Kendo, by Tim O'Shei

Book Title: Kendo

Author: Tim O'Shei

ISBN 13: 978-1-4296-1964-6

ISBN 10: 1-4296-1964-3


Description as shown on the back of the book

The sword skills of the samurai come to life as kendo fighters execute fast-acting blocks and strikes to win competitions. Learn how fighters practice their skills and see if you have what it takes to be a kendo champion.


Review

As many of you may already know, there aren’t very many resources for Kendo for the English-speaking crowd. The ones that are available have varying degrees of usefulness, but one demographic that seems to be missing is material for the younger crowd. The book that I am reviewing here is supposed to be one such book that caters to that demographic.


My first review is a book titled, “Kendo,” by Tim O’Shei. To be honest, I was thinking the book would be a bit more on the meaty side after seeing it at the online library catalog, but I decided to take a look anyways and give it a chance.


The book itself is only 32 pages long with a few sentences gracing each page, explaining some very basic information about what kenshi wear during practice, the equipment that they use and some information about kata, testing and general practice structure. There are color photos included on each page and, along with the short description on some kendo material, they have some "fun facts" that may or may not be interesting. The author consulted David Christman Sensei, founder of Battle Creek Kendo Kai for the information contained in the book.


The book would really only cater to young children who are totally unfamiliar with Kendo. The ones of that age group that already do Kendo would already be familiar with the material in the book. Other than that, I do appreciate the extra information out there that gives everything in a simple manner to expand knowledge to a younger age group. I also like the various color pictures that show the equipment and people practicing.

Using a Real Sword

It's been a minute since I typed something here, but I was on vacation over the past few days, which also gave me the time to think of something to type here upon my return.

I'll admit it here that I did not get to use a shinken, but at Iaido practice last Wednesday, I was told to try to constantly imagine that I am using one in order to fix my noto. Upon doing so, my sensei told me that my noto immediately improved upon doing so.

I was trying to use that mindset before, but it really wasn't as strong as I applied it here. At first, it was just something that I kept at the back of my mind and just made note when my hand would have gotten cut. This time, I tried to apply it as a preventative measure which caused my noto to feel more controled.

This is something that I should really try to keep doing because, while I am definately several years off with getting to the level of using a shinken, I will get to that point eventually and it's imperative to have some practice to avoid bad accidents in the future.

Increasing Speed and Accuracy

After a pretty crazy week with work last week, I was able to find the time to get some action on with Kendo and Iaido.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do Iaido for long this week since I was stuck in traffic on my way there. All we did this week was spend some time over nukitsuke and noto. The problem with my nukitsuke is that I tend to try to cut before the iaito is out of the saya. For the noto, it's all about the hand positioning to increase accuracy of getting the iaito back in the saya while making sure I'm in the position to strike again at a moment's notice.

On something kinda unrelated, there has been an increase in beginners at practice which really makes me happy. I can only hope that they find out that Kendo is something that they really like and end up sticking with it. Of course, all we can do is instruct and give advice when needed and let everyone decide for themselves. No matter the end result, I like the additional people.

Tuesday's practice was pretty standard fare with Takano sensei with the general hard work. Thursday's practice was more exciting since Morikawa sensei came down from Dayton to train with us. He led the practice in typical Dayton fare which involved nearly constant movement that can have just about anyone writhing in exhaustion near the end.

Over the past week, there were two things that I have learned about my Kendo based on the advice given by Takano sensei and Morikawa sensei.

The first piece of advice from Takano sensei is that I need to learn to keep my foot down when doing Fumikomi. When I am striking, I have a tendancy to lift my foot up a little high. The rationale behind this is that, the longer your foot is in the air, the slower your strike if your timing is correct. This isn't the first time I've heard of this sort of advice, but I do notice how hard it is to really get down, especially after not giving it much thought before.

The second piece of advice came from Morikawa sensei. He told me that I seem to hit while not fully having the center or coming off to the side when I strike, like katsugi-waza. So I need to take the center and strike from the center. I'm thinking that a lot of this is coming from me trying to do more with fighting the center which, ironically, puts me off center sometimes. I'm really trying to see how to get this right while getting the opponent to do what I want them to do.

