First day back after two weeks off with a chest infection, it hurt. It's gutting how fast you can lose cardio fitness.
Anyways, back to Mumeishi for another dressing down by the locals... my main fault of the day was my posture. Holt sensei observed that i'm leaning back too far which is slowing my reaction time. I was instructed to straighten up and place slightly more weight on my right foot than my left (but not too much), I should be ready to "pounce like a tiger" as he put it. I found it hard to break my bad habit so this will be my 'thing to fix' over the coming weeks.
In addition, he also instructed that when I cut do I should turn with zanshin before the shinai completely moves past the opponent's do (I should have turned as the shinai 'lets go' of the do). This means I will be ready to cut again if the opportunity arises. If I run through in a similar way to a men cut that opportunity will be lost.
Visited Tora on Thursday which was fun. Its the first time i've been there for a while and there were lots of new faces, they've managed to generate a good atmosphere at that club. Impressed.
Back to Nenriki on Friday and managed to practiced with Mansfield sensei (6d Kendo, 7d Iaido, 7d Jodo), who's a very generous teacher. He immediately highlighted my hesitancy due to 'thinking too much' and tried to draw me into cutting instinctively. He had his work cut out!
Sensei explained that I had to 'feel' my opponent rather than seeing -> thinking -> reacting as this makes me 'jump' to my opponent's pressure and react slowly. I understood what he was saying but damn, how the hell do you 'feel' an opponent? When he opened a target my body just seemed to freeze, I could see it but couldn't immediately attack, it was very frustrating.
By the end I managed to achieve a few 'instinctive' cuts but I don't know how the hell I achieved it.... will I be able to reproduce them again on another night?
Again this all seems to come down to self confidence and taking on a forward positive attitude.
It's the Mumeishi 3's in two weeks, I hope I can regain some sort of form for then.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Another Cold
Yes, its that time of year again. Looks like this week's training will be screwed due to a honking cold.
//edit: I'm now entering my third week of a cough I can't shift (thus no kendo). Gonna visit the docs on Monday.
//edit: I'm now entering my third week of a cough I can't shift (thus no kendo). Gonna visit the docs on Monday.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Shiai Time
Wow.. not updates the blog for a while. I'll give a summary for October so far which was mainly concerned with injury and shiai.
First of all our club held the Lidstone Kyusha Taikai for the first time in six years. Due to past UK kendo political upheavals, this event was cancelled in 2005 (the year I started kendo) which meant I never got the chance to compete in it. Fortunately, the club is now in a position to relaunch the competition and we ran our 36th event on the 8th October.
We had 39 competitors this year, mainly from the southern region although we had a few travel down from Stoke way. Club members helped with running the comp and I was taked with operating one of the scoreboards. I was surprised how much concentration was needed to avoid missing the type of point/hansoku scored.
The competition is centred around providing beginners and inexperienced shinpan with their first steps into the world of shiai. You could see the full spectrum of abilities from fresh '6 monthers' to guys that are pretty much dan grade ability (the cut off was 2 years experience max). It was enjoyable to watch and I think most people who attended benefitted in some way.
Other than a fire alarm disrupting our post competition keiko the event ran like clockwork, full credit goes to the organisational skills of Tony the club Secretary. I hope 2012 is just as successful and able to attract more competitors.
The following week was the British Open based at Mumeishi. This proved a bit of a disaster. I was drawn against a lady from Oxford dojo, who was half my height. Sh*t. I always struggle against short people.
As I prepared to enter the shiai-jo I knew I had to expect debana kote. But you guessed, I walked straight into it. Full credit to my opponent as her two kote were very sharp (she finished second in the ladies comp), she was much more skilful than me. However, I still left annoyed that I let her do what I knew would happen.
Time in British Open 2011 = 1 min 30 seconds.
On a positive note, I attended squad training up in Wolverhampton last weekend which proved more productive. We were introduced to Goodwin Sensei the new GB coach. Sadly Mano sensei is returning to Japan which is a shame, he was a great source of advice.
Goodwin sensei is an ex-squad member and spoke very passionately when he addressed the group. His approach was different from Mano sensei's which seems to mark a diversion from a holistic 'intensive training' approach, to 100% focused on improving the squad. Not to say they are discouraging people like me in attending, who are there to improve rather than gain selection to squad.
The focus of the weekend was to raise our effort, energy levels and engagement during shiai. This meant we concentrated on fast footwork and soft hands/arms. The aim is to engage with full intention and spirit in order to 'explode' at the opponent.
