Be more helpful

Seemed like all the committee members were late last night, so the store room wasn’t opened until after the warm-ups took place.

Yvonne took the warmup last night, but after the running, she chickened out and handed it to Andy. He took us through the non-shinai exercises. Said something that really stuck in my head. Something about enjoying the warm-ups. Then it occurred to me, that I hadn’t really enjoyed the warm-ups for a while. I do remember a time when I did actually enjoy it, though that was a time when I was going through the warm-ups so easily, and felt the 30/40 hayasuburi to finish off were quite easy. Now I’m struggling. Could it be linked to why I don’t really enjoy it anymore? For about a month now, I feel like my kendo is going downhill, and that I don’t seem to have much energy to do anything. Maybe I just haven’t been getting enough sleep or something. Bah. He also said that because the class is small, we should all lift our spirits, as we can’t hide behind someone elses kiai when there is a big group. This is something I tried to say on Monday but don’t think it came out right. Forgot to thank him for saying it in an intelligible manner. Anyway, after we picked up the shinai’s, Andy handed the rest of the warmup to Kenji. Woot, I don’t think seen him take the warmup for like 5 years! Hehe. Anyway, before we went through the actual warmup, he gave us some advice about holding the shinai and wrist angle. I’ve noticed that you can kinda tell the level of the kendoka when they give you advice, or maybe its just their different styles, but there’s a difference between say, Andy and Tom/Mike and again with Kenji. Though I always enjoy the little tidbits that we get during warm-ups.

To start, sensei made us practice basics – sonkyo/kamae, some footwork and shinai geiko.

I really like the footwork exercises. I guess we can’t really do them every session, and that we can still think about our footwork during other keiko, but I still like to have it ‘focussed’ like this. Thinking back to the last time we did this, I think I have gotten better. Perhaps I’m a bit more stable than before. We then did some shinai geiko. I was against Viet. I don’t know what it is, but just like Russel, I can’t help but laugh at his ‘serious’ face. They’re quite similar in expression. Anyway, the point was to get the ki ken tai no ichi, and also to make your cuts ‘light’ and snappy. Forcing the cuts makes you tense your muscles and slows you down.

Menstuke, and I lost! Bah, by quite a big margin too, about 2 seconds! Whats going on! After sensei mentioned the ever so slight incorrectness of my men himo, I’ve been super conscious about it and take that extra time to get it right. Bah, Next time Gadget…. NEXT TIME!!!!

Kiri Kaeshi. We finished off with a ‘fun’ variation. Instead on one long one across the dojo, sensei grouped us into 3’s so that we can do 2 in a row. Had Josh and Edward (junior) in my line. It was fun. Josh went all out nice and fast. I tried to go all out. May have gone a bit too quick for Eddie but by the time I got to Josh, I was stuggling to maintain pace. My kiai became less refined and quite coarse, but I got through it. Fun…

We then did uchikomi geiko. Sensei then picked a large group of motadachi, which included me. This is so that the juniors can rotate and always be against a senior person. Can’t remember much. I was quite knackered. The pattern was uchikomi from each person, then straight into jigeiko. I quite liked this pattern. It helped me relax during jigeiko, cos I would spend all the nervous energy during the uchikomi. Sensei had instructed that we should go for our cuts during jigeiko, but I think I was guilty of trying to block a few times. Mainly because I didn’t feel the cut was there and the instinct is to block. I should convert this ‘instinct’ to one of attacking instead. Anyway it was fun. Last person I fought was Ryo. He seems to like to just point his kensen at me and walk straight at me. Quite intimidating especially when he holds a strong centre. Tried to just hold my ground and just go to tsubazeriai, whilst trying to maintain strong centre myself.

After training was finished, had Waldon come to me to thank me for jigeiko. Then he asked me for advice! First Masa now him. Hmm, I’m quite flattered that they think I’m good enough to give them advice. Perhaps they’ve seen me giving advice to others and though I can also give them good advice, but normally I give advice on obvious things. For example, I corrected Melva’s double step men cut yesterday. Not really a double step, but it seems her feet a quite far apart in kamae, so when she goes to cut, her left foot moves forward to get her feet to a good kamae position, rather than just push off with her left foot to start off with. Anyway, I have set out to perhaps be less selfish in my kendo and try to help others where I can. I’m still too focussed on my own kendo and looking for that opening.

Cobra Kai

Took the warmup again last night. Quite a small class, only about 20 people.

Had Ben sensei take us for the training. Just the usual kirikaeshi, kihon, uchikomi then kakari geiko.
Things to note:

• When doing uchikomi/kakari geiko, you should feel the power coming from your lower body, not your arms, so you should try to make your cuts lighter and focus on your hips.
• When doing suburi, the 2 small fingers on your left hand remain tight on the shinai throughout the cut, so you don’t loosen them at the top of your cut. You should also do big swings, and avoid being ‘hit’ on the head with the back of the shinai.
• Before class, started, he emphasised that we should all look the same in kendo, ie, we shouldn’t adorn ourself with jewellery, or other shit to make yourself stand out. I think he may have been referring to ‘Chuck Norris’ and his home made name tag. It kinda looked stupid when I first saw it. Its got his first name large and bold, and his surname smaller just beneath. I asked him why he felt he needed it, and ‘he’ gave ‘me’ a lecture about how its about showing respect. Bleh. This from a guy who decided to wear a headband to training, and a black hakama and gi (Cobra Kai style).

