Rediscovering My Balance

From the beginning of learning Kendo, we are always told to distribute our weight so that the left leg is holding the most weight. This should allow the easiest movement and explosion capabilities, to put it shortly. While the overall footwork is generally worked on in terms of fumikomi, the overall balance tended to get put on the wayside in lieu of everything else. Now I am paying the price for that...

While I have known about the correct weight distribution ever since I started, it has only been within the past couple of months where it has been specifically noticed from various parties. Now this has become one of those things where I need to correct the mistakes of the last few years.

This is definitely becoming one of those things that is easier said than done. I can stand in one spot and really think about keeping my left leg straight, shifting my weight back and exploding when I want to attack. But it becomes another matter when coupled with intense practices and jigeiko when there are a trillion other things going on in my mind. It's kinda discouraging when I think about it knowing that this is one of the hardest things I probably have had to fix since I started, but then knowing that fixing my balance will help in a wide variety Kendo aspects only makes me want to achieve that goal more.

Coolest Japanese Vocabulary Program

The Japanese language can be a pretty difficult thing to get a grasp on. First, we have to get over the fact there are a lot of squiggly lines with the writing system. Once we do that, there's the 1,945 more complicated squiggly lines (kanji) that are necessary to learn to make reading much less frustrating.

I have been going over Kanji for quite some time now and can read just enough of it to get a handle on some things. But I have had some issues with vocabulary. So, essentially, I have been reading the language, but not really understanding it due to the lack of vocabulary to back it up. It's sort of like how we all can ready Spanish or German with little introduction (at least those that read English), but won't understand what any of the words mean.

As a result of this, I have been trying to go around and find ways to get some more vocabulary stuff drilled into my head through flash cards, rote memorization and through context of video games, manga, TV and other forms of media and just look up words I heard very often. This, to me is a pretty long and hard process, especially when you are learning words, but little context outside of the reading material.

Well, in my search for some vocabulary lists, I found this program called iknow (http://smart.fm/home). This nifty little program lets you create your own lists, or choose from sets of pre-made ones and go through several activities to learn each vocabulary word. I could probably go on about this in text about the features, but I think the following video can explain it much better than I ever could by text:

He also has a lot of other Japanese language videos on his website that I encourage you all to check out!

What I like most about this is that you don't just learn the words and move on. You go through the set and the ones you already did are repeated from time to time in order to help get it in your mind better. Oh yeah, and the best part about this is that the whole thing is free. Just make a username and you're on your way to learning Japanese (or any other language for that matter).

On an unrelated note, I am going to try to make better use of my youtube page and try posting some good Kendo/Iaido related videos on there. I'll essentially make playlists of some of the better Kendo videos I have seen, grouped into things like kata, strange videos and maybe group some good tournament videos in there. Definately take a look and feel free to let me know if there are any other groovy videos I should add. If you guys are too lazy to go to the sidebar that links to my youtube dashboard, then you can also click this link to get to it. I also posted my latest Shodan testing video on there for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Now the REAL Beginning Of Kendo Begins...

It's been almost a week since I actually gained my Shodan rank, but the celebration was short lived by way of transitioning to one of the most hellish weeks of work I have ever been through. If you've ever worked a normal work week in half the time, you'd know what I mean.

Getting a Shodan in Kendo is similar to getting a black belt in Karate or some other martial art. But just because I have that rank doesn't mean that I'm a master at anything. In fact, I have such a long way to go before I really master anything at all. All getting the rank means is that I was able to show the judges that I had a good enough handle on applying the basics to build upon.

Now that I have achieved the rank of Shodan, I need to pay attention to a lot more about myself before I commit to an attack. Is my weight distribution okay? Do I REALLY have the center? Am I really ready to attack or am I just robotically dealing with the situation? Once I can answer yes to all these questions, then I'm ready to attack, but then that's not enough as I need to further analyze the situation of my opponent to find or create an opening using seme and having a handle on the various waza to break my opponent's kamae and their spirit.

Thanks to the tips I have been getting just before the exam, the information from Fujita Sensei and the video that a friend took, I do have a place to start. When I think about this, everything does seem very overwhelming. There are a lot of things I need to do in order to feel that I'm ready for Nidan. Of course, the only thing I can really do is take these issues one at a time and not focus so much on the big picture.

T-5 Days Till Testing

This coming Saturday will mark the third time that I will attempt the Shodan exam. Ever since I didn't make it in Detroit a few weeks ago, I have been doing all that I could to prepare myself for the testing to make sure that, truely, the third time's the charm. I would also like to thank everyone I have practiced with thus far with helping me out as the encouragement and practice is really uplifting.

From what I have been told, there are some physical things that I need to work on, such as keeping my balance on the back foot, relaxing my shoulders and strengthening my hits but the mental aspects are the things I might need to work on the most. Due to the advice from Takano Sensei, I have heard some new terms that are probably not discussed that much or just described mostly in other terms.

