#75 Kata Concepts

As I alluded to in the previous Random post, Master Choi taught us some points about Kata.  While it really isn't possible to write or describe about it on my blog, what I can do is replicate some written material he gave us in regards to the first 7 kata.  The source appears to be from Kendo, by Jinich Tokeshi.

Benefits of Studying Kata

1) Body and Appearance

• Refine your composure and mannerisms
• Imrpove good and proper posture
• Cultivate grace, refined character and dignity

2) Mind and Mental

• Become agile - mind and brain action
• Become aware of the thoughts and actions of others
• Develop spirit and energy

3) Kendo Techniques

• Lose undersirable technical habits and get proper or right skills
• Understand the proper ma'ai
• Develop attack and defense skills
• Learn opportunity and moment

As a basis of shinai keiko, Kata practice is valuable for learning the various waza, such as the nuki, suriage, kaeshi and ukenagashi.

Comprehend the principles of Kendo.

There are five stances to understand

• Chudan no kamae
• Jodan no kamae
• Gedan no kamae
• Hasso no kamae
• Wakikamae

The ponme

Ipponme

Ipponme teaches gi (honestry, virtue, conviction, faith, justice, truth and power) and sen (fore).  Therefore ipponme is performed with large all out waza without apprehension.

Nihonme

Nihonme teaches jin (benvolence, endurance, and practice).  Thus, although the shidachi is capable of fatally striking the uhcidachi, he strikes the kote instead and spares the uchidachi's life.

Sanbonme

Sanbonme teaches yu (courage) and how the win without injuring the opponent (kuraizume)

Yonhonmen

The hasso no kamae (eight-faceted stance) represents wood or trees.  The wakigame (hip stance) represents gold or metal, which can smash wood.  Yonhome teaches large auichi waza (simultaneous striking technique).  Kirimusubi (chaffing) relates to a sense of proper tsubazeuiai (hand guard fight) in shinai kendo.

Gohonme

Jodan no kamae represents fire.  Chudan no kamae represents water, which can put out the fire.

Ropponme

Chudan represents water and gedan represents earth, which can cover up the water.  When the uchidachi takes the Jodan (fire) stance, the shidachi responds with the chudan stance.

Nanahonme

(blank)

How to improve Kata

• Keep eyes on each other from start to finish
• Uchidachi always iniates the movement, from front foot and retreat from the back foot.  Shidachi is always the follower and the same as uchidachi.
• Do together - finish by a nice harmony
• Open Kiai and Close Kiai [Opening kiai is Yaaaah, close Kiai is Tooooh!, so that it becomes Yaaahtoooh! so that the Toh follows as soon as possible and finishes strongly]
• Use your body when walking - suriashi (abdominal) and ayumiashi (shoulder)
• Show zanshin
• Back foot up to the proper distance after a datotsu so that the feet are not wide apart
• On datotsu, strike through the datotsubui with the monouchi (cutting zone)
• Em lyu kyo jaku (slow fast strong weak) [e.g., a fast cut is not necessarily stronger]
• Abdominal breathing
• Consider the opportunity and right moment for attack
• Ma'ai

#74 Relaxing

Relax relax relax.

I haven't been able to train much and by the looks of it due to work, I won't get to train much more in the future either.

I went to training today after work and was talking to one of our members who was  severely fatigued on their right shoulder and arm, and really, I thought it was they were too tense and used their right too much.  My advice was to relax, relax relax.  Balance out the use of the arms, and put more into the left as leading with the right means that you will naturally apply more power with the right when you make cuts.

Then we spoke to one of our sempai's annd he gave virtually the same advice as I did, so it's good to know that my own thoughts were not in the wrong chain of thought.

So, relax, reset yourself after each cut, return to kamae, and relax.  Being tense stops you from moving smoothly and fluidly.

So, once again, relax.

#73: Keeping Kamae

Itakura Sensei came and trained with us again one afternoon the other week, and after playing with him during jigeiko, he gave me some comments on keeping kamae afterwards.

As I have been working on maintaining a strong center/chudan no kamae, it is often that my opponents will run onto the kensen or mune-/tsuki themselves.  However, that said, Itakura Sensei told me that what I am doing is not effective because of two things.  I move backwards as I extend, and my posture does not indicate confidence because I am attempting  to avoid the incoming cut.

To hold a strong kamae, I should not be afraid of the cut coming, and my posture should be strong and upright/straight, and when I hold kamae, I should not retreat at all but hold my ground and seme forwards into them.  My only concern with this is the breaking of my shinai, but I guess it is part of Kendo, and the price to pay for being a kamae user.

So, I have been trying this, and along with fudoushin, I have found that it is working but slow progression as reflexes and instinct cause me to want to duck and weave, dodge and move around when that cut comes.  But, one step at a time.

#71: Post kote/mune-tsuki action

I played against a Sensei today visiting from another club, and a situation happened which I sometimes often have occur from my style of play and chudan no kamae, which is where they self-tsuki on the kote or on their chest/shoulder because I maintain my center.

I did this twice to the Sensei, and asked him what I should do, because in both situations, I hesitated and got struck by him. Usually, in this situation, I should have the upper hand and advantage to the situation since I have halted their momentum and attack.

What he told me was, close the distance by going into tsubazeriai distance immediately in both situations to prevent them from making an attack if I do not have the ability to make my own.

If I am able to make an attack, I should observe briefly if I can by their reaction, if they come back to guard position immediately then pressing an attack would put me into their space, where as if they also hesitate, then press the attack, but striking their shinai out of the way as I make a cut to ensure that I still dominate their center.

I understand the theory, and I tried it later on when I had jigeiko against someone else, but I find that I was ending up too close and cutting too deep on the shinai, but now that I know how it is possible to action afterwards I will try to use it more often.