We then did some waza practice were we nominated the waza we wanted to practice. Its like free waza practice. I practiced mainly dou cuts, since I still can’t really cut it right. Tried different things, but my cuts still seemed shit. Can’t get a good whack to my cuts. Also tried kaeshi dou, and men hiki men to show one of the juniors how to do it.

Then did free jigeiko. Fought Kah Hong I think first up. He was dancing around a bit, so I told him to relax. Just reiterated what Ben sensei told us on Friday morning, how we should keep that constant attacking energy in our mind, but with our body, we should be more relaxed and not waste energy.

I then fought Josh and his nito set. Hehe, fun!!! I actually managed to cut him a few times. I found that I had to just go in straight, and vary my timing to cut in order to avoid a deflection from his short sword. Even if he tapped my shinai with it, I’d go off centre and he’d smack me with his long sword. At one point, he scored two men cuts on me in quick succession, so I figured I’ll try to change something, so I went into jodan kamae. I think he flinched a bit, so I went for a men cut. Went all wrong, and didn’t feel right. I don’t even know how to do a one handed men cut, nor do I know the footwork. Well back to chudan for me.

Then fought Melva. She wanted to practice debana men during the waza practice, so I tried to be a bit accommodating. She lamented that her cuts were too slow, and that faster people would cut her, but I don’t think you really need to be ultra fast. I advised her that to do debana cuts, you kinda have to cut before you opponent cuts, ie, you ‘feel’ that they are about to cut, so you go for it before they do, and they can’t react because they are already in the process of making their own cut, if that makes sense. Or you can try to make them do a cut and cut them before they actually cut. So its more about picking the opportunity than speed.

After I finished with Melva, I asked Ryo to spar with me. I never fought him before (as he is a visitor from Kenshikan) so I thought it would be good to see his style. When we got up, he immediately opened for me to cut men. Huh?... ok, I went for men, and he tried kaeshi dou on me. Ok… After that I still kinda went for cuts that he opened for me to sucker me in, but I’d try different things to try and get the cut. I managed to get a couple of cuts in. One was a kote nuki men, which wasn’t that great; it didn’t have oomph, and landed a bit too close. I also got a good men cut on him that he acknowledged but I can’t remember how I did it. Must have just beaten him against him ouji waza’s.

Class ends and I had to make the dojo steward calls. I think I got them all right, or at least I should have. Been listening carefully at the past couple of trainings, so from what I gather these are the calls:

Start of training:

Seiretsu (call to line up)
Chakuza (kneel down)
Ki o stuke
Mokuso (with and emphasis on the ‘Sooooo’)
‘Clap’
Joseki ni… rei
Sensei ni… rei

At the end of training:

Seiretsu
Chakuza
Men tore (to take off men and kote)
Ki o stuke
Mokuso
‘Clap’
Sensei ni… rei
Joseki ni… rei
Otagai ni… rei (bow to each other)

My kendo is going downhill

Got my men on first on Wednesday.

The usual routine, kiri kaeshi, kihon, uchikomi. After all this sensei separated everyone into 3 groups for jigeiko, women, males going to AUG + some high ranking kendoka to fight them, and the rest (which I was in). Before we started sensei stopped had a bit of a chat to us. He emphasised that jigeiko is not a competition to see who can score. Obviously the aim is to score a cut, but there’s no point in being defensive and blocking your opponents cuts so that you yourself don’t get scored upon, but rather you should be counter attacking. Hmm, I thought about this for a bit, and realised that I had started to block and tilt my head sideways a bit lately, to prevent being cut. Hmm, my aim now is to get cut as much as possible to understand my weaknesses and thus try to improve my kendo.

I fought Tony first up. Just like our usual fights, both trying to force openings, rather than going in blindly. I’ve noticed that I liked to stare Tony down, mainly because he’s always got his eyes fixed on mine. Out of all the kendoka in the club, I think he does this the best (apart from sensei).

I then fought Masa. Good even fight. I didn’t try to mix things up much, just tried to get a good solid men cut. I got a couple of good cuts in and so did he. At one point after a cut, I punched his mengane again, and injured the same index finger again, though not quite on the same spot. Hmm, I hope it doesn’t become like sensei’s ring finger… After training finished, he came over to thank me, and then asked me for advice! Huh? Me? I hardly know whats going on with my own kendo let alone tell him. Its not like he’s got something drastically wrong with his kihon or anything. But yeah, I couldn’t help him, and so I realised that I’m too focussed on my own kendo during jigeiko, ie. how’s my kamae, check my kensen, push from my centre etc. Don’t really have time to see what my opponents doing apart from trying to see openings.

I think I then fought a couple of the juniors. Can’t remember much about them. Just that I tried to hold them back with seme and hold centre, but they seemed to go in for cuts that just weren’t there. I really wish I can tsuki them, cos that would really teach them (just like it does me). Hmm, I think I need more sleep, cos I can’t remember much else. Plus I’m feeling really down at trainings lately, must be low blood sugar levels. Bah…


Went to training this morning. First Friday morning in a long time (3 weeks I think). Borrowed Pei’s <3 heal protector. My heal has been hurting since camp, but nothing too serious, though the past couple of weeks, its gotten a little bit worse. Since she’s not using it, I figured I’d give it a try. Don’t think it will help my fumikomi technique, but at least it should lessen the pain until I work out why I’m doing the fumi komi wrong.