Sensei wasn't afraid to kick us up the backside if he didn't see 100% and the results were marked. By the end of the second day it was visible that people had raised their game and were giving all they had during shiaigeiko, the energy levels were great. I felt that I'd improved over the weekend, i hope I can replicate this intensity during club practices.
Various seniors picked me up on some key points:
* Stopping after kote-men which leaves an opportunity to be hit. I need to explode through after all cuts, either forward or backwards. * Wake up in tsubazeriai - I was caught napping with hikiwaza on quite a few occasions. * I'm reacting too much to my opponent's seme ('jumping' my shinai etc). I need to be more proactive rather than reactive.
October has also been awkward in regards to my damaged ankle. I've been wearing a brace which has helped but it still hurts if I twist and land on it in a certain way. Luckily one of the squad guys is a physio and identified the offending ligament, he taped up an area on my shin which helped relieve the pain slightly. The difficulty will be trying to replicate this taping for myself.
First of all our club held the Lidstone Kyusha Taikai for the first time in six years. Due to past UK kendo political upheavals, this event was cancelled in 2005 (the year I started kendo) which meant I never got the chance to compete in it. Fortunately, the club is now in a position to relaunch the competition and we ran our 36th event on the 8th October.
We had 39 competitors this year, mainly from the southern region although we had a few travel down from Stoke way. Club members helped with running the comp and I was taked with operating one of the scoreboards. I was surprised how much concentration was needed to avoid missing the type of point/hansoku scored.
The competition is centred around providing beginners and inexperienced shinpan with their first steps into the world of shiai. You could see the full spectrum of abilities from fresh '6 monthers' to guys that are pretty much dan grade ability (the cut off was 2 years experience max). It was enjoyable to watch and I think most people who attended benefitted in some way.
Other than a fire alarm disrupting our post competition keiko the event ran like clockwork, full credit goes to the organisational skills of Tony the club Secretary. I hope 2012 is just as successful and able to attract more competitors.
The following week was the British Open based at Mumeishi. This proved a bit of a disaster. I was drawn against a lady from Oxford dojo, who was half my height. Sh*t. I always struggle against short people.
As I prepared to enter the shiai-jo I knew I had to expect debana kote. But you guessed, I walked straight into it. Full credit to my opponent as her two kote were very sharp (she finished second in the ladies comp), she was much more skilful than me. However, I still left annoyed that I let her do what I knew would happen.
Time in British Open 2011 = 1 min 30 seconds.
On a positive note, I attended squad training up in Wolverhampton last weekend which proved more productive. We were introduced to Goodwin Sensei the new GB coach. Sadly Mano sensei is returning to Japan which is a shame, he was a great source of advice.
Goodwin sensei is an ex-squad member and spoke very passionately when he addressed the group. His approach was different from Mano sensei's which seems to mark a diversion from a holistic 'intensive training' approach, to 100% focused on improving the squad. Not to say they are discouraging people like me in attending, who are there to improve rather than gain selection to squad.
The focus of the weekend was to raise our effort, energy levels and engagement during shiai. This meant we concentrated on fast footwork and soft hands/arms. The aim is to engage with full intention and spirit in order to 'explode' at the opponent.
Sensei wasn't afraid to kick us up the backside if he didn't see 100% and the results were marked. By the end of the second day it was visible that people had raised their game and were giving all they had during shiaigeiko, the energy levels were great. I felt that I'd improved over the weekend, i hope I can replicate this intensity during club practices.
Various seniors picked me up on some key points:
* Stopping after kote-men which leaves an opportunity to be hit. I need to explode through after all cuts, either forward or backwards. * Wake up in tsubazeriai - I was caught napping with hikiwaza on quite a few occasions. * I'm reacting too much to my opponent's seme ('jumping' my shinai etc). I need to be more proactive rather than reactive.
October has also been awkward in regards to my damaged ankle. I've been wearing a brace which has helped but it still hurts if I twist and land on it in a certain way. Luckily one of the squad guys is a physio and identified the offending ligament, he taped up an area on my shin which helped relieve the pain slightly. The difficulty will be trying to replicate this taping for myself.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Great to be back
Managed my first practice for weeks last night, I was pretty rusty and conscious of my ankle..... But it felt ace to be back!
//edit: Spoke too soon. Three practices in and it went again. Bugger.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Oxford Shinpan Seminar
One of the grading requirements is that we attend a ref seminar once a year. Unfortunately, there are so few courses run by the BKA that we have to grab any that appear.
Last weekend's course was run by O'Sullivan and Mano sensei assisted by senor squad members. Sensei opted for a relaxed style of teaching, encouraging plenty of Q&A audience participation. They focused on the topic of 'What is ippon' as opposed to the actual mechanics of reffing a shiai-jo (e.g. flag signals and commands).
