Fitness Fail

I know this is starting to sound like i'm making it up but I managed to pick up another cough/chest virus late Jan/early Feb. That makes three since the end of November... i've never picked up so many illnesses in such a short space of time before.

One a happier note i've been practicing without an ankle support so at least that injury is on the mend (touch wood). My wrist is improving but i'm still wearing a support during the day.

Last week was the first time I managed three practices since the start of December. It was horrendous. My cardio was virtually non-existent, the cough has done a proper number on my lungs. My visit to Mumeishi was also horrible, i've not felt that out of breath since my beginners days and I felt a bit of a dick gasping in front of the locals. My thursday and friday sessions were also very uncomfortable but what upset me the most is i've lost the 'mobile' feeling I'd discovered in December. Gutted, hopefully I can find it again over the next few weeks.

Mumeishi last night was another difficult one. Holt sensei was out of armour and observed my jigeiko, he pulled me up on a number of worrying fundamentals, many are very familiar:

• Attacking far too close;
• When I try and maintain distance I don't engage with my opponent;
• Too much right hand, practice tenouchi;
• No zanshin;
• Weak attacking presence;
• More confidence!
• Dont flick my kensen about; and
• Work on getting my fitness back.

One crucial point he raised is that I seem to treat jigeiko as shiai (i.e. I don't want to lose). This is worrying as I didn't realise I was doing this. Sensei was kind enough to explain that losing is part of learning and to view it as a necessity.

Other than that everything was ok.. Ha!.

So much to fix it's hard to know where to start. Sensei suggested I work on my distance to begin with as it's my biggest advantage. I've been pulled up about my distance so many times over the years but I never learn, will I ever get it?

//edit: After an improved end to the week I was planning to visit squad training in Birmingham. Unfortunately, soreness after Friday training convinced me that two days of hardcore training wasn't the best method of recovery. Fingers crossed I can attend in March.

More Homeless Kendo

Its been a few weeks since my layoff with a heavy cold and kendo has been very sparse during this time. My main club and most backups are all closed for the summer so its been a case of hunting down suitable sessions outside my usual Thursday practice. Kendo in London seems particularly quiet this summer.

First of all I visited UCL at their temporary dojo. This is located in the university gym in Bloomsbury which has good facilities and a nice floor (with the exception of a few holes). However, the room was uberhot - combined with UCLs intense kihon and a drop in my fitness, I was left shaking by the end. That was the hardest practice i've had for a loooong time, it hurt.

The practice was enjoyable nonetheless and the only downer was a big cut on the ball of my left foot when slid into one of the holes.

I also visited Wakaba which had a good turnout of dojomates. During the motodachi-geiko section of the session I asked one of their seniors (Junji) if he could help my cutting from distance. He instructed that I need to move forward from the hips, maintaining my kensen in a central position - as if I was going to attack tsuki. I should then finish the cut with a small men.

Last night I drove over to Mumeishi after work for their Tuesday training. I was a little nervous as this was the first time I visited during the week, the practice was well attended with 10-12 people including two nanadans.

Practice turned out to be a night of 'home truths'. Training with new people meant they were able to look at me with fresh eyes, they spotted many of my old habits which I thought I'd resolved and my regular dojo-mates have become used to. These include:

• Inability to build up ki during Issoku ittō-no-maai which resulted in no 'mind contact' and pointless attacks. 
• Crap Zanshin. 
• Not launching fast/strong enough from back foot/leg - I suspect my weight balance isn't correct. 
• Leaning forward from the shoulders when cutting from distance.

I honestly thought I was getting on top of these issues but it seems I still have a way to go. I feel a little disappointed as its the same old problems of posture and distance AGAIN.

On a more cheerful note. I received my new men and kote care of Miyako Kendogu. I tested the kote at Mumeishi which require a bit of wearing in, i'll try the new men this weekend -ahh, the joys of breaking in new armour!

Practice with the squads

After another missed week of practice, this time due to stinking cold passed on kindly by the Mrs, I made it to Tuesday practice. The beginners we being trained separately so I gave the seniors a full session of kihon.

Lucky Young was present to take part of the class and explained maai for the kote, men and do. I have been taught this before by O'Sullivan sensei but it was good to run though it again.

• Men - The individual's distance to be able to cut men in one step. This is usually where the tips of the shinai are just crossing each other. This of course depends on the height/reach of the two fighters.
  
• Kote- The individual's distance to be able to cut Kote in one step. Because the kote is closer than the men, this means that the shinai the tips are barely crossing or separated from each other slightly. Again this of course depends on the height/reach of the two fighters, I can sometimes score a kote before the tips cross because I'm taller.
  
