GZ

At last I turned up at a dojo near where I live/work.

All very relaxed and nothing too hardcore in there. Leader is about 2/3 Dan local. They frequent taikai in HK, and know my sensei.

The most surprising thing is, they have all their commands in CHINESE. It puzzles me for a while, but after a while it makes sense.

Anyway, I need to find the opportunity to pull up my bogu here... That's the challenge if I have to go back to HK every weekend...

Back

It has been 3 weeks since I last practice.

Yeah I am back in kendo again. Probably the 3rd time I showed up in the dojo since my recovery.

I got a clean x-ray for my ankle in Oct, and did a 10km run here in Guangzhou just to celebrate!

Kendo is really one of those things you can't just stop and give up.

We were all at Leo's wedding last night. That's a dojo mate's big day and everyone was crazy and drunk as usual. In between (so many) glasses of wine, I had a good conversation with the girls who are joining the HK Ladies keikokai in Jan. It is encouraging that they are pushing this idea forward, and asking me to join (despite my long absence and record of injuries).

Now it's up for me to manage the limited time I have in HK on the weekends. I know very well that I cannot train at the same level as I used to have, but at least it is something I want to keep doing.

(For the past few weeks I've considered giving kendo a very long break)

Just Sitting Here

Last round of X-ray in Aug shows that although the bones are sealing back up, the tissues inside haven't completely grown back smoothly.

Great...

So the only thing keeping me going is the bike ride to work and the gym after work. I guess when I first joined the gym, that 1-hr run on the treadmill just ruin my recovery (few weeks before x-ray).

Really I am not sure when I can get back to the dojo. Loads of people asked me and I have no answer for anyone. All I can do is to catch the 14th WKC on Youtube.

Oops

As you may know, I had a stupid accident last Friday, leaving me with a torn ligament on my right ankle. Now I am not able to walk at home even...

So again, it's a time to give up vigorous exercise for a while. Not sure why the older I get, I had more accidents than when I was a naughty kid...!!

It takes time to heal...

--------

Back from hospital after a week of swelling pain. X ray shows my ankle is FRACTURED...!!

Just a small crack, but enough to send me into sleepless pain.

So I am now at home with a big plaster cast. Well done!!

Greater China Cup

(aka the 4th Regional Kendo Tournament)

Surprisingly I arrived at 8.15am with more than enough time to change and do the group warm-up. I was still coughing all night long and thought I'd be overslept... The cold I caught made me missed the last squad training before the tournament - and I know I'm not going to do much today.

I got teamed up with Jane and Sinyi (who's a regular visitor to my dojo) for the ladies event.

There were only 7 teams, with us getting "lucky" to go straight to the semi finals (?!). The HK A team defeated Macau on the first round, and it's easy to think that HK have no problem securing medals. (Job already done)

My team faced one of the Guangzhou teams and it quite interesting that there were more than 3 dojo presence (including the boys) in this tournament alone. Our Beijing friend and HK A teammate Xixi told us that a Taiwanese nanadan sensei BUILT a dojo in Guangzhou. No wonder why some of them look so serious into things...

I said "some" because half of them looks younger than me - and they were more interested in taking snaps with one another than watching the matches. Maybe I am getting old.

Back to my match. I'm on jiho and had this girl in white bogu who I've seen before (i.e. not a beginner). The men cuts I've been training on went down the drain with my sickness. My left arm wasn't landing cuts solid enough and so as my fumikomi. On the other hand, this girl was cutting straighter than I thought, and a few times I thought it came really close to losing.

Jane 2-0

Me 0-0

Sinyi 2-0

(Me became the only non-scoring person in the team. Argh)

Finals - HK A vs HK B

Xixi battered Jane who fought harder than before. Xixi always have strong fumikomi - but some say it's not because of her footwork...

No surprise me took on JAY for the Nth time. Blame it on team mangement who always put us in the same fighting position. I wasn't at my best, knew her moves, and was going for a draw - yeah and so went the story.

Although Sinyi has been on-and-off in kendo for longer than I do, she wasn't too experienced in shiai and got carried away waiting not initiating attacked. Agnes was the opposite and got her degote somewhere in the middle of the game.

Jane 0-2

Me 0-0

Sinyi 0-1

(Me didn't lose a point - not sure if its an accomplishment.)

