Bad day at the office

Well Friday’s morning training was quite good. Pai Mei ordered us to do sanbon shobu and make them feel like shiai, and try to fight as many different people as you can. I really felt like I was in the right spirit. I had a really good fight with Andy. Tried to be constantly attacking, even when he missed hit me and stopped to apologise, I’d just do a strong kiai and continue without stopping. I also fought Pai Mei, but he beat me quite easily. Also fought KevH and lost. Hmm, I really should post things earlier dammit, cos I can’t remember much of what happened. Only my fight with Andy comes to mind. I also fought Pei at the end. Yeah, that was fun… Also fought Lin Mo (sp.?). I had a short chat to him afterwards and asked him his name again, I actually thought it was Rin Po! Hmm, didn’t really hear him properly the first time cos I was wearing my men. Anyway, I really felt good after the training and felt like I was ready to do shiai. I was told that the pools for the VKC were just chosen at random, so I could possibly get 2 ikkyu’s in my pool. So yeah, I did have a goal of getting out of the pools, which I later changed to just winning one of my matches but by that time I had downgraded that to just score a point, which I then changed to just doing my best. Positve, yes I know. But hey, I’m trying to be realistic.

Night before the VKC. Went to service my shinais only to find the doubari shinai I’d been using the past couple of weeks had a big crack in one of the slats!!! Doh! I was really starting to like the feel of it. Its virtually impossible to replace the slat now, because it’s an oval handle shinai. Hmm, might try though, because the shinai is still very new and it seems like such a waste! I have only used one side too! So the backside looks pristine! It wasn’t boding well for my chances at VKC.

VKC. Very disappointing. My two pool matches went by so fast. Lost my first match to MD and my second to MM. I should have listened to Pai Mei’s advice from Friday when he said ‘Make sure you get a good warmup and break a bit of a sweat!’. My pool was 4th, so I though I’d have time to do a good warmup, but by the time I finished my stretches and suburi, I was being called to get ready! WTF! It seemed that the group A matches were really fast (the speed was further quickened by my performance). But yeah, during my fights, I felt like I did at the Otsuka tournament, just really underdone. Oh well, I’ll just take it as experience.

The rest of the UMKC team did quite well, with UMKC winning kata pairs and kyu teams and coming runners up in kyu individual (Kev Wu) and open teams. I felt really proud during the team events. I had to keep score so I didn’t get to watch some of the matches because they were on the other court, and when they were on the court that I was scoring, it would have been rather inappropriate for me to cheer… though I couldn’t help it and cheered for the team every now and then. I was able to watch the open teams final between UMKC and Fudoshin from the stands though. I was really proud how the team played, especially since we were playing against a team that had 4 members on the national squad! A really funny moment came when KevC decided to kiai ‘Say! Say! Say!’ hehe.

Another thing that stuck in my mind was Kate Sylvesters fight against Orihashi. It was just very inspiring when watching her and I wish I can fight like that. Not in the physical sense (ie. technique wise) but her spirit. She was outsized by a much stronger opponent, but she never gave up and kept going. I guess that’s why she’s on the national team.

Still the reigning champ by disqualification

We had a training at Monash kendo club in Clayton. Got there early so as to not get in trouble with sensei.

The basketball court there looks smaller than the melbourne stadium, and the rings weren't moved up, so it made for a tight fit. It was always in the back of my mind that I'd swing the shinai and hit the basketball ring. Well Ophelia took the warmup, and its quite different from ours. Started similarly enough with just running around in a big circle, though no ayumi ashi or okuri ashi. In a big circle and there was no set of 8 exercises, but we went through all the stretches and arm exercises individually.

After rei and mokuso, it was straight into menstuke, since we lined up with our men/kote right in front of us. I stood up just as Pei stood up, but I noticed that her dou himo was loose, and she still had a twist in her men himo. Tsk Tsk Tsk. Can't pay you that one Pei...

Went straight into kiri kaeshi followed with kihon. During the kihon practice, sensei was watching me do my cuts, and stopped me as I finished my set. He noticed that I wasn’t pushing enough with my left foot and advised me to do so. For the rest of the training, I was focussed on this, though I don’t think I was successful, because I didn’t really ‘feel’ it on any of my cuts. Don’t know if I used this analogy here or somewhere else, but it was like a flickering light bulb. I’m just not quite there yet. Will have to practice this on Friday.

We then had a shiai between the Monash club and UMKC. From our side, we had Nicole, Janice, KevH, Russel, Andy, Mike and Tom. On the other side was Shirley, Ophelia, Masato, Rin Po (I think that’s how you spell it, apparently he’s a Korean guy who’s done Kumdo. He trained with us last Friday), Martin, and a couple of other’s I’d never met before. Like the last shiai at Melbourne, the monash team won again, though we had our two top players shimpaning. During the fights, I noticed a side of sensei that I’d never really noticed before. He was like a proud parent watching his children play a sport. It was quite interesting just to watch some of his facial expressions. I can feel that he really wants us to do well. Hmm, I really hope I can show him my best kendo during the VKC.