Tame (溜め) - According to the Japanese/English Kendo dictionary on Kendo USA, tame is a moment of mental and physical preparation, accumulating strength and spirit, before starting a technique. In other words, it's like constantly holding back a spring and letting it go whenever you're ready to attack. So whenever I'm fighting, I constantly need to be in that state of preparedness by looking at and sensing the opponent. Then, when I'm ready I literally go from 0 to 60 in a mere fraction of a second. This involves a lot of me keeping my left heel down more than usual, but I also seem to need to work my muscles down there to get the response I want out of it. But the whole thought process of the concept seems to help quite a bit for the time being.

Yoyuu(余裕) - According to an essay named "Space in Time in Taido" by Robert Norris and Rob Delicata, yoyuu can be interpreted as the space that a taidoka creates by means of
movement in order to gain a strategic advantage. While the article is for the martial art of Taido, just substitute taidoka with kendoka and the definition still applies. What I seem to need to do on this one is utilize the various kinds of footwork in order to achieve the proper ma-ai so I can attack most effectively to get that point. I have noticed a tendancy to have some hesitation about moving in to what I percieve as too close and/or extending properly in my strikes. The hesitation makes me lose opportunities to attack and the lack of extention makes me miss otherwise great opportunities. I guess it might have to do with the fear of going too soon and possibly getting tsuki'd or something, but I have been trying to work on that by forcing myself to move and working on getting the opponent to move when I want him/her to do so.

As always, there are many things that I need to work on, but I also need to be careful to not overload myself. From what everyone has been telling me, I seem to be okay with my skill set, I just need to make some yuko-datotsu next time and I should be set for the first part. If I make it past that, then there's the kata, which I would like to discuss at a later date. Kata is something that's rarely discussed and I was given some interesting tips on kata that I honestly never heard of before so I'd like to get that recorded on the web somewhere. There's also the whole biiru-geiko that I need to work on, but maybe my tolerance needs to go up before I attempt that one too hard.

Detroit Kendo Tournament

Yeah, it's been over a week, but it's only been just now that I am not too lazy to type anything.

I participated at the Detroit Tournament for the first time about two weeks ago and, I must say, this had to be the most fun I've had at any tournament. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I knew a large amount of people that were there through my Kendo travels over the past year. But it was fun having all the matches, making fun of each other afterwards and just generally hanging out all day.

The night before was the shinsa and seminar. Unfortunately, I didn't pass (or whatever people want to say about it if they think those words are too negative) again for Shodan, so I shall try again in Lexington and do all I can to make sure I pass next time. I felt like I did better than last time, but I guess it wasn't good enough for the testing board. After looking at the video though, I could see some places for improvement. I wasn't moving as much as I should have and did too much of that waiting stuff that has plagued my kendo for quite some time. I know one thing, maybe I might have better luck if I just stop caring about passing or failing and just show them whatever I have. Of course, that's easier said than done.

After the testing was the seminar. Takasue Sakaguchi sensei, hachidan, went over some very basic things such as how to sit in seiza and how to swing. There were a lot of points that he made, but these were the things that stood out for me the most.

• Whenever his students get in a slump, they go right back to doing suburi. I know that when I feel like I'm in a slump, I tend to try to think about the various waza and what I am doing wrong with them. Sometimes, the simple solution is to go back to the basics to find out where your foundations are going wrong. It's definately another idea to consider on those times when you feel like your Kendo is going nowhere
• When doing suburi, we should do better with concentrating on each individual hit. Sometimes, a lot of us tend to just go through the suburi as just a warm-up to the main event, but everything we do has some sort of purpose to our overall Kendo. I don't think there's anything wrong with the former case, but maybe we could spend more time thinking about our suburi and breaking it down, no matter what rank you are.

Afterwards, we had the joint practice which was actually an awesome experience. Because so many people were there, space was at a premium with a lot of bumping into people behind us and to the side of us. It was also a great opportunity to be able to fight with many more types of people from all over the Midwest outside of a tournament setting to get different types of Kendo. I swear that I got hit in the men from someone I wasn't fighting, which was really weird. I hope to have many more experiences like that though.

The tournament the next day went pretty well I think. I was able to make it to the third match which allowed me to fight with a fellow former Boilermaker since we happened to be in the same court. I may have lost to him this time, but I am going to make sure I put up a better fight next time. Through the tournament, I found out that my weak point seems to be defending and attacking men. I'm not really sure why, but I have a really hard time making sure I keep that center all the way through. I am most certainly going to work on that.

The team match had to be one of the more interesting kinds of matches I had. We went against Battle Creek B, which had some pretty strong players. In my match, I had tried to go for a hiki men, but tripped and almost gave myself a jougai (out of bounds). I ultimately lost to a men after trying to turn around after my dou attempt (damn that men). Otherwise, I had a lot of fun with the Cincinnati and Ohio State peeps. My only complaint was the long wait before our match. There really isn't much you can do about that though. It just happened to be us that got the short straw on that one.

I was really happy with the tournament as it was really well-organized and very fun being aroud fellow Kenshi. Of course, I go there to win and give it my all for each match but I like to have fun with it all.