I also managed to score a cut on the Sensei where he acknowledged the cut, so I was pretty happy with that. Post training when I went to thank him, his further advice to me was to slow down and not rush into my attacks. Hmm.

#70: Shodan Jigeiko Advice

I spoke to someone who is of a higher level today during training. They had come along with their family because their wife and daughter were part of the State's Women's Training program, and him and his son joined in on our regular training.

He is a regular who is involved with grading, usually on the Kyu side, but I asked him about the aspects for Shodan jigeiko since I have heard some different things about it.

In the jigeiko I should:

• Maintain correct posture at all times.
• Cut from chikama or kensen-kensen distance, do not cut from too close, which is a common mistake.
• Have 2-3 waza well practiced, generally Straight men cut, plus one or two more, such as kote or debana kote, or harai waza etc. Do not try to be too fancy.
• Move with intent.
• Do not be blocking the entire time.
• It is okay to take your time, but ensure you display that you are moving such as shinai play or footwork instead of being at a standstill.

Generally, do not panic and play with spirit and energy.
I think after that little talk, it was good because now I feel more confident in what I am able to do for my jigeiko.

#69: Visiting Sensei's Comments

Today, Itakura Sensei visited our club and gave us some advice and comments in regards to our training.

In no particular order:

• Every cut needs to be 100% the moment you start from when you stand from Sonkyo.
• Use your footwork to cover distance, not your arms and shoulders. Maintain your posture is better for the cut since it is easy to swing your arms than move your body.
• Motodachi during Kirikaeshi must be active, mentally train yourself in counter-strikes every time you block a cut.
• For kihon kote cuts, you do not need to lift up as much above your head as kihon men cut, lift enough to see underneath the triangle of your kote/shinai before cutting down.
• Relax
• For all small cuts, the closer you get to your opponent before you lift, the more you will dominate their space for the attack.
• For small kote cut, footwork should be directional so that your right foot is going to step on your opponents right foot.
• Relax!
• Kiai for small kote cut can be short but sharp/strong.
• Hiki-waza should be "spectacular", good looking/impressive.
• Zanshin for hiki-waza should be big action, finish at chudan strongly and ready for another cut.
• Confidence in every cut.
• Relax!!

Some important parts that I took today were:

• Speed is not important. Younger players who are faster will not defeat experienced players with speed only. It is better to have good posture and conviction in your cuts, speed will come later.
• Do not regret your actions. If you make a cut, do not regret the cut if it fails, but be prepared for the next cut.
• Seme is about dominating your opponents space so that they create openings by being afraid of the domination (either by movement to block, or attacking as the reaction).
• Do not think about the previous cut, or the next one. Here and now.
• Relax your body so you can make the next cut properly.

This is Kendo that we play, it is not physical exercise. This means concentration, understanding, and taking your time to observe your opponent and actions.

It was a very interesting and useful session.

#68: Dumbing it down

Lately, I have been changing my style of play a little. Feeling more with my shinai, and pushing hard to make cuts when I normally wouldn't have before. While some of it may be attributed towards having my first proper shiai a few weeks ago at Founders Cup, I think some of it also comes from the settling of deciding to not follow Jodan no Kamae, at least for the time being until I am Sandan or higher, as advised by many people.

Last week, and today, I played one of our coaches in jigeiko. Last week, he told me that I still have issues with my distance. When I start my attack, I am too far, when openings appear for me to cut, I am too close and thus the cut is no good. Today, I had the same situation re-occur and afterwards, he advised me to lower my playing to the "dumbest" level.

As strange as it sounds, it makes sense when you actually know what they are talking about. Instead of thinking, you just do. So, while keeping my usually reasonable center, I wait. And wait. But as soon as my opponent steps in, I strike. It doesn't matter if there is an opening or not, just take it. No thinking required. He told me that I am very good at surprise attacks, but because I always start them too far out, I always land the cut short, usually kensen at the front of the megane. By waiting for my opponents to come into their cutting distance, I can reach them better.

But, I think it may take me some time to get used to this. As he explained it, the "dumbing down" mentality is "If you attack, I attack". Pretty simple, but hard all at the same time.

#65: The importance of Keeping Center

We had two visiting Sensei at training today, one was a 6th Dan and the other a 7th Dan, both from Japan.

They had visited Sydney Kendo Club prior to our training and thus only came in the second half, where we did a considerable amount of jigeiko since they requested it (or so I was told). During the jigeiko, I was opportune enough to play both of them.

The first Sensei I played was the 6th Dan, and he let me make a few cuts to gauge my level. I had noticed that one of the beginners had been also assessed in this manner, and the Sensei did uchigomigeiko with him instead of jigeiko. For me, he didn't really attack, but only counter my attacks, and kept his center with Chudan no Kamae.

At one point, I thought I had broken his center and moved in for the men cut, but when I had moved in, I realised too late that his kensen was still in center. At the time, I didn't think about it, I just made a kihon cut as I self-tsuki'd myself onto his kensen. Boy did it hurt. I sort of took two steps back, went back to Chudan, and continued. What I was pleased about at least was that my kihon cut did land properly, even though my zanshin was stopped dead in my tracks. I sort of envisage that my body was kind of like in a C shape at that point, with my arms out forward on the cut, and my legs also trying to go forwards but my chest not letting me. So with the Sensei's shinai, it'd be like C-- haha.

In any case, I have never been impaled that strongly before. I tend to have an alright center keeping ability and thus have not really been into that experience of getting the shinai onto my own attack and movement. It doesn't deter me, if anything, it shows me the importance of having a strong and well maintained center. In addition, I felt no fear when playing the Sensei, even though I was getting countered on almost every cut I attempted. I fumbled some cuts and did block, and I didn't really back away either except to gain my distance.