• Do - Do is further from the other two targets so the starting distance is slightly closer than men. However, higher grades seem to be able to negate this by faking men while moving in, making me lift my arms and leaving the target wide open. This is something I'd like to learn myself.

While fighting Young during Jigeiko , he pointed out that I need to drop my hands a bit in chudan in order to generate more power in my cut. In addition, he noticed that i'm twisting my hips with the right side further forward. I need to fix this.

I was worried that my cold would have killed off my cardio. Perversely, I felt pretty sharp during this and my following practice on Thursday. I think its because I managed to shake off the downer I was having a few weeks ago!

During Thursdays practice Salmon sensei commented that he's enjoying his fights with me a little more as I'm starting to engage him with seme with fewer brainless attacks. It's still early days but this cheered me up a bit.

On Friday I drove over to Brunel University to join in with the 5 Nations Kendo comp warmup practice. This competition is designed for smaller kendo countries (i.e. not France!) to blood new squad members. It was good to see the guys putting on their new GB gi and zekken for the first time, they looked very proud. It made me wish I started kendo younger.... sadly there's little chance of me catching these guys up at my age.

The hall was filled with squads for GB, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, their team managers/sensei and us hangers on. Practice was with the senseis so the queues were long, I only managed three in the hour.

I didn't know any of the senseis so I picked at random. The first was a Finnish sensei called Salonen , as I queued I noticed how steady he was (no bobbing about), effectiveness of his seme and how explosive his cuts were. Very impressive. When it was my turn I gave it my best shot, I literally couldn't touch him! Seriously... the only time a managed a cut was with short uchikomigeiko at the end. He's the best I've ever fought against with the exception of visiting Japanese sensei. Only afterwards did I find out he'd passed 7th dan in Feb, he's a very young nanadan for a European.

Next was a Swiss sesnsi called Tsherter who's also a 7th dan. Tsherter sensei gave a few smiles as I fought him which put me a ease. He commented at the end i need to attack from a bit further out (agghhhh! I never learn).

My final fight was against a Japanese sensei who I forget the name off. We running out of time so after a short jigeiko I had a minute or so of uchikomigeiko.

I managed a few pics with my mobile phone so the quality isn't brilliant.

Long queues!

Senseis in action.

I'd like to end by saying good luck to all the GB squad today.

Crap Performance

Its been a very frustrating period since the xmas break. A mixture of work and uni studies has messed my training frequency.. and it shows.

I can't seem to do the simple things right, I feel lethargic and I'm getting annoyed with myself during keiko. To be honest I think this is my lowest point since i started training over 5 years ago.

My biggest issue at the moment (still) is distance. I am constantly told to attack from further out and that im a 'small person trapped in a tall person's body'. Therefore, I try to attack from longer maai which results in terrible posture, I tend to lunge forward and flick my left foot up behind me.

As a result, over the last few weeks I've asked a number of higher grades their opinion on the best distance for me. Generally it has been split between (or words to the effect of):

• "Attack when opponent enters my range"; or
• "Attack from the distance I am comfortable with".

Both Blake and O'Sullivan senseis suggested I should stick to the latter, with O'Sullivan sensei elaborating that I will be able to attack from further distance as my skill level improves.

Without the constant worry of trying to attack from extreme distance and breaking my posture, I will try to cut from the distance I'm happy with then work from there.

Kendo, makes you wonder why we do it?

Return to Basics

I paid a visit to Wakaba this week and managed some time in motodatchigeiko with Katsuya sensei and Manny.

Both pulled me up on similar basic points regarding distance and relaxation.

Katsuya sensei:

• Concentrate on the opponent all the time, even when passing.
• Relax shoulders and arms. Katsuya then told me to cut shomen from to-ma and demonstrated that a relaxed posture can help with distance.
• Move left hip first when attacking. This help reduce telegraphing and leading with upper body.
• Katsuya said all this will take time to learn so I have to be prepared to lose. By learning to attack from distance will allow me to see and react to an opponent's intention, but this requires practice.

Manny:

• Learn to provoke opponent, make them fear you.
• If people moving in on me first, then I'm not taking the initiative.
• I've started to to flick with right hand.
• I tend to retreat a lot during jigeiko. I explained that I'm trying to make distance for longer attacks, Manny suggested that I simply cut from a stationary position (rather than push forward). Simply raise my arms and cut down using required footwork means I should reach ok.

The following practice at my club I was given some a few pointers by Young:

• I need to increase my aggression and always be ready to attack.
• Don't take my kensen too far off centre.
• Explode forward instantaneously, don't learn forward first (I have real trouble doing this).

