New kendo goodies! Thanks honey

2013-01-30 21:53:00

In light of my planned ikkyu exam later this year, we'd been talking about buying me a new uniform set: one to keep neat and tidy, only to be used at tournaments and gradings. I'd been putting that off for months, until Marli last week decided to surprise me ( ^_^)

Originally she'd wanted to place the order by herself, but she had no idea what to order. So instead, one evening she grabbed and said "Let's shop!" :D Because I've been very satisfied with the service and products provided by Kendo24, we returned to them. And again they came through! My darling wife ordered me:

• A second beginners' uniform set, including a cotton keikogi (own brand) and a tetron hakama (from Bujin Design).
• A light, summer keikogi (from Bujin Design), which is a joy to wear.
• An assortment of bits and bobs for shinai and bogu maintenance.

As I've grown accustomed from them, Bernd and Katrin provided excelent service. They provided quick and clear email feedback on my questions and shipping was very fast. They even threw in a free pair of chichikawa to attach the men himo, because I couldn't find those on their webshop. 

So, now I have two gi and a hakama for practice and a separate gi and hakama for special occasions. And I finally have a bit bucket of my own, for shinai maintenance.

A few interesting things about the clothes:

• The 'Einsteiger' keikogi at 180, out of the box, is waaaaay too large for me. I'm counting on that one shrinking in laundry, because it's the same gi that I bought in 2011 and that one is now actually too short for me (I've had to sew a strip of cloth at the bottom).
• The 'Einsteiger' hakama at 180 is the perfect size for me. Which is odd, because the 'Einsteiger' hakama that I bought in 2011 was too long and I had to hem it, taking off another 4cm.
• The summer gi at 175 is a perfect size and is a wonderful fit :) I just hope it doesn't shrink too much!

In closing: Thanks honey! I really appreciate the cool gift and your continued support in my training!

kilala.nl tags: kendo, awesome,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

A new motto for this year: katsubou

2013-01-29 21:20:00

Well! It's not every day that I get a mention on a 7th dan sensei's blog :D

My motto for 2012 was enryo (遠慮): "restraint". 

• Professionaly, after a clear need for improvement to my methods at the office.
• In kendo, after my learning experience at the kyu-grade dutch national championships.

The motto has served me well and I will continue to be inspired by it. It still adorns my desk and it is on the inside of my dou. At the office I have become better at communicating and at sticking to boundaries and in kendo I have become less apt to rush in foolishly. 

For 2013 I will be adding a new motto, katsubou (渇望): "hunger, craving".

This motto comes through inspiration by four people whom I've come to respect very much. Donatella-sensei and Vitalis-sensei, after their instructions at the last Centrale Training. And Kris and Hillen-fukushou, based on their feedback to our recent kyu exams. Summarizing it: without stupidly rushing in (see above), I need to crave achieving yuko datotsu on my opponent. I need to hunger for "kills" and to show eagerness in all my undertakings. Only then will I be properly training and will I be able to show my current skill level in a shinsa.

Interestingly, this motto is also applicable professionaly insofar that I'm working to retain my CISSP certification. I'd slacked off over the past two years, but now I'm working hard to make up for that. In order to achieve this plan fully, I need to be "hungry". I need to keep at it, working on each successive goal in order to reach the final destination. 

It'll be an interesting year :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, enryo, work,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

Kendo kyu exams in Almere

2013-01-26 16:51:00

Photo gallery of the morning.

This morning were the (semi-)annual kyu grade exams at Renshinjuku kendo dojo. I'm told that we're the only dojo in the Netherlands that actually do intermediate kyu exams, but personally I think they're a good thing. These exams help prepare our students for the actual exam, making the real thing a lot less scary.

Today, thirteen students were testing: five for 5th, one for 4h, two for 3rd and five for 2nd. The way we test 2nd kyu is actually identical to the official 1st kyu exam, meaning that we're getting a full prep for ikkyu. 

The good news is that everyone testing up to 3rd kyu passed their grade. So congratulations to Ainar, Lukas, Dennis, vincenzo, Herman, Ramon, Aaron and Hugo! Good work eveyrone!

The group testing for 2nd kyu wasn't as successful. Only Jeroen was deemed to be ready to take and pass the ikkyu exam, so many congrulations to him: you've worked hard for this Jeroen!

