For those who aren't aware (which is probably many of you as Dave was trying to be quiet and modest) David Jordan passed his nidan at Mumeishi last Sunday (05/02/12).
So congratulations!! And I hope your journey to sandan is easier than the journey to Mumeishi in the snow, and a lot more enjoyable!
KANGEIKO 2012 A NEW START A NEW DOJO
Day One: Paul Gray
Our new dojo has prompted a rethink on the general direction of the club and a renewed determination by our Sensei Jeff Humm to focus on the best traditional kendo practice and to insist on the highest standards of effort and etiquette in the dojo. This chimed nicely with the traditional kangeiko (News Year’s practice) theme of returning to basics. And boy, did we start with basics.
We started with shizentai – natural standing position and moved to more general reigi, etiquette or proper behaviour – and correct sonkyo position. Footwork was emphasised as Sensei asked that we take care to stand and sonkyo in migi-shizentai (the normal kendo standing position with right foot slightly forward) rather than twisting the left leg or drawing the ankles together as is sometimes done by people in sonkyo.
Kendoka should pay attention to small details and straight lines are important – so always check that you are in line with the person standing or sitting next to you (on the side towards the senior end of the dojo). This in time leads to better understanding of awareness of our surroundings.
Basic cutting followed, with some suburi to get us warmed up. Again, perhaps the long break or simply bad habits meant that numerous errors in technique soon emerged. Sensei pointed out the need to start with the correct chudan-no-kamae otherwise the ‘swing’ to begin with the correct shape. This meant ensuring that the tip of the shinai (kensen) is not simply pulled back with the hands and fore-arms being exposed to a kote attack, but rather the emphasis is to push forward and raise the shinai above the head with the hands and wrists remaining behind the tsuka (hilt). Hands should be relaxed and rather than twisting the wrists around the shinai to make the crisp end of a cut (sai) this should be achieved simply by slightly closing your relaxed hands around the tsuka at the moment of impact or when you want to stop the shinai in flight.
Practicing our cuts – both as static suburi and the moving across the dojo, meant reminding ourselves of ki-ken-tai-ichi – mind, body and sword as one. In particular, the importance of simply hitting the floor with your front foot as the cut lands and the kiai (shout) is given - was emphasized. Sensei explained that careful observation of one’s own body movement and self-awareness is needed by every kendoka.
Kendoka should dress smartly and treat the ‘outfit’ as a uniform rather than as sports clothes. Kendo is, after all, a martial discipline and soldiers on parade are never sloppy. Many people wear their tare to low. Do are too are often tied low as well. Himo on both the do and men should not be excessively long (they should be 40cm at the back when tied). Himo should also be smoothed flat and not left twisted.
So, that was pretty much what we covered on day one of kangeiko. Basic basics!
Day: Two Nari
After the first night of the kangeiko many braved the horrid weather conditions and aching muscles from lack of practice over the December period. Many changes had been made to etiquette in the dojo and the contribution of everyone to the dojo. As we now have a new dojo Sensei has decided to go back to the roots of kendo and practice kendo in an orderly manner with awareness of others around you. The practice started with a recap of the 1st night with practising of a good quality men cut. Those of us who hadn’t made it to the first night had to quickly get up to speed and get on par with the rest of the group. Again this all had to be performed in timing with the rest of the group and not go off into our own rhythm.
After performing men cuts for a while Sensei asked to go back to the very beginning and look at our footwork. Many of us started off well but as the cuts progressed the footwork became narrower and more eschewed where some of us resembled a tight rope walker. Another key point was that many of us were not taking a large enough stride when cutting and those who did, did so cutting forwards but upon going back to chudan the backwards step was smaller so there were net forwards movement. To make us concentrate on footwork we placed our shinai’s on the floor and had to step both forwards and backwards the length of the shinai from the tsuba. Once many had a feel of this Sensei moved on to co-ordination of the cut to make sure footwork and cut finish at the same time.
We then moved onto motodachi work with emphasis on both kakarite side and motodachi pushing each other to work hard. The first exercise involved the motodachi moving in a random direction with the kakarite side following both in chudan. The aim of the exercise was not to break shinai contact. As the motodachi side moved faster the harder it was to follow. This was then followed up by a series of techniques which the motodachi opened up for but were also allowed to move around the dojo to encourage the kakarite to come into correct distance then cut. So the motodachi had to work on their footwork posture whilst kakarite distance and technique. The Motodachi were then asked to make the kakarite side to work harder and move more. You could feel the spirit lift a little more at this as everyone tried their hardest to perform at their best.
Sensei then moved on from this exercise so that the motodachi were allowed to perform oji waza to the kakarite cuts. The aim here was the same as before but now the kakarite had to try and hit the motodachi before the motodachi could perform the oji waza. Everyone gave their all with some good success on both sides. There was some real energy flowing through the group at this point.
