This one time, at kendo camp...
Just want to Ballarat for the weekend for the clubs' camp. Just awesome! Full day of training on saturday, then some morning training on sunday followed with a shiai (my first shiai match in 5 years and only my second ever shiai!).
Well to start it off, on the Saturday morning, we started some warm ups at 7am. Damn that floor was cold. Anyway, started pleasantly enough with some jogging the length of the basketball court. Then it got interesting. Running with palms extended from the hips where you knees had to touch your palms. Then even more interesting. Kinda hard to explain, but running with your palms stretched down, back and to the sides a bit. While running we had to hit our palms with our feet! Yet even more interesting, next up was having your palms crossed over at your crotch and running while having your feet hit your palms. Don't think I explained it that well... but it was a sight to be seen. 50+ people running around like what was hilarious. We then did a shuttle run. I think I came 2nd or 3rd in my group. Probably shouldn't have tried so hard cos I was knackered after that. This was followed by our usual warm up exercises, though done at a more gentle rhythm. Ah, then came the suburi... Don't know why everyone was complaining about it. All up we did about 800-850 suburi, with breaks! I remember one time we did 1000 shomen cuts consecutively, all in about 15mins.
Breakfast: Hmmm, first time I tried honeycomb cornflakes... not too bad.
Second session, some shinai geiko. Always fun. Did multiple cut practice, where people line up and hold their shinais out for others to hit. Started with relatively small lines of 4 to practice 2 cuts. Then grew to 6 to practice to 3 cuts. Then grew to the whole length of the basketball court! Woohoo, now thats what I call fun. About 15 to 20 people in each line. We only got to do 2 sets though. Most people were naming each cut, but I managed to do the first set in one big continuous kiai... hahaha. The looks on peoples faces as I went through was gold I tells ya. For the second set I named each cut because sensei instructed us to do so. Still fun though.
We then put on armour and did the style of practice from the previous trainings, ie, 1 motadachi + 1 armoured kendoka + a couple of juniors sans armour. Was good. Started with kirikaeshi, 1st one slow and deliberate, 2nd faster and sustained kiai, 3rd almost all out. After the third kiri kaeshi, my motadachi (a very senior member who's been with the club a long time) praised my effort! Woohoo, not everyday this happens. He commented that I was doing the single men cuts a little bit short but otherwise, everything else was spot on (mental note: need to push off using 'hara' better). This was followed by a serious of uchikomi geiko, where I really did go all out, especially kiai-wise. I noticed a couple of the juniors looking at me with an expression of 'what the fuck is this guy smoking?'. Hehe. And yeah, one of the other members in armour now thinks I have tourettes syndrome.
Lunch: Some premade sandwhiches which were quite nice. Don't know everyone from last years camp was complaining about the food. This was pretty good shit, and there was more than enough for everyone, although I think some people didn't like them and didn't have any.
Back to training. After a big lunch, sensei went easy on us and let us practice kata. I still only know the first 3 (well 4 but never seem to get to practice it). Had a pretty good partner for kata, pretty much the same level as I was I guess. We practiced the first 3 kata. Kata 1 and 2 always seems to go smoothly but 3 is always a hassle. There was a bit of confusion about the footwork of the uchidachi.
Hmm, can't seem to remember what happened next exactly. Hmm, think we helped the junior members with putting on dou and tare. Ah well, I know we did some shinai maintenance at some point.
The last session we had jigeiko. By this time my men had come loose. Still can't put it on properly... need to soften it a bit more so that I can tie it up really tight. Hmm, had a few but only 1 that I really remember because my men had come a bit loose and my tenugui came over my eyes! Couldn't see shit. I asked my partner to stop but he insisted that I do it after that jigeiko. Hmm, must have a big target on my back for people to kick my ass... hehe. Anyway, it was kinda fun. Couldn't really see anything above the kote/shinai unless I looked up. I got in a kote cut in this condition which was acknowledged but otherwise everything else was a bit of a haze. At one point I even just closed my eyes to see if I can do it blindfolded, haha. Didn't do it for long though... didn't wanna get hurt or hurt anyone.
End of the day. Dinner: Was quite good aswell, had some meat (sausage, slice of beef and chicken on a skewer) + some potato salad. Wasn't quite enough to make me full, but good enough. Again, don't know why everyone from last years camp was complaining about the food situation, hehe.