Pai Mei was absent, but we had Ben sensei there. I’ve noticed this last time he was here as well, but when he comes, he doesn’t like to ‘take’ the training. He left it to Mike to call the training. He’d give advice every now and then but he didn’t tell us what waza to practice, nor did he give any instruction as to how to do it. Hmm.

After the waza practice and some mawari jigeiko. I got cut a lot. Focussed on keeping my head straight and it gave me time to work on my kamae. We split up into groups of 5 and did some shiai geiko, with 2 people fighting and 3 shimpaning. I had Pei, Jaklene, Chris P. (kremes) and Ivan in my group. Lost my one match to Ivan by a men cut. Don’t know what it is, but this has happened to me a few times recently, where I just lose concentration as I see my opponent come in to cut, and before I know it, I’m cut. Blah, need to be focussed!

Then did free jigeiko. Fought Viet first up. Wanted a rematch of our shiai match. Man, he’s all over the place. I wanted to try some jodan on him too, but was too scared too. Tried it only once after a hiki men cut, so I followed it with a one handed men cut from jodan, didn’t look too pretty. I’ll leave it to others to do. I also noticed that Viet’s got this harai like waza from tsubazeriai. He did it a few times on me and it worked a couple of the times. I tried to do different things to try and counter it. One was to anticipate when he would do the harai, so as soon as he moved his shinai off centre so that he can do the harai, I’d cut. Worked once. Cut him as his shinai went past centre, hehehe. I even tried that waza for myself at one point. The cut landed but didn’t feel that good. Anyway, it was a very long jigeiko, must have been more than 15 minutes.

I then fought P<3i (hehe, that’s kinda cute). She hit me on the arm quite a lot, intentionally no doubt. When you fight someone, you have it in good faith that they don’t hit your unprotected areas! Anyway, that went on for a while. I tried to note how her kendo was, since she complains that I don’t give her advice. I noticed that her spirit was lacking, and no zanshin. After her cuts, her kiai would die off quite suddenly.

I then had a short fight with Janice. She went for a kote cut first up, didn’t really land (I went for men which I think landed nicely). She then asked me about good kote cuts. I had noticed with Viet and Pei, that their kote cuts were angled in, and as a result, they tended to hit the tsuba rather than the kote. The idea is to cut straight, so you hit the right part of the kote. Also need to have good tenouchi to get that ‘pop’. Janice’s cut didn’t have this so I emphasised tenouchi.

I also noticed that in a lot of my fights, my men cuts were going to the right (my right). This was really frustrating. I remember Kenji told me about this a couple of months ago, and I thought I had worked it out of my kendo, but it seems to have come back. My aim now is to do a good men cut during jigeiko, ,which starts with good men cuts during all other keiko. Must maintain good posture as I think this is whats causing the shitty cuts.

Another AUG shiai

Sensei started the class with some basics on Monday night. First it was just ashi sabaki. Ayumi ashi, slow deliberate, then faster, then almost as fast as you can. I can really appreciate the slow deliberate pace now. You have to be focussed, with zanshin, then maintain this state of mind when you’re going faster and faster. This was followed with okuri ashi, same pattern, slow, faster, then almost as fast as you can. I guess he doesn’t want us to go flat out because we need to maintain that state of mind, so that 10% you still have is supposed to be for your concentration I guess, and the steps still need to be kinda deliberate, such that at any time you can do a cut.

This was followed with patterned footwork. Doing okuri ashi, 2 steps forward, 2 steps back, 2 steps to the right, 2 steps back to left. Slow at first, then impossibly fast, Just realised why sensei didn’t make us go flat out for the first 2 exercises, cos form seems to disappear when you do. Ewww, two pigeons having sex outside my window! Guys, I’m trying to have lunch here!!! Bleh.

We then did diagonal steps. First forward and right, then forward and left. These two exercises where done whilst still facing forward. We then did these two exercises with slight rotation, ie. like we were trying to move around an imaginary opponent. I liked this exercise. I remember reading somewhere that you can negate an opponents strong seme by going left or right, so I guess I’ll be trying to use this more often.

We then practiced the footwork of being a motadachi, ie, stepping to the side then again, to face your (imaginary) opponent who’s just gone through. Hmm, its like going 45 degrees forward and to the right (for a men cut) turning 90 degrees to the left, then the same thing again from that position to complete the 180 degree turn. I think I do it a bit differently during keiko but I’ll try to keep this in mind. We did it both right (for men cuts) and left (for kote cuts).

Finished off with some suburi whilst doing the rotating footwork, so that the first cut ends up facing 45 degrees to the left and the second cut 45 degrees to the right (of the original position). Did this with the shinai doing straight up again down (hard to do) and then sayu men (going left and right) which was easier to do.

Menstuke. Again, overly cautious putting my men on, so I got beaten (marginally) by Pei… Blah, next time Gadget! Next TIME!!!!