Finally we finished the class with a few rounds of kirikaeshi and Sensei explained the importance of it in general kendo and at grading times. This was good insight especially as many people will be grading this year.
Sensei then concluded the class and prepared us for the 3rd day and reminded the cohort not to forget the lessons of days 1 and 2 and that day 3 will be harder.
Phil
Hizen’s kangeiko on 6 January maintained the emphasis on reigi, we started with a recap of all that we had practiced up to now with additional information and detail. Once this had been covered and we had been warmed up in the process Sensei then started to look at the correct behaviour in shiai for both competitors and referees.
The first shock was that there was no area marked so the competitors and referees had to mentally visualise the space and keep within this area. The Competitors also had to refrain from using tsubazeriai and if we came into this position both sides had to move back out into distance at the same time as in the action of wakarei. Sensei explained that this is a very high level of respect and discipline and shows a higher level of kendo understanding which also produced a much higher level of skills.
As a referee we had to control the matches with firm commands and make sure that the competitors felt that we had control of the match. In addition we had to explain our action and give reasons for our actions so the pressure was on. At the end of the practice Sensei informed us that this would be the format for our internal taikai which would be held on Sunday 8th due to problems we faced at the end of last year with the sports centre being closed.
Saturday 7th, This was a day of rest for everyone and it gave everyone chance for there bodies to recover and think about what had been covered so far.
Hizen Winter Taikai “2011” Tatos
There were 3 new and exciting changes to the Hizen Winter taikai this year: firstly was the new dojo; secondly was that no lines were used during the competition, the area was dictated and controlled by the shinpan. So now there was pressure to be spatially aware whilst fighting and also pressure on the shinpan to manage the fight more strictly.
The final change to the Hizen 2011 Winter Taikai was that it took place in 2012. Of itself that has little relevance but this timing placed the taikai in the middle of Kangeiko which created an interesting juxtaposition of the traditional kendo we'd been practicing and our instinctive 'shiai' kendo.
The first competition was for nidan and below and was split into 2 pools of 6. The usual 1 point handicap was applied to dan grades. This combined with the progress of the kyu/mu grades led to some surprising fights.
In the first pool Machiko scored a nice kote on Armando (who won best shikake waza) and the surprises continued when Alex M very quickly scored against Nari.
Two people went through from each pool into the semi-finals. Chi and Steve fought first, both utilising sharp nidan waza, quick men cuts and oji waza, but Chi managed to pull out ahead and score a place in the final. The next fight was not as quick; Ini was out of practice and Tatos was full of mince pies from Christmas! But in the end a kote cut meant Chi and Tatos would be in the final.
In a fairly give and take final Chi went 1-0 down quickly. Whilst this relieved his opponent it focused Chi and he came back to score 2 men points and win the match.
Next up was the senior completion for the san-dans. Notably absent this year was Clay whose shiny new 4th dan meant he’d be a shinpan instead.
Already running short on time the ippon shobu bouts were shortened to 1 minute. Without much time to score (and with a nice new floor to work with) the seniors had to take a much more aggressive stance and hunt for the point. There were some lovely examples of timing on display particularly nice was Natasa’s dou-nuki-men against Phil. It was hard to tell who was ahead as everyone seemed to be winning and losing in equal measure and in no particular pattern. However in the end there could only be one, and Paul and Frank were tied for points so they fought a decider (this time with no time limit). It seems Frank, at this point, had an attack of amnesia and forgot that earlier he had said he wasn’t interested in winning, as after a very close match he did just that!
In the Balloon Cup traditions were upheld and one colour dominated right from the off. After a blistering first round (Antonin alone popping 4 red balloons) the whites had decimated the reds, leaving just Clay to fight for the whole red team. He made a valiant attempt to claw back some honour for the reds but ultimately being outnumbered 10-1 mean he too was despatched. As the whites turned on each other, some tried to “honourably duel”, whilst others picked people off while they weren’t looking. Then after a while, with a bit of underhand distraction, Ini was despatched by Natasa leaving her and Tatos. She hit the target a good few times but her success in buying such strong white balloons would be her undoing and finally her balloon was popped!
Picture from left to right: Armando – Best shikake waza; Steve M – 3rd Place; Chi – 1st place and best oji waza; Tatos – 2nd place, f/s and Fusen cup; Frank – Senior Cup.
Frank – Senior Cup.