If you are interested, I put the pictures I took on my flickr page. This is the first real test with my new DSLR camera, which resulted in some pictures being much better than the typical point-and-shoot digital camera. The main thing I was concentrating on was shutter speed, but I hope to learn to make use of ISO and aperture to see how they affect the pictures I take. Maybe if UC goes to Harvard this year I can concentrate more on the pictures and media due to me not being a university student (not really sure if there is that type of stipulation there). Either way, I wouldn't mind going to support the team if I can. Without further adieu, here are the pictures. I am open to any suggestions that could make my pictures better or try new things with camera features. If you happen to see this post on Facebook, there is nothing new here.

Back in the Game

Because of being sick, license plate issues and recent weather problems, my Kendo/Iaido attendance has been a little sparse. But I was able to get some good practices in once everything calmed down and the city stopped panicking.

Thursday's practice was really nice. Lately, we have been incorporating shiai geiko into the practices due to the Detroit tournament in about 2 weeks. I have been doing all I can to follow Takano sensei's instructions over the past few weeks by lowering my heel, opening up my stance and moving around to make sure I have the advantage as much as possible. The two main issues I saw was that there were times that I felt I was attacking too much with little zanshin and that I was waiting at times instead of reacting or creating the situation.

Saturday was the first time back at Miami Valley for the past few weeks, and what a practice that was. Other than the kata work at the beginning and end, it was the general practice that we always had. But each practice is extremely tough and it really exhausted me when I got home later that evening. The main thing i was working on during jigeiko was making sure I can stay on a person and trying out various waza to see how they work. Of course, going against Morikawa sensei's speed and Koizumi sensei's unreadability, that was kinda hard.

Sunday was the Iaido day. That practice, we worked a bit on basic swinging which is much different than doing kendo suburi. That is something that I have been trying to work with for a while now as I notice I always revert back to the Kendo swings. I think the only way I can really take care of that is by putting in some extra time to slowly go over things myself. Then we also spent some time working on the first part of Shi O-giri and getting that one section down. There really is a lot more than meets the eye to even the seitei kata (the only ones I've done thus far). While I would really like to experience the Shinden Ryu kata, I do realize there is a lot more for me to work on with the seitei and I'll just wait till the sensei is ready to instruct me on that.

Iaido Thoughts

Well, it's been about a year since I have started Iaido. It's amazing how fast the year went and all the things that have happened, but it's all been fun.

I had an initial interest in trying Iaido back in college when I was hearing about how it can sometimes help with Kendo. Unfortunately, due to time and money constraints that usually plague the college life, I never had the chance to really start. I did go down to Indianapolis to watch a practice and hopefully join there, but things didn't work out, but was hooked after seeing that class. I got a job here in Cincinnati and found out that there is a place that does Iaido down in Covington, KY so I just signed up there and have been doing it ever since.

On the outside, Iaido does look kinda boring. You're just doing various forms over and over again without a real opponent in front of you. There are no self-defense aspects to it as one wouldn't expect someone with a katana to jump out of the bushes to attack you. But it's obviously much more than that or I wouldn't be doing it. I would say that, on the surface, Iaido kinda feeds my desire to improve myself. When it comes to doing the techniques, there is way more than meets the eye. In addition to just memorizing the seitei waza, I can always hold my hand out further for noto or cut more steadier. There's always that small thing that I could do better, and each point is easier said than done. As far as whether or not it will help my Kendo remains to be seen, but I'm still having fun either way.

It's been a really fun year and I'm glad to have started Iaido and most definately would like to continue. I wish that there were more people doing it, but one has to realize that it takes a special kind of personality to really appreciate what is going on there. But I wouldn't let that deter ya if you want to try though.

Interesting Revelations

Well, I'm sitting here in bed waiting for that stupid Rhinovirus to die and let me get on with my life (the common cold). So I thought I'd take some of the copious amount of free time I now have since I can't really do much else and go over some things that I was taught in Kendo and Iaido class this week.

In Iaido, we spent some time going over breathing techniques while doing the kata. Breathing is something that is emphasized, but not really discussed, so it's a nice thing to actually go over some possible ideas on how to break things down. I have been looking for ways that I can go from just doing the various seitei waza to actually putting some meaning behind the techniques. And after learning what I did in Sunday's practice, I think I may have found at least one way to reach that particular goal.

I'll use Gohonme: Kesagiri (五本目:けさ切り) as an example since that's what we applied it to in class. I was basically told to try slowly breathing out as I stepped forward and make the nukitsuke and take another slow breath while doing chiburi and noto. After trying it out a few times, Atkins-sensei said that he noticed a big improvement in my execution. The main thing that breathing did was help me actually concentrate on how I make my cuts and how I can better execute techniques. I really would love to add this to my regimen of the other kata to see how things work compared to last time.

Tuesday's Kendo practice had some shiai-geiko in it to help us prepare for the Detroit tournament. Here are some notes that Takano-sensei expressed to me and the class:

- Whenever I go for an attack, I need to try to make sure my hit makes a distinct sound before the other person to make sure I get the points scored in my favor.

- I really should try to pay more attention to spacing. If your back is close to the boundary, the normal reaction seems to be to try to go forward and forcefully push the other person back. But another option to use would be to actually move to the side in case the other person has the idea to taiatari you right out of the boundary. Conversely, if the opponent is in a similar position, it is possible to taiatari them out of the court, but then you run the danger of being at a disadvantage. Another option is to use pressure to get them to unconsiously move back and get them to step out.