Bobby, Martijn, Tiamat and myself were all given valuable pointers on what we need to improve to be ready for the 1st kyu exam. Two pieces of advice were applicable to all of us:

1. In jitsugi, you need to be hungry! You need to really want to make those ippon! Don't be passive and don't do shiai kendo. Instead, have at it!
2. Stick to kihon. There's no need for über-special techniques, because if you -do- try those they'd better be done right!

At this level you're trying to prove that you fully understand and control the basics.

I had already set a number of goals for myself to work on, in order to attain ikkyu rank: get a decent hayai-men, control my breathing, and less cueing before a strike. Also: make for a neat and tidy kirikaeshi, because a few weeks ago I was still all over the place. Added to this comes the feedback from Kris and Hillen:

• My kiai is good. I show lots of spirit. Personally, I believe that today my kiai was the fiercest of the bunch :)
• My kamae is good and doesn't look frail anymore (like my past exams).
• My fumikomi has improved since my last exam, but it needs to be a lot sharper.
• In many cases I get too close and strike with too much tension in my arms (and with sagging posture). All of this together leads to me constantly hitting my opponent's mengane. I have bad form in my strikes.
• After striking I don't show good zanshin, insofar that I very quickly turn around and seem to circle my opponent. 
• EDIT: after looking at photographs of the shinsa, I don't like my kamae. I'm holding my left hand too low, as Ran-sempai pointed out a few months ago.

After the exams, Aaron said his farewells to me. I'm sad to see him go because he shows a lot of promise. Maybe he'll be back in a few years. 

All in all it was a very educational morning! I am confident that I showed my best kendo:

• I was in the right frame of mind: calm, reserved and collected. I would like to think that I paid honor to our dojo's motto: heijoshin (平常心), a "steady and even mind". I hadn't felt this "together" for months!
• I made it my point to act with dignity and pride (kigurai, 気位) in seiza, in dressing, in posture, in walking, in sokyo, in kamae and in kata. I looked my opponent's squarely in the eye and was confident of my level of ability.
• Because of my academic mindset I've been divouring books and essays on kendo, making the gakka (written exam) a relatively easy affair. 

While my kendo was not up to par to pass our 2nd kyu exam, I am confident that I gave it my best. I simply need to keep on getting better! :)

EDIT: Woohoo! I've spoken to Ton-sensei and he indicates that I defaulted to 3rd kyu, meaning that I have at least improved my kendo since last year. So when it comes to the line-up in class, the only thing that changes is that I have now hopped at least six spots to the right :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 3)

Learning a new skill: seme to tame to butsu

2013-01-22 20:09:00

Tonight’s class was guided by Fukuyama-sensei, in the absence of Heeren-sensei, with Kiwa-sempai providing translations for those not familiar with the Japanese language. After the usual warming-up routine (no kata practice tonight), we moved on to two separate but entwined subjects:

1. Seme to tame to butsu
2. Hiki waza

In kendo we are often taught to “build pressure”, to “feel tension” before launching an attack. This pressure is described with the word seme (攻め) and it is something that is learned through long practice. The ‘Glossary related to budo and kobudo‘ by Guy Buyens offers the following:

“SEME (攻め) in BUDO (武道) is usually used to indicate the initiative to close the distance and maintain the pressure when launching an attack. This can be part of a very decisive and even explosive technique or in combination with TAME (溜め), where pressure is build in a more gradual way and where the final target depends on the reaction of that opponent.”

Tame, from the verb tameru, meaning “to ammass” or “to accumulate”. In this case we are creating seme and then gathering more and more tension. For this particular session, Fukuyama-sensei described our exercise as follows:

1. Assume issoku itto kamae.
2. Generate seme.
3. Inhale deeply and kakegoe (*) strongly.
4. Do NOT inhale, do NOT exhale further.
5. Hold your breath for five seconds.
6. Attack at your fiercest, with a very strong kiai.

Fukuyama-sensei explained that, in this exercise, holding your breath will help you retain focus on your opponent and on seme. This way you are deeply invested in your attack, almost guaranteeing a beautiful strike. He compared it to a story he once heard about olympic sprinters, who would finish their 100m dash without breathing to retain 100% focus.

We practice seme to tame to butsu with different kihon and waza: first with chisai men, kote and dou, then in oji waza where motodachi would attack with chisai men. As usual we were told to do our very best attack, because otherwise the exercise would be useless.

