I attended the first ever Sydney Kendo Club Friendship Cup event yesterday, held at the Sports Centre in Cumberland Campus of Sydney University in Lidcombe. The event is supposed to be an annual event to promote friendship and more shiai practice between fellow kendoka in Sydney and surrounding regions to fill in voids of the competition calendar.
I originally did not want to compete in the event, but I was asked to turn up anyway as a reserve player in case something happened and they needed a filler. It turned out that I could have entered to join another club's team originally, but as the registration proceeded to fill, more cancellations and no-shows ended up with me not having a spot to play in after all. It wasn't a big deal really for me, except the first time in ages that I felt like competing (after getting there with my gear) I couldn't compete. I ended up taking photos which was fine.
The competition went fairly smoothly, and there was a lot of really nice kendo being played, but there were also some very scrappy kendo including rough-housing like much much bigger players forcing players off the court with pushing and not proper tai-atari waza.
After the closing ceremony and awarding of the placings, we had free jigeiko and I managed to play seven people. I got to play a gentleman by the surname of Maruyama, who was from ANU (Australian National University) but was Japanese and returning to Japan. What I learnt was that I am definitely getting better and faster, and my reaction speeds were better. While I didn't manage to cut a point on men, I could cut onto his megane, meaning my speed was better to even reach him like that. Further more, I could see his waza even if I wasn't fast enough to avoid or block it on his attacks.
I also learnt that I'm still lacking that explosive power from my left leg. Playing Brendan Kee, also from ANU, I couldn't explode out from stand-still position to cut like everyone else can. I don't know if it is muscle issues, reflex or a combination of those plus more, but I will continue to train and seek my own way.
It was a pretty tiring jigeiko for me, and I did enjoy it though I am suffering for it now since I had no warmup and am decidely sore from the experience.
The pictures are here on my Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchiou/sets/72157614542366622/
I originally did not want to compete in the event, but I was asked to turn up anyway as a reserve player in case something happened and they needed a filler. It turned out that I could have entered to join another club's team originally, but as the registration proceeded to fill, more cancellations and no-shows ended up with me not having a spot to play in after all. It wasn't a big deal really for me, except the first time in ages that I felt like competing (after getting there with my gear) I couldn't compete. I ended up taking photos which was fine.
The competition went fairly smoothly, and there was a lot of really nice kendo being played, but there were also some very scrappy kendo including rough-housing like much much bigger players forcing players off the court with pushing and not proper tai-atari waza.
After the closing ceremony and awarding of the placings, we had free jigeiko and I managed to play seven people. I got to play a gentleman by the surname of Maruyama, who was from ANU (Australian National University) but was Japanese and returning to Japan. What I learnt was that I am definitely getting better and faster, and my reaction speeds were better. While I didn't manage to cut a point on men, I could cut onto his megane, meaning my speed was better to even reach him like that. Further more, I could see his waza even if I wasn't fast enough to avoid or block it on his attacks.
I also learnt that I'm still lacking that explosive power from my left leg. Playing Brendan Kee, also from ANU, I couldn't explode out from stand-still position to cut like everyone else can. I don't know if it is muscle issues, reflex or a combination of those plus more, but I will continue to train and seek my own way.
It was a pretty tiring jigeiko for me, and I did enjoy it though I am suffering for it now since I had no warmup and am decidely sore from the experience.
The pictures are here on my Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchiou/sets/72157614542366622/
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