I did get also two good cuts in, where I thought they were worth ippons. Of course the Sensei probably let me have it since he probably could have stopped it or dodged if he wanted to, but he gave me a "Good" response on the cuts.

The 7th Dan Sensei was not as good to play against since I wasn't really sure of his attempts at communication since I don't think he really spoke English. In any case, I managed some cuts to land, but they were not very good cuts at all. It was still a little bit of exercise I guess.

Well, it was a different training session at least.

Oh, and here is a picture of my chest post tsuki.

#57: The question of speed - Changing of grip technique

I have been training fairly consistently since I have been back from New York, only missing one session so far because I was having lunch with my brother who was returning to the U.S. with his family on a permanent basis.

From two sessions, one the other day, and today's session, there were two comments on "speed" that came up.

The first comment came from someone who is my kouhai, and he said (paraphrasing) that I had got faster since he last played me in jigeiko, but I moved less. The second comment came from a sempai of mine who I respect greatly and he told me today that I am fast, I have very fast hands, but I need to work on my legs. You can not go faster than your legs, so if I increased my leg speed I would be even faster.

These two comments are a bit surprising to me in the sense that I have never really considered myself to be fast. By comparison to others, I always feel that I am quite slow, and it is only recently that I have improved my "vision" that I can see movements/cuts/attacks coming but I am not always actually able to do anything about them. For people to say I am getting faster, or that I actually am faster is unusual.

I have always known that I am slow on my legs. So, how do I increase leg speed? I know one is of course muscle mass. More muscles, more power, more speed. The second is tone. Better tone, better response, faster reaction. Thirdly, one that is a much harder aspect for me, is being relaxed and tense all at the same time.

Muscle mass and tone, I can do. Weights and so forth, running or cycling or squats and leg work. Easy. I don't think I need to actually do a lot of it because I already have a heck of a lot of muscle. Tone, yeah ok, I could work on.

The hard one for me is the relaxation and being tense. When I am moving into seme and ittomai distance, I can stay relaxed. But if I am relaxed, I do not have the ability (yet) to have what is commonly referred to as "explosive" speed come from my legs. When I am tense in the same situation, I do get that speed and power, but what then happens is I find I lack distance because my muscle tension keeps my muscle stretch shorter. Being able to find that happy medium is what I need, where I can get the burst of power, but being relaxed so I can get distance also. I'm not exactly sure how I can achieve this.

***

The other thing that I have been doing lately is changing how I hold the shinai. I have got a replacement Shinki Silver for the one that broke a while back, and I have started to use it again. Since the grip is quite small, it is a challenge to maintain a strong grip on it at all times. What I did come to realise is that, as we are taught and recommended, is that we should not have a tense and tight grip with the right hand except for applying tenouchi at the end of the cut. It should be relaxed and act as a guide for your cuts with the left hand bringing the power.

So, I have been doing this. I have been gripping my left hand very strongly, to the point where when we get to jigeiko at the end of the session, I find myself unable to grip tightly anymore. So much so on Friday last week I was disarmed accidentally when my opponent mune-tsuki'd themselves onto my kamae and the shinai left my hand completely. I hope that over time I will get a stronger left grip so these events happen less, especially at crucial situations.

What has come forth from it so far for me in my observations, is that my shinai control has not worsened. It has become a little loose when someone is attempting to break my center, but I can guide it back fairly easily and quickly like before, but it provides me with a much more relaxed sensation when I make my movements and try to pick openings. I will continue with this and see where it leads me.

Perhaps this is also where the "speed" comes from for my hands, in that if you are relaxed, you can "snap" speed into your movements, which is what I mentioned before in relation to what I wish to achieve with my legs.

#56: Experienced Observations

One of the senior members of the state and national team in NSW/Australia is Vivian Yung. She has her own Kendo blog, which contains the insights from her own journey. She recently won the Womens individual title at the 34th Australian Kendo Championships held in Adelaide over the Easter long weekend.

I found her review of the weekend, along with her observations, thoughts and summation of the exercises taught in the seminar to be very useful, so I have included a link to that specific post in her blog.

http://nintai.blogspot.com/2009/04/34akc-shomen-ni-rei.html

She will be competing at the World Championships in Brazil sometime this year, so please give her all of your support ^_^

#55: Shiai Practice Thoughts & Observations

We have had a lot of shiai (competition) practice lately due to there being two competitions within a few weeks of each other coming up. While I am not orientated towards competition yet, it is part of our training and thus I partake in it. Shiai practice comes in both individual and team format, and while if you think about it on the base level, team format is still an individual thing, there are nuances in the team aspect that are very important but I shall get to them later.

I have played a few shiai practices now, and for most part, either drawn or lost to those equal to my kendo time or better, while winning at least in ippon matches against my juniors. It of course is not embarassing to lose to my juniors either because some of them are very talented and work extremely hard. Further more, shimpans, and with inexperienced shimpans, it is easy to for them to make mistakes and either not give points when they should, or they give points when they shouldn't.

My main concern with shiai practice initially was that it made for bad kendo. People drive away from the perspective of scoring ippon, and ensuring they do not get hit and this leads to some really poor kendo form, for example, doing small kote cuts with appalling posture to dodge debana men cuts (someone in our club does this and it is very disturbing, I wish to just throttle him because he is a beginner and has these terrible habits....). However, discussing this with another one of the seniors, there is truth to the fact that the more shiai you do, and more shiai practice you do, the less focus on points because it then turns into doing more kendo overall. This then leads to less thoughts on "must score a point" and more to do with working on timing and making good cuts for the shimpan to award. Very true.

So with this new perspective on shiai, I don't mind so much, and while I don't actually ever expect to win in shiai practice or shiai, making a good cut feels much better when it happens, and someone raises their arm with the ippon.