We then had 15 minutes free jigeiko. I wanted to fight Chiaki but martin accosted me so I fought him first. He plays a bit of waiting kendo. Waiting for me to make the moves, though his reactions were quite good. Reminded me of how I was maybe a few months ago. Hopefully I’ve gone a bit beyond that now because I do try to ‘make’ openings, though I may not be very successful at it. Well at one point, we were at tsubaseriai, and I tried a hiki men cut, whilst he did a hiki dou… which missed… and hit me in the ribs… Ouch! It was a really weird feeling but it hit on my right side, and I could feel it all the way on my left. Its like the rib he hit moved another rib on the opposite side. I was actually quite worried that maybe he did some damage, but I took a few deep breaths and everything seemed fine, apart from the pain. I’ve been hit in that spot quite a few times now that I think I’ve developed some bruising immunity. From that hit, there’s now just a small 5 cent sized bruise to show for it. I really thought it would be a nicer bruise than that, or maybe I’ve just become a big pussy and can’t take the heat.

After that fight, I was determined to fight Chiaki so I sought her out. She was fighting Alex, so I just waited. They took a while and I had to refuse a request from Mike, cos I really wanted to fight her. She was kicking Alex’s ass, hehe, and at one point I think she felt he was relaxing/giving up, so she did a bit of kakari on him. Hehe, good to watch. Then it was my turn, WOOT. Too bad she was a bit tired after her fight with Alex, so she didn’t completely kick my ass. It was kinda funny when we started. First cuts: Ai men, second: Ai-men, third:Ai kote. Ah, great kendo minds think alike I reckon, hehe. After the kote cut we went into tsubaseriai and had a smile at each other. After that she mixed it up a bit. Being taller than her, I didn’t bother with dou cuts, and after a while I gave up on kote cuts. I focussed on getting good men cuts. Now, she’s considered the ‘queen’ of kaeshi dou, so I totally expected to have many dou cuts land on me. But with my men cuts, I was trying to do different timings to try and out wit her kaeshi dou. Don’t think I landed any cuts on her though, but I did keep on trying. I think that’s a really good way to practice, where you know someone is really good at a counter attack, so you really have to make good primary attacks.

Forgetfulness

Hmm, I really should find time to post my entries sooner, cos I seem to forget a lot of things if I leave it for a couple of days.

I came to training late on Monday. By the time I got in the dojo, the warmup was starting to do the usual set of 8 exercises. I quickly got my shit together and did my own warmup. I really should plan out my own ‘quick’ warmup, cos every time I do this, I seem to forget stuff. I’ll go through some things, then at the end, I’ll think, shit, didn’t stretch my neck. I only remembered that time because my neck was kinda sore, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have done the neck stretches.

I managed to get in a few suburi as everyone else was finishing. Sensei stopped everyone and made a point about having ‘snappy’ cuts, where the snappiness comes from the last moment of the cut where you kinda ‘whip’ your wrists and stopping the cut with tenouchi. Hmm, I’m starting to think sensei is psychic ‘cos this is something that I’ve been working on. I think it helps with the ‘click’ I mentioned earlier. But yeah, about that, Chris P. has kinda let me down, and told me that it wasn’t that important… bah, just when I had achieved it. I’m still proud of it though, its like a new toy.

Menstuke.. and I was first again! I’m starting to think that I’ve demoralised everyone into just giving up because they just can’t compete with my speed.

Did a whole lot of kirikaeshi, then finished off with a continuous kirikaeshi across the width of the basketball court… twice! I did this against two juniors, and they didn’t really do it right, they were still have trouble with maintaining a good distance as motadachi. And again, like last time, I must have done 3 times as many cuts on the way back compared to when I was going forward. I had mentioned to the girl that was against to make sure she cuts from her shoulders, rather than her elbows, so during my cuts, I tried to emphasise that. Sensei also pointed out that the left hand should be going up and down, not side to side, which I was trying to do too. I think my cuts were decent. It felt good cos I maintained a really good pace throughout. Fun fun fun.

Then jigeiko, with a shiai feel. Sensei had Andrew and Avi demonstrate shiai geiko. The pointed out that we should acknowledge each others cuts during the fight, so that we know understand what a good scoring cut should be like. Before we started he separated the higher grades from the lower grades, bah, I was stuck with the lower grades. I remember seeing Tony’s body language, hehe, it represented how I felt. I really wanted to go with the higher grades to get some good practice, but yeah, oh well. We had quite a few rounds, so I can’t remember all those that I fought.