I'm experiencing some real difficulty with my basic cutting. I think too much focus oji waza has taken my eye off the ball.

Chiba Sensei and Tatsuo Hayashi Sensei Seminar 2010- Day 2

The second day and my feet were prepared for another pounding.

We started off with a recap of the techniques we learned the day before. Chiba sensei emphasised the importance of observing the opponent and using the reaction from the seme.

We then progressed to taking it in turns to cut men while the opponent cut kote. The idea was to beat the opponent. Sensei introduced a surprise intensive, whoever lost had to perform 20 hyasuburi. However, most of the time both sides admitted defeat and did the hyasuburi together (I suppose no one wanted to appear superior).

O'Sullivan gave some advice to me which struck a chord. He said that seme should be indication that i'm ready to cut, not an indication that I will cut. Therefore, I should use it for pressure rather than the first part of a men/kote etc..

The following technique we learned was Hiki waza. By now the soles of my feet were raging and my fumikomi suffered. Chiba sensei showed us ways of attacking the opponents kamae in tsubazeriai.

• Hiki men - Keeping the body active with the top of your tsuba pressed against the edge of your opponent's. Push the tsuba against your opponents body then quickly step back left then right foot, then cut men while performing fumikomi moving backwards.
• Hiki do - Same as above but lipping your tsuba over the top of the opponent's. Quickly jam it downwards causing the opponent to fight and push up. This allows you to step back and cut do.
• Hiki kote - Push the sword left across the opponent making them fight back, let go making them move to the right. Step back and strike the open kote.

I think this is how we were instructed - my memory is a bit hazy on this.

Chiba sensei gathered everyone around and spoke about keiko and fighting shiai. He said he'd let us into the secret of winning shiai, this was translated as:

"The secret to winning shiai is to practice until you are good enough to win"

Ha! I think he was saying that we wont be good enough after a weekend seminar, we must go back to our dojos and practice hard on the techniques we have learned. Then we'll be good enough to win.

The latter part of the day involved a mock grading and I was paired with a good fighter from Hizen. I was hoping for a good performance considering my nidan is only two weeks away... however, disaster! I choked at the critical time and failed to score a good ippon. Very disappointing as I know I can do better.

Hayashi sensei took notes during the mock test and explained that I showed good posture and a strong kamae (he said I initially looked threatening). Then it all went wrong, my men cuts were feeble. Hayashi sensei said i need to work more on my men cuts - worrying!

The day finished with sensei jigeiko. I managed to get my men on early and queue for Chiba sensei. The fight was inspiring, but again I didnt cause any upsets. He could see right though my attempted seme.... how do you fight someone so strong?

I also practiced with Hayashi sensei. I started ok with my seme but I then switched to 'headless chicken' mode, sensei stopped this by blocking away my pointless cuts which made me consider pressure again. He said that I managed to cut him once when I spoke to him afterwards, but I don't remember it.

All in all it was a very enjoyable seminar. I hope they return again next year!

A better explanation of the two days can be found on Salmon sensei's blog here.

Chiba sensei jigeiko

Hayashi sensei jigeiko

Chiba Sensei and Tatsuo Hayashi Sensei Seminar 2010 - Day 1

The first day of a two day seminar run by the famous Chiba sensei supported by Tatsuo Hayashi sensei and based in Reading, Berkshire. During this session we concentrated on basic men, kote, do and maai/seme.

I have listed what I can recall from the lesson:

• Suburi

We instructed on how to hold the shinai correctly. The left hand must grip the end of the tsuka with three fingers, ensuring that the bottom of the shinai its on the 'ball' of the palm (unsure the correct term). You shouldn't have any part of the tsuka poking beyond your palm.

The right hand must have a loose grip with the index finger about two finger widths from the tsuba. No hand should hold the shinai in a 'axe handle' grip.

Chiba sensei then instructed us how to 'snap' a cut using soft hands but powerful wrists. Its was amazing to see the power he can generate with such little effort.

Sensei instructed that we should aim to cut to the chin to 'pop' the cut. The cut must snap and not land heavy.

• Men, kote & do

We instructed in how to make small, sharp cuts. We started at chikama with one step cut (no run though or tsubazeriai), then progressively moving back to find our own comfortable cutting maai and running though after cut. This exercise was repeated for men, kote and do.

• Seme

Chiba sensei then instructed us to create pressure with our opponent when cutting a target when the opportunity presents itself. This was done by stepping into distance, motodachi then waits for approx 3 seconds (building pressure) before reacting and providing either a men, kote or do opportunity. It is then up to the shidachi to immediately cut the target using the small cut technique taught earlier. The aim is to cut without hesitation.