These are two very important aspects that could help with my overall speed and accuracy. My current goal is to become more competitive in the shodan-nidan division in the next kendo tournaments and get ready for the nidan exam which can happen in the next year.

Before I go, there are two notes I'd like to mention. It is kind of late, but I did post pictures of the Cleveland tournament on Flickr, which can be found either on the side bar or just by clicking the link here. Also, I would like to do some design and name changes to the blog to make it a bit more visually appealing and hopefully be able to type better notes and articles to the point where I'm happy with it. We'll see what happens with that since I'm not that much of a web designer, but would like to pretend that I am one.

Kendo Skill +1

I had to take a week off from Kendo to let my body heal and go through some hell at work. But I did my best to start up again as good as before. After Saturday practice in Dayton, I had a minor headache, experienced a small cramp in my left calf and some plantar fasciitis. Despite all that, I felt so alive after practice to where going through the pain during and after that was all worth it.

Ever since the tournament and after some suggestions by Ariga sensei, I have been trying my best to bring my Kendo to the next level by trying to do what I can to create openings on the opponent and getting them to move the way I want them too. This is easier said than done cause I also have to get over the personal demons that cause me to hold back and hesitate and correctly use the openings to my advantage.

I have also been trying out various other techniques to see how well they work. I seem to be belting out the Gyaku-Dou (dou strike on the left side) pretty often since after the tournament. It's nice to use, though I'd like to know the best way to score with it. I have also been trying to work with hiki-waza and all the elements that deal with that.

The main motivation for this was after participating and really paying attention to the shodan/nidan division at the Cleveland tournament. It's one thing to see people do well in certain divisions, but it's a different matter when you're trying to pay attention to everything to see what needs to be done to even have a chance at the top spots. I knew that my ikkyu kendo wouldn't be good enough, but it was great to get a perspective for what I need to do to do well.

Kendo Break

There was no Kendo for me this past weekend, though it wasn't really planned...

I would probably say that it happened a little over a week ago. The practices the week after the tournament were tougher than normal due to the desire for improvement through harder work for the next tournament. It pretty much hit a climax after Saturday's practice since it was actually kind of warm. It was in the mid 80s that day and we followed the policy of no air conditioning during training (the fans are on by the way for air circulation). There was that period of exhaustion, though I did feel a bit light-headed after practice, but nothing to get worried about.

The good news is that I was able to take it a bit easy on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday since I was mainly teaching beginners. I did do the tough jigeiko afterward though for these practices. It wasn't until Thursday that things started to crash down when I noticed a pain in my left arm (sort of felt like a small fracture or something that could possibly snap my arm), some planar ficiaitis and general exhaustion. I really wasn't sure what the issue was, but possibly thought that maybe my body had enough exercise from the previous week (probably didn't help with doing laser tag the previous Friday as well). I ended up having to stop with that practice and just use the rest of the time to give the beginners some words of encouragement to keep myself busy. Despite that, I really couldn't help but feel kinda bad for having to stop.

My plan for this weekend was to slow down a bit and just take a break. This had to be one of the hardest things to do since I had a huge desire to pick up my shinai and iaito and start swinging. No matter how hard I tried to keep myself busy, I kept thinking about kendo and iaido. The noises, the smell and the overall activity just really kept crossing my mind with video games and apartment cleaning that really kept me sane.

This whole weekend sort of made me have that inferior feeling because I had a huge desire to do Kendo, but I also realized that this is probably the best route to prevent further injury that could possibly put me out for several weeks or months as opposed to just a few days. I tend to have this stubborn attitude that keeps me going while fighting through the pain and then feel kind of less-than-worthy when I have to quit to prevent anything bad from happening. I know there's nothing wrong with stopping to fight another day and shouldn't let stuff like this bruise my ego, but it tends to happen anyways.

Well, let's hope that things go well on Tuesday. I do plan on making an appointment with the doctor sometime soon for an overall physical to see where I stack up on the health realm, but then I do have a few other questions as well about my body condition to see about those. It's more a curiosity than anything as I don't see too many problems with that situation.