Now that I pocketed Silver, the rest of the day was spent chitchatting to anyone I haven't seen for long...

...Including a mum with kid sitting at the side. There's a mens team from a company dojo in Kaohsiung, Southern Taiwan. The mum is an employee there supporting her boss on taisho, but she and her family has nothing to do with kendo. Poor lady! So we had a little chat about everything and exchanged contacts at the end. 

The game was more fun than seriousness overall, with HK A mens team beating Kaohsiung's only at taisho match at the Semi. Final was HK A vs the improving and impressive Guangzhou team. GZ actually beats HK B to go through, only to be taken down 3-1 by HK A to finish the day. 

Attendance was a bit thin - lucky enough we had teams from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Kaohsiung and Chengdu to fill the mens' event with. Locally I think we missed a number of good players, some have been busy with work, some happened to be taking the annual JLPT on the same Sunday. The association should really consider another date, seeing there are so many kendo people studying Japanese!

Seeing GZ being better than we all thought made everyone telling me to practice where when I move there next year with my job. I did consider more option in carrying my bogu, but maybe quite difficult going across the border over the weekend if I have to practice in HK... So it's confusing for now, but I'll definitely give them a check once the job is settled.

Pics to follow.

Prep

There's the Chinese Taikai coming in a month but not so much of the shiai preparation going on. The dojo has been quiet recently with everyone seeming to be caught at work. Even on a Sunday afternoon like today's practice, there were only 6 of us on rotation!

We were on high with speed today - after some kihon for warm-up, we were doing alternate oikomi-men and splinting tobikomi men. The point is to "hit and run" as fast as we can. That also reminds everyone to go straight through like a train and not jumping up and down, something that we all did before...!

That was an intensive but since I didn't do much exercise in the week, I was so out of breath. I bet there is either my bad breathing rhythm control, or something wrong with my lungs. Looking at Momoko (a kyu grader) I must say I was embarrassed  - she was still standing properly when I was bending over for a painful diaphragm.

Things will be difficult for the next few weeks as I am going to move out of town for work some time next month. I'm glad that there is still good job around, but kendo-wise I'm not too sure if I can manage coming back over the weekend for keiko. Maybe I'll end up joining one of the Guangzhou dojo, but it's gotta be a nightmare to travel back and forth with the bogu and stuff...

200

Wow blog post count shows that this is now the 200th post!

I spent most of my past few weeks going around town meeting freelance clients and then some job interviews, leaving only Sats for kendo and little exercise on weekdays. 

For 2 weeks we got a session of tsuki practice leading to sashi-men. Really helpful ideas there Minejima sensei taught.  I value a lot more on the quality of practice other than quantity, now that I can only make once a week in the dojo. It's still a good thing that I can be focused and clear my mind of what I need to do in life.

It's always a tough decision for a career move for everyone. So I hope I'm getting the best deal on my next job. Yosh!

good day

Yes, I'm finally having a good day!

My wrist is on my side for the whole session, lifting the shinai up and down rather solid.

I notice that actually using MORE of the joint can help cutting, instead of relying on the right hand to do the job.

So it's good to know I'm progressing somehow and am still on track.

Centre

Lately we're doing a lot of hypoactive keiko. Very very controlled training with predictable mechanism:-

Pressure at centre > opponent gets off centre > hit men

or

Pressure at centre > opponent pushes back > hit kote

or

Pressure at centre > opponent pushes back > hit kote-men

or

Pressure as you wish, and react as you like (base on the above)

It's a relatively pattern-ed practice, but happens to be difficult, especially facing someone of a similar or higher level. I guess when both sides know the importance of gaining the centre, nothing is easy. Gives me all the sweat just by staying in kamae.

Good thing is, people are coming back to the dojo more often.

Numb

This is a totally relaxing Sat with the adults here focusing more on taking the centre by feeling the kensen. Difficult to do and takes time to make it work.

My wrist is letting me down though, after spending 2 hours in the morning riding the bike. The way I pull in the clutch makes my wrist so inflexible afterward. Strange that it triggers the pain after 2 months' break...

Jogging Route

Without consulting Google Earth, I wouldn't know I have been regularly running a near 5k distance...! One longer loop heads north to the racecourse, and the other goes south to the city centre.

But then I was on snail speed - 27 mins? I was checking some distance runner sites and "beginner" should do that under 24 mins... Argh.