- When moving back to reposition ourselves, it's best to hold the other person's shinai with yours so they can't easily go for any openings that come up.

Out of all the suggestions that she gave me, the most important thing is that I needed to make use of "tame." I've never really heard that term before, but what I gather, I need to make effort to build up my energy and then explode with an attack instead of just moving when ready. There really isn't too much I can say beyond that since I haven't had a chance to work on it (I was supposed to do that yesterday...), but I'll be sure to get that straightened out the next time I can go to practice.

Irasshai!

Someone on the Kendo World forums was asking about tips to learn the Japanese language. Having studied the language for a couple of years now, I thought I would offer some of the things that worked for me.

One of the resources I gave was this television show called Irasshai that aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting back when I was in high school. At the time, I had just been starting out in learning the language. It really helped me in memorizing hiragana and katakana which paved the way for learning kanji and grammar.

The show consists of two seasons. The first has 73 episodes and the second has 63 episodes about 25 minutes each. Generally, each lesson starts off with a short skit to introduce the topic, continues on with the main lesson and then finishes of with some hiragana/katakana and maybe a cultural lesson. Some of the devices they use can be kinda corny (like jump roping while singing the days of the week), but they generally work for me.

If you've been interested in starting out learning the language, I definately suggest going to the Irasshai website and at least take a look. These sorts of video lessons of decent quality can be kinda difficult to come by.

Overall Kendo/Iaido Goals

新年開けましておめでとうございます!

We're beginning the hopefully wonderful year of 2009 and I wish everyone good luck and hope that the future works out for everyone, economy and all.

We here in the Ohio/Kentucky area have been very fortunate to have Nagata Sensei teach us and pretty much beat the crap out of all of us while giving some very valuable instruction. Unfortunately, he's had to go back to Japan but it's not without some great times. At his farewell dinner, one conversation that came up was to make goals for the short term and long term and dream big and go for those dreams.

In conversations about doing Kendo or Iaido and what sorts of goals we have, they usually center around the following questions:

• Why did we start?
• What keeps us going?
• What goals do we have?

I want to go further with the last two questions. When we talk about the things that keep us going, we talk about how it makes us better and gives us exercise. But what about the drive to achieve some big end goal? And when it comes to making goals, they usually are pretty short term if it's within a few months or a few years. But what about beyond that? What specific milestones does one want to reach?

I already made a blog entry about my New Years resolutions, but these are pretty short term. I want to take things a step further and talk about my long term goals. Despite all the benefits I have reaped thus far from doing Kendo and Iaido, I think that these are the things that give me the true drive to improve in however much I can. I have two main things I would like to achieve.

I would definately like to gain enough rank and have enough time to start up a dojo of my own and be able to spread my knowledge of kendo and Iaido (when that time comes) to as many people as I can. I have had the opportunity of instructing some classes here and, after breaking the ice with it a bit, it seems like something I could get used to doing. There's something about telling people what you know and having them walk away from something while doing what you can to help others shape their Kendo that makes me feel even more accomplished than attempting to win any tournament.

The second goal is a very big one. I want to be able to participate in the World Kendo Championships. No, I'm not looking for fame in the Kendo community or anything. I just think that it would be really cool to know that you got to participate in the most prestegious event within one's community and walk away learning something new. I've just had this big drive to see some awesome Kendo and experience that myself. Of course, I have to go through the ranks and natural progression to even think I'm good enough, but I think I'm willing to take it.

One thing that does concern me though is the time committment that it may involve. According to an article on Kenshi247.net, training for these tournaments involve more than just you. If you have a family, kids or limited budget, things can get a bit hairy. The only thing that I know for certain is that I would really like to achieve that goal and I'm also willing to make consessions for the other people and things in my life to make sure that things go as smooth as possible.

Okay, now that I made these goals, what do I do once I achieve them? We talk about all these goals and stuff but we don't really talk about what we will do once we achieve them. To be honest, this isn't something I haven't thought about too much in the specific manner. But the good news is that, even if I achieve both goals, there's still places to go. Participating in a big tournament is, for all intents and purposes, just an experience. Even if you make it to first place, there is always room for improvement and things you can do to feel accomplished in whatever you do. For the teaching, this is more of a milestone than anything. The teaching/learning cycle never stops and I think that I would feel accomplished every day I do my job, even if things don't go as planned.

I hope that this makes people think about what their overall goals may be. I'm not talking about just improving a technique, but some sort of big milestone you want to achieve, like a specific rank, having a certain responsibility or performing in a specific event.

New Years Training Goals

This year seemed to have gone by really quickly. A lot has changed from last year after graduating, moving to Ohio and starting a life of my own in the process. But the Kendo has only ramped up with the great opportunities of practicing. I have also been able to achieve my dream of starting up Iaido as well.

As 2008 comes to a close, I would just like to go over some of the goals I have for 2009. The main criteria for this is to be as specific as possible to give myself a little guidance. So saying something like, "I want to improve my Kendo," really isn't going to work, but saying something specific about a specific technique or concept is what I want to go for.