Cleveland Iaido Seminar

It's been over a week, but I thought I still talk about this while it's still fresh in my memory. For the first time, Cleveland was able to host an Iaido seminar given by Kato sensei (7th dan Kyoshi in both Kendo and Iaido) and Murakami sensei (AUSKF President) after the shinsa that followed the Kendo tournament the previous day. The intent here was to gauge the interest here to see if they will decide to hold this every year.

My previous intent with this article was to pretty much copy the notes I made during the entire seminar, but I later felt that it would be pretty fruitless as it would make this entry prohibitively long. So I'll just shorten it to a few highlights and talk about the overall experience.

The seminar lasted about 4 hours and mainly went over the following things:

• Properly going through opening and closing formalities
• Importance of the sageo (more than a fashion statement, ya know)
• All 12 seitei kata

Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience. I have been practicing down at Northern Kentucky for the past year and a half, so it's nice to have a change of scenery, so to speak, and get some instruction in a different setting by a different instructor. Being of little iaido experience, there was MUCH to learn within the 4 hour time frame.

Concerning the seitei kata, it was assumed that everyone was at least familiar with the kata in some form, so a lot of the explanations were about some of the smaller aspects. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I'll give some of the highlights of what I learned below:

• Sanpo giri and Soete-tsuki are performed for the sake of cutting people hiding just beyond a wall or corner. So the body positioning is more like trying to wrap yourself around to cut the person ASAP.
• Uke-nagashi should flow better (no pause between the block and strike), and the rotation near the end should not be too much. Based on the correction I was given, I would say abour 110 to 115 degrees at the most.
• You are doing the kata alone, but you also must remember that you are cutting someone's body and all rules of engagement still apply. In other words, the sword should not be swung too much to leave potential openings.
• You're trying to kill someone, so show your energy throughout the kata. There needs to be some feeling to your movements.

The overall attendance was pretty low, as should be expected. This is the first year that it happened. If they were to continue doing this, then the attendance could increase due to word of mouth and better advanced planning on the part of the attendees (as in thinking of the iaido stuff alongside the kendo stuff as the seminars gain more promenance). Then there's the issue of Iaido being a very uncommon art in the midwest region. Places like New York or Los Angeles have better opportunities to do Iaido, but there aren't very many dojo around. In the Cincinnati area, there is one club here with the closest being in Indianapolis, which is a little over an hour away.

I really hope that they continue doing this as the information given was very valuable and nice to bring back to Cincinnati. It's nice to have opportunities to see my Iaido grow, but even better to see Iaido grow in general.

Cleveland Tournament Review

This past weekend was the Kendo tournament hosted by the Cleveland Kendo Club at Case Western Reserve. This is also the first time I was able to participate in the Shodan/Nidan division after over 5.5 years of practice.

Unfortunately, I didn't get past the first match in individuals. This was a higher tournament bracket, so I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Then there's the fact that I was working with less than 2 hours of sleep and 4 hours of driving which probably didn't help either. If I were to stop here though, then I'd just be making excuses for myself and would really just defeat the purpose of these things.

Despite the loss, I took as to what is expected of me to do well at tournaments in this next bracket and I realize that I have a lot to work on. I saw a lot of really fast and active Kendo going on as the competitors were whittled down towards the finals, so I am pretty sure I need to get to that sort of level to increase my own capabilities.

We didn't make it past the first round for the team matches, but we all felt much better after this match compared to the individuals. Everyone was a lot more aggressive and lasted a bit longer in these matches.

Why is that? I think that it has something to do with the overall phyche of the team. When it came to the individuals, we were trying hard, but we had issues with the drive and the jitters when you see the huge amounts of people from the dojos that routinely do well in these tournaments. By time we got to the team matches, it was all about just having fun with it and being together and cheering each other on.

One thing that I think some people concern themselves too much on is how good the competition is and how badly they might be beaten. There's nothing wrong with having some concern to know where you stand in terms of the competition, but too much worrying tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy since that concern comes out when you're out there fighting. What we need to realize is that we are going out there to show everyone the best of our abilities, regardless of who it's against. And despite the other teams having larger rosters, more sensei and/or better facilities, it's still possible for someone in middle-America to do well as long as he/she applies himself/herself.

