he was most of the time the only 9-year-old on a Thurs, and with his mom watching from the side. He also won 2005's HK individuals at his age group... Anyway, I really like to forget cutting men to take his kote and do as he thought no one could!
Against Lo, I guess she's improving as well, that we struggled quite a while until I got the first de-gote. But that waza isn't working too well now as she's learning kote-nuki-men... So the lesson is to really work on one waza against a certain type of person, because "tokui-waza" doesn't always work!!
After that we can queue for anyone, so I got to wait for Kwok, a visitor from Silicon Valley who was here on holiday and was only practising today. Strange thing happened - he and a senpai were fighting and then backing to my side, which ran me to the wooden bars at this wall of the dojo... Suddenly blood was on the floor... I twisted my right foot around, and saw some splinters from the wooden bars piked in there. Just when I thought I should last this keiko without sitting down, I just had to. Mrs Utsunomiya offered me a wound plaster, and I just took off my men and kote and pressured my foot for ...until when Yame was shouted. Funny enough I just found out yesterday that I passed my first-aid certificate from St. John, and today I find it being "very useful"
Here's a semi-gross picture - end-of-year shock!! ...Well the wound was not big but it gets a bit swollen now (and sorry that's a copy of Communication Arts on my bed...):-
I hope that doesn't affect my plan going to the New Year's keiko/ squad the coming Sunday. We already got a special invite from Eda-sensei:-
"Dear squad members,
Please note we may plan our last overseas training trip (financial year before 31st march 2006) to Chinese Taipei. [snip]
We have talked to government officials recently in a general meeting once a year to review on our performance. It is very important all squad members to participate in the overseas trip and to achieve good results in the shiai...[snip] Our performance may affect the amount of fundings for the next financial year.
It is every squad member's responsibility to practice hard and to achieve good results, as you are no longer treated as one of the ordinary members.
See you all on the New Year day keiko!
Eda
P.S. the 2009 WKC will be held in Brazil. "
She's thinking so far ahead... Argh.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Snap, Snap & More Snaps
1. I've put up some pics of the 1st Regional Kendo Championships in Nov, and also some of the anti-WTO protest 2 weeks ago (irrelevent) in my photojournal site:-
http://www.mingshiwan.co.uk/budojournal/2005/
2. In case anyone wonders - YES I took this photo at "Ken Mado"(monthly mag for AJKF). The president actually has more to say about kendo in China and the forementioned taikai:-
http://www.kendo.or.jp/column/index.html
Merry Xmas to you all!
http://www.mingshiwan.co.uk/budojournal/2005/
2. In case anyone wonders - YES I took this photo at "Ken Mado"(monthly mag for AJKF). The president actually has more to say about kendo in China and the forementioned taikai:-
http://www.kendo.or.jp/column/index.html
Merry Xmas to you all!
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Next Year?
This is Friday and we got this email telling us Nemoto Sensei is visiting tonight. In the end I decided to get to this 9-10.30pm keiko after my Nihongo class. Dragging my bogu along the busiest district in town was definately not the nicest thing to...
A bit of info: Nemoto Michiyo (sp?) sensei from Osaka was a former AJWKC winner and is now 7th Dan. Hence the internal email actually said: "Squad members especially ladies must join." We were told that she comes around every Xmas, and was good friend with Horibe sensei's sister (Horibe Akemi - also 7thDan...)
We did some kihon for warm-up and then the remaining 45 mins for keiko.
I came 5th in the line with Wong-san being first, followed by Eda-sensei. After that it just turned into kakari keiko. I told Amy who was just behind me, "yeah, it's usually like this with visiting sensei who doesn't know you well."
Indeed. It happened to me as well after losing one ai-men, missing a kote-men, and hitting a hiki-men in empty air. Argh. My kakari-keiko must have been aaaaawful to watch. Literally I did not control my breath well enough to cut back whenever sensei gave an opening, and it seems like she *always* open when I was about to breath in. As usual, my kiai was a mess too.
Definitely not my shape with the flu /fever still in me... Had to take off men and blow my nose. Felt like having muscle cramps too.