Before moving on to jigeiko, we practiced the various hiki waza: men, kote and dou. These exercises were combined with the previous tame exercises. When it came to hiki dou, Fukuyama-sensei explained that moving backwards can be done in three backwards directions.

1. To the left is sub-optimal, as it makes it hard to properly strike and follow through.
2. Straight, where you remain on the center line of your opponent.
3. To the right, making for an easier strike while also putting you off the opponent’s center.

For showing zanshin after hiki dou, Fukuyama-sensei said that you should relax after striking. Your arms should not be tense and your shinai should not be immovable. Instead, follow through downwards in the natural arc of your strike and relax your arms (so you are also ready for a counter attack).

*: For extensive information on kakegoe, what you could call the “kiai in kamae”, please refer to chapter 13 of Noma Hisashi-sensei’s ‘Kendo Reader‘.

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

Preparing for my exams

2013-01-20 09:37:00

2013 will be a year of exam preparation for me. Not only at work (ITILv3, RHCSA, maintaining my CISSP), but also in kendo. 

Last year I decided that I want to take my ikkyu exam this summer, ikkyu being the first grade that is tested on a national level. I wrote the shinsa prep guide for the RSJ website and based on my research, I will need to do the following for my ikkyu exam:

• Kirikaeshi. I need to make sure my timing is precise and tidy! No sloppiness and I need to take my time! Footwork and striking in unison!
• Kata #1 through #3, which I've been practicing intensively the past few months. I need to pay attention to good posture and especially to building tension!
• Jitsugi, in which I do two rounds of geiko with a fellow student. This should NOT be shiai (competition) fighting, but more like jigeiko where I try to demonstrate my grasp of the basics (oki and chisai techniques, building tension, footwork, etc).
• Gakka, the written exam. In general I know my kendo theory pretty well, but I'll still go over the AUSKF gakka prep guide.

In the first three tests, kiai is highly important at the ikkyu level, so I'll definitely give that my best!

The NKR exam is still a few months away, so I'm very happy that I'll be getting an extra exam in between. A month ago Ton-sensei announced that Renshinjuku Almere would be holding their local kyu-grade shinsa on 25/01, which is next week. I've asked Ton-sensei and Hillen- and Kris-fukushou to keep in mind my aspiration of testing for ikkyu. For our own exams this means that I'm asking them to allow me to skip a grade and to test for nikyu instead of sankyu, while at the same time asking them to judge me at ikkyu level. That's a bit of a leap (I last tested for yonkyu a year ago), but they appear very willing to help me out for which I am very grateful. 

To do list before next week:

• Launder and iron my hakama and gi. Make all pleats tidy.
• Sew an extra piece of denim at the bottom of my gi, which has shrunk.
• Remove my dojo badge from my keikogi.
• Remove my zekken from my tare.
• Tidy everything about my bogu, uniform and my shinai.

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 2)

Taught kendo for the first time

2013-01-20 08:43:00

Ahhh, life :) I've just gone over the last weeks worth of blogposts from when I was still in college, working on getting my teaching degree. On the one hand I love reading about that time, on the other it makes me a bit sad because it's all done and gone. There's that 'mono no aware' again: the beauty of passing/fading. One thing that has never left me though, is the fact that I love to teach. 

That's why I was thrilled when Ton-sensei asked me to teach the beginners group for a part of class. :)

After warming up and doing footwork practice (laps of okuri ashi, lunges and fumikomi), my sempai suited up for kihon and waza practice (suriage-men, ai-men etc) and I took the group of a dozen newbies. Because I hadn't prepared anything beforehand and because Ton-sensei didn't have any specifics he wanted me to teach, I went through the following thought process.

• The group was diverse. Three children (one of whom doesn't speak dutch or english), three guys who have 3 months of experience, four guys with 6 months and one who has been with us longer than I have (>2 years). The more experienced guys have been learning about more special techniques, that the others don't know. 
• I need to find something that all of them can work on without expert help (I'm only a beginner myself), but which is still important to learn (solidify the basics).
• After my half hour, Jeroen would take over. I know Jeroen enjoys working with the training dummies that Ton-sensei built, so I know they will probably be doing kihon practice.
• Before my half hour we focused on footwork and Kris-fukushou had quite a few things to say about that.