A standard shiai is a two point match. Keeping your wits about you is very important and during one of the shiai practices, I learnt the point of not rushing. If you score the first point, do not rush. I scored the first point in a shiai practice against a Shodan player, but then I threw the match away by rushing to finish. This meant I played less of my proper kendo, and exposed more gaps, trying waza that I couldn't execute effectively and so on, which led to my opponent gaining the point to bring it to a draw, and then a point to winning. If you have the lead, use it. Make your opponent feel the pressure and keep your wits for the openings they will expose because they have no option but to attack you for the hikiwake (draw).

In terms for team practice, in a five person match, the positioning of players is important. Besides the obvious of who will be matched up against your opposing team (trying to guess their order so you can match up appropriately if there is mixed skill level), the actual ordering is important. From my observations, the first match is usually one you want to win. This provides a morale boost to your team. In some situations however, if it is mixed Kyu/Dan, the Kyu players must play first, which then you have no choice but to put your Kyu player.

The next important person is the third player. They are the central pivot. If the first two win, then the third person has the ability to take home the match and there is a lot of pressure there. If the first two lose their matches, then there is a lot of pressure for them to win so ensure they still have a fighting chance. Typically your strongest or second strongest will fill in this spot because it is so important. Regardless of the situation, a win from the third player is a strong boost also for morale. The fourth and fifth are almost equal, with the exception of the fifth which is always the face saving player. If you get wiped in the first four, the fifth player always attempts to win to save face for their team, which if you already won, then the last player will be able to play good kendo for themselves without the pressure.

We will have more shiai practice in the next few weeks to come for sure until both the competitions are over, but I will not get to partake in them much since I am going overseas. What practice that I have had however has been good and that is all that really matters.

#54: "Fitness" VS "Form"

Our instructor today drove us extremely hard physically during our training. He warned us beforehand that it would be hard, and if we needed to take breaks, we could but to come back as soon as possible after recovering a little. He wasn't kidding. Our usual training was replaced by longer sets of kirikaeshi, plus dou-kirikaeshi, continous kihon men cuts, continous small men cuts, continous small kote-men cuts before we had several rotations of jigeiko at the end.

When we had our usual "debrief" at the end of the session, he expressed that he believed physical fitness and strength was more important for our club because we were not at the right level to make strong and fast cuts when we need to. He believed that we should do more physical training than working more on our waza and posture, even though as we do our physical training, we should always try to maintain proper waza and posture.

It is an interesting direction to think. For our club, I think it works well since during the week, we (when we have our bookings) have two sessions without our instructor because he works and we train during working hours. Only is it on Saturday or on Night training is he present. This allows two sessions to practice our basics and waza, and then receive the harder physical demands from him on our Saturday training.

By comparison to other clubs, I have been told by several people, our club is the most physically demanding. Training at other clubs from our members, and also from my visit to Blue Leaf, I can see that is often quite true. Is it more important to concentrate on one than the other?

I think, that in regards to fitness and form, they must go hand in hand. Yes, you can not make the fast and strong cuts when you have the opening if you have not the strength and fitness, but if you have it and no form, your cut will be poor and weaker, causing loss of the point that you have attempted. Kendo is meant to be physical in my opinion. Over time, yes, if you train regularly, and eat well (healthy) you will get stronger and fitter. It may take longer if you train less and look after yourself, but you will notice it. But if you do not practice your waza, over time, you will not really improve.

We train in a two hour block. The first quarter is warmup, stretches and usually basic footwork. I think we could probably better spend perhaps the next quarter on fitness. They recommend thirty minutes a day of physical exercise. We are doing two hours, so putting thirty minutes into say, doing the continous cuts or more hayasuburi sets would be useful. Then it leaves us an hour to do waza and jigeiko. At the same time, if you do three cuts per rotation in waza training, it doesn't really push your physical side. If you do five, it starts to perhaps get there. While we have done ten before, I think it is hard to do too much and may be concentration dropping in some ways. Perhaps a seven cut rotation would bring a good balance between the physical and waza blend.

But, as I do mention before, our current setup of trainings works well, at least for me. I can see and feel my fitness improving, though my waza is not so obvious.

#53: What did you learn?

I was filling up my water bottle after training when one of the advanced players, someone I respect greatly asked me how the training went for me. I replied that it was alright but I was really tired. he then asked me "What did you learn?"

It is a very valid question, and perhaps sometimes it is hard to answer. Maybe even sometimes there is no answer. However, it is a very good question, and I think at the end of each session, it should be asked. As part of mokuso (meditation), you are meant to internalise whatever you learnt during the session. If you don't know what you learnt, how can you internalise it to remember it....?

For me, today, I learnt that I am getting faster. My muscles, strength and training is slowly showing improvement. He told me that our dojo training is one of the most physically demanding ones in our area and that is what makes it different. We do more waza rotations and a higher energy output required compared to many clubs that focus more on doing less but better level practice (or in theory).

In todays waza training, we did some waza where the motodachi makes a men cut while the shidachi steps into the men cut with a dou cut. It isn't quite a nuki dou cut because in nuki dou as I understand it, you step sideways only to avoid the cut allowing them to run across your shinai themselves. In this, we did a few rotations and my last rotation was with a Ni-Dan player, and for some reason, my last cut, I turned it into a nuki-dou and the execution to me felt perfect. The speed and timing (in my opinion, biased of course) went brilliantly.

Then in jigeiko, I found that I could do a particular blocking then sweeping cut to the men that I couldn't do before. The speed in which my cuts came whipping around from the block were much better and faster, allowing the timing to click. I also managed a solid hiki gyaku-dou cut which was something I couldn't do before also because of missed timing from opportunities.