Just did the usual kiri kaeshi, but rather than doing the long kiri kaeshi, we finished with a set of 3 kiri kaeshi (instead of the usual 2). Did very little kihon, then a couple rounds of uchikomi. Then jigeiko. I fought Nicole first up. At one point, we both went in for really strong men cuts at the same time, I didn’t feel hers land, but mine did, but since we were both committed, we just banged into each other, and her men crashed into my chest. It shook her up a bit, must have been a really hard crash. I really felt I got the cut on that one but my follow through was pretty much non-existent. Should ask someone about that. I felt I had good zanshin though.

I then fought Natalie. Straight away, I noticed her kensen was open. Didn’t think that she was trying to sucker me in for a men cut so that she can do her awesome ouji waza, so I went in for a couple of men cuts. I then tried to correct her. It was pointing to my left shoulder, so I try to show her that it should point straight at my throat (using my shinai to extend her kensen so that she understands the angle). Must have been lost on her cos she soon went back to her normal kamae. Tried to tell her again a couple of times, but then I figured I’d just demonstrate that she was open by cutting her. Bam, Bam Bam… hehe.

Then fought one of the male juniors, can’t remember who it was, but he was tall. I find it easier to cut men on taller players than short. Anyway, did a few men cuts and some debana kote cuts. Kinda fun. He responded by doing very small tappy cuts. I remember I used to do that too, to try and match the speed of my sempais, but it got me nowhere. I told he needs to practice big cuts. At his level, he should just expect to get hit pretty much all the time, but keep practicing good cuts and he’ll get faster and faster.

Hmm, I think I then fought Yvonne, not quite sure now. Man I was so tired then. Don’t know whats wrong with me, but for the past few trainings, I’ve been feeling really down. I do know that I did the final kiri kaeshi against her, because as my cuts slowed down, she gave me a kiai for encouragement, and I sped up a bit towards the end, whilst still trying to maintain good cutting technique as best I could.

We then had a shiai for the girls going to AUG (plus the other senior girls). On the ‘AUG’ team, there was Cristina, Pei <3, Vincci, Jaklene, Roxy and Janice. On the other team was Crystal, Melva, Nicole, Yvonne, Su (?) and Jessie. I think that was the fighting order. Can’t really remember the fights because I was keeping time. Learnt that I have to have the yellow flag up as the kendoka step onto the shiaijo, put it down as soon as hajime is called and start time, put it back up as soon as there is a stop in play (score, hansokku, yame, etc), stop time, and start again as soon as play resumes. When time is up (fights were only 2 ½ minutes), blow the whistle (electronic one!) until yame is called then stop time and raise flag. Too much to concentrated on so I missed some of the action. Anyway, the highlight was Roxy’s immediate men cut. Recorded at 3.65 seconds I think. I should have been faster but I was too slow to stop the clock. I’d just started it and then all flags were up and I was like wh….? Click. Must have been less than 2 seconds!!! We should keep any future times (stats) so that Rox can be immortalised forever as the fastest cutter in UMKC history, hehe.

Fo' Rizzle my Nizzle with da Phizzle

We had Chris P. train with us last night. I remember standing around waiting for the warmup to begin, and was thinking, hmm, this is taking a while, then Chris walked up to me and said, ‘Son, you want to take the warmup tonight?’ I was a bit stunned as this was unexpected, so I tried to weasel my way out of it by pointing out that there were higher ranked kendoka there, but he insisted saying that I’d been at the club long enough. So yeah, off I went. Had a couple of ‘Go Son!’ –‘s from fellow kendoka to boost my confidence. It went pretty well I though, without a hitch and I think I remembered everything. By the time I got to doing suburi, Chris P. took over. Good thing too, because up to that point, I was worried about the dojo stewards calls once we were lined up.

Anyway, menstuke and I was beaten!!! By Ryo from kenshikan. Man he was fast. I was sitting next to him and yeah, I was struggling to keep up. Mind you I was being quite careful about doing everything right. Made sure my men himo knot was centered as much as possible and that the loops and loose ends were perfectly matched. He stood up just as I put my second kote on. Guess it wasn’t much, but still, I want to be the fastest dammit. Might need to practice getting those loops perfect at home. Bah, too much trouble.

Was feeling really tired last night. Don’t know why, but I was already kinda dead after the jogging warmup. Managed to do all my kirikaeshi’s but at my cruising pace. I got that feeling that I really wanted to stop, but then I realised, this is the way I’ve wanted to feel for a while now, so rather than wanting to quit, I focussed on doing as best I can, and squeeze those few drops that I left in my cup. Did some kihon cuts then moved on to uchikomi. Sensei needed 9 motodachi and he picked me! I didn’t hear him at first but then he called me again to make sure. So yeah, I tried to mix up my openings for uchikomi. Did quite a lot of taiatari for the seniors, and for the juniors, tried to focus on getting the right distancing once they’d followed through. All in all, good fun. And I must be getting immune to the pain because I didn’t really feel any of the cuts. Maybe only one cut where the kensen hit the top of my head and it stung a bit, but yeah, still it was nothing. And kote cuts weren’t too bad either, hopefully its because I’m opening it in the right way.

The motodachi then did our uchikomi. Don’t know why, but sensei took it easy on us. Only 2 sets of uchikomi, then 2 kakari. I remember watching more than that during other trainings. Anyway, afterwards, I felt tired and out of energy, but my spirit was kinda lifted, and I felt like I could have kept on going, even though I felt tired.