1. Make Shodan - Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to shodan this year, but I really do plan on achieving Shodan next year. There are two opportunities early within the year with the first being in Detroit in February and the next being in March in Lexington. I would really like to try out in Detroit depending on the testing schedule and if there is some huge, impending doom at work with huge looming deadlines. If not, then there's always Lexington!
2. Become more involved with Iaido - I think that I'm beyond the point of knowing whether or not I would continue with Iaido, with the decision being obvious from the title of the bullet point itself. What I mean by this though, is that I should try to understand what Muso Shinden Ryu is, the philosophy behind it as well as memorizing the names and moves of the 12 Seitei kata. I should really be doing better by beginning to imagine that imaginary opponent, but I can only do that when I have more confidence in myself with the moves.
3. Take advantage of different waza - I feel that I'm starting to get a very small grasp on doing this, but I could always try to be more efficient in using these. Not only does this include things like nuki-waza, debana-waza and harai-waza, but also just plain moving around more to get myself in a better position or throw off the opponent if that's even possible.
4. Learn to taiatari more effectively - I know that, given my overall body mass, I would certainly lose at any sort of pushing match with someone. One thing I do know is that 150 lbs (including both body weight and bogu weight) of force coming in could throw off a lot more people. This can only be done by improving my overall body positioning and effectively using my momentum to give that extra push I need to hopefully gain that advantage. Of course, this isn't limited to giving taiatari. I also should become a better reciever.
5. Keeping my back straight - This is something that Ariga sensei has been trying to pound into me for months. The issue isn't how to do it since I know that. The issue is actually trying to do it to the point of it becoming habit, which can be difficult under strenuous circumstances.
   

Okay, I think I'll end it here for the time being. Sure, there are a million things that need to be fixed, but it's a start. Besides, a list that's too big will only discourage me more.

Waza Usage

I had yet another hard practice out at Miami Valley this past Saturday. Beyond the usual keeping my back straight when I strike, there was one thing that he told me, then told the class afterward, that I would like to briefly talk about today.

During Jigeiko, he stopped for a moment to tell me that I needed to try using shikake-waza more when I attack. For the uninitiated, shikake-waza are the offensive techniques used to gain control of the center when it's not so simple to obtain it. These include hiki-waza, debana-waza, harai-waza, nidan/sandan-waza among others.

In order for me to advance to higher-level kendo, I feel I need to start taking advantage of these sorts of waza. When fighting people less experienced than me, it can be pretty simple to take advantage of patterns and inaccuracies. But when fighting someone with more experience, sometimes a little additional technique is necessary to gain the advantage over an adversary.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done (what isn't that way in Kendo by the way?). It's one thing to do all of this during kihon practice, but the mindset changes once you are in Jigeiko and, especially, shiai. In the beginning, a lot of what is taught is to just attack, attack, attack and get there before the other person does. It can be seen as a small application of debana waza, but it tends to just turn into rounds of ai-men until someone is lucky enough to get something through. This stage tends to not last all that long, but it's has a strong enough effect on their Kendo to be hard to break. Those that do try to move on might, from time to time, try out the various waza, but gets discouraged when they don't work. Of course, this isn't a universal progression, but it's something I have gone through and seen happen to a few others.

The only way to combat this? Practice. Jigeiko is the perfect time to really do this. Some might think of Jigeiko as just an informal shiai, but it's also a perfect time to try out various things and see how they work. Your abilities won't be so good at first, but things will eventually come together as you develop your own tokui-waza (your favorite and best techniques) and overall style. The reason why just attacking outright works at first is because a beginner's kamae is generally weaker so you can take advantage of those little gaps. But once you start fighing better people, the stronger kamae makes things a bit difficult and you are either deflected or given a nice tsuki.

I won't leave you guys without a little advice though. When we first start learning the various shikake waza, it's sometimes thought that we need to completely deflect the opponent's shinai far from the center to get to where you need to go. While this is physically true, this can put you at a technical advantage.

Let's take harai-waza, for example. The purpose of this one is to just physically move your opponent's shinai out of the center to gain control of the situation. The common thought is that you need to whack the shinai away to get to it, but it can cause two outcomes. If you do successfully hit the person's shinai out of the way by giving it a hard whack like a golf club, then you'll be out of the center as well and not in a position to get a good hit. If the opponent is fast enough, he or she can take the center again and attack when you aren't ready. The second outcome can be that they see you are moving the shinai much farther than you need to so all they do is just move and score the point while you are literally defenseless.

All you really need to do is move the shinai just enough where you have the center. This could be a physical push or an actual whack where there isn't much movement (like the concept behind that famous six-inch punch), but not enough where you yourself go beyond the center too much or telegraph your planned move.

No matter the level, we need to have a bit more confidence in our abilities and be willing to go outside the norm to better form our particular Kendo style. It's one thing to be very quick and able to get strikes in before your opponent does, but that will only get one so far. Being able to break someone's kamae and hit an open spot is one great way to raise one's level.

Johnson Cup Tournament 2008

I've had enough time to let this sink in and gather my thoughts. It's also the time when the planets align just right to where I'm not too lazy to write about this.