After dinner, I asked my kouhai the same question to hear their comments, and I was glad to hear that they were able to answer it. One said he learnt he used his right arm too much, another said that she was still unable to follow through after fumikomi (i.e. after fumikomi from the cut, she doesn't have the footwork to zanshin through the opponent but instead has to end up standing and then suriashi through) and I forgot what the other said but he did say something also.

Once you reach the point where you can not say you learnt anything then perhaps you need to assess yourself deeper. I am sure that even the Hachi-Dan Senseis' learn things when they train.

So, ask yourself, what did you learn today?

#51: 2009 Picton Grading + Grading Considerations

Today was a pretty hot day with temperatures out in Liverpool about 35°C, and when I got home my room was a nice toasty 37°C with 21% relative humidity which made it bearable by not being so humid. I travelled down to Picton for grading, which was held at Picton High School, along with a carload of other grading hopefuls.

Having been injured, and slightly frustrated with how things were going, and then also not enjoying my Kendo as much as I would have liked to lately, I was a bit apprehensive on if I would be successful in passing Ni-kyu (2nd kyu) today, and while yesterday in regular Friday training we went through the basics, I was still a bit iffy in regards to the stamina issue. There was a seminar today that covered what we needed to know, and it was taken by Takashi Itakura Sensei, and Martino Ellero. We went through the important parts of our attire, equipment, kirikaeshi, uchigomikeiko, kakarigeiko and then jigeiko. For those who were doing Ikkyu (1st kyu), they also went and had five minutes practice of kata. The candidates for ikkyu and nikyu were lumped together because our requirements were virtually the same with the exception of kata.

The pointers for attire/equipment:

• Uniform: The colour must not be faded. The colour should be white or the dark navy brown. If you have discoloured or badly faded uniform, you can be failed.
• Uniform: Do not show chest. The gi should be closed up.
  
• Uniform: Make sure there are no creases or folds on the back of the gi, and all the folds are visible in the hakama.
• Uniform:Clean any stains off the uniform before grading such as salt stains.
• Uniform:Pull the hakama firmly down onto the hips so that it looks proper incase it has ridden up while sitting in seiza and putting tare/dou on.
• Shinai: Make sure the nakayui leather is tied at approximately 1/4 of the entire shinai lenght from the sakigawa.
• Shinai: Make sure that the tsuru and nakayui is neat and appropriately cut to length and not sticking out bits.
• Shinai: Make sure that the tsuba is as far flush up to the tsuka as possible with no gap visible if possible.
• Shinai: If you use a carbon shinai, you must also be careful more than normal to ensure that the sakigawa is not damaged.
• Bogu: Men himo the right length and when tied, the loops/tails match.
• Bogu: Men himo flat and together on the sides of the men when tied.
• Bogu: Dou himo tied firmly (front and back), and knots tucked away.
• Bogu: Tare knot hidden.

For kirikaeshi:

• Take your time, accuracy, good posture, good kendo is more important than rushing it.
• Stop at each stage of kirikaeshi briefly to make the best effort.
• One kiai if possible for sayumen cuts, if you chose to use kiai of men men men, make it flowing, so MenMenMen instead of Men Men Men.
• Zanshin of the cut finishes after you turn around from the last kihon men cut with kiai.
• As motodachi for kirikaeshi, receive the cuts properly with your shinai to allow your shidachi to give their best kendo.

For uchigomigeiko:

• Pause and wait until you are ready to make the cut before making the cut. Rushing will not produce your best and most accurate cut.
• Turn around quickly at proper distance (ittomai or chikama at closest) to enable your motodachi to open once you are ready.
• Slow down and show your intent of cut, determination and confidence of cut.

For kakarigeiko:

• You do not always have to hit the motodachi's shinai away from center to create attackable openings. If you control center, suriyashi footwork into distance automatically creates an opening.
• Take your time to make good cuts, rushing does not help.
• Turn around at right distance to make a cut from where you turn
• Zanshin that you meant to make that cut from the opening

For jigeiko:

• With the limited time frame, do not spam cuts. Make good cuts that show your kendo.
• Do not block unless it is an obviously bad cut that has been thrown.
• Work together as a team to both show your kendo
• In a one minute jigeiko, making five good cuts is all you need.

Commonality between them:

• All is that you should be using kihon cuts.
• Kiai strongly to show your determination and confidence.
• Work with your partner. If you know their skill level, you can do ni-dan or san-dan waza (kote men, kote dou, men me/kote men dou etc) for uchigomigeiko. If they wish to use it in kakarigeiko and you can see it, work with them to allow it to happen.
• Take your time with every cut. Set up the cut so you can show ultimately your best kendo.

I think that with all of that being delivered to us in the space of just under an hour, and also getting rotational practice for those exercises was very good for me. With the heat, we took it easy somewhat and only had half the time for the seminar than was planned, which turned out to be not such a bad thing at all.

When it came to the actual grading, I was still a bit nervous, but with kirikaeshi first up, I let it just happen, taking time with the cuts and making the cuts solid with continous kiai as best I could. The uchigomigeiko and kakarigeiko went reasonably I thought and then we had jigeiko at the end.

I was also a little apprehensive of that, as the two people I had to play were also from my club. The odd one out was someone who I had also graded with at Founders Cup weekend in 2008. Anyway, with my first jigeiko opponent, everything was fine, we started off with an aiyuchimen cut before cutting at each other with kihon cuts (which felt really weird considering that we normally practice jigeiko with small cuts), and then with the second person, I had height advantage, but it wasn't that great an advantage because they could move faster and had excellent timing. I missed three kihon kote cuts but I don't think it mattered because I showed my intent and determination for the cut, regardless if they moved away with timing for me to cut air.