Then jigeiko. It was KevH’s last training, and I managed to have jigeiko with him. Kept going for men cuts against his kaeshi dou. My cuts kept getting blocked, but (not sure if it was him or someone else) I altered my timing during the actual cut (rather than the timing of going for the cut as I had been doing), where I let my shinai just hang in the air for that extra split second before my downswing, and BAM! Hit square on and felt really good. I think I’ll try this more in the future. I’d always thought that altering the timing of your cut meant changing the timing of ‘when’ you cut, and never thought of changing the timing of my actual cut. A bit of a lightbulb moment for me.

I also fought Masa. I’ve fought Masa many times, and I’m starting to feel that our fights are becoming a bit ‘repetitive’. I think one of us needs to drastically improve to change up the matches, either that or we’re improving at the same rate. I just seems that my fights with Masa don’t really change much between fights. Anyway, at one point, we both went for men at the same time, and somehow, I punched his mengane with my left hand. It almost broke my left index finger. A bit of skin peeled off from where it impacted this morning, but otherwise its fine.

I also fought Paul. I tried to do different things against Paul. I figured he needs practice against different types of players for the AUG. Anyway, I varied from being very waiting, to a kakari style fighting. It was kinda fun. Somehow I just can’t take Paul seriously during jigeiko, kinda like I do when I fight Viet (unless it’s a shiai match of course). I also tried some rhino waza, zidane waza and what I like to call ‘hump that wall’ waza. He was a bit shocked that I was pushing him so much, but I told him that he might need the practice, to which he suggested the viet-like rhino waza, hehe. A funny thing happened where at one point, I thought he kiai-ed ‘PHIZZLE’!!!! hehehe, which I promptly returned, though he didn’t realise it until I told him after training.

I then fought Yvonne last up. Before the fight, sensei stopped us, and made a point about jigeiko. That we shouldn’t be defensive, and be more attacking. If we’re always worried about being cut that we have to defend, then we can’t give everything into the cuts that we go for. With that in mind, I fought Yvonne. A lot of ai-men, and early on, there was ai-nuki dou, hehe. Always weird when that happens, cos I go for the cut, but see the opponents cut, so I kinda back off in case somebody gets-a hurt real bad… I was really spent after the fight and had to do kiri kaeshi. I felt that I did have the energy to go super fast, but I did feel really relaxed and felt that my cuts kinda felt good. Big swings, cutting from the shoulders (as opposed to the elbows). For the very last cut of the night, I felt my ki ken tai no ichi was the best it was all night. This might have something to do with the relaxed state, where I’m not worrying unnecessarily, but instead, doing things that I already know. Either that, or I was so tired that I was delusional about how good my kendo felt. Blah, until next time.

Fucken Chuck Norris

Used my suburi shinai against yesterday for the warmup. Starting to think that I’m not quite good enough to use one just yet. I was quite knackered by the end, and my technique was found wanting. I managed to get through it, but it all seemed so much tougher than last week, and we didn’t even do one handed cuts last night.

Menstuke, and I was up first again. Walked over to line up, when sensei approached me and said, so Son, you’re first this week… Huh??? I’ve been first for sooo long already!!! Felt a bit bad that sensei hadn’t noticed that I’ve been first for so long, but yeah, anyway. He commented that the men himo on my left side were slightly apart, and that the himo loops at the back weren’t exactly the same length as the loose bits. Damn. He said it was acceptable, but proceeded to make them perfect anyway. Might just slow down a bit from now on and make sure everything is regulation.

Did the usual kiri kaeshi, finishing with the dojo width kiri kaeshi. Seems like this has become a permanent fixture. I was really struggling on this one. Was feeling flat all day, and I couldn’t really lift for this one. Slowed down quite a bit at the end and my kiai was all over the place. Hope I’m not getting sick again. We then just did some kihon, with an emphasis on kikentai no ichi. Sensei then went talked about being a good motodachi, and how to receive cuts properly, with an emphasis on the kote and dou cuts, probably because he saw a few people doing it wrong. Anyway, for kote, the kensen of the shinai goes up and to the left to about the shoulder of the opponent, not higher than or wider than, and it should be enough for them to cut kote. For dou cuts, its just lifting your shinai up as if you were going for a men cut but stopping your hands out in front of you, in order to reproduce the opening as if you were doing jigeiko. And you stand without moving either forward or to the side, because the opponent will cut and move slightly to their right to avoid you. Anyway, I went up against ‘Chuck Norris’ after sensei had just said this and he still did it all wrong. His shinai went up and to an angle which didn’t properly expose his dou for me to cut, and he’d step to the side, before I’d even cut making it even harder for me. Anyway, I told him how to do it properly and to his credit, he ended up doing it right. It’ll be interesting to see how he goes next time.

We then did some mawari uchikomi geiko. I focussed on doing big cuts as sensei instructed. Had a momentary slip when I went for a kote-men where I used my right hand for the men, cursed myself then continued.

Once that was over, sensei called out all those who were going to the AUG. Only 5 of the team were present (all guys), then sensei picked out 5 other members to fight them, shiai style, and I was one of them… Woot! For the AUG team, they had Paul Wu, Viet Hoang, Kev Wu, Mike Dunn and Thomas Mendelovits. For our team, we had Masa, Myself, Avi, Kev Houng and Kev Chin.