Putting all of that together, I decided to work on ki-ken-tai-ichi: the unity of mind, sword and body during a strike. This builds upon what we've done so far and is something that the group could use in kihon practice with Jeroen. These are the drills I went through with them:

• The phased men-strike: 1. raise shinai. 2. raise right foot and hold for two seconds. 3. strike and fumikomi at the same time. 
• Haya-suburi footwork: stand on one side of the line, then make the small sliding jumps back and forth across the line.
• Okuri-ashi, circling our section of the dojo.
• Repeated fumikomi, back and forth across our section.
• Strike with fumikomi, from okuri-ashi, back and forth across our section.
• Strike with fumikomi from okuri-ashi along the length of our section, striking my shinai as target. 

In each of these practices, I first let the group do them a number of times without me saying anything. Five men strikes, twenty haya-suburi, two laps of okuri-ashi, etc. I only observed them, trying to see what everyone is doing. After the initial round, I would provide general feedback without singling anyone out. Then I'd let them repeat the exercise again, doubling the amount of strikes/laps. During this second round I would provide the students with personal feedback.

I'm very glad that the group paid full attention! At no point in time did they start drifting away or were they slacking off which, I hope, was caused by my demeanor and posture: stern and polite, speaking clearly and loudly and giving precise instructions. Once again my strong lungs came in handy, as I was able to address the group as they lined up (no huddle needed) and still being heard over the loud group in bogu. 

I certainly hope to teach again sometime soon :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, school,

View or add comments (curr. 2)

ITILv3: bone dry material

2013-01-13 20:31:00

*cough**hack* Someone get me a glass of water! 

After getting some quick credits out of the way for my CISSP certification, I'm now moving on to ITILv3 Foundations, all according to plan. But boy, oh boy, is that some dry reading material! When I first took my ITILv2 exam in 2001, it took some slugging and then I made the certification in one go. So technically you would expect me to get through this renewal easily. Well, I'm working through this particular book and it's drrryyyyyyyyaaaaihhh. A veritable deluge... no, that implies "wet"... A veritable landslide of management terms and words, rammed into short definitions, makes for something I have trouble getting through. 

Maybe I'd better get another book :)

Pictures not mine, sources A and B.

kilala.nl tags: work, sysadmin, meh,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

Coaching: better than I expected

2013-01-12 13:45:00

Quite a while ago my dear friend Menno started a career in personal coaching. He's still a civil engineer, but as a side business he runs Rockover Coaching which is based on the co-active coaching formula. It took a lot of hard work, but he's now ready to start working with clients. As part of his startup year, he asked me whether I'd like to be a 'victim' and I gladly accepted. I may have an ingrained mistrust of coaches, but I know I can trust the guy who's been my best friend for 27 years ;)

Over the past few weeks we've used a lot of different techniques to explore various topics, such as:

• The wheel of life graph, to maybe pinpoint things in my life that I feel need immediate improvement.
• Communication between myself and Marli, mostly in situations where I fear conflict while there is actually very little chance thereof. This also focused on posture and being "open". 
• We used "perspectives" to look at my professional and political standing at the office. This works by first discussing how I feel and think about the subject, followed by exploring my thoughts and feelings on completely unrelated subjects (like the kale mash that Marli makes and like the Baumzipfelweg). We then try to find parallels for these feelings in the original subject, leading to a more positive view of the matter. Where I first was very critical of my own attitude and methods (because of how people had reacted), I now learned to also look at it like I'm a solid employee who can be counted on to cut through bullcrap to get stuff done. 
• We used "structures" to act as reminders for specific tasks or goals. Like the drawing of Dexter's talking dog, to remind me to shut my piehole more often. Or the pocket mirror on my desk, to check myself at times ("am I taking myself too seriously?"). He also challenged me to take smoking breaks with my colleagues, for more bonding.
• "Value mining", was done to discover more things that I find important in life. The keywords found would be used in later exercises.
• Visualization is used in many cases, to explore my feelings regarding various subjects by again putting them into a completely different jacket. Like yesterday, when we discussed my frustration about some of the goings-on in the Almere kendo dojo by imagining the problem to be an animal and going from there (what kind of animal? what's it doing? what are you doing? where are you? what's the place look like? how's the animal reacting to you? what does that do to you? etc).
• We started on the "Captain and his crew" exercise by visualizing and meeting my "captain". An internal second opinion if you will, "someone" I can approach with questions or problems and on whom I can count to provide another opinion than my own. Of course, technically this second voice will simply be an outlet for thoughts and ideas I have been avoiding or haven't thought of yet, but so far it's been very effective!
• Regarding my professionalism at work, I was asked to give it a score and asked which score I would like it to be at. We also explored what I think I would need to do in order to get there. 
• Thanks to both Menno and my colleague Rob I got my ass into gear with regards to my CISSP certification. With Menno I explored how I could achieve my desire to maintain and improve my work-related skills, while retaining a balance with my personal life as well as having fun.