Suffice to say, I was concentrating on keeping up my attacking spirit during my fights, and not letting down my guard. One memorable fight was with Viet. He was able to break my concentration. I don't know what it is, but I just can't take him seriously during jigeiko. He makes it worse when he goes all out, hehe, its just not him. But yeah, at one point, I tried my Trung-do on him, and went into waki gamae, hehe. Did a men cut from there which felt really good, but no way would that work in a shiai, and it shouldn't have worked then, but he let his guard down... Now I know how to break him.

Well you can tell by the way I walk, I'm a womans man....

Wednesday.

Relatively small class. Sensei started with some basic etiquette stuffs. Like as you walk into the dojo, you should bow without carrying anything on your shoulders, and take your shoes off before you step in, etc. I was quite glad that I make an effort to do all those things he mentioned.

Menstuke. I was feeling quite thirsty so I decided to have a bit of a drink before I put my men/kote on, so I figured I’d wouldn’t come up first… but hey, I still came up first!!! Damn I’m fast, hehe… Only one thing to do at a time like this… and that’s strut. I think Masa has joined in the race, cos he’s noted that I’m very fast the past few trainings, and on Wednesday, he jumped up as soon as he finished hoping to be first, but he saw me standing already, hehe. I also made sure that I didn’t tie the men himo too tight so that I don’t get more headaches. It felt slightly looser than I’d like, but it stayed on nicely for the whole training.

Just the usual warmup kirikaeshi, though this time, we did one long continuous set across the width of the basketball court. I was up against a junior, so I tried to take big-ish steps when I saw that he was struggling. Then it came to my turn, and I swear, he must have done this on purpose, but on the way back, he was taking tiny steps. I must have literally done 3 times more cuts going back then when I went forward. Still fun, and I think I maintained my pace quite nicely, whilst working on the ‘snap’ of each cut.

Then class split, and Pai Mei made us do some seme cuts, followed with some harai cuts to counter the seme, then cuts at the same time, the point being that no cut is better than the other (ie. not like rock beats scissors), but its how well you do it that will land you the ippon.

Then jigeiko. I had Christina first up. I started off with a couple of cuts that landed, so I thought I’d make some openings for her to cut, but she insisted that I just go all out. Erm ok… I was quite surprised how easily I was cutting her after that. Even when I tried to increase the size of my cuts. They just seemed to land. Afterwards, she mentioned that she wants people to kick her ass so that she’ll somehow learn to maintain center, then I realised that yeah, she really wasn’t centered and her kensen was ‘weak’.

I then fought Vinci. I’d made a note to not go easy on her (or any other AUG rep) to hopefully make them better ‘fighters’ at the AUG. This all came to an end though, when I tried to go for a men cut as she was following through. I had tried this during the waza practice, where we did kote-men, and if my opponent didn’t move to the side, I’d bounce off them and do another men. So yeah, that seemed to work because my opponents would continually face me so that I hit them straight on. However, with Vinci, she was following through, and when I landed my cut, it landed on the side of her head. I could feel the pain as soon as it landed… ouch! She made me feel worse with her ‘yelp’. I felt like such as ass… I apologised profusely and asked if she wanted to stop, but being the trooper that she is, she decided to continue. I couldn’t really go all out after that though. For ippon shobu, I wasn’t looking to cut, but just practiced my seme. She ended up getting a men cut on me.

I then had a short ippon shobu with Masa. Kinda funny, cos we both don’t like the quality of our cuts. It was something like this…Me-Cut… Masa-ippon..me-nah, that was shit. Masa-Cut… me-ippon… Masa-nah, no zanshin… hehe. I think he ended getting a hiki men on me which was blantantly obvious that he coundn’t deny it.


Friday Morning.

I was almost on time! Actually started my warmup before half the others.

Did some waza to start off. Then Pai Mei says that we’ll be doing some shiai. Groups of 3, with 2 fighting and 1 shimpan. My first time being shimpan. Didn’t really know what to do. So just focussed on watching the cuts. I tried to be overly critical, which I think is good in this situation, because there’s no point giving easy points that may not have been scored in a real competition.

Anyway, Pai Mei’s advice was that during a comp, you should forget about the distractions such as wanting to look good in front of high grade shimpans, forget that your peers are watching, etc. Just enjoy the moment, and the fight. Focus on your opponent. Don’t think I was able to do that too well today. I kinda still treated it like a normal jigeiko. I fought Andy first up, and he said to me, yeah, this is not jigeiko… saying that I tended to relax in between the action, that I should maintain my focus, and zanshin, etc. It was really good advice, because I tried to maintain that in my following fights.

I then fought Walden for a bit before Pai Mei called a stop.

Then jigeiko.