After that I fought Yu- sensei. He had this odd kamae with shinai slightly off centre and slightly protecting his own kote. Some of my kote-men worked quite well. But he's men-uchi ended up coming in at an angle. I blocked a few, did some kaeshi-dou, but sucked up a few. Not that I complain about his kamae... Recalling what Sumi-sensei said last week about seme from any position (the question was about some sensei dropped their shinai tip before coming in - i.e. gedan seme)... So basically if you let someone did an ippon on you from an odd kamae, you lost to that second of doubt in your mind. (sorry... can't explain something highly conceptual...)
Comment to me was about my lack of power in koshi (uhmm)...
Then I had A. Lam (wearing Australian zekken... alphabets too small to read tho). We paired for once at kihon and I quite like his "foreign" kendo. Proven to be a very enjoyable keiko as we both landed some good cuts on each other. But I think I was the one lacking initiative - I'll blame the flu for now.
At the end of the session while everyone was packing their stuff heading home. Eda-sensei gave "a small lecture" to me, Amy and Fanny. Problem was that the sempai (Agnes + Jay) are all recovering from serious injuries at the moment, and that the 3 of us need to be ready for the coming Asian Tournament and the 13th WKC next year (and that's according to Kishikawa sensei...) Basically without the ladies getting some ranking at Taikai, it's quite hard to get funding/ subsidies from the government.
It totally confuses me again as it's quite hard to tell them about my situation. Honestly I cannot take that kind of responsiblity while I cannot even feed myself. (It's like if I say no they are going to ban me for ever...) But it comes to my mind that, IF I last one more month or so at the squad, I might get at least once, the experience to fight as a squad. Question is, I've been escaping from the torture for 4 months already, and I can hardly keep up with the kihon keiko - how the hell will I be of any help?
A bit of info: Nemoto Michiyo (sp?) sensei from Osaka was a former AJWKC winner and is now 7th Dan. Hence the internal email actually said: "Squad members especially ladies must join." We were told that she comes around every Xmas, and was good friend with Horibe sensei's sister (Horibe Akemi - also 7thDan...)
We did some kihon for warm-up and then the remaining 45 mins for keiko.
I came 5th in the line with Wong-san being first, followed by Eda-sensei. After that it just turned into kakari keiko. I told Amy who was just behind me, "yeah, it's usually like this with visiting sensei who doesn't know you well."
Indeed. It happened to me as well after losing one ai-men, missing a kote-men, and hitting a hiki-men in empty air. Argh. My kakari-keiko must have been aaaaawful to watch. Literally I did not control my breath well enough to cut back whenever sensei gave an opening, and it seems like she *always* open when I was about to breath in. As usual, my kiai was a mess too.
Definitely not my shape with the flu /fever still in me... Had to take off men and blow my nose. Felt like having muscle cramps too.
After that I fought Yu- sensei. He had this odd kamae with shinai slightly off centre and slightly protecting his own kote. Some of my kote-men worked quite well. But he's men-uchi ended up coming in at an angle. I blocked a few, did some kaeshi-dou, but sucked up a few. Not that I complain about his kamae... Recalling what Sumi-sensei said last week about seme from any position (the question was about some sensei dropped their shinai tip before coming in - i.e. gedan seme)... So basically if you let someone did an ippon on you from an odd kamae, you lost to that second of doubt in your mind. (sorry... can't explain something highly conceptual...)
Comment to me was about my lack of power in koshi (uhmm)...
Then I had A. Lam (wearing Australian zekken... alphabets too small to read tho). We paired for once at kihon and I quite like his "foreign" kendo. Proven to be a very enjoyable keiko as we both landed some good cuts on each other. But I think I was the one lacking initiative - I'll blame the flu for now.
At the end of the session while everyone was packing their stuff heading home. Eda-sensei gave "a small lecture" to me, Amy and Fanny. Problem was that the sempai (Agnes + Jay) are all recovering from serious injuries at the moment, and that the 3 of us need to be ready for the coming Asian Tournament and the 13th WKC next year (and that's according to Kishikawa sensei...) Basically without the ladies getting some ranking at Taikai, it's quite hard to get funding/ subsidies from the government.