The waiting wasn't too bad afterwards as everyone had some lunch and chilled out, and then we lined up to wait for the results to be read out. Almost everyone passed except for the Dan levels where it is a bit different. All four of us in nikyu passed so that was great.

I'm quite happy with the result since I've trained three or four times since I've injured my wrist back in November last year, and I think I did okay. The next grading if I am still in the country is at Founders Cup in August, and I will now have to start learning my kata for ipponme to sanbonme. I already know the first two, but I am not a hundred percent certain about the third, but I have now plenty of time to get that done.

^_^

#50: Encouragement: Positive Or Negative?

Encouragement does wonders. It provides confidence, motivation, drive to achieve. But if that is the case, why is it that we are always being discouraged?

During training yesterday, we were once again reminded that "we are all shit, you need to train harder". I don't appreciate it at all.

Our coach always says to us that we should enjoy our kendo, train hard to improve, but then we are continually being told that we are shit at it. How does that encourage us at all to be better? When we train hard, work hard, try to improve, only to be beaten down by the words that we have not improved and we will never be better?

Being humble is one thing, being encouraged is another. Classically, Kendo is probably a martial art with low retention rates for many reasons. The cost, the fact that gaining skill and rank takes considerable amounts of time, the pain, the dedication and so on. But, if you get through all of that, you then have to deal with someone telling you that you never improve? Why would you continue to spend your time, efforts and energies to just get crapped upon like that?

Positive reinforcement and encouragement works. People who feel good about what they do, do it better, harder and enjoy it more. Telling me that I am shit, does not make me enjoy it. Then what am I to do?

I don't know about other clubs and dojo's if they hold similar attitudes, but from what one of my friends told me, at least one doesn't. At the end of each training session, they always receive some small encouragement from the people they have trained with. It doesn't have to be something big, that will inflate their head and ego, but as simple as, your men cut was better today, keep working on it. Or, your kiai was good when you did that cut. Or, you didn't retreat during jigeiko, good work, and so forth.

Where is the appreciation? Where is the care? Where is the support?

Motivation is a funny thing. Yes, some people will work harder and strive harder to acheive when they are told that they are bad at something. But if they work hard, and strive hard to acheive better, but do not get any positive encouragement for their work, they will lose heart. This is the problem. Then you run into people losing movitation to train since they do not enjoy it, and then they may move to greener pastures.

So, I believe that sometimes, these kinds of methods are defeatist to the cause of Kendo. Humble and knowing that your skills are not as good as others, is fine, I can accept that I suck compared to many people. Perhaps I have a over-estimation of my abilities, but that is ok because reality always teaches us that anyway in jigeiko or competition when you see yourself get thrashed. But don't keep telling me that I'm shit, please?

#49: Additional Thoughts to Kiai

Before I go head and write more, I would like to re-state that what you find here in my blog are my opinions only. They are not of any others, and unless I am in a country that does not permit me to the freedom of speaking my opinion openly, you the reader do not have to continue reading if you do not want to.

Yes, what I write reflects my ideals, attitudes and beliefs. But, Kendo is a self-journey, and how I see things and how I believe is up to me. There is no real "right" or "wrong" in this I believe.

**

During our training yesterday, the issue of kiai was accentuated. We have beginners and non beginners in our club, and while doing basics, it was noticeable that the seniors were not using as loud kiai as the beginners were. The person leading training though that this was not the way it should be, and punished the seniors by making us do fifty hayasuburi each time our kiai was not louder than the non-seniors.

For me, at my stage of development in Kendo, and how I see things, Kiai is no longer an issue of volume. Nor is it an issue of duration (i.e. the length of time the kiai goes for). The development of Kiai for me now is the actual generation of real "ki" in the kiai. The energy, the force, the spirit of my intent to cut and kill.

Having seen a lot of Dan players in competition, I have come to see that many of them do not have excessively loud kiai, nor very long or sharp sounding kiai, but instead, the kiai has "emotion" in it. That raw energy of the ki they put into it. That is what I am hoping to acheive, not just some loud boorish "meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!" which lacks actual energy except for sounding like a big bull mooing.

Am I wrong to be thinking in this way? I do not think so.

We teach beginners to have loud and long kiai for the purpose to break them free from their inhibition of using kiai and for a beginner that works well. But once you get past that, and you learn when to use it, it becomes time to learn how to use it. Some of the players I also have watched, and whom I respect, they barely even kiai during training. One of them hardly ever kiais unless they are playing ippon match or shiai practice.

So, then what is the situation to be? Will I work on my own, and be punished for it because my philosophy differs to the person leading? Do I walk out on them if they demand that I must follow their rigid structure? What to do?

#47: An Addenum to Kiai

During the NSW State Championships today I was lucky to be sitting with a Sensei from one of the clubs. I really respect him and his technical knowledge and experience is amazing, well worth paying attention to.

He told me that the useage of kiai was very important in scoring your points, but also part of your zanshin. I originally thought I knew that but I was wrong. In the context, we were talking about non-Japanese players using Korean terms for the cuts they were performing (in this case it was one person using "Hori" for Dou cut) and this Sensei said that would not ever count as a point if they were playing in the World Championships because you had to use Japanese terms.

More specifically, you had to actually kiai where you were attacking. While it is something that is taught to Beginners that you kiai Men when hitting Men, Kote when hitting Kote, Dou for hitting Dou, it was never, to my knowledge, imparted exactly why you had to do this. To this effect, I am familiar with a lot of people whose kiai in zanshin is just gutteral sounds. This Sensei said no, that is incorrect use of the kiai.

You must indicate intent of cut and the sucess of the cut in using kiai. If you went for a cut originally with Men in mind but accidentally hit Kote, you do not show your intent of hitting Kote if you do not actually say Kote in kiai. To this effect, this is why you kiai where you intend to strike.