We were given 10mins for jigeiko before the shiai. I fought Masa first up. I remember trying to be more critical of the points I acknowledged, and so only acknowledged the ones that I thought were really good cuts, not just ones that connected on me. We each scored a couple of cuts on each other. I then fought Hiro. It seemed easier to fight Hiro. He does what I call ‘proper’ kendo, where you don’t just blindly go in, but you try to set up your cuts. This gives me time to try and set up my cuts. I tried to seme for him to go for my men so that I can do some debana kote cuts. But it seemed that he didn’t really cut when I wanted him to cut. Hard to explain, but he’d end up cutting men when I wasn’t expecting, but I’d react fast enough to get ai-men.

Then the shiai. Our team shout was ‘Shinjuku!’ (since ‘Shinbashi’ has chosen for official UMKC teams, ie the AUG team). The first match was drawn 1-1, then it was my match with Viet. I tried to relax and treat it like jigeiko. For the most part it felt like jigeiko, only with people watching, so no Trung-do waza. I managed to cut men kinda early on. After that I tried to maintain the advantage and not give off easy opportunities for him, but I think I got a bit too defensive and he got a men cut on me back. Can’t remember too much after that, but there was a point where I noticed that he was trying to block a couple of my men cuts, so I thought I’d go for a dou cut, so I lifted my shinai as though I was going for men, and I saw the opening, but for some reason I didn’t cut! Dammit, I was kinda pissed off with myself. His dou was open because he went to block my men and all I had to do was pretty much connect. Need to practice more dou cuts during jigeiko. Anyway, our match ended in a draw. Then Avi fought KevW. That also was a draw 1-1. Then KevH vs Mike. First score was hansoku to Kev. Can’t remember what for but he must have stepped out. The shiai-jo was very small and hard to pick with all those lines on the floor. I remember I was very conscious of this during my fight and tried to always go back to the middle. Anyway, Mike and Kev then each scored, so it was all tied 1-1. Then Kev decided to step out again!.... Hansoku nikai… shobari Mike wins. Final fight was with Tom and KevC. Shit, can’t remember who won, I think it was a draw. Anyway, after the rei, sensei called all fighters in. He told us that in a team situation, you have to be aware of the score. Obviously with the first two fighters, its even at the start, but from then on, each player should be aware of the score and as such, play accordingly. If you team is up, you should try to maintain your advantage, if you are down and need to score, you should be more attacking. He stopped short of telling us how to fight under the different conditions, I guess that would just come with experience, but yeah, especially with the last fight, he said that KevC should have known that he needed to win 2-0 for the team to win and fought accordingly.

Then I overheard something interesting that I felt was applicable to me. KevW came over to thank Avi, and Avi said that he fought the right way because it’s the way that Avi doesn’t like, ie he doesn’t like people who are constantly attacking cos he likes to try and set up his cuts. Then I realised that this is how I like to fight, and I’m sure a lot of other people. I think this is how KevW did so well in the VKC, cos he fights in a way that people don’t like or are not accustomed to. I had been thinking about this and I reckon Jodan players have a similar advantage to this. Anyway, I should try to fight people like Kev more to learn how to fight them better.

The Return of the BOLLMANATOR

Did the warmup last night with my brand new suburi shinai. It weighs 950grams (well that’s what the amplus website says). It wasn’t too bad. I think it’s a good weight as it gives me a good workout without giving me too much strain that it grossly affects my technique. At times I did feel that my technique waivered a bit, but hopefully I can get used to the extra weight soon. It gave me a sense of how it felt when I was a beginner. I even managed to do 20 single handed cuts, followed with another 10 with both hands, where I resisted the urge to use my right hand on the swing up. Felt good. Hayasuburi didn’t feel so good though. Didn’t feel like I had it in control when we sped up, and I lost the ‘snappiness’ of my cuts. Again, hopefully I’ll get used to it soon.

I really don’t like to come second in the unofficial ‘putting on men’ contest, so from this point forth, I shall cease to give away any unfair advantage to my rivals… namely Pei, since no one else really tries to get it on super quick.

Started off with kiri kaeshi again. Got back to the normal shinai and it never felt so light before! Felt like I was wielding a toothpick! And the kiri kaeshi! Can’t believe how quick I was when I went all out. Kinda made me feel like when I’m riding downhill on my bike. Its hard to make it any quicker because you’re going to quick already! We then did the dojo width kiri kaeshi. Again, I felt soo quick. I kinda felt sorry for my motodachi, who was a beginner, but I felt like I was on a roll, so I was kinda merciless. On my way back, I had a bit of light bulb moment. I tried to do the whole thing in one kiai again, but as I started going back, I needed to take a breath (or so I though). Anyway, halfway going back, I felt like I needed another breath, but I just gave everything I had to push out that extra kiai, and a strange thing happened. I was out of breath! There was literally no air left in my lungs, but I was still kiai-ing. There was just a kind of low hissing sound coming out but the important thing was that I still felt a very strong spirit coming out! So it reminded me of when sensei was talking about a cup full of water representing your spirit/effort a few weeks ago. When the cup is full, its easy to give it all you got, but when the cup becomes empty, its much harder to squeeze those few extra drops out. So yeah, when I was trying to squeeze those last drops out for my kiai, it felt like I was pouring a full glass… if that makes sense… I remember my motadachi kinda laughing at me when I lost my voice, but then her face changed back to being serious as she realised I was still going all out, hehehe. A funny thing happened at this point, where sensei tell everyone to go back to the center of the dojo. So everyone does, and osameto-ed. However, there was a lone figure still standing in kamae in the middle fo the dojo. He was the ‘BOLLMANATOR!’ hehe, he was against Viet, and they’d apparently did the rei before they went back to the middle of the dojo, but there must have been some confusion. Anyway, it was just funny seeing how everyone was ready to go, but this guy was still standing in the middle. When he finally decided to move back, he’d cursed something under his breath.