It totally confuses me again as it's quite hard to tell them about my situation. Honestly I cannot take that kind of responsiblity while I cannot even feed myself. (It's like if I say no they are going to ban me for ever...) But it comes to my mind that, IF I last one more month or so at the squad, I might get at least once, the experience to fight as a squad. Question is, I've been escaping from the torture for 4 months already, and I can hardly keep up with the kihon keiko - how the hell will I be of any help?
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Budo Stamps
The other day I was trying to find Jan-06's issue of Kendo Nippon (with special AJKC DVD included)... It has proven to be a popular buy among fellow kenshi - I declared my defeat after asking at 4 different honya.
Anyway, there's always something else I ended up buying... like old issues of whatever mags that came in sight. Last time I bought this "Japanese Postage Stamp Catalogue 1999" with HK$10 (i.e. really cheap).
My intention was to see the stamps as design/ illustration references, but it happens that a lot of them are budo-related. Below are the one listed:-
1953 - Judo
1956 - Judo
1960 - Kendo
1962 - Kendo (at Ryukyu - it's only been Okinawa Prefecture since 15 May 1975)
1963 - Sumo
1964 - Karate (Naihanchi, Makiwara, Kumite)
1972 - Kendo (background: Aso Volcano, Kumamoto-ken)
1973 - Kyudo (commemorating Okinawa's reversion - Okinawa Special National Athletic Meet)
1983 - Naginata (background: Myogi Yama, Gunma-ken)
1995 - Judo
1999 - Karate
Well, I did collect stamps at primary school. But not much of a collection since email came into my life at secondary school...
Anyway, there's always something else I ended up buying... like old issues of whatever mags that came in sight. Last time I bought this "Japanese Postage Stamp Catalogue 1999" with HK$10 (i.e. really cheap).
My intention was to see the stamps as design/ illustration references, but it happens that a lot of them are budo-related. Below are the one listed:-
1953 - Judo
1956 - Judo
1960 - Kendo
1962 - Kendo (at Ryukyu - it's only been Okinawa Prefecture since 15 May 1975)
1963 - Sumo
1964 - Karate (Naihanchi, Makiwara, Kumite)
1972 - Kendo (background: Aso Volcano, Kumamoto-ken)
1973 - Kyudo (commemorating Okinawa's reversion - Okinawa Special National Athletic Meet)
1983 - Naginata (background: Myogi Yama, Gunma-ken)
1995 - Judo
1999 - Karate
Well, I did collect stamps at primary school. But not much of a collection since email came into my life at secondary school...
Monday, December 19, 2005
Sumi-sensei
[Korean farmers giving and receiving backrub. Victoria Park, HK. 4pm 15 Dec 2005]
For the last 2 weeks I spent my time volunteering at HK People's Alliance on WTO. It's been tough, especially the past 6 days we all had to sit in open air (12-15 deg.) at Victoria Park. As my job was to answer queries at the Info Desk (in English, Cantonese + Mandarin), and talking too much hurt my voice. I walked straight to kendo on Thurs and Eda-sensei kept saying "Jenny, more kiai!!!" Argh.
On Thursday I walked straight from the park to keiko, with a fellow volunteer who was interest to watch the class. As usual this made me be very aware of my posture and everything during kihon.
We progressed to kirikaeshi at full length of the dojo. Then a few rounds of keiko with Oda-san and David as motodachi while everyone else queued. Oda-san still said I start cutting without much seme (although my men-uchi is straight enough). With David I smacked a few good de-gote, but somehow I think it's because he was too tired to be sharper.
We spent the last 10 mins or so doing enjin keiko - all 10 of us in a circle with one in the middle, fighting everybody.
---------------------------
Accumulating all the stress and sickness I collasped on Sat. Keiko was supposed to be at 4.30-7.30pm with SUMI SENSEI. But I was so dead that I can't really do anything about it, when I wake up at 4.30pm after a decent nap. At 5pm violence broke out with the Korean farmers around the WTO protesting area, which is not more than 500m from where the dojo is. As no buses was going direct, I just thought it doesn't worth going, and I stayed home for more rest.
---------------------------
Sunday morning at 7.45am I watched the traffic update and there was still no direct bus... 900 protestors got arrested but there is still one major rally in the afternoon.
