Welcome back to training - term 3, 2013 - dreaming of Japan!

-

looking at Osaka Castle, from the roof of Otemae HS, 2009

Yes, part of my mind is in Japan right now. Training for and planning my trip in November is well underway. In the meantime though, normal life goes on...



Firstly, please bring your bokuto to training for the next few weeks, as we will be practicing the bokuo kihon with the beginners, who start next week.

Also...


 from this year's kangeiko

Kenji Sugimoto from MUKEN passed his 5th dan grading at the Kendo Leaders' Summer Camp in Kitamoto, Saitama Prefecture. Pics of last year's camp can be seen here. Well done Kenji! You finally get to sit on the other side of the dojo. Kenji is a much better kenshi that I was when I passed 5th dan. I think he'll easily pass 6th dan when he's eligible.




Here is an old diagram I made to show what height to raise the shinai for the backswing of a cut. Both are considered a large swing. There's no need to lift the sword any higher or further back.

Recently at training I've talked about certain concepts that are quite interesting perhaps but also might require more consideration. I'll list some links to where I've written about these ideas already on Shugo-Nanseikan.

Muscle-memory and cutting accurately
There is an article here about the practice we did last week on cutting with our eyes closed:
http://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/vision-vs-muscle-memory-how-to-hit.html

The progression of Kihon
The last two weeks at training I've spoken about how important it is to focus on the different aspects of basics (kihon) throughout training. As technical drills get more dynamic, the things you have to focus on change. You can't work on everything all the time!
http://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/stages-of-kihon.html

Image training
You can also work on your Kendo when you're sitting still. Yesterday I spoke about how most Japanese learnt Kendo with little explicit instruction on techniques. This article goes into more detail about that kind of training.
http://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/image-and-reflection-thinking-your-way.html

Dojo Captain's commands
And lastly, here is a post on how to run warm-ups (taiso), suburi, and rei & mokuso.
http://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.com.au/2009/06/being-dojo-captain.html

Lastly, I found this pic of me and Hashimoto sensei when he came to Melbourne to train. Kenji had the awesome idea of a custom numberplate for his Hummer. Remember to keep an eye on his performance in this year's All Japan Championships on the first weekend in November. It could be his year...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nishimura sensei's Kendo HIIT routine

-
Image
Former All Japan champion, and star of his own NHK documentary , Nishimura Hidehisa produced this workout routine for the All Japan Kendo Federation last year during the early stages of lockdown. It's an excellent HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routine, sometimes called Tabata Training after the coach who invented the idea. Basically it has been theorised that you get better results in terms of fitness and overall body strength from short, intense and focused workouts, than you do from extended workouts. Some say it is also beneficial for improving endurance and longevity . There is even some evidence to support that it kickstarts mitochondrial function , that you're exercising at a cellular level. That's pretty amazing. Whatever the research says, it is very easy to feel the positive effects of interval training and it has several other benefits: PROS It doesn't take long, so you can fit it into a busy schedule   You can do it by yourself   You can do it almos
Read more

Results and pics - 2008 VJKC

-
Image
Another great Victorian Junior Kendo Championships today. The standard gets better every year. This year we had two divisions, 14 & under and 16 & under. Unfortunately only three Victorian dojo were represented, Nanseikan (of course!), Fudoshin and Ballarat. Firstly thanks to the shinpan who came along today: Gary Oliver, Khay-Lin Teoh sensei, Richard Ward, Jason Widdy and Andrew Lam. Thanks also to all the parents for bringing their boys (and they were all boys this year, more girl-kendoka needed!) as well as supporting their kendo throughout the year. Last but not least, thanks to Tony of UMKC, who took all the fantastic photos below. All pics are (c) Tony Shearer. Straight off the 14 & under matches were high quality. Newcomer Yuichiro Sato of Fudoshin won his first match in his first ever taikai against Thomas Goh, also of Fudoshin. Sato (red) scoring men against Thomas Goh. Poor Thomas didn't fare any better in his next match against our own Mr Weber. Geoffrey won
Read more

Koryu that are not like Kendo at all

-
Image
In the previous post I listed the various branches of Itto Ryu and asked you to consider the similarities between their use of the sword and Kendo. Sometimes when one becomes used to a certain way of doing things, one can fall into the trap of thinking that is the only, or maybe the best, way of doing things. In learning iai kata of Tatsumi Ryu, we are trying to break out of that thinking by exposing ourselves to a system devised long before even the Itto Ryu was founded. This means that there are some fundamental differences in how the sword is used.  In these posts I am mostly interested in the differences in how to swing the sword. In Kendo, and indeed in most of the styles of iaido practiced today, the fundamental cutting action is a straight up-and-down action often referred to as kirioroshi , cutting through or cutting down. In Tatsumi Ryu, the characteristic action where the sword first goes through a circular backswing before cutting downwards is called kowauchi , or 'power
Read more