Lost

A 2-week break and I'm back to keiko.

On a regular Thurs in QE Stadium I expect a good session, but... WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE??

That was just me and David doing some kihon. Very Quiet especially with my minimal kiai...

As usual I'm a bit lost after not picking up a shiai for a while. It's no good getting reminded to stay in the centre all the time.

The 4 of us (with Eda sensei and little Gareth actually) headed off to the local Korean School and watched some friendly shiai - between the HK squad and some young guns from the city of Cheongju. Their kumdo were solid, enough to make everyone on my side panick and attack unnecessarily... The squad really has a lot to catch up with.

Excuse...

I'm going to skip Sun practice for this:-

Falling down

We're back at QE II Stadium. A great job they've done to the bright lightings, freezing air conditioning with the new wall of mirrors that makes the same gym room looks so much larger.

The down side of it - they've also redo the flooring, which is now SOLID. Oops.

Being back on the freelance front, I am lucky enough to attend all of the Sat practices for the past month or so. Then there's also rather regular jogging, cycling or swimming in my neighbourhood. So my stamina is going up and I'm having a nice tan.

Our ninja yondan friend Minejima-san is constantly picking on me recently. I reckon it's mainly because I'm "younger" and do more of a shiai-oriented style than the rest of the dojo population. He was away for a while, but now stays a bit more often, and so he's trying to practice more seriously. We do notice that he ain't all that sharp comparing to before, and were plotting against him secretly on his weaknesses (easy to say, hard to do. Argh).

What happened was, twice, that I launched for men desparately during jikeiko. He's tall and I tended to jump more. Little that I know I was actually jumping up. That messed up with my centre of gravity, and by the time he pushed a tiny little bit, my a$$ was landing on the floor.

I got the same treatment for the past 2 consecutive weeks. The problem is, I *KNEW* I was going to fall down during my fight, because everytime at tsubazeriai I was all over the place. I was so off whenever he moved his hands and turned to the other side to get a hikimen. More often I had to tell myself to please stand properly before worrying about cutting.

At the food joint, he and Oda-san were talking about this and put on this advice: I seem to be too concerned with hitting on top of the men, because I jump on there and cut at an angle (weak left wrist doesn't help either). Perhaps I should stay to cutting in front of what I see, and it's okay to cut men-gane because of the height difference. Yeah, speaking of disadvantages of being short...

Task of the month: Cut straight, centre and in front of me.

Bronze

Just filled my piggy bank with another piece of medal. 7 years of kendo has earned me 3 golds, 1 silver, 5 bronzes and 2 kantosho... That said, I usually belong to the ladies division with only 10+ players in total.

Like today there were 12 girls in my group - but surprisingly they cut the juniors into another kyu-grade ladies division.

Not sure about anyone reading, but over here before the ladies matches we tend to be overly relaxed. Like, I did a set of kirikaeshi and some kihon cuts with my mates and that was it. Unlike during lunchtime when all the men and boys are swinging their shinai madly and trying waza stuff. Well, different people, different mindset.

Lucky pool for me, as both of my opponents are shodan, and I finished them in 10 seconds (total). Observing dojo mates told of the 4 "proper shomen" cuts I did stright out of sonkyo. Yeah they're nice I know, as easy as if anyone put their kensen NOT in the centre!

Small world we had here, as I got out of the pool I already got some metal. And on to next was my dear friend Leng from Macau. Met her all the time when we were both at some Taikai in the UK. So we chat a lot whenever we meet again here.

Leng's probably the sharpest of all 12 of us. Noyori san from my dojo is also sharp and scored some fine points from girls above her level (and younger). Surprise to see her like that despite our constant complain of lack of attending keiko last month (me=4, her=1, argh).

So my match with Leng lasted for 6 minutes according to timer-person, with Leng getting a rather typical men-kaeshi-dou when we were both looking exhausting. Say we both lost the sharpness we showed earlier. I had breathing problem, partly due to lack of cardio training recently with it pouring rain every single day, and partly because fighting Leng again is hysteric! It was all fun memories the first time I fought her, at my very first shiai.

Leng went on beating Noyori san and won the game.

My damaged left wrist was doing a good job today, because I remember to keep my grip "in" all the time. Once I tried at dojo practice without gripping the shinai properly, it really hurt so much that my tears went out of my eyes, and I was in pain for the rest of the class. So today is good. Apart from 3 missed kote from Leng on my right arm that align like mini meatballs...