We then went onto doing kihon cuts, then uchikomi geiko… quite a lot of it actually. I don’t really remember much of it. Just that I was trying to maintain high spirit, but I think this came at the expense of doing good big cuts. When I went against sensei, he told me to make my cuts bigger. The thing is, I was going all out from the start, then after a few sets, sensei says, you should have been doing kihon style uchikomi. Doh! Now its time to go all out, and make your cuts faster, though not necessarily tiny tappy cuts (which is what I was doing). I have the habit of using my right hand to do the men cut for a kote – men combo. Need to keep correct this. I think the problem with things like this is the way I like to ‘learn’. I really like to learn physical movements very slowly to understand the dynamics of the movement, and they scale up the speed. However, during training I really don’t have this luxury. Although we do kihon, there is that slight pressure of finishing my cuts when everyone else does, but I like to practice the movements even slower than what we do during kihon. I remember Ben-sensei saying something about kendo ‘homework’ and this may have been what he was referring to. Anyway, I really should look into finding a place to practice outside of the dojo.

The class then split, and the seniors did some waza practice with Andrew. We practiced some kote men with an outlook to doing tobikomi men (which from what I understand is a slight tapping down of the opponents shinai then cutting men). I really tried to focus on using my left hand for the kote-men cuts. It slowed me down somewhat, but I don’t mind. Hopefully I get faster as I get better at it, rather getting faster by reverting back to my right handed cuts.

Anyway, we then joined some of the juniors to do jigeiko with them. I can’t remember who I got first up, but he’d just blindly go in to cut when there weren’t really openings. Most of the time, I’d just let him cut. Should have tried to tsuki him on a few cuts, but I wasn’t that mean. Practicing ouji waza would be more preferable, but Pai Mei instructed that we’re here to help them, not kick their ass. I also noticed that he was always cutting to the side. So I told him to cut straight do taiatari.

Then my next fight… I call it “The Return of the BOLLMANATOR” I really shouldn’t take the piss out of him, but its just too easy. I tried to help him though. He liked going for dou cuts that were never there, so he hit me on the arm quite a bit. So yeah, like the first guy, he’d just go blindly in hoping for the best. I gave him a couple of debana men, and a hiki men in there somewhere. Sensei then called yame and we did kirikaeshi. I noticed that he doesn’t stretch his arms out during his cuts and he looks like he’s all cramped up. So yeah, I tried to help him out by pointing that out to him, and he responded with complaints that he was too tired blah blah. I’m now tempted to be a real asshole and just tell him how great his kendo looks next time I’m up against him, but that’s just not kendo. I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.

Doorbitches

Came to training nice and early yesterday, though Mr Secretary was already there. I find it quite pretentious that he’s the first one there, yet he’s too good to warm up with everyone… seems a bit too bollmanator-ish to me.

Anyway, I was having trouble removing the tsuka gawa from my new shinai, so I brought it along hoping that someone else could do it for me. Gave it to Andy who happened to be there and yeah, a couple of tugs and he got it off. I’m such a pussy…

Got my men on first today… and by a long shot too! :p

Straight into a lot of kirikaeshi. I was still feeling shit from my illness and didn’t think that I was going to last through training, but I soldiered on. After quite a few, I realised that I had forgotten to bandage my stupid toe, so I stepped out to fix it. Good timing too, because sensei tells everyone to go to one side of the dojo. He split each pair into alternating groups so that we can all do kiri kaeshi across the basketball court. By the time the first group went through, I’d finished taping my toe. I managed to watch the first group and to me they seemed kinda slow, though most of them were juniors. Anyway, I managed to get one of the juniors to partner me so that I can do it too, didn’t want to miss out. I went all out, and was really struggling before I even reached the end, so on the way back I had to take another breath. A bit disappointing but fun nonetheless.

We then just did some kihon cuts then the class split up. Pai Mei took us through some waza, harai men and nuki dou, with an emphasis on getting towards kakari style cuts. I think I tried to focus too much on making the harai men into one smooth action that my harai was quite weak. Someone commented that my harai was going to the left and up, which may be diminishing its ‘slapping’ power. I might need to make it go left more than up before I do the cut. To finish off the harai waza, we did it in sets of 5 quick cuts, ie. kakari style.