We spent the next few hours learning what a ref should look for in regards to the five elements of Yūkō Datotsu, which we all know is:
Last weekend's course was run by O'Sullivan and Mano sensei assisted by senor squad members. Sensei opted for a relaxed style of teaching, encouraging plenty of Q&A audience participation. They focused on the topic of 'What is ippon' as opposed to the actual mechanics of reffing a shiai-jo (e.g. flag signals and commands).
We spent the next few hours learning what a ref should look for in regards to the five elements of Yūkō Datotsu, which we all know is:
- Fullness of spirit and intention;
- Striking a datotsu-bui (striking zone);
- Correct striking region of own shinai;
- Correct ha-suji; and
- Correct zanshin.
Sensei also suggested there was a 6th unofficial requirement of maintaining correct posture during the strike. Basically no body contortions or spinning around after a kote cut.
We also discussed the tricky subject of 'grey zone' situations which are open to interpretation. For example, high level oji waza which may appear weak in power can be given credit in order to encourage the use of complex techniques. There are too many to list (not that I can remember them all).
Finally, sensei outlined different fouls and which warrant hansoku.
The afternoon session consisted of a fighting group who were refereed by a rotating shinpan group. I was part of the first reffing group up and found it very difficult to maintain triangulation with the Shushin (main ref), while paying full attention to the fight.
As the fight progresses, it's very easy to find yourself 'ball watching' and miss something important. I also found acting as Shushin quite stressful, first of all you need to make yourself heard, you have to be aware that the other shinpan are triangulating off you and you have to act decisively with quick commands. Any delays confuses those fighting.
This experience demonstrated to me how tough acting as a ref can be, especially for those who are relatively inexperienced and are 'press ganged' during a competition. It's very easy for a competitor to slate a dodgy decision but it's a bloody hard job!
Due to my bad ankle I didn't fight during the seminar and I'm going to give it another week of rest. However, during my time off i've managed to sell my house and have an offer accepted on a new one, at least this dead time hasn't been wasted.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Admitting Defeat
It looks like i'll have to skip training for a few weeks to give my knackered ankle a proper rest. I visited Mumeishi yesterday in the hope that it will hold up, but I pulled it again with about 20 mins of the session left.
I did manage jigeiko with Holt and Salmon sensei. Both commented that I need to work on pressure and creation of an opportunity. Holt sensei in particular highlighted the need to develop an ability to keep centre, build pressure, concentration then make an opportunity though technique (e.g. harai) in order to pass Sandan. I'm merely performing 'brainless kendo' at the moment.
All stuff to think about during my recovery and plenty of gym work ahead.
Friday, 9 September 2011
Frustrating
Lack of training opportunities mixed with a number of injuries have resulted in a frustrating last few weeks. First of all I damaged the second toe on my left foot after crashing into a dojo mate, this requires taping up for every practice. In addition, a twisted my left ankle is also plaguing my training, this brought Thursday practice to a premature end as I couldn't launch from my back foot. I also missed our first Friday back at my home dojo. My missus hates it when I miss practice as I end up sulking on the sofa!
I've also had a change in work circumstances which means I cant leave early to travel into London for Tuesday practice. Consequently, I have started to visit Mumeishi dojo as its only 30 mins drive away.
All I can say is I feel like a beginner again. Holt sensei (7DR) has pulled me up on my zanshin and ki-ai into seme. He spotted that I ki-ai then let my intensity/concentration drop before attempting to engage the opponent. To try and fix this, he had me shouting like a madman for 4-5 seconds then maintaining contact before he opened a target, it did make me feel sharper but I was out of breath very quickly. Holt sensei suggested I need investigate the use of my diaphragm to help breathing. Mumeishi is a high level intense practice, I even get beaten up by their ikkyus.
edit: i found this article on breathing that could prove useful Here and Here
I've also had a change in work circumstances which means I cant leave early to travel into London for Tuesday practice. Consequently, I have started to visit Mumeishi dojo as its only 30 mins drive away.
All I can say is I feel like a beginner again. Holt sensei (7DR) has pulled me up on my zanshin and ki-ai into seme. He spotted that I ki-ai then let my intensity/concentration drop before attempting to engage the opponent. To try and fix this, he had me shouting like a madman for 4-5 seconds then maintaining contact before he opened a target, it did make me feel sharper but I was out of breath very quickly. Holt sensei suggested I need investigate the use of my diaphragm to help breathing. Mumeishi is a high level intense practice, I even get beaten up by their ikkyus.
edit: i found this article on breathing that could prove useful Here and Here
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