I continued my fight with Walden. I think we were quite evenly matched. No one having a real big advantage over the other. During ippon, it was like my ippon shobu with Masa, hehe. I think at one point he seemed a bit agitated that I was giving him points so easily. We finally stopped because his Dou was coming off. He’s right hand is broken, and still heavily bandaged so he couldn’t tie it tightly. We stopped and I helped a brother out…

I then fought Chris P. WOOT! He’s like a rock. The first few cuts I tried on him, he’d just stand his ground and I’d tsuki myself. Chris noticed that when I go for a kote cut, my feet kinda spread apart, very similar to the way Pai Mei shows us… when he’s showing us the WRONG thing to do! Doh. I’ve noticed that this is bad, because as soon as I get into that stance, I kinda stop and lose my momentum. Chris also helped me with something that I’ve been having trouble with. Sometimes, I like to go for cuts when I feel a bit too much sideways pressure from my opponents shinai. I figured that if I go for a cut, their shinai would go to the side leaving them open. The thing with this is that I wasn’t raising my own shinai high enough for their shinai to go away. Chris pointed this out to me, telling me to either go over or under their shinai. I tried both and it seemed much better. I was really glad to spar with Chris today because it’s the first time I have fought him in a very long time, and I really value his advice.

I then fought Chris C. I noticed he liked going for my kote, so I tried to do some kote nuki men cuts on him. Afterwards, he noted that my men cuts were fast! Wow, that’s the first time anyone said that to me. But I guess they weren’t fast enough because a few times, he landed the kote. There was one in particular that ‘popped’ quite nicely. I still noted to him that he left hand isn’t exactly centred, but its better than what it was before. I told him to just relax it a bit more.

I then fought KevH. He mentioned that my kamae was a bit obscure, that my hands were a bit too low and my kensen a bit too high. This is very similar to what Mike told me last week. I hate to say this, but my kamae feels quite comfortable. I tried to correct the angle of the shinai and from what I can see, it does look much better, but it felt a whole lot worse. Perhaps I’m just used to my wrong kamae, a bit like how Chris C. is ‘comfortable’ with his left hand slightly off center. I’m going to take steps to correct this. I ended up getting ippon on Kev to finish. I did a hiki men I think, don’t know if he agreed or not, but I showed good zanshin, to indicate to him that I felt I got the cut, and he asked me if I think I got it, and I said it felt like I got it, so yeah, he gave it to me.

Then fought Pei. Again, he kiai was a little weak. I noticed that she does weird footwork whilst she was fighting KevH, but I forgot to mention to her. Best not to mess with women anyway. She might go all Bollmanator on me and just leave.

The Bollmanator

This guy continues to surprise me with his ‘Trung-do’-ness. He lined up right next to me and the way he carried himself was quite (as Viet mentioned) pretentious. Hard for me to describe his actions in writing, but its funny and disturbing at the same time.

Anyway, got my men on first again last night, though I had it on quite tight and again it was giving me a headache. I had to retie it during training to relieve the pain.

We did the normal routine last night. I tried to focus on getting good tenouchi on my cuts. I realised that I hadn’t really worked on tenouchi other than when we do suburi. Anyway, I did find that my cuts were a bit more snappy, and that my men cuts had a bit more ‘whack’ in them. We had Chiaki train with us last night, and I when I got to her on the rotation, I was thinking ‘please, not kote cuts….’ Sensei ‘OK, now kote cuts’… Doh! Though she was nice to me and raised her wrists a bit so that I wouldn’t have to completely lean over to reach it, hehe, I really hope she doesn’t read this stupid blog. She gave me a bit of a smile when we osameto-ed. Must have been laughing at my pathetic kiai (which I really tried to go all out on, hehe).

Anyway, a few rotations down, I noticed that she was telling someone off, and quite loudly, and I looked back and sure enough, it was the Bollmanator! Hehe. She later said that she told him not to step forward when opening for a doh cut, or something like that. But it was like this… he opens, she cuts…’don’t step forward. He open, she cuts… ‘Don’t step forward!’ He opens, she cuts… ‘Don’t step forward!’ Bollmanator ‘But that’s not how I was taught!!!’ Chiak; osameto…walks back. Hehe, after training she asked me if there was something wrong with him, like is he deaf or something. I’m really starting to think that the Bollmanator is taking private lessons with the Trungster. I wonder why he can’t make Wednesdays trainings. I also saw Andrew trying to teach him something. Apparently he got sick of all the ‘help’ that was thrown his way that he left halfway through training.

Anyway, enough bitching.

Not much to talk about regarding jigeiko, because it just wasn’t in me on Monday night. I had Pei first up. I ‘gave face’. One thing I noted was that her kiai wasn’t strong enough… Hmm, must have got whacked really hard on the head because I can’t remember who I fought next. I know that I finished off with Li Jun. Can’t remember much from that, though she did tell me at one point that sensei told her to always acknowledge if someone has cut you. Hmm, something like that.