I really hope that we can use these next few months till the next tournament to really improve ourselves and show them what Cincinnati is all about! Oh yeah, it also helps if we all got more sleep, lol. One thing's for sure, we started thinking about how we can modify our training to increase endurance, aggressiveness and accuracy.

On The Road To Cleveland

I should really be going to bed since I will be leaving for the Cleveland Kendo Tournament in a few hours, but I thought I shall post this before I go to bed.

Tomorrow is the Cleveland tournament and will be my first in the Shodan-Nidan division. We had the final practice yesterday where a lot of it was focused on endurance and some shiai practice. Takano sensei told me that I have good enough form, I just need to add resolve to my technique to make yuko-datotsu more definite and not be afraid of using the various techniques to advance my overall Kendo skill (as she put it, I can start trying to do the fun stuff in shiai).

After practice, she told us that the person we are fighting against is not the enemy. The enemy is ourselves. That really rings true in my case though. Everyone says my technique is really good, but it's the whole hesitation thing that keeps me from getting the flags to go up in my favor. This will probably be the hardest thing for me to get over though as it's hard to get the flow of the match to the point where you freely use various techniques and concepts to get the upper hand. In short, I can throw out techniques left and right, but if I don't have the resolve and the confidence to go for it, I will always come up short.

As far as getting to the tournament, there is about 4 hours of driving, so I should really use this time to mentally prepare myself for the match. I could stretch and practice all day long, but if my mind is not ready or just not there, then that will cause me to lose all the time. I don't think I'll come up with a specific game plan due to the infinite amount of unknowns, but I should try my best to instill the confidence in myself to give the match my all.

Now it's time for bed. Kinda wish that this was typed better so I hope I got the point across

What is Seme?

Over the past two practices, Morikawa sensei has been telling me that I need more seme. All I was doing when I go up with him is do various attacks, but not really doing much to gain control of the center before I go. This concept has been one of those harder things to grasp, so I thought I'd take a moment and do some research on it.

A quick look at the Japanese-English Kendo dictionary provided by Kendo USA says that seme is a noun meaning, "the retention of superiority in relation to an enemy through kiryoku, the shinai and datotsu." It's a pretty simple definition on the surface by basically saying that you are doing whatever you can to gain the advantage to make a successful attack. Personally, that doesn't really help me too much, so I decided to dig a little further.

The next source I looked at was this book I bought a while ago, which can be translated to The Kendo Improvement Book　(剣道上達Book ISBN4-415-01915-3). It just happened to have a whole section devoted to answering my question so I decided to take a look. I would like to note that this book is in Japanese, so I apologize in any errors in translation ahead of time.

In this book, seme is part 1 in a series of things that needs to be done before you attack--Seme -> Tame -> Search for opening (Kuzure)-> Attack. The seme here has been defined mostly as the process of taking the center by making sure the tip of the shinai is pointed toward your opponent's midline. They also made note of the fact that seme isn't just the act of getting the center. In addition to that, you also need to pay attention to your opponent because they will be trying to get the center as well. Then you still have to pay attention to any moments where openings occur on your opponent as well as being aware of yourself in the process. There are also pictures in the book that show some common things that your opponent might do that will open up several things.

This is one of those concepts that has a short definition to get the basic point across, but there are some deeper things that one needs to consider in order to use this effectively. The above definition is by no means an exhaustive description of what seme is, nor do I consider myself an expert in what it is. But at least it is a start for me to actually begin to effectively use this in practice to gain and maintain the advantage before and during a strike

What Is the Sword Tip Doing?

Iaido practice yesterday centered around refining our swinging technique. Jim was telling us that the best way to see if your swing is correct is to be able to hear the howl as you swing from your iaito, which shouldn't take much effort if the technique is good.

He came up to me and made note that I needed to pay more attention to what the tip is doing. When thinking about swinging, I tend to think a lot about what my hands are doing: are my wrists turned correctly, are my hands in the right position before and after the swing, am I using my arms too much? But there's one thing that I tend to forget about and that is the tip.