So... After almost three months of weekly coaching I have to say it's a lot more fun and interesting than I thought before starting with Menno. I had a few other touch-feely courses (through work) before this, but none of those were as comfortable as this.

kilala.nl tags: life, work, enryo,

View or add comments (curr. 1)

Not much to say: it was good

2013-01-12 13:33:00

There's not much to say about today's training as it simply was a good, solid training. 

1.5 years ago I wrote about a kendo dummy that I would love to build. Lo and behold! Ton-sensei has built two for the dojo: one child-sized and one adult-sized. They look cool and after tweaking them a bit, many of our beginners were very happy to use them in training. 

After inspecting the dojo shinai I proceeded to go through kata #1-#4 with Hugo. Since he told me he was pretty rusty (he's often absent because of school) I took a firm lead and escorted him through the first three, correcting where needed. When we got to #4 I'm glad that Ton-sensei corrected a number of things I was doing wrong (most importantly, stab too high and at a wrong angle).

During footwork practice I was reminded yet again that I have trouble combinining okuri ashi with fumikomi: whenever I need to jump while going forward, I always overstep with the left foot before the jump. The timing is completely off: instead of jumping right after pulling the left leg in, my body tries to jump after the right foot has gone forward again. It's crappy.

Kihon and waza practice went pretty well, but it was jigeiko that stood out for me today :)

• Herman started in bogu today. Since he's still getting used to it all, I spent five minutes letting him do kihon techniques on me. The first time wearing kote during practice feels weird! :)
• Hugo wanted more practice with the kaeshi-dou that we learned in class. After giving it fifteen or so runs, I showed it to him in slow motion. That led to a lot better results and we were both happy with the progress he made :) It was also a nice chance for me to practice hayai men.
• Nick-sempai was kind enough to let me do at least thirty hayai men. Using his explanation I was finally able to make four excellent hayai men strikes. The sound that makes is so different! I was so happy to finally hear myself causing that sound! /o/

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

A great session in Amstelveen

2013-01-09 08:50:00

I'm not entirely sure what happened, but last sunday's Central Training did wonders for my confidence. Last night was the first time I can recall that I went to Amstelveen without feeling nervous. I was aching to practice with my sempai and I'd prepared to answer any questions I might get about what we learned during the CT.

I reckon that attending the CT was a good step in my continued 'exposure', trying to alleviate my anxiety issues. The CT was outside my comfort zone and because it went so well, it seems my boundaries have shifted a bit. Nice!

Class was started, as has become custom, with half an hour of kata training. I again partnered with Nienke and we did many repeats of kata #1 (and a bit of #2 and #3). Why focus so much on kata #1? Because of some contention we ran into! I'd been taught by Ton-sensei and Kris-fukushou that after being struck by shidachi (and after letting the bokken sink to eye level), uchidachi would be "pushed back" by shidachi. Shidachi would "threaten you away". Instead, Kiwa-sempai and Ran-sempai informed us that "uchidachi always moves first", so the new analogy would be that uchidachi attempts to flee, with shidachi preventing this by assuming a threatening pose. Interesting!

After kata a shinai check was performed, which has also become customary. I heard that last Saturday ~70% of the students' shinai were rejected during the check, leading to an impromptu lesson in maintenance. Hence Renshinjuku kendo dojo have instated the rule that, if your shinai is rejected, you will now spend the training repairing the big collection of dojo-shinai. Both of my shinai were in an "okay" state, though not very good. After tightening the tsuru of my second one, I was allowed to join class. So, time for another evening filled with maintenance!

After warming up, we moved to waza practice. A few rounds of kirikaeshi variations, followed by oki-men, oki-kote, hiki-waza from tsubazeriai and men-oji-waza. There wasn't any explanation of techniques, just the chance to practice a lot.

I had jigeiko with Onno-sempai, (I think) Tsuyuguchi-sensei and with Raoul-sempai.