In the end I arrived at 9.30am with everyone doing kendo kata sanbonme. I was probably the last person to arrive, but was surprised that there were only 30 people at most in the dojo. You simply can't believe how few people (especially from other dojo) turned up whenever there is sensei visiting and doing a lecture.
The whole kata session lasted until 10.30am going thru to nanahonme. General commends were made. I can only recall as far as "there are 3 points of seme in ropponme"... Everyone had already paired up and I had to deal with "imaginary opponent" if I wasn't watching the others.
10.30am to 12pm was a practice session in bogu. We started off with 3 string of kirikaeshi in pairs before doing 5 sets of bokuto kihon #1 each. Apart from the initial suri-ashi cutting, there were other specifications like fumikomi but not running thru, fumikomi + running thru, starting from toi-maai then step in before cutting, etc. etc. Me at the 3 Dan & below group (which only took up 1/2 of the dojo) got about 8 rotations.
Next up was tachi-ai keiko, i.e. mock shinsa, and sensei at the side will commend afterwards. While Sumi sensei looked after the 4Dan & above group, the few of us juniors got Koyanagi and Kashiwagi-sensei (7Dan also from Fukuoka). Everybody got 2 90-sec fights, and I got Naganawa-san and Vinx, both were challenging as they all did quite well in previous taikai. Adding to that, the flu I was having was giving me nose-blocks. Literally I messed up with breathing and kiai because I had to use my mouth to breath at all times.
Comments to me: should take more initiative. Yeah I know... I should really sort this out before going for the real Sandan shinsa. Sickness is not an excuse, really.
We finished earlier than the senior group and so we moved to watch them. Sumi sensei was talking about how the tension should build up during the keiko, and not losing it after a cut (whether successful or not) has landed. Also it was interesting for him to say "kiai from both sides at the same time is like nidan level"...
The last 30 mins was left for jikeiko, which I had to take off my men and watched at the side for the entire time. It feels terrible to be so ill while there were visitors worth queuing for. I notice how Sumi-sensei did quite a lot of cuts using one-step fumikomi, just like kihon keiko. But apart from him getting a few good de-gote on Kishikawa-sensei, and then turn him into kakari-keiko mode... I was about to faint at the opposite end of the dojo... It's rarely that I felt I should be at home rather than in there.
After lunch I got 1/2 of napping time before another lecture - but no more keiko and we all changed back to casual wear. Sumi sensei talked about the very "confucious" concepts about kendo, and how these can be translated into our daily lives. I got myself 3 pages of notes.
Attendance was rather low with most of the juniors gone (!?) - so at the Q&A session the questions (from local sensei/ seniors) are more to do with teaching/ learning. For example, ways to encourage beginners, ways to explain technical points, how to be good motodachi, etc. Apart from being able to listen to most of the simple, yet entertaining Japanese Sumi-sensei used, I also realized how these sensei showed their concerns about the way they teach - and I hope that what was discussed will be put into practice.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Making the Right Decision
I skipped Thursday to sit my first-aid exam. The multiple-choice questions were pretty easy, but I pressed a little bit too fast on CPR, and missed the second trianglar bandage around the chest for someone with a broken wrist. Result will be out at the end of the month, and I am still not sure whether those mistakes are enough to make me fail...
As of today (Sat) - I was late for 15 mins for today's keiko. Loast (and found) my mobile while watching a movie iwth my grandma (Perhaps Love - Oscar nominee - Best foreign film - and is actually quite decent, in terms of a musical in Mandarin with cast and crew from China, Hong Kong, S. Korea and Japan).
Eda-sensei is in Taiwan for an IKF meeting this weekend. The practice today is leaded by an average senior.
After a couple of suburi, we did 20 and then 30 haya-suburi. I realize how I cannot really keep up with the last 10. My stamina is not there any more. Leo attached that green-ish shinai weight the whole time during warm-up. When I looked at him, I noticed how I am so behind from the squad who have been training hard.
Again, it's mainly the same sets of suri-ashi kihon cutting: men, kote-men, kote-men-dou, kote-men-dou-men, tsuki. We also did some waza like kote-nuki-men, kote-kaeshi-men, men-suriage-men, men-degote... There isn't a routine of practicing waza for more than a few months now - so in the end I still suck at all these waza...