Bah, too many things on my mind at the moment that its affecting my kendo. Need to refocus.

endless jigeiko/hang dog

Hmm, despite my best efforts, I still got to training about 5mins late today. I even went to sleep at about 10pm last night!

Used my doubari shinai this morning, and during my warmup, I was getting the ‘click’ somewhat consistently. I even managed to get it on some haysuburi cuts. I was still putting on my bogu whilst Pai Mei was doing his warmup, and he got it on pretty much every cut! Even the hayasuburi cuts!

We didn’t do much waza practice. Just some kihon cuts with an emphasis on getting kikentai no ichi. After that went straight into free jigeiko.

First I fought Kev for what seemed to be a long time. I can’t remember much of the fight, but towards the end, I noticed that my intensity waned. Been trying to work on my seme, and trying to induce cuts from my opponents, or at least reactions. Haven’t been too successful though.

I then fought Mike. From my last few fights with him, I noticed that he goes back a lot against my seme. Not necessarily in a defensive way, but he does go back. This time though, he didn’t always go back. He’d at times react with his own seme. I really liked this. It’s the kinda fighting from the ‘kensen’ that I like, its ‘sussing’ out your opponent and trying to find openings, as opposed to just going for cuts. Anyway, at the end, he mentioned that my kensen was a bit high, which he almost always says after our fights. Hmm, old habits die hard! I really want to fix this.

I also fought Vincci. Her kiai is much stronger now, and a few times I tried to overwhelm her like I did last week, but she stood strong. I continue to be impressed by her kendo. From what I know of her outside kendo, it seems a bit surreal to go against her. A bit hard to explain, but its kinda like trying to beat the crap out of a cute little girl… like those sickeningly cute ones on Japanese manga.

I then fought Rin Po (sp?) from Monash University. He also likes to fight from the kensen. He’s really good. He picked me pretty well. I realised this, so I really focussed on his eyes, and after that I think I did a bit better. Still, his reactions are very quick. He scored a debana kote on me during ippon shobu. I managed to hit is men, but in real life, I guess it wouldn’t have landed because I wouldn’t have lost be right hand first. After wards, he asked me what time we normally finish, and I told him we still had about an hour, and he said 'wow, so much jigeiko!' hehe, yeah. Normally we only get 3 mins each fight, but I noticed that I was going for up to 15 mins each fight. I should make use of that fact and go all out to see how my kendo would fare in a long encho.

I also fought Hiro briefly but Mike called an end to jigeiko.

We then did kata. I was hoping to just do suburi and work on my ‘click’ but Vincci didn’t have a partner and asked me to do it, so yeah, I did kata. Went through 1-3 with her. Um, yeah, I think her biggest weakness is that she holds the bokuto too loosely. It looks as though she’s not in control of it.

Onto rock climbing. Yeah, my brilliant coaching has led to Pei climbing a grade 13 climb… although she fell once during her ascent. Anyway, gotta learn that Teresa Teng song now.

I managed to climb that grade 16 clean. Everyone I know that has climbed it has commented that its no way a 16, more like a 19/20. But yeah, again, I didn’t try anything too hard. Mainly high teens. I was actually quite surprised on how easily I did them. And I must have improved heaps because the holds that I used to be scared of now seem like really good holds. Must be some synergism between kendo and climbing that leads to more finger strength. I did try a 22 but couldn’t do it clean, or finish it. About 80% up, I fell off, and had to wait a long time because a guy next to me was doing another climb that overlapped with mine, so I just hung there waiting for him. Afterwards I noticed some lower back pain. Mental note; don’t hang around too much… just climb.

Click goes the shinai, click click click

hmm, not much happened today. Sensei held tryouts for the upcoming AUG, as there are only 10 places available but 15 people wanting to go. I didn't get to cheer or see the fights as those not wanting to compete were relegated to doing kata.

Anyway, got my men on first again today, despite giving an unfair advantage away... I'll just keep struttin'.

Well for those doing kata, we went through 1-3 against the juniors. I think teaching 3 at this point isn't really necessary, as I think it causes more confusion than anything else. There's so much to learn with kata that you can just pretty much practice the first one to get those points done, perhaps the second one too so that its not too boring. Well I didn't really learn much today, just tried to practice things that I already know.

Thats about it really. Ah yeah, it has been bugging me since camp but I finally achieved something that I've been trying for a while now. Its the 'click' you get when you have the proper tenouchi. I've realised that I was holding the shinai a bit too firmly with my right hand, and that I wasn't doing the tenouchi properly. SO yeah, the way to get the click is to have very little force with the right hand, and squeeze at the very utmost last point of the swing... 'click'... Well I managed to do it semi consistently with my doubari shinai, which I was planning to use today, but then I tried to do it with my chokuto and it didn't really come off properly. So I just used the chokuto for the training to try and get that click.