• Onno-sempai's feedback matched one of my resolutions for this year: cue-ing. There are at least four different ways in which I 'announce' an attack and all of them need to be eliminated. Sometimes I lift my right foot, often I shuffle my left foot, at times I lower my shinai a bit and often I start leaning forward.
• Unfortunately I didn't get part of Tsuyuguchi-sensei's feedback, though one of them was that my hayai-men was lacking ki-ken-tai-ichi. Also, I believe he warns me I was hitting the mengane, instead of the top of his men.
• Raoul-sempai's feedback matches what Donatella-sensei told me last sunday: "be hungry!". Or as Raoul put it in the dressing room: "When you're in kamae, I see you lost in thought, thinking thinking thinking.". He reminded me that I need to want to win! And before a jigeiko, decide what it is that you want to focus on, so you can discuss this with your partner.

kilala.nl tags: sports, kendo,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

Intensive kendo training: "central training"

2013-01-06 19:08:00

Almost a year ago I visited the Landstede sport center in Zwolle, to participate in the NK kyu-graded kendo. Today, we made the trek to attend the first 'central training' of the year. It's "central" insofar that it's a large kendo training, for all dojo in the Netherlands. Marli took my daughter for a fun-filled morning at Ballorig in Hattem, while Jeroen-sempai, Nienke and myself went to the training. Marli 'sacrificed' her usual day off, so I could have a great training day.

And great it was! Today's practice pulled in about 50 people (est. 15 beginners, 15 kyu-graded and 20 dan-graded), with four high-placed sensei and our honored chairman Odinot taking the lead. Today's agenda was as follows:

1. 25 minutes of joint kihon practice of hayai-techniques. Also, ki-ken-tai-ichi exercises.
2. 80 minutes of waza practice under Vitalis-sensei, while Wouters-sempai instructed the beginners.
3. 20 minutes break/lunch.
4. 60 minutes of jigeiko.

Under Vitalis-sensei, the group was split into mudansha and kodansha so everyone got from practice what they needed. We practiced the following techniques, some of which were new for many of us. Each technique was practiced 2x2 times, after which shugou was called in order to learn the next one. 

• Normal hiki-dou. A dou strike cannot be valid, as long as the opponent has not opened up; if the kamae is maintained, you can strike all you like without scoring. In this practice, motodachi would "help" by reacting to pressure, by lifting upwards a little bit. 
• A variant hiki-dou, using surprise. From tsubazeriai, smack your opponent's left temple while putting your right foot more to the right (for leverage), which will cause a surprised reaction where he pushes his shinai towards his left/your right. Now the center has opened, so you can perform a hiki-dou.
• A short-range hiki-kote. Starting from tsubazeriai, while maintaining pressure, put your left foot backwards a bit. Bring yourshinai to your shoulder while kicking off, then strike kote where your tsuka goes to your left hip. Show zanshin while moving further backwards, by bringing your shinai back to your center, pointing upwards.
• Men, kaeshi-dou. This technique will simply not work if you're not efficient enough in your movements. Swing up when motodachi is very near to striking your men, then strike dou using the same movement.
• Men, suriage-men. Same as the above, you need to be fast and efficient. 
• A backwards men, suriage-men. Sometimes, your opponent will simply be too fast for you. It is then a very valid tactic, to back away from him. You can block his men using suriage, then perform a men strike with zanshin in the normal position (not hiki). Unlike a forward moving suriage-men, the backwards version requires a short pause between the deflection and the return men-strike. You want everyone to know that the strike is valid and not a panicked reaction.
• Tsuki, suriage-men. You deflect motodachi's tsuki with a very simple movement: you push your shinai downward straight through the center ever so slightly, over the top of his shinai. This will make the tsuki go wide, leaving you to strike hayai-men.
• Nuki dou, where you strike dou even before motodachi can hit you. Obviously this means you need to be damn quick ;) No big movements! You do hayai-dou, where your shinai only goes to your shoulder, then you immediately strike!
• A special nuki dou, which Vitalis-sensei was taught 30 years ago by his teacher in Japan. It had many people baffled! You perform nuki-dou, then quickly raise your shinai straight up, stepping backwards with your right foot while turning in-place while your opponent passes you. Turn to face him and resume kamae.
• A special nuki dou, where you sink your whole body downwards right before the men strike connects. During this movement your shinai moves to the right. Move backwards to the left, while you strike the left side of opponent's dou (which is not the side you usually strike). 
• Katate han-men. Another surprising technique where you quickly make a long-range attack. From kamae swing upwards, then step forward with your -left- foot and do a single handed strike to motodachi's right temple. Move forward with reverse suriashi, or step through with right and use normal suriashi. 