And I have no idea why 6 minutes of kendo can be so tiring. Off to bed now. Hope to get a pic soon.

Rant

We were training at this low ceiling gym yesterday and practicing small waza to avoid breaking the lights. Now I got a pain in the a$$ - seriously I didn't notice how much power from the "hips" I was using. Need a massage there!!

That happens to be the 2nd training I went to for the entire May. Since I don't have to go to work downtown, the bus journey to the faraway has become the least appealing... Tho I did jog around the neighbourhood about twice a week to get some exercise anyway. There's this taikai coming in later the month and I think I am just going to play for a few minutes and get my lunch there.

Actually I took a break last week so as to not further injury by wrist, and to take the bike exam at my best condition. Yet the weather was not helping and the exam was postponed to early July. (It was flooding the whole of last week!) Looks like I got a lot to prepare for very soon...

Warming up with Weights

Today is Wednesday and I should be training... But I need to finish up some freelance job (from London) and that's why I'm sitting in front of the computer screen again...

There was this TV program last week - Sport Science. It was done by the same team who did Fight Science on Discovery. Remember the muscle man with a katana, who violently chops the human jelly to see how much damage a Japanese blade can make? ...Yeah that's the one.

At one time they wanted to test if weighted warm-up helps. So they gave donut-shape weights to a pro-baseball player (batter) to swing a couple of time before measuring his strikes with a normal bat, and also repeat similar test with a pro-golfer. While the swings "feel" faster to the player, the result didn't show much difference for the speed of the balls.

The most significant change was WHERE the point of impact was. Many strikes were out of the marked "sweet spot" when they rolled in slow motion. So after weighted warm-ups, players will miss where the optimal point they should hit the ball with. Essentially this means the weights are counter-productive... It changes the players sense of balance towards the "bat".

Because of the above, the baseball player receives the impact not just on the bat, but also all the way down to his hands and elbows (that was shown in slow motion for obvious reasons!). The swings are getting less flexible, and will possibly let the player develop "Tennis elbow" or other wrist injuries. I wonder if this is relevant to those who keep breaking their shinai... hmmm...

In the end, I'm trying make excuses of not doing any more ridiculous 2-shinai hayasuburi warm-up at the old squad training. I understand the muscle-building and cardio-training parts, but for warm-ups - better stay away...

OMG---!

Hong Kong is the new kendo holiday destination. We had the Kansai Student coming in last weekend (which I escaped). Next week we are having... Sensei from Japan again!

I was reading this email and see the list of names...

Sumi
Chiba
Honda

This is for the coaching seminar/ exam, which again I am not going to sit.

Relax no more

So, back from a 2-week holiday in Vietnam. Walked a lot, ate too much, got a tan (mainly on the sandal straps!), and exploring cool activities such as crossing roads swamped with mopeds, and diving! There are pics on my flickr account if anyone interested.

Back in the dojo last Sat was a very quiet practice. Only 8 of us turned up, 7 of those guys in their mid30s to 40s!

We didn't do any crazy kakarigeiko or even jikeiko, but the 2-hr practice was pretty exhausting. From checking ourselves from the mirror doing shomen uchi with seme ashi, to doing kirikaeshi, and cutting each other up using seme ashi... The more I focus, the more intense I felt.

But the disappointing part went to me not really understand what was going on... I moved in okay, but very bothered by the opponent's shinai in the centre. Why was his damn shinai still in the centre anyway?? In the practice I had problems cutting men AND kote, and it was very frustrating.

Someone pointed out that I cut men from the right - simply that was because I didn't run into the centre!! I really need to remember this.

I got myself a new wrist support - works fine in the dojo, but the pain creeps in that night. I biked okay today, but almost crashed doing U-turns... Argh.

Cameo

This clip was on the local Finance-Info Cable TV channel a while ago. Your usual brief intro to kendo, an interview with those from Seidokan, and the taikai montage from the Chinese Taikai last Dec.:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK0MZt9gl7E

Got a bit of Yours Truly from 3:18 onwards, lasts for 3 seconds...


On repeated playback it's obvious that I hit with no power from the left and everything from the right (aka flicking). Even 3 seconds is enough to show. Argh.