Sunday: Woke up at 6:15 and had to leave at 6:30. Had a quick shower and changed, but luckily I wasn't the last one out. Man, some of these girls.... who needs makeup to do kendo???
Another running type warmup session, but not as much funny running though. We did do the shuttle run again, this time with our hakama tucked up so we don't trip on them. Quite a site. Didn't know everyone had such sexy legs, hehe.
Again, pretty much the same number of suburi as Saturday morning, but seemed a bit harder since everyone was sore and tired. By this time, I had 4 blisters on my left had and my left foot was kinda throbbing. Its all good, nice and calloused now.
breakfast:
Next session we went into full armour (with just the seniors, the juniors went into another room to practice). Had a good session of practicing some advanced waza and ouji waza. I learnt that I need to do good cuts when being motadachi for the ouji waza from a rather stern sempai. It was my turn to be motadachi but he realised that I wasn't cutting him properly so on the third cut, he didn't do the ouji waza and my shinai ended up about 4 inches above his men, and to the side no less... Stern look on his face... Thus I learnt to always do proper cuts as motadachi.
Also did a lot of tsuki practice during this session... always fun. Both morote and katate tsuki. Still not that good at it. I probably only landed about 10-15% of my tsuki on target, the others were all over the joint.
Morning tea: not much to say really.
Last session: Shiai!!! My first shiai in like 5 years, and only my second ever shiai match. Before this though, the juniors did a bit of a demonstration of their skills, in the same pattern as a grading. They should all get 6th kyu.
Then the shiai, hehe. Did some warm ups while sensei gave some instruction about simpaning to the higher kyu grades and yudansha. Did 2 kiri kaeshi... didn't want to wear myself out too much. By this time I was quite knackered. Was quite surprised on who sensei matched me up with. I was hoping for someone easier, hehe. Well I lost my match 1.5 to 0. Got hit with a gyaku dou about 10 seconds into the match, then towards the end I stepped out - hansokku. Been watching the video over and over. Need to be more attacking. I wasn't attacking enough and seems like I was getting swamped by this guys' kiai. I liken it to the wail of a banshee. Also need to make my cuts much bigger. I was doing tiny wristy cuts. Nothing to be proud of. No wonder I didn't score.
Watched the rest of the matches, followed with a cool down with sensei at the helm.
All in all, an awesome weekend.
Well to start it off, on the Saturday morning, we started some warm ups at 7am. Damn that floor was cold. Anyway, started pleasantly enough with some jogging the length of the basketball court. Then it got interesting. Running with palms extended from the hips where you knees had to touch your palms. Then even more interesting. Kinda hard to explain, but running with your palms stretched down, back and to the sides a bit. While running we had to hit our palms with our feet! Yet even more interesting, next up was having your palms crossed over at your crotch and running while having your feet hit your palms. Don't think I explained it that well... but it was a sight to be seen. 50+ people running around like what was hilarious. We then did a shuttle run. I think I came 2nd or 3rd in my group. Probably shouldn't have tried so hard cos I was knackered after that. This was followed by our usual warm up exercises, though done at a more gentle rhythm. Ah, then came the suburi... Don't know why everyone was complaining about it. All up we did about 800-850 suburi, with breaks! I remember one time we did 1000 shomen cuts consecutively, all in about 15mins.
Breakfast: Hmmm, first time I tried honeycomb cornflakes... not too bad.
Second session, some shinai geiko. Always fun. Did multiple cut practice, where people line up and hold their shinais out for others to hit. Started with relatively small lines of 4 to practice 2 cuts. Then grew to 6 to practice to 3 cuts. Then grew to the whole length of the basketball court! Woohoo, now thats what I call fun. About 15 to 20 people in each line. We only got to do 2 sets though. Most people were naming each cut, but I managed to do the first set in one big continuous kiai... hahaha. The looks on peoples faces as I went through was gold I tells ya. For the second set I named each cut because sensei instructed us to do so. Still fun though.
We then put on armour and did the style of practice from the previous trainings, ie, 1 motadachi + 1 armoured kendoka + a couple of juniors sans armour. Was good. Started with kirikaeshi, 1st one slow and deliberate, 2nd faster and sustained kiai, 3rd almost all out. After the third kiri kaeshi, my motadachi (a very senior member who's been with the club a long time) praised my effort! Woohoo, not everyday this happens. He commented that I was doing the single men cuts a little bit short but otherwise, everything else was spot on (mental note: need to push off using 'hara' better). This was followed by a serious of uchikomi geiko, where I really did go all out, especially kiai-wise. I noticed a couple of the juniors looking at me with an expression of 'what the fuck is this guy smoking?'. Hehe. And yeah, one of the other members in armour now thinks I have tourettes syndrome.