Monday 9th Last Night of Kangeiko
After a good turn out on all the other days Monday saw a drop in numbers, which maybe be understandable as family and other commitments last to come into consideration. But saying that those who managed to come fall into the new guide lines of practise and it made a great difference compared to the visitors who looked without direction and lost in a properly run dojo. Everyone has improved over the week although it is not second nature as yet. Everyone can say that they are now practising Kendo and not just swinging a stick in the direction of another person hoping to hit them with in some fashion. As Paul pointed out on the first day Kangeiko and the meaning of a new year and in the new dojo has given me the opportunity for change.
The simple maxim of ‘Kendo starts with Rei and ends with Rei’ should not be lost, to make the primarily focus on technique and self gratification through victory rather than the possibilities for character cultivation is not the DO in Kendo it is just purely a sporting pursuit.
So please do not lose the or your ‘WAY’
Happy New Year
Dear Members,
I hope everyone one had a great holiday and had time to relax and enjoy family and friends and maybe indulge and pamper yourselves. Now I am pleased to inform you that we are back in action in our new Dojo.
The later months of last year saw the old school halls knocked down and a large refurbishment start, we lost practise due to this and numbers and events dropped.
As you can see the building is now open and the time we waited and struggled has paid off by giving us a brand new dojo with a sprung floor without lines, air-conditioning and white light making the dojo bright and welcoming.
We start back on the 4th at 7pm-9pm with the first day of Kangeiko, with the New Year and a new dojo we must all use this chance to renew our Kendo study and practice.
There will be many changes so please come with a fresh mind and take on board all the corrections that are given to you over the coming year. As always I will gave myself to you all and try to establish a foundation of traditional kendo that will set the way of others will wish to be part of or stand back in admiration.
‘’There is no smaller or great mastery than the mastery of oneself ‘’
I look forward to the challenge.
Jeff Humm
Shihan
Congratulations
Belated congratulations to Clayon Stewart who passed his yondan at the British open grading on the 16th October 2011.
He is now 1 of 7 members over 3rd dan at Hizen dojo!
He is now 1 of 7 members over 3rd dan at Hizen dojo!
Frank Bowden Memorial Taikai 10th September 2011
The morning started with a brave attack on the one way systems of Birmingham (helped by a taxi driver who seemed to be making up the directions as he went along). Eventually we all met at the hall in Birmingham for The Frank Bowden Memorial Taikai, a team (5 people) event.
Our teams were:
Hizen A: Nick Davey, Jeff Martin, Clayon Stewart, Phil Wilson and Satoshi Miyamura.
Hizen B: Chi Fung, Steve McDonald, Nari Arjan, myself and "Frank" Fai Fung.
In what, I am informed, is something of a tradition, the normal pool system was eschewed for a new spangly made up one. The result was 4 pools of four grouped into 2 shiai-jo. Points were awarded for wins and ippon and each shiai-jo of 2 pools competed together on points and the top 4 teams on each shiai-jo went through to the next round.
Hmmmm…
Our (Hizen B) first match was against an aggressive Tora team. Chi and Steve came out very strongly in their fights however, with the opponents keen to block and come into tsuba-zeriai it was hard to clinch a point. Nari came out third and having noticed that they were blocking a lot he employed ni-dan waza and scored a lovely kote-dou. I was up next and again struggled to find a point against an opponent keen to stay close. In our taisho slot was Frank who now needed a 2 point win, but once again was tied up close and then injured when his wrist was twisted in a strange tsuba-zeriai tangle.
Without anyone to kiss Franks wrist better (Nari's expert ministrations notwithstanding) he just had to get on with it.
Our next match was a Welsh team, once again our team looked controlling but seemed to struggle to get the points and overall was another close loss.
We had one fight left against UCL and despite thinking that we'd be eliminated (due to losing 2 out of 3 matches) we decided to pull ourselves together and make a good fight of it.
So with one last hurrah we put in a 10 point victory over UCL. Frank even cameoed some Jodan for one point (citing his painful right wrist and not show-boating as the reason).
In the mean time on the other court Hizen A had dominated all their matches and sailed through the "pool" phase without an issue.
With the pools over we went to see the eliminations and to our surprise Hizen B were through (due to the point system our 10 ippons against UCL had pushed us back up the board). Even more to our surprise our next match was against Hizen A. It was clear that being from the same club meant very little in this fight. All the matches were close, never separated by more than a point.
Unfortunately (for Hizen B) Hizen A had the better of us in the end taking the match 3-2
So now Hizen A were through to the semi-finals against Taiseidokai (Glasgow). In a match of contrasting styles ,the more aggressive and frenetic Taiseidokai against a more measured Hizen team, both struggled to get a decisive advantage. In the end both teams wins, losses and draws being equal as well as their points it meant that it would be a representative match.
So, considering the role of the representative, Satoshi picked Clay to fight against D J Henderson. It was a long fight and it was clear that Clay's opponent was getting tired.
However, in a strange reversal of the norm Clay was disarmed, fortunately the boxing instincts kicked in as he sidestepped a few cuts.