Jikeiko round: girls first - Noroi-san, Lisa, then Nigata-san, and finally Leo. I actually got the first hiki-men from him (but it's the same getting hiki-men from everyone else - no sense of that "i got you ippon" - not sure why). He did a few nice tobikomi-men which I could barely counter with a very twisted de-gote (i.e. no good ones). At the very end of the keiko, at one point we were at tsuba-zeriai and I wanted to turn to a side for hiki-men... But I used a turned right ankle to push off and somehow I am still feeling the pain from there.
The keiko finishes with 2 rounds of men-uchi. It's killing me whenever I wanted to turn around and cut again...
Usually the last 30 mins is for kata, but I, as usual, is trying to escape from that. Socializing with fellow dojo mates is quite important too. I kinda express my concern to Leo (only he and Amy is from my dojo and at the squad), about my extended absence. Clearly if I am not getting any work now, I'll still be jobless by the time of the 13th WKC (BTW - about 365 days later...). Kendo for me right now, is more a routine exercise than some sort of training as a national squad member. Simply I am unable to commit, and it'll be more disappointing for the team and the coach(es) if I cannot fight in Taiwan a year later because I cannot afford it.
But then, I am still practicing in a way, just not that hardcore anymore. Next weekend Sumi (Masatake) sensei is coming from Fukuoka, and hopefully I'll get some inspiration out of his visit.
Starting tomorrow and for the next week, I'll be a volunteer helping out at the WTO conference protesting area. That's some time to chill for me, before another round of job-hunting...
As of today (Sat) - I was late for 15 mins for today's keiko. Loast (and found) my mobile while watching a movie iwth my grandma (Perhaps Love - Oscar nominee - Best foreign film - and is actually quite decent, in terms of a musical in Mandarin with cast and crew from China, Hong Kong, S. Korea and Japan).
Eda-sensei is in Taiwan for an IKF meeting this weekend. The practice today is leaded by an average senior.
After a couple of suburi, we did 20 and then 30 haya-suburi. I realize how I cannot really keep up with the last 10. My stamina is not there any more. Leo attached that green-ish shinai weight the whole time during warm-up. When I looked at him, I noticed how I am so behind from the squad who have been training hard.
Again, it's mainly the same sets of suri-ashi kihon cutting: men, kote-men, kote-men-dou, kote-men-dou-men, tsuki. We also did some waza like kote-nuki-men, kote-kaeshi-men, men-suriage-men, men-degote... There isn't a routine of practicing waza for more than a few months now - so in the end I still suck at all these waza...
Jikeiko round: girls first - Noroi-san, Lisa, then Nigata-san, and finally Leo. I actually got the first hiki-men from him (but it's the same getting hiki-men from everyone else - no sense of that "i got you ippon" - not sure why). He did a few nice tobikomi-men which I could barely counter with a very twisted de-gote (i.e. no good ones). At the very end of the keiko, at one point we were at tsuba-zeriai and I wanted to turn to a side for hiki-men... But I used a turned right ankle to push off and somehow I am still feeling the pain from there.
The keiko finishes with 2 rounds of men-uchi. It's killing me whenever I wanted to turn around and cut again...
Usually the last 30 mins is for kata, but I, as usual, is trying to escape from that. Socializing with fellow dojo mates is quite important too. I kinda express my concern to Leo (only he and Amy is from my dojo and at the squad), about my extended absence. Clearly if I am not getting any work now, I'll still be jobless by the time of the 13th WKC (BTW - about 365 days later...). Kendo for me right now, is more a routine exercise than some sort of training as a national squad member. Simply I am unable to commit, and it'll be more disappointing for the team and the coach(es) if I cannot fight in Taiwan a year later because I cannot afford it.
But then, I am still practicing in a way, just not that hardcore anymore. Next weekend Sumi (Masatake) sensei is coming from Fukuoka, and hopefully I'll get some inspiration out of his visit.
Starting tomorrow and for the next week, I'll be a volunteer helping out at the WTO conference protesting area. That's some time to chill for me, before another round of job-hunting...
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