Last week, I attended the ECUSKF Johnson Cup tournament that is held here every year around this time. The overall attendance was small, possibly due to the snow the area had earlier along with other commitments that conveniently align itself with events like these that prevents them from coming. But it didn't make it any less fun. It was a day full of great Kendo and fun partying afterwards involving awesome, homemade beer.

I participated in the Mudansha division and actually placed first. I am very happy to be able to achieve such a feat. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it's that very fact that I'd like to talk about for this particular entry.

Some people say that, while it's great to win, it's just as good to lose. When you win, that means your skills were good enough to emerge victorious. If you lose, sure there's that feeling of disappointment, but it's a great time to go find out what went wrong and how to fix those problems. Well, I want to take this opportunity to still go over my thoughts about what I felt went right and how I feel I can still improve myself.

I like to think of any sort of victory as a series of events that happened based on the competition and your own personal skill set, that happened to work out in your favor. What I want to talk about first are some of the things that I kept in mind while fighting.

• One of the big things that Ariga sensei told me that I needed to fix was that I tend to go into autopilot when I am fighting in jigeiko and competitions. This was something that he has told me over and over again for months on end and, while I would try my best to get a good understanding of what he desires out of me, still fail at it. What I would do is go in and just randomly attack, not really adjusting to the situation at hand. The biggest problem I have with this is that I would also not really remember much about the match. It's the same phenomenon when you are driving somewhere and all the sudden you realize where you are. You're driving just fine, but the lapse in attention span makes you forget the past few miles of road you just did. Basically, I tried to follow my instincts and attack when I felt ready and use techniques fitting with the situation.
• There's also the issue of holding the shinai correctly. It seems like something that you should have down pat, but even the most experienced people fall into bad habits on the simplest of things. All I tried to do here was make sure my kamae remained low to allow for more efficient movement to wherever I needed to go and keep my wrists turned in for maximum speed and power.
• I also felt I moved a lot more than I usually do. And when I mean move, I mean taking advantage of the fact that I can also move left and right in addition to moving forward and backward. Using such addidional movements allow you to find more openings and avoid some attacks. On a similar token, I also tried to use the various waza available like harai, suriage and debana. That allows me to take advantage of even more situations by having a bigger skill set. Of course, that only works when you can do it correctly :P.

Do I think that there are things I need to improve on? You bet. I can even use the points described above as a small shooting-off point to finding out what needs to be improved on:

• It's not enough to just go with your gut feeling and attack when you feel necessary. What I need to try to do is better detect openings and respond to any movements by getting in harmony with the opponent. I also should try and employ less thought into my matches. What I mean about that is I should be able to just react to what the other person is doing and not cycle through my mind what technique I will use next.
• Forming bad habits is always a part of Kendo. All I can really do here is really pay attention to each small bad habit and work on fixing those one by one. Once one thing is fixed, then it's on to the next thing as I repeat the cycle.
• It's nice to have a big skill set, but it's more important to know when to use them and improve in one's accuracy on doing them. This is something that I will have to work on for years to come to find out what techniques work best for me depending on who I am fighting.

Of course, I'm not diminishing the victory, but I have the mindset that there is always someone better than you. Of course it's a fact right now, given my relative experience compared to people of sensei rank. But even if I were to win the WKC, while I would be considered the best at that point in time, there are many others that would be spending the next three years finding out how to beat me. If I were to slack off, then the opponent has already won with the tangible reward coming once we physically face off.

And, before I go, I would like to extend my congratulations to everyone that participated for winning and showing good Kendo.

Failing Kendo Exams

Okay, it's been about a few weeks since I last took my promotion exam, and now that I have nothing better to do, I thought I'd type this up. One thing I notice is that a lot of people don't really talk about the feelings of failing Kendo, so I think I'll do it here.

I recently tried to go for Shodan, but didn't make it this time around. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed in myself for not making it. There's definately that period of sorrow, embarrassment and anger knowing that you didn't make it depsite your attempts.

Thankfully, my bout with college has taught me how to deal with failure since I did my fair share of that...a lot. Of course, failing those exams determines my future versus the Kendo ones just being a hobby, but I tend to look at them the same way. Within minutes of feeling pretty bad for myself, I was already looking ahead at what I did wrong and going for my next attempt either in February in Detroit, or March in Lexington, depending on how the work and life outlook is.

One thing to note is that, if you don't make the rank you are going for, you shouldn't dwell on feeling too bad. All that will do is make you angry. You should realize that everyone fails at a promotion exam at some point in their lives, no matter what the rank is. The most important thing to do is to keep your head held high and look towards the future to pass your next attempt.

On another, but similar, note. I was talking to a friend of mine from Indianapolis and she was talking about trying to test every attempt that she is able to. This isn't for the sake of just going through the ranks as fast as she can, but more for the testing experience and goal building. This is a pretty good point in my opinion since, if you pass, then great. But if you fail, you at least know what you need to improve on and know what the judges will be looking for.

Well, as they always say, better luck next time!