Naturally, you should actually kiai as the cut is made and not so early that your opponent knows where you are aiming for. I questioned this slightly further because much kiai does simply not sound like Men, Kote or Dou. While I am familiar with people saying "Teh" for Kote, it was harder to hear "Men" or "Dou" in bastardised forms but this Sensei said it is there, like a "eeeeeeeeeeehhn" is Men and a "Ooooooh" is Dou. Perhaps a little far fetched for a skeptic but I have taken his word for face value.

So, conceptually, when you kiai for just kiai, e.g. generating seme, psyching yourself up etc, you can use whatever you want. When you kiai as part of your cut and zanshin, you should kiai in some form, where your cut intent is.

#46: Right Or Wrong?

This is an age old thing in Kendo, and in many activities to be precise when the absolute form is not existent. From my perspective, having tried and learned a large number of sports ranging from Cricket, Rowing, Fencing, Athletics, Rugby League, Rifle Shooting, Archery and Kendo, many sports do not have 'right' or 'wrong' ways of doing things. If anything, many of those things you learn are just what people think are the best way of doing things from their tried and true experiences. Most of the time, you will find that there just are no better ways because hundreds before have tried other ways and they can't be beaten by the way that is taught.

However, that said, it does not need necessarily that you are not allowed to try your own techniques or attempts.

An example of this, while not a Kendo example, is still applicable. In the world of archery, there are a lot of ways to shoot a bow. You could take twenty people and you'd find at least two or three different ways about it. You can argue that the top shooters will all shoot with very similar styles. But that is the key point, similar, not same. Not using names, I know of some top Italian archers who shoot awesome scores, but their technique is very different to the biomechanics method taught by the Australians, or the new US Coach Ki-Sik Lee, or the Koreans for that matter. But, the scores simply does not reflect this at all.

Fundamentals are that. You will get taught the same things as most other people. Stand like this, move like this, swing like this, cut like this, grip like this etc. They are fundamentals because it has been playtested by so many people already. But, fundamentals can also be disputed.

I was taught a square form Chuudan no Kamae originally. After the Chiba Sensei Seminar, I have adopted an angled form of the Chuudan no Kamae stance. Why? The angled method works better for me. My cuts have improved, my stance has improved. But, that is just me. It does not mean that it will work for you. But, you should be willing to be open to try it, and see if it works or not.

What, however, I do not believe in, is saying to people no, you MUST do it this way. Saying to someone, No, that way is wrong. It might not be what you believe works, but it may work for them. Their body is different to yours. Their ability is different to yours. Their style will be different to yours. All well and good to want to be the best. Wanting others to be their best too, but forcing what you think is right is not always right. Let them decide for themselves and do not push a right or wrong but merely advise them that they may be better using this, or that, or doing this way. Let them try it, and find out why it does or does not work. For whatever reason if they find an alternative style to what you do works, then let them.

When I am asked by some of my kouhai, and we do some training together, I do not teach. I suggest to them, this is how I do this, this is how you do this. Perhaps try doing it like that because of this and this. I don't correct them to a form and say that that is the only way. It just simply is not true.

Kendo is an indivdual art. A lot of people today play for competition, to win. I am currently not one of those. I may be in the future, who knows. I focus on my journey, my path, developing, learning, absorbing and creating my own style. I am not that other person there, so why should I play his way? It does not make much sense. So, learn the basics, the fundamentals that you are taught, but if you are delivered an alternative, do not be hasty to shut it out, or tell others what they do or try is wrong, but let them discover through guidence what works best for them.

#36: Jigeiko

In the last few weeks, we've had a lot of beginners get into bogu for the first time. As part of training, they are now (previously not) allowed to train in jigeiko. In one weekend though, I had three beginners in the space of 24 hours ask me about jigeiko.

What did they ask me? What is jigeiko? What is the purpose of jigeiko? What are you supposed to do in jigeiko?

Well, this is a blog exclusive (LOL) in the sense that I haven't written this elsewhere, though I have said the contents to the three people who asked me.

Jigeiko, as an exercise, is about training ones self. It can mean self-sparring.
So what does this actually mean?

Jigeiko is an opportunity to spar against your opponent for the sake of your own training. You are not there to benefit anyone but yourself. What should you do in jigeiko though is completely up to you. However, what you should do though is still play in a manner that allows you to be a motodachi for your opponent, ie, play seriously and not stuff around. If you stuff around, your opponent can not practice with you as their motodachi.

What does it truly mean though? You should take jigeiko as an opportunity to practice one, two, three things that you wish to work on at that point in time. I was told by my rifle coach many years ago that in anything you train, if you try to remember and work on more than three things at once, you'll forget about one of them. So, try to limit it to three or so. As a beginner, there is a lot of things you can practice. As a non beginner, it is no different. For me, at the present, I train on a few things. Right now I work on keeping center, and maai. Whatever else I do, specific waza or otherwise depends on what we do during the day.

Something though to consider during jigeiko for beginners though, is to try not to block. Seems kind of counter-intuitive but there is good reason for it. Blocking is a bad habit. If you always block, you will never learn to make cuts and attacks. If you block, you'll also possibly still retain a 'flinch' reflex which is bad since later on if someone makes a sudden attack movement, you will blink and miss the timing to either really block or counter-attack/move. Further more, if you get into the habit of blocking, later on if you do grading, you have to jigeiko in ni-kyu (2nd Kyu) and higher. If you continue to block instead of displaying your ability to attack, maai, seme etc, then you will be failed.

Blocking is a bad thing. Got it? Get rid of it. If you fear getting cut, you will never be able to succeed. If you fear getting cut, you can get around that by learning maai and stepping out of range, or keeping center so that even if they hit you, it means they impale themselves on your shinai. You will still need to overcome it later though, you must be fearless in your kamae.