We then practiced nuki dou. Now I still can’t cut a good dou cut, so I was always going to struggle with this. Anyway, at the end we did the same as we did with the harai men cuts, and did 5 nuki dou cuts continuously. At this point I really appreciated this (and kakari style) training, where you get the feeling of constantly attacking. As soon as I cut and turn around, I didn’t think about anything and just cut, and a few of them actually felt semi-decent, with a nice slapping sound, though I definitely need to work on my posture during dou (and men and kote) cuts. It was fun though, constant bang, bang, bang…

Then Jigeiko. I had Tony first up. He’s a rock. At one point, I tried to push him to try and break him at tsubaseriai but he didn’t move. Anyway, something that I developed recently is a non-jodan hiki men cut. I used to do jodan going back from doing hiki men, but somehow I’ve started to lower my kensen immediately to chudan level after a hiki cut. Anyway, my fight with Tony was quite good, and I felt the ‘tension’. I tried to use the waza we had just learnt, and got myself a bit of a light bulb moment. Up until now, I’d really focussed on just men cuts during jigeiko with a few kote cuts thrown in. But against Tony, I threw in a couple of nuki dou cuts, and found that his response to my men cuts after this were different, like he was wary of my dou cut all the time. Bing! Even though I have a shit dou cut, that never properly lands and most unlikely to score, I should use it to practice it, but more importantly to put doubt in my opponents mind.

I then fought Pei. I was too distracted to fight her properly. At one point, I think I snorted out some mucous from my nose which I snorted back in… quite disgusting, but this is only going to get worse. Another thing I remembered was that I (or I guess she did this to herself) tsuki-ed her by staying in kamae as she went in for a cut, and my kensen hit right on target! Must be improving my kamae…

Anyway, after training, whilst we were sitting around sensei, he mentioned the AUG fundraiser night, and thanked all those that were part of it, including ‘the doorbitches’!!!! I can’t believe (nor can anyone else I assume) believe that he’d said that. He was looking at Pei when he said that because of her post in the forums. Hmm, sensei is only human afterall… with a wicked sense of humour.

Gotta support the team!

Wow, been getting really slack with my kendo posts. Might be because I was sick all week, but that shouldn’t be an excuse.

Anyway, was already a bit sick on Sunday at the VKC, and it progressively got worse by Monday. At this point my throat was starting to get a bit sore so I thought I’d do non-kiai kendo. I must have gotten at least 4 comments regarding my lack of kiai.

Started off bad enough. I was feeling really thirsty and drained, so I went to have a drink when menstuke was called, only to have Pei beat me. I’ll give you that one Pei… but from now on, no more mister nice guy.

We just did a lot of kiri kaeshi to start off with. Then did a long kiri kaeshi across the width of the basketball court. Sensei was kinda hovering around the area I was, so I decided to kiai for this one. Had Josh as motadachi and he moves quite fast, I had to kinda chase him when going forward. Well my kiai was going alright until about halfway going back when it started to die, so I resuscitated it with my generic ‘Saaaaaaaaa’ and it got me home. I really don’t know where that comes from. Its like ‘Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee –out of breath’ (*without breathing in) ‘Saaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!’ Happy that I was able to do it in one breath.

Then uchikomi geiko against motadachi. Hmm, can’t remember much now, its like a week later! This must be the latest I’ve left writing up a kendo post. I think this might be associated with a drop in my motivation/enthusiasm. I still feel like I really want to improve, especially after the VKC. Must be due to the sickness that’s making me feel down. Lets hope I get well soon (though not very likely since its now spring). Anyway, during uchikomi, I felt like I had improved upon what sensei said about my uchikomi a couple of months ago… that I wasn’t constantly attacking. I found that there were a couple of times during the uchikomi geiko that I was actually waiting for the opening to cut, ie. that I felt I was ready to cut as soon as I turned around and really felt like I wanted to cut (which is what sensei emphasised that night). That all felt good. Although, again I forgot to put a bandaid on my big left toe and the callous ripped open again, so I had to step out for a bit to tape it up. Didn’t really miss anything though. I really should remember to bandaid it before training starts! I think this problem is going to stay with me forever.

Anyway, the motadachi then did their uchikomi and kakari geiko. I really liked watching Hiro do it. He seems soo fast, its just contantly bangbangbang! During the ai kakari geiko I did notice that one of the guys was probably not doing it right because he was blocking some of the cuts. The idea I have about kakari is that you’re constantly attacking so there shouldn’t be any blocking at all unless maybe you try a kaeshi waza. Anyway, its something to keep in mind and hope that I don’t do that during kakari and remember that I should always be attacking no matter what…

Yesterday was the AUG fundraiser and I got myself a couple of new shinais from the auction! Well one of them I didn’t really want, it’s a suburi shinai (750 grams I think). Anyway, I just wanted to do a smartass bid of $34.50 and assumed that someone would outbid me for it! But alas, no one did, and I didn’t even get to have it for 34.50… Mike made me pay the whole 35 bucks! Hehe, my bid: firty for fifty… Mike: Ok, we’ll just make that an even 35.. me: hey man, 50 cents is a lot of money!!! Hehe. Now I’m 35 bucks poorer. Anyway, I also got the handmade madake bamboo shinai worth $80 for $55. Again I made my 34.50 bid, which was honoured this time, but not that it mattered because it went to 40 bucks straight away. Hehe, Alex really really really wanted it! I probably should have just let him have it, but hey, I need a new shinai, I was drunk and I want to support the club! hehehehe