Interesting Kendo Week

Hmm, it's been a while since I posted. Well, I guess better late than never, except for those few "dedicated" readers that might be expecting something from me more often. I'll divide this post by days for organization purposes.

Tuesday was a pretty light day as far as activity goes. But that doesn't mean that it was light on the information. Takano sensei went over various tips regarding preparing oneself for tournaments and how to keep the teams strong. Some of the things was a nice review, but there were some things that was either new or clarified, mostly in the ettiquite department. There was some practice matches to put a few of the things into action. I was quite surprised to have scored with hiki-kote, though I was told I need to work on strength and snap.

Wednesday was okay, I guess. Nobody showed up at the community center so I mostly used that time to practice some of the iaido kata and some Kendo suburi. On the iaido side, I just did a few of the swings and practiced the seitei kata. One thing I really need to get better at is remembering all 12 of them though. For the kendo stuff, all I really did was do 500 suburi with the suburito. I was mostly trying to make sure I fall out of the habit of getting right handed and increase strength before it becomes a problem...

Wednesday was pretty entertaining. The main portion was normal practice with the suburi and footwork. Then some of the remaining time was with the beginners and helping them out with the technique. It was a very fulfilling experience seeing the improvement throughout the practice alone. The last part was the jigeiko amongst us advanced people. The first match was nice...though it lasted a bit longer than normal since I didn't hear the portion about us scoring ourselves. I definately tried to give it my all as I was getting more and more tired. Now, if only I could do that all the time :). But they were very awesome matches though as I could sense the fact that we were giving it our all despite deficencies in strength.

Ah well, that's pretty much all I have...

1st Annual ECUSKF Student Tournament

This past weekend marked the 1st anniversary of the East Central United States Kendo Federation (henceforth ECUSKF) Student Tournament. The purpose of this particular tournament is to better cultivate the Kendo of the younger people by allowing them to fight each other in an environment made just for them.

Before I begin, I would like to congratulate all the participants. You fought very hard and made the spectators very proud!

Of course, being 23 and not a student in any way, shape or form, I was only there to do score keeping and make myself available for any other help that might be needed. This was the first time I ever got to score keep as well, so there was a bit of learning on my part. The scoring for Kendo is more than just saying that someone got a point and won the match. There are marks for what kind of score they got, if they had a penalty (hansoku), a no-show or whether or not the scores were judged by matches. Nagata Sensei asked me to do it in Japanese, which was really no problem at all. I got to learn some more Kanji and vocabulary from reading the instructions (the Japanese version was a bit more clear...hmm...) so that was pretty fun.

Being there was a blast! Seeing the little kids beating each other up or competing in the basics (kihon) tournament really put nothing but smiles on my face. They all fought very hard and looked like they were enjoying themselves the whole time. Seeing this sort of lit my kendo fire a bit.

After the tournament, we had a joint practice which was really just an hour of free practice, so we just go up to whoever we want and fight them for a few minutes before moving on to the next person. I was sort of freaking out a bit because, I was just going and going with one person after another with what I felt was a lot of spirit. The strange part was that I was really able to keep going after practice was over. I'm not sure if it had something to do with seeing the tournament (my spirits tend to go up after a tournament or exam) or if there may have been something in the Lexington water.

Of course, I can't finish this without any sorts of things I need to fix. There were three points that was made to me:

• I need to know when to stop and complete my hits. This is really more of a recent phenomenon, but I sometimes get into a hitting frenzy where I tend to hit any chance I get. While that fact isn't so bad, it can count against me cause it could cancel out any sorts of points I may have made with my first hit by trying to fit in a second one. A more specific example would be a nidan-waza like kote-men. We do that a lot during practice and it tends to get into our minds to do a kote-men, no matter what the outcome might be with the kote hit. What we eventually need to get to is that we have the mindset to do one hit, but follow up with the second one in case the first one doesn't hit.
• I seem to be tensing up a lot with my arms. Can't really explain it that much other than the fact that it tends to happen if I'm high in energy and ready to go. While it might feel like I'm going fast, the tensing up only slows me down and tires me out quicker. Looks like this is a big one to finish.
• I could try to make use of shikake (offensive) and oji-waza (countering). Those actually tend to be my weak points since I'm either not fast enough or not accurate enough for them to become useful (Koizumi sensei noted this issue). These can be very important tools to grab the center if I happen to be at a disadvantage so I should make better use of these techniques.

I would definately like to congratulate Elizabeth and Nagata-sensei and all other people involved in planning and running the event for their efforts in getting the tournament going with very little issues. Everyone was very impressed and definately wants this to happen again.

Well, good night peeps!

Crazy Kendo Week

This past week has been pretty crazy for Kendo and Iaido:

• Early in the week, the soreness in my left foot went from a dull soreness like it was overworked to a slight sharp pain. It wasn't a showstopper, but it really affected my Kendo to the point where it was kinda detrimental. I set up a doctors appointment for the following Wednesday (and skipped Tuesday practice just in case the pain is something larger). According to the symptoms, the doctor said that it was most likely a swollen tendon or something. Since I can't take anti-inflammatories like Aspirin or Ibuprofen, I'm out of luck in this regard.