Lunch: Some premade sandwhiches which were quite nice. Don't know everyone from last years camp was complaining about the food. This was pretty good shit, and there was more than enough for everyone, although I think some people didn't like them and didn't have any.
Back to training. After a big lunch, sensei went easy on us and let us practice kata. I still only know the first 3 (well 4 but never seem to get to practice it). Had a pretty good partner for kata, pretty much the same level as I was I guess. We practiced the first 3 kata. Kata 1 and 2 always seems to go smoothly but 3 is always a hassle. There was a bit of confusion about the footwork of the uchidachi.
Hmm, can't seem to remember what happened next exactly. Hmm, think we helped the junior members with putting on dou and tare. Ah well, I know we did some shinai maintenance at some point.
The last session we had jigeiko. By this time my men had come loose. Still can't put it on properly... need to soften it a bit more so that I can tie it up really tight. Hmm, had a few but only 1 that I really remember because my men had come a bit loose and my tenugui came over my eyes! Couldn't see shit. I asked my partner to stop but he insisted that I do it after that jigeiko. Hmm, must have a big target on my back for people to kick my ass... hehe. Anyway, it was kinda fun. Couldn't really see anything above the kote/shinai unless I looked up. I got in a kote cut in this condition which was acknowledged but otherwise everything else was a bit of a haze. At one point I even just closed my eyes to see if I can do it blindfolded, haha. Didn't do it for long though... didn't wanna get hurt or hurt anyone.
End of the day. Dinner: Was quite good aswell, had some meat (sausage, slice of beef and chicken on a skewer) + some potato salad. Wasn't quite enough to make me full, but good enough. Again, don't know why everyone from last years camp was complaining about the food situation, hehe.
Sunday: Woke up at 6:15 and had to leave at 6:30. Had a quick shower and changed, but luckily I wasn't the last one out. Man, some of these girls.... who needs makeup to do kendo???
Another running type warmup session, but not as much funny running though. We did do the shuttle run again, this time with our hakama tucked up so we don't trip on them. Quite a site. Didn't know everyone had such sexy legs, hehe.
Again, pretty much the same number of suburi as Saturday morning, but seemed a bit harder since everyone was sore and tired. By this time, I had 4 blisters on my left had and my left foot was kinda throbbing. Its all good, nice and calloused now.
breakfast:
Next session we went into full armour (with just the seniors, the juniors went into another room to practice). Had a good session of practicing some advanced waza and ouji waza. I learnt that I need to do good cuts when being motadachi for the ouji waza from a rather stern sempai. It was my turn to be motadachi but he realised that I wasn't cutting him properly so on the third cut, he didn't do the ouji waza and my shinai ended up about 4 inches above his men, and to the side no less... Stern look on his face... Thus I learnt to always do proper cuts as motadachi.
Also did a lot of tsuki practice during this session... always fun. Both morote and katate tsuki. Still not that good at it. I probably only landed about 10-15% of my tsuki on target, the others were all over the joint.
Morning tea: not much to say really.
Last session: Shiai!!! My first shiai in like 5 years, and only my second ever shiai match. Before this though, the juniors did a bit of a demonstration of their skills, in the same pattern as a grading. They should all get 6th kyu.
Then the shiai, hehe. Did some warm ups while sensei gave some instruction about simpaning to the higher kyu grades and yudansha. Did 2 kiri kaeshi... didn't want to wear myself out too much. By this time I was quite knackered. Was quite surprised on who sensei matched me up with. I was hoping for someone easier, hehe. Well I lost my match 1.5 to 0. Got hit with a gyaku dou about 10 seconds into the match, then towards the end I stepped out - hansokku. Been watching the video over and over. Need to be more attacking. I wasn't attacking enough and seems like I was getting swamped by this guys' kiai. I liken it to the wail of a banshee. Also need to make my cuts much bigger. I was doing tiny wristy cuts. Nothing to be proud of. No wonder I didn't score.
Watched the rest of the matches, followed with a cool down with sensei at the helm.
All in all, an awesome weekend.
posted by Son at 11:28 am
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