After resuming the fight he quickly tried to take back the initiative and landed a very crisp kote-men but as he went through his opponent floored him so the point was scored. Peculiarly Henderson seemed in some pain after this (it later transpired he'd injured his foot somehow).
Sensing his opponent wasn't moving much, Clay kept up the offensive but couldn't seem to convince the shinpan and in the end a debana kote was given against him.
So congratulations to Hizen A for getting 3rd place overall!!
(PS - If anyone has any pictures can they send me a couple for this post as I can't find any!!)
Hizen Challenge Taikai 3rd September 2011
“It’s about ten times harder than it looked in the videos.” That was the opinion of James Ogle, the eventual winner of the Hizen Challenge Taikai, on the four endurance challenges that give the event its name.
Taking place on 3 September, the event saw kendoka from around Britain and Europe compete for a £500 first prize, with runners up taking home £250 and £125.
The Hizen challenge is unique in featuring four endurance challenges before the pool rounds begin. The event began with two minutes of haya suburi, with David Parkes of Oxford University managing 175 within the time limit. In the last group of competitors to take the challenge, James Ogle of Denshinkan took the lead with 183.The second challenge involved men and hiki men attacks against a practice dummy. Chi Leung Fung and Tatos Shahbazian of Hizen came joint first in this round, managing 41 in two minutes.
The third round involved a seemingly straightforward sequence of kote, dou and men strikes, with competitors having to cover a set distance then return to their start position after each cut. By this point though, competitors were starting to get tired, often losing points by failing to reach their mark. Chi made 31 cuts in what competitors agreed was the hardest of the four events.
Finally, competitors were required to make men and hiki men cuts before turning to attack a second target. Tiredness and dizziness were both the enemies here. James Ogle made 51 attacks within the time limit, but was beaten by by Barnaby Ellis from Gloucester, who scored 52 in a much-cheered final push.
After the challenge rounds the lowest scoring player was eliminated and the pool matches began. There was some quality kendo on display, with Viktorija Plaksijenko of Trijega KenYuKai scoring a clean kote nuki men, and Haruka Kina of Hizen performing some nicely timed attacks that won her the fighting spirit prize.
In the first semi final Chi Leung Fung took James Ogle to a long encho, with James going through a laundry list of techniques, including makiotoshi men and katate tsuki, without managing to break Chi’s concentration or kamae. James eventually won with debanna kote in the ninth minute of the match.
The second semi final saw Mindaugas Sakalauskas of Trijega KenYuKai take an early lead against Maarten De Meulder of Queen Mary University with a sharply performed suriage kote. He went on to win the match two-nil with a men cut.
The final was a 15-minute epic, with James and Mindaugas proving evenly matched in technique and stamina. James managed one flag for kote early on, but there was no score after five minutes, and sudden-death encho began. Both players made strong attacks, but neither managed to find a gap in the other’s defences. Eventually, James managed to stay in the fight slightly longer after an exchange of cuts, catching Mindaugas off guard with a men cut.
Jeff Humm sensei presented the specially designed trophy, modelled on an antique tsuba, and thanked the referees and helpers who’d made the day run so smoothly. He also said he was pleased with the quality of kendo on display, and hoped to welcome many of the competitors back next year.
Report by Philip Wilson
Hizen Summer Taikai 7th August 2011
A familiar format greeted us this year with a nidan and under mixed team competition and a sandan individual’s cup. However, there was some new swag up for grabs, newly made medals in the shape of the Hizen mon as an antique tsuba.
Slowed slightly by the building works that have been taking place at the hall eventually 6 teams of 3 were selected randomly, the san-dans (and Ini) were ready to shinpan, the new scoreboard was setup and it was time to get the competition under way.
This was the first shiai experience for quite a lot of people in the junior competition, yet the kendo was very positive, spirited and attacking, showing that even without lots of shiai experience doing basic cuts positively is very effective.
2nd place - Chi Leung Fung, Andy O’Connor and Armando Alemdar
3rd place - David Jordan, Antoine Bisch and May
Shikake Waza - Chi Leung Fung
Oji Waza - Ndu Wodu
Fighting Spirit - Doug Punch
For the avid pub-kendoka a few trademark techniques were available to see, namely Paul’s harai-men, Frank’s kaeshi-do and even a little cameo from Jeff’s gyaku jodan.
But in the end there can only be one, and this year the result was:
Senior Cup - Fai “Frank” Fung
A New Sandan (June 2011)
Stewart coaxes his counterpart into cutting kote allowing him to perform nuki-men, even after a long morning travelling on a ferry to get to the dojo.
He reports that he is relieved to have the grading behind him and is looking forward to starting the journey as a sandan in pursuit of yondan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)