• Wednesday was the first part of a taping for a Public Access program in the Northern Kentucky area (which means I won't see it) called Men of Bronze and Fire. I know nothing about the program, but Atkins Sensei wanted to do something to hopefully boost membership. Of course, trying to do some stuff with the little experience I have is a little daunting in front of a camera, but considering the target audience, I don't have much to worry about.


• I decide to try out Kendo on my foot the next day. It wasn't too bad, but I wasn't able to perform in tip top shape which is pretty frustrating. I later decide to skip on Saturday practice to aid in healing my foot as fast as I can


• Sunday was the second portion of the taping that featured the Kendo half of the program. Things could have gone a bit better if I had realized a bit more about the timing and knowing what I could and could not do during the whole taping part, but it was okay overall. The good news is that the target audience won't fully understand what's going on, but hopefully would be inclined to start practice to increase membership

Hmm, well there really isn't much to say here for the moment. I guess if I learned anything from this past week, it would be to listen to my body better to make sure I can identify and fix pain ASAP so I'm not out for several months.

Getsumei Seiki

It's been a while since I posted anything anime/manga related, so I'll post something about a manga that I have read over the past few days.

The name of this manga is Getsumei Seiki: Sayonara Shinsengumi. The story follows the life of Hijitaka Toshizou as he follows his desires to become his definition of a samurai and eventually lead the famed Shinsengumi. The story takes place around the Bakumatsu era, around the time when Perry and those Black ships came by.

Unfortunately, only the first 17 chapters of the manga have been fan-translated so far, which can be found here if you want to take a look. As far as I know, the manga hasn't been picked up by any company in the US for official translation so, if you're interested in reading it, then you'll have to break out that Japanese dictionary.

I really enjoyed reading what little I could of it and felt hung out to dry after that last chapter. I do have plans to buy the rest of the series, but hope that the Japanese isn't TOO advanced for me to read without trouble. What I have enjoyed most about it is the relationship development between the major characters in the manga. Of course, the fact that Kendo and swordsmanship is in it kinda helps too :).

I guess if any of you have anything to say about this manga, then feel free to say something. If it's a spoiler, then I'll use my super secret Ninja techniques to kill you!

Shinpan Seminar

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Shinpan seminar in Lexington, KY, instructed by Ariga-Sensei.

For those not in the know, a Shinpan is one of three people that judge any given Kendo match. The purpose of these seminars is to get people accustomed to all that is involved in judging a match.

When we see someone judging matches, it's easy to complain about how they score whether it be that they missed several good points, didn't give hansoku (penalty) when they should have, or just didn't seem into it. From the outside, it seems pretty simple; see a point, raise a flag. See an offense, give a hansoku. But what I quickly realized was that everything isn't as black and white as it seems.

For example, when scoring a point, it's not as simple as seeing someone strike men and raise a flag. Things to consider here are the concepts and intents behind Ki-Ken-Tai-Icchi (Spirit, Sword, Body as One), Zanshin and whether or not the person is showing spirit or just showing off. In terms of penalties, one has to differentiate between someone doing something illegal or if it's just part of a waza. You even have to think about where you are in the court since there are certain parts of the court that's your area and making sure you always have optimal view of the match.

After that, we had some matches to give the higher-ranked people to show us what they learned throughout the day. Some of the more fun ones were the ones where offenses were done on purpose, such as walking out without a tasuki, excessive pushing and holding the shinai with the wrong orientation.

I definitely learned a lot throughout the day. It gave me a whole new perspective on judging to hopefully make it less daunting when I have to go through the shinpan stuff once I reach San-Dan. Don't get me wrong, I always had respect for the judges. Heck, the sportsmanship pledge says that you agree that the judges' decisions are final. But now I have a better understanding of what goes through the minds of the shinpan within that 3-minute match. Thank God there's 3 of them.

Back to the Usual...

This past weekend was business as usual...if you call having to work on the weekend as being usual (overtime FTW!!!). It was a pretty productive weekend for Kendo and Iaido nonetheless.

The Saturday Kendo was pretty intense as usual. I've did my best to keep my energy up despite it leaving really quickly. There really isn't much to say in particular about this practice, but I was left with a few tips:

- My men hits are too high. In application, this caused me to hit more on the grill instead of the top of the men. Seems like it's an issue with my wrists not providing enough of that extra movement to get the downward force.

- This is an issue that I really should try harder to work on. I need to hit through the men instead of just on top of the men. This is a nice breakthrough that could help me hit harder.

Sunday was pretty nice. I went back to iaido and worked on ipponme through gohonme that day. It's really daunting of all the peculiarities that come with each of the movements. When you see it done, it looks so simple but actually doing it is another matter.

The Kendo portion was pretty interesting. Since it was the first weekend of the month, we spent a lot of the practice doing kata. I really need to learn the rest of the kata since I'm really behind. As it stands I only confidently know up to kata 4. I have done the others, but not really enough to count with confidence. The second part just consisted of kirikaeshi, uchikomi, jigeiko and kakarigeiko due to lack of time. I tried my best to make it intense.

Ugh, not the best of entries though it is getting kinda late. Hopefully my next entry will be a bit better.