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.
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.
posted by Son at 1:14 pm
4 Comments:
i was done before you...i just took a while to stand up because i dont want to stand out too much in my white hakama. Hmph! Admit it, you lost.
I'd admit that you may have stood up marginally quicker than I did, but I disqualified you for have a twist in your himo, and they were slightly apart.
next time i'll disqualify you for not having the loop end and the stringy end of the ribbon the exact same length!
I'll disqualify you both for being the fastest.
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