Another thing about shinai's. About 2 weeks ago, I realised that my left hand isn't exactly in the correct position, its not quite 'centred'. So I started using my doubari shinai (which has an oval handle) to try and correct this. The oval handle makes me more aware of what my hand position is so that I can correct it. I also think that my skill level isn't enough to warrant using the chokuto yet. Need to get better to use it properly I think.

Evaporated Spirit

Got my men on first last night. Don’t know why I’m so proud of it. It seems a bit stupid. I still kinda did a bit of a strut anyway, just for fun.

Had some kendoka from Monash University join us last night, and Kate Sylvester who normally takes the trainings on Mondays there. Throughout the training, I was very impressed by her kiai. Very much like the wail of a banshee! The kinda thing that makes your spine tingle. If I were a girl I’d definitely try to emulate it. Too bad I have this Y chromosome thingy.

The dojo seemed quite warm last night and it very much felt like a summer training session. I was already feeling the sweat beading underneath my armour after a couple of kirikaeshi. It really sapped me. Anyway, we just did some kirikaeshi, kihon cuts. Then uchikomi against designated motadachi. After this the motadachi did their own uchikomi and kakari geiko. During this time, I saw a few of our junior members kinda mucking around when they should have been watching. I took it upon myself to go and tell them off. I was looking around to see if anyone senior would do it, but they were all doing the keiko, so yeah, something kinda just came over me and I did it. I think it just looks bad especially when we have guests at the club. If Chiba sensei or someone like that had been there, I’d be very embarrassed if guys were doing that. Anyway, I also noticed an ‘antithesis’ to this kinda behaviour. There’s this one guy in the junior group that thinks he’s got it right, and does some weird shit. Like waiting in line in a waki gamae position. It’s a bit ‘Trung-do-ish’ for me. He should be astute enough to see what the seniors are doing and try to emulate that behaviour appropriately. Blah, I’ll get off my high horse now. It’s the putting on of armour first that’s making me a big headed I think. I should slow down a bit and let someone else win.

After this we had a shiai between Melbourne and Monash students. Sensei picked those that were going to the AUG to fight and get some experience. From Melbourne there was Vinnci (which I learnt last night is pronounced Vinchi, not Vinsi), Roxy, Peyang, Anthony and Viet. From Monash were Ophelia, Shirley, Masato and a couple of other guys I haven’t met before. I was quite impressed with the level of kendo. I’m starting to fear Vinnci’s dou cut. She tried it a couple of times during her match, and I think it was the third attempt that finally scored.

Anyway, after this we had a short jigeiko session. I fought Viet, Masa and Jon. I just felt really shit last night. Viet kicked my ass, he wasn’t mucking around like he usually does last night, I knew this cos a few times at tsubaseriai, he’d kiai right in my face. Anyway, I then got my ass kicked by Masa and Jon. I think it was the heat that got to me. I guess it’s a good experience. Spring is coming cos the weather is starting to get warmer, which means trainings are going to feel much harder. Need to lift my spirit.

Believe (extras)

A couple of things I forgot to mention in the previous blog.

After the morning training, I'd changed in the mens room, and went back upstairs to see that everyone had pretty much just changed on the basketball court. Anyway, I saw Alex kinda leaning over with his ass out so I decided to give it a good kick (think Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura, 'going downtown') hehe, or so I thought. I tried to run away after I'd kicked him but he chased me down and gave me my first lesson in muay thai. Quite embarrassing whilst everyone was watching... Damn, need to kick his ass in kendo!

Also, After mokuso and rei, I went up to Ben sensei to thank him for jigeiko. I diligently waited as others thanked him and he gave them advice. When it was my turn, it was basically, 'domo arigato gozaimashitta. You're doing very well'. Hmm, no advice??? I noticed Yakov sensei did the same thing on wednesday. Hmm, I can't be that good that I don't need advice! I was hoping for some pointers on perhaps what my weaknesses were or something like that... but nothing. Surely I can't either be completelyl hopeless or too good that it doesn't warrant some useful advice. Anyway, I usually get some tips from other sempais after I have jigeiko with them. Hopefully I can spar with either sensei again real soon... and hope...

Believe

Pai Mei was absent from this morning's training session, but in his place we had Ben sensei! woot! Again, I got there a bit late. Don't know why but I couldn't get much sleep last night, and the sleep that I did get happened to coincide with my alarm clock.

Anyway, people were just finishing off their warmups as I got in. Got myself ready and took both my shinais out. Decided to do a quick warmup with double shinais. Hmm, harder than I'd thought. Did about 60 suburi then 20 hayasuburi. Nice and warmed up.