I got a chance to have jigeiko with three of the leading sensei. 

1. I didn't receive any specific feedback from Barbier-sensei. I tried to use a few of the techniques we learned, combined with some of the stuff Heeren-sensei taught us. After a few minutes, Barbier-sensei asked me to do a round of kirikaeshi.
2. I very much enjoyed my round with Castelli-sensei, who has a very enthousiastic and energizing personality. She let me try a few techniques, then took me aside to tell me (paraphrased): "You need to want your target. I see you hitting air, making a lot of movement, but never getting to where you want to go. I see you go for men, but you don't get to my men. I see you go for kote, then don't hit kote. You need to WANT to hit. You need to WANT to put your shinai on my head! Be hungry! You need to be like an animal of prey". And yeah, that was a very interesting realization for me! I hadn't thought of it like that, but she's right! The next few attacks I was a lot more focused, after which she took me aside again. "The Japanese say: ichi gan, the eyes are first. I see you very often not looking at your target. You strike my kote, but look somewhere completely else! Don't! Eyes on the target!".
3. Right before the closing kirikaeshi, I had a very short round with Vitalis-sensei. At first I had offered to cede my position to mrs De Jong who outranks me, but Vitalis-sensei said I shouldn't do that. "I don't care if they're 10th dan! In kendo you need to be hungry and egotistical to get the training you want. You need to be fast in dressing, first in line and scramble for practice with the teachers you want!" Based on the few strikes I made for him, he also warned me that right now I shouldn't yet be trying "patient"/"waiting" kendo. "Make attacks! Make plenty of attacks! Right now you still have plenty of time to make plenty of mistakes. If two out of ten strikes land relatively close, that's great!" Which certainly sounds a lot like what Kris-fukushou keeps telling me: I wait too much.

During closing, Vitalis-sensei shared the following remarks.

• Beginners should really make sure to stretch their left arms properly. Don't hook them! Upon striking men, your right thumb should be pointing to motodachi's face and your left thumb should point at their tare.
• Similarly, beginners should also often repeat the ki-ken-tai-ichi exercises: your right hand and your right knee are "connected" by a rope, both go up and down at the same time. 
• Those in bogu should work on efficient movements. Very often it is enough to work from your elbows or even your wrists! Shoulder movements are large and thus slow. 
• He also mentioned that 95% of us did not pass our opponents at maximum speed. Almost nobody actually speeds -up- after making the strike, which you really should be doing!
• Those in bogu should stabilize their heads! Very often, heads would wobble backwards (like in this photograph) when going for a strike. Instead, imagine a stick being tied behind your head, back and hips: your whole spinal column should remain straight when moving.

After the training we quickly visited Kaijuu and Natalie and then headed home. Nienke and Jeroen were dropped off at the station again, after which the three of us went for dinner at Tang Dynastie. Great food, as always. All of us exhausted, our kid quickly fell asleep at 1900 and now it's off to bed for us as well :)

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 0)

Well, that wasn't good

2013-01-05 15:02:00

Wow, I can tell that I haven't done any kendo the past three weeks :(

Today's practice went pretty badly for me, because I'm -already- out of shape! Three weeks of no sports is killer, after a few months of only two kendo practices each week. I really need that third session at home to keep up. I'm sad to say I had to bow out from the bogu-group twenty minutes before the end of class.

I got some very important feedback from Ton-sensei: my hayai-men is still almost as bad as a year ago. I still make the same damn mistakes as before, where I pull back large and only stretch forward when striking instead of stretching forward and then striking with a tiny movement. 1.5 years later I am still making the wrong movements. 

Also, whatever progress I had made with my breathing is now gone again. It was crap today and was the biggest cause of my early drop-out.

The second pointer I got from Ton-sensei is that I'm cueing my attacks. We already knew that, but I didn't know -this- particular cue! The Miyaharas and Zicarlo-sempai all told me about my footwork issues, right before launching an attack. But Ton-sensei also pointed out that I dip my shinai before swinging upwards. 

So, my training goals for this year: get a decent hayai-men, control my breathing, and less cueing before a strike.

kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports,

View or add comments (curr. 1)