So, jigeiko = self training. Work on what you believe that you need to work on. Do not fear being cut. Be resolute in your actions.

Got it?
Good.
XD

#34: What is "Good" Kendo?

We have already seen some thoughts on what is Kendo. This post, and the following thread, I hope, will perhaps expand a little on what we think is what we would call "Good" Kendo. I mention this because if you ever watch a lot of people play, you will often hear people comment and say how someone plays "good" Kendo, while you may also hear people badmouth particular Kendo styles of play and tactics.

My personal opinion is that Good Kendo is a culmination of a lot of things. As discussed, Kendo itself can be a lot of things such as a sport, a martial art, a method of communicating. What makes it good, or bad, is how this sport, martial art or communication is conducted. In reality, there is never always black and white in this world, but a very large area of grey in-between, to say a definite good or bad is very difficult and so I would expect people to have quite differing opinions.

From a component breakdown, Good (or Bad) Kendo can be looked at in terms of the technical capability of the Kendoka. It can also be looked at in terms of the non-technical components (such as spiritual), and then it must be looked at in terms of the sportsmanship of the person. In this day and age, Kendo ultimately is played at competitions as a sport to win. Yes, you will find people who never compete, and they will focus upon their journey and spiritual growth. If that is the case, then that is fantastic, and you can not label them as Good or Bad, but only as technically competent or incompetent. To explain.

Technical ability can be used to describe good and bad playing. Someone who has good footwork, is able to control their and their opponents' maai, someone who can execute a strong powerful proper 'good' cut as discussed in the other thread, is technically good, and therefore you can call them good at playing Kendo. If they have poor footwork, can not control maai, can not make appropriate cuts, then, they can be easily labelled as a bad player.

Non-technical ability, is a little harder to use as a distinguishing factor. It is hard to judge someone's spirit, though from kiai and zanshin, you may be able to tell a little about it. Kata though can be used to determine spirit, because besides the technical aspect of Kata (which, in theory is quite easy if you have a good memory), you must display a force of spirit in your cuts and kiai. This is quite a grey area. This is also why Kata is so important in grading when you get to Ikkyu and Dan levels because the technical components are judged from jigeiko, and your spiritual is looked at in Kata (at least in my opinion). Due to this, if you never play competitions, when you grade, you get a pass or fail because you are considered competent or incompetent in jigeiko and kata.

Then, we come to the last item, sportsmanship (sports-person-ship if you really want to be politically correct for all of you out there). If you train hard, work hard, play hard, and compete hard, then you will know about sportsmanship. These awards are given in almost every single sport, and even in non-sports events too.

Sportsmanship is all about accepting results in a good natured way, regardless of the outcome, and appreciating what the competition you have been in has done with their efforts and training. If you complain about Shimpan calls, or how your opponent was cheating, or something like that, then that is bad sportsmanship. If you take all of the judgement calls and accept them with a good nature, then that is excellent sportsmanship. Besides sonkyo after your shiai, if you congratulate or thank your opponent afterwards, then that is also excellent. What happens on the court should stay on the court, and not go any further.

For those who have good, excellent sportsmanship, even in training, where they will take the missed cuts to their body, or receive clubbing cuts from beginners and not get upset, then they display, to me, good Kendo. Those who don't, should take the time to self-reflect. Why? We were all beginners once. Our sempai's and sensei's have taken those missed cuts of ours, and with good grace, and allowed us to continue to do so until we have learned how to cut properly. We should not be so arrogant to be higher than our sempai's and sensei's and say, no, you are not allowed to hit me wrongly without me getting upset at you.

Someone who has good technical, spiritual and sportsmanship all together is an excellent Kendoka. For most of us though, we are still working hard and developing the first two. The last one, everyone should be able to have. This in itself makes us good Kendoka. We might not make championship titles, or be in representative teams, but we will embody the virtues of Kendo.

Taken from the St Catharines Kendo Club website here:
**

There are seven folds in a kendo hakama which represent the virtues of bushido, the samurai code. They are: Jin: Benevolence, kindness to your fellows Gi: Honour and righteousness Rei: Courtesy and Etiquette Chi: Wisdom or intelligence Shin: Trust and sincerity The pleats at the back have a legend associated with them: In Japanese mythology, two powerful warrior gods helped the goddess of the sun to create a unified Japan without the use of weapons. They used only their dignity. The left pleat represents Take-Mikazuchi-no-kami, whose shrine is Kashima-jingu, and the right represents Futsunushi-no-kami, whose shrine is Katori-jingu. The stiff center part represents Amaterasu-Omikami, the sun goddess, and creator of Japan, who binds the two and keeps them in balance. The back pleats represent this legend and it’s lesson of Wa – balance and harmony.

**
Jin: Be kind to your fellow Kendoka (Sportsmanship in receiving missed cuts and alike)
Gi: Have some honour in your actions (Sportsmanship, where you don't cheat in comps or badmouth your opponents)
Rei: R E S P E C T (Sportsmanship, full stop)
Chi: Understand your fellow Kendoka, the work they have put into their training
Shin: Trust in their ability, especially if you are a motodachi, and receive their cuts properly.

As much as this is a long winded post, there is a simple way to condense everything that I have written. Attitude. If you have a good attitude in Kendo, then you will be a good Kendoka. If you have a poor attitude, then you will not succeed very far.

Enjoy your Kendo, as Mark said. If you have a good attitude, and enjoy your training, for the physical exercise, the spiritual gain if you believe in it, the camaraderie between your fellow Kendoka, then you will get the most from it. If you have a poor or bad attitude, then it will foreshadow you, and not only will you not enjoy your Kendo, but the people around you will keep away from you, not respect you, and not enjoy their Kendo with you.

My (long) 2 cents.