Now I don't usually do this, because I haven't really been told the ettiquette regarding it, but I saw a couple of the seniors do it so I did it too. After my warmup, I knelt down in seiza and did mokuso myself for a bit. Then bowed to the kamiza before I went into men. hmm, too shy to ask in the forums.

There was a junior that was there and he was really struggling with his tenugui and men so I helped him out. Hmm, he's doesn't seem too bright, but I tried to help him best I could. I'm not much of an instructor anyway. In the end, I pretty much just did it for him so that I could join the others. Did 1 kirikaeshi to warm up before Ben sensei started teaching the waza for the day.

Today Ben went through some ouji waza techniques. First was debana men. A couple of different situations that you can use it. First is when your opponent is rocking back and forth in a rhythmic way. If they do this, then the time to cut is when most/all of their weight is on the front foot, because they can't launch an attack themselves without weight on the back foot. So motadachi rocks back and forth and the person doing the cut picks his/her own timing. That was quite fun.
Next is when your opponent is pushing forward. Can't be bothered explaining, but you cut men as the motadachi is pushing forward (damn, why can't I be more articulate).
This was then followed with a response to that debana men cut, which is a nuki dou cut. Man my dou cuts suck. I'm still twisting my torso during the cut. Need to maintain good posture, or at least figure out why my body thinks that its better to twist.

Well onto jigeiko.

I had jigeiko with Ben sensei! The first time ever I think. To start I think he was trying to see if I'd learnt any of the waza and gave me the openings. First up he rocked back and forth, and to my surprise, I pretty much cut him on the second rock forward! We then did some seme-ing at each other, and I got to practice doing cuts just as he seme-ed. Hmm, after a bit we went into proper sparring. At least thats how I saw it. He may have just been toying with me the whole time. I also noticed that he kinda did what Yakov sensei did to me, which is kinda open the shinai to have men open to sucker me in so that he can do ouji waza. Again, I was up to the challenge to try and 'beat' his ploy. I think I got him once, can't really remember. I just really enjoyed it. I've found that I find it easier to fight people of higher rank, mainly because they don't just go in and cut blindly, but actually fight using their kensen, ie, only cutting when they know there is an opening, rather than blindly.

The only other thing that was memorable about this morning was during my fight with Vinnci. Hehe, at one point, she gave out a good strong kiai, which I responded with my own strong kiai, which she responded with a bit of a whimper and stepped back, hehe. The look on her face was priceless, and so I just had to chuckle a bit. She was a bit pissed off at me for laughing at her, but to me, its gotta be the cutest thing I'd ever witnessed during jigeiko.


Again, tonight, I went rock climbing, with Pei, and my other climbing friend also showed up. Well Pei seems to be improving quite a bit. Easily climbed all the climbs up to grade 11. Struggled on the grade 12 again, but did quite well on a 13 (damn, I should be worrying now). She didn't get to the top of it though, but it was a good effort.

Well for myself, again I took it easy and didn't want to try too hard and show off in front of my new climbing buddy. Did mainly high teens. Finally climbed that 16 that was bugging me. Couldn't do it clean but I know how to do it now so I should do it next time. What really surprised me was that I decided to try a 22 climb. The place was quite crowded last night, and it was one of the few that was available, so I just did it anyway. I doubted that I'd climb it clean so I told Pei to expect me to fall quite a bit. But yeah, I managed to do it clean! Although for most of the climb, I felt like I was always on the verge of falling off, but somehow I managed to stick it. I think this is something that is really hindering my progress, both in climbing and in kendo, my lack of self belief. Especially in kendo, where I think I give up a bit too easily when I go against someone I think is better, and I seem to always bow to acknowledge their cuts, but always doubting my own cuts. I think I'll try some more 20+ climbs next week, just to challenge myself again. And always give my all in jigeiko, ie, always push myself so that I'm teetering on the edge of my endurance/stamina.

There goes my immunity to bruising

Straight into menstuke to start off training. Viet beat me last night, but he was later disqualified (by me) because his him was all wrong! There was a twist on his left side and the bow at the back were of all sorts of different lengths. Chris P. actually came and told him off! hehe, thats what you get for trying to cheat Viet. Very bad form indeed. So yeah, I guess I still beat everyone else which makes me officially first.

Did some kirikaeshi and kihon cuts just to warm up.

We then did this keiko where sensei would bang the drum, and you'd have to cut straight away. The point being that in a shiai situation, you should cut as soon as you see the opening. So what was needed was a constant attacking spirit, so that you can cut instantaneously. We did this for several different waza. First it was just men, kote, dou... we then did some ouji waza, men kaeshi dou and kote nuki men. I love the kote nuki men cuts. I didn't feel like I landed anything good though, especially the kaeshi dou, and especially when I went up against shorter people, somehow when I go for the cut, my whole posture just twists on itself and looks totally shit.