What I needed to do was put my concentration away from my hands and more at the tip, as that is what is doing the actual cutting. I need to focus more on the tip speed as that's the part that should be moving the fastest if you follow simple circular geometry. Once I was able to do that, I noticed that my swinging overall got better with the sound effect coming out of it. Now I just need to be able to do that consistently with various swings.

On another note, I noticed that this is one of the first concepts that can definitely relate to kendo. While the process for swinging is slightly different due to application, the fundamental thought process should be the same. We're always taught that our hands need to be in X position while doing Y to get an efficient cut. But what is doing the cutting? What is the part of the shinai that makes the point? It's the tip of course. I need to take better care with thinking about where the tip is headed and move my hands accordingly instead of the opposite case.

Hmm, they say that Kendo and Iaido are related but it seems like I'm finally starting to see that--in the technical sense, at least.

How Should I Really Be Trying to Fight?

I was reading over the newsletter that is on Kendo Guide and there was an interesting article from Kendo Nippon from Sumi Masatake sensei about the attitudes we should have in fighting. He seemed to talk about quite a bit, but there are four things in the article that I'd like to talk about and reflect on how it compares to what I do now and how it could affect my Kendo later.

Komei Seidai (公明正大) - fairness
This concept is more the thought process that we all must have when we go against people. There are various techniques that are available to us to find, create, disable and attack that are within the rules of shiai. But like everything in life, it mainly remains a judgement call for how to adjust to the given situation. Some rules may end up not being applied as strictly as others depending on who's judging or loopholes might be found and exploited.

But is it necessarily the right thing to do? One thing we should ask ourselves is whether or not we are following the principles of Kendo that the AJKF made in 1975. Not only that, if we were to become victorious, would it feel like a clean win? While there are specific guidelines to follow, there are many interpretations to follow with this. So we also must be able to adapt to the situation in case someone is not doing what we call "fair." Besides, if you lose due to someone being underhanded or not doing things right, then what does that have to say about your abilities?

Tameru (溜める) - To charge, store
I have been hearing a lot about this one lately. I have already used the whole spring analogy when talking to other people my interpretation of it. In short, one should act like a spring when preparing to attack and making that move. Pushing the spring down stores the energy and releasing it releases all that pent-up energy in one, forceful blow.

This is a pretty hard one to think about. It's one thing to try to find that opening, but what must be done to put yourself in that constant state of readiness? Even if I were to get that, what about making sure I don't tense myself too much and jeopordize my overall form? A question and possible solutions were discussed on the Kendo World forums a little bit ago, but a clear-cut answer seems to be impossible to find when stated that way.

Kuzusu (崩す) - To destroy
The Kendo definition to Kuzusu can be determined as destroying your opponent's kamae by using various Kendo concepts like seme and kiai. One thing that I have had issues with is just blindly attacking people without really trying to create that opening. Most of the time, it just results in either nothing happening, getting tsukiid in the throat and maybe, maybe, just get that lucky hit that scores the point.

I have been trying my best to change that, mostly through suggestion by Ariga sensei. I need to think about what I am doing before I attack, but then I also need to make sure that I have something to attack instead of going into auto-pilot. I've been trying to project myself to make the other person react and get myself to act accordingly.

Suteru (捨てる) - To throw away
The definition given on Kendo Guide is to committ yourself to the strike. There is enough going through one's head when they are trying to set up a strike, but once you have flung yourself out there, then you must keep going. This is one that I have a hard time with though because I seem to always have some sort of outcome already planned for me. And when things don't go my way, I can pull back.

At the same time though, I don't want to literally throw myself away and put myself on auto-pilot. This sort of thing isn't fair to myself, nor is it really fair to my opponent because I know I can do better than that. I'll most likely have to change my thought processes during practice to probably get that though. There are times where I tend to go, "If I do X, then I will hit Y." But maybe I should try to see what is going on and basically go with the flow. How I should go about doing that is another question that might take a lifetime to answer.

Of course, these aren't the only things involved in making that successful strike. But from what I see here, these three things seem to go over some of the many things that I have issues with that tend to hold me back.

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.