To follow that, we did it simultaneously, ie, not motadachi, but both players going for a cut... any cut. I just remembered that I had Andrew first up and for the very first cut I think I scored on him! I did a harai men and I think that surprised him and he lost centre. But after that he kicked my ass. I remember at one point we both went for nuki dou, hehe, kinda funny.

We then went straight to jigeiko. I wasn't feeling as good as on monday. I really need to find out why I feel like this, so that I can fix it up. I just felt a bit flat. First up I fought Janice. She's not smiling as much as she used to, so I assume she's getting more serious, perhaps for uni games. Good for her. Can't remember much about the fight, but she did miss a men cut and it ended up tsuki-ing me. Then I fought 'spongebob'. He doesn't have much tenouchi, so a few of his cuts landed on my shoulders when he missed men. I have a very nice purple patch on my left shoulder now... I also fought Jaklene. Her cuts are quite slow, so I slowed down my timing to match hers for most of the fight. Every now and then I'd do a debana kote. It seemed quite easy because she had a bit of a pause before she lifted up her shinai, hard to explain, but I didn't get a chance to tell her afterwards.

I then fought against sensei. I really like fighting sensei. For the most part, I think he was trying to sucker me into cutting his men for him to do ouji waza. I kinda took it upon myself to try a good enough men cut to 'beat' his ouji waza. He'd mixed it up going for kaeshi dou, nuki kote, debana men, etc. I remember landing two men cuts on him. The first, he said was a bit iffy because it didn't hit him hard enough. Hmm, can tenouchi me too good? When I do suburi, I really whip the shinai so I don't think its that. I'm probably just aiming a tad too high. On monday, Pai Mei also said that my cuts were too soft, though that was for a dou cut. Hmm, need to work on that. My second men cut on sensei was a bit better, though only marginally. I think this may be coming from the fact that I hate it when people hit too hard, ie, tenouchi for my nose rather than the top of my men. Anyway, something else I now have to work on.

Bring it on...

Tried on the new club jacket last night, and I have to say, it looks quite good, and is of quite high quality. Its got what seems to be a waterproof shell with polyfleece lining. Got myself a large so I can wear it while i'm in dou/tare.

Got my men on first last night too! With Pei and Viet just seconds behind, muahahahaha! Too slow guys. Though I did rush it a bit and it wasn't as tight as it could have been, still, I saw some minor mistakes that Viet and Pei had made, where Viet had a bit of a twist in his himo of the side of his men, whilst Pei's two men himo were slightly separated... Tut tut tut...

Comps are coming up so sensei wants us to do more jigeiko. We did a few kirikaeshi to start followed with some kihon cuts and nidan cuts. I remembered doing a really nice kihon kote on Roxy which 'popped' really nicely, and she was like 'oooh, that felt good...' hehe. We then did uchikomi with an emphasis on multiple cuts. At least 4 multiple cuts in 5 passes, at least thats what I heard.

Then jigeiko. Was quite fun. Had Pei first up. Tried to fool her with some 'tricksy' kendo but she didn't buy it. I've noticed that I find it hard fighting really short girls, because kote cuts seem harder, and dou cuts are pretty much non-existent. I then fought Yvonne. More zanshin Yvonne! and go straight... Next I fought Russel I think. He beat me in my first shiai match at camp, so I wanted payback! But not much in it I guess. I like fighting Russel, he goes all out, no mucking about. Hit me in the ribs at one point too. Been hit there so many times this year I think I'm getting immune to bruising there! Then fought Andrew. He kicked my ass, but I really enjoyed it. I scored one cut on him which he acknowledged, I think it was a kote cut. Later he said that I was moving back too much. I found that I've been doing a lot of this lately so that I can fight from issoku distant and not chikama. I guess I need to be more attacking and just cut if it comes to chikama rather than go back all the time. I really like Andrews cuts though, every time he went for a men cut, he'd go straight for me and be all in my face. Its something I'm trying to emulate. I then had Josh... me,'Nitto onegaishimasu', Josh,'Sorry, not tonight'. Damn, oh well. For some reason that fight seemed sooooo short. I still liked it though. Josh was trying some different variations on chudan kamae which I didn't know how to fight against, but it was good experience. I then had KevH. I think I know how to fight him better now, but I just can't quite do it yet. I need to be more attacking as he is very attacking, making him 'open' a lot. I just need to be in a very attacking mindset to make use of those opportunities. He also commented that I was fighting a bit too close, and I wasn't really doing anything... More attacking... Last up I was against Vinnci. Hmm, she was cutting to the sides quite a bit, so I told her to cut straighter, which she did, and landed a couple of cuts on me towards the end.

So yeah, bring on more jigeiko. I want the practice. There's a lot of good high kyu grade players in our club, so the chances of me making the kyu grade team are quite remote, but I've thrown my hat into the ring. I think it would be good experience.