During this period I asked Chiba sensei on his opinion of seme for taller people as I am constantly told to cut from distance (being 6ft 4). Hayashi translated simply "do what works". This topic lead to a discussion between 4-5 sensei. I'm unsure if I got the gist of the full conversation but to my understanding Chiba sensei meant that I should try to create pressure from distance, if it is ineffective then I need to move in closer to disturb my opponent and create an opportunity.

• Oji Waza

Our seme work moved on to a higher level of kendo. Instead of motodachi simply presenting a target, they were told to cut either men or kote. Shidachi's job was to step in with seme to create pressure then perfom oji waza (defensive waza) when motodachi cut. We were instructed in:

• Men kaeshi do - Sensei told us to thrust the shinai forward above his head to collect the parry before the do cut. The parry had to be with the monouchi and not too far down the shaini.
• Men suriage men - Again the parry had to be with the monouchi part of the shinai. This was to be performed with forward motion.
• Men, kote men - Sensei emphasised we must step forward with the right foot only for kote cut (dont move the left forward). The left is then brought up after the men cut, this results with a quick pow-pow footwork.
• Debana kote.
• Kote nuki men.
• Men nuki do.

After a period of rotating kihon with these techniques we took a short break in preparation for jigeiko.

For the final hour of the day we had rotating jigeiko. During this time I was lucky enough to practice with Chiba sensei for 5 minutes. I attempted to use what we had learned during the lesson but of course I couldn't connect with anything I tried. I did manage to touch his kote once but it was well messy, no way ippon worthy! One thing that struck me was when I attempted harai or suriage I couldn't move his shinai, my weak attempts just bounced off hahaha.

I did gain some success of a few other people I fought, connecting with some good fake kote men and suiage men.

Looking forward to tomorrow's session although my feet aren't.

Concentrating on distance

Distance seems to be my biggest problem at the moment, its the thing i'm picked up on the most. Distance is affecting the quality of my cuts and seme.

This week I decided to concentrate on improving this aspect of my kendo, it will be my number one priority up to my grading in July.

I had little chance to practice on Tuesday because I was teaching basics to the beginners (who are coping very well.... I am pleased how they are progressing).

Thursday was my first attempt at keeping distance and attacking from my comfort zone, not my opponent's. This proved a bit of a disaster, I found it very difficult to break centre and cut successfully. I even got a tsuki in the throat for my troubles. The main issue I can't get my head around is how you seme/keep centre from distance when my kensen is hardly touching with my opponents? I feel like i'm creating little pressure and end up either moving within distance to threaten or running onto my opponents sword.

I visited Wakaba on Saturday and tried to concentrate on distance again. During Motodachi Keiko I asked Rukas to help, he spotted that I lean forward before launching an attach which telegraphs my intentions (something which O'Sullivan sensei has also warned me about). I need to move with my hips/left leg more and speed up my fumikomi, concentrate on cutting with footwork as opposed to arms/hands. This could be one of the reasons why I don't create enough pressure especially against seniors), they can see when i'm about to attack!

I have a feeling this will be a difficult problem to overcome and I have to accept I will lose many times before I improve.

I also had advice from Hiro who said I should push my shoulders back because they are too narrow. This will help my posture.

To keep with the hypochondriac theme I have split my right big toe again which is causing quite a bit of discomfort during the day. I have started wrapping it in tape again for practice.

Distance Issues (again)

Fridays practice was predominantly jigeiko.

Young wasn't practicing so he spent time watching us and providing advice throughout the night. As with previous weeks he said I should use my height advantage and attack from distance.

In addition, he picked up that my cut trajectory doesn't arc over enough and has the habit of hitting at a too sharp angle just above the mengane. This is because i'm reaching excessively with the arms instead of cutting with my whole body. Young suggested I push forward more from the hips/small of the back, therefore delivering the cut without leaning forward too much.

I'm finding it difficult to improve this aspect of my game.

I also practiced with Katsuya sensei who observed that my shoulders are too tense and narrow. I need pull my shoulders back for a relaxed posture.

Therefore my main points for the night are:

• Cut with the body;
• Cut from my own attacking distance;
• Don't lean forward too much;
• Arc my cut over more; and
• Relax and pull shoulders back.

//Offtopic: Kenshi247 posted up a vid on facebook which included Tankendo. I've never seen this style before and I think it looks brilliant. Unfortunately Tankendo isn't practiced in the UK. Check out this video.

Hesitation

Friday practice Vic (one of our sensei) picked up that I hesitate when people move into my cutting distance. He also said I focus too much on my opponents sword. As a result, my reaction time is slow and stuttered which opens me up to seme and feints.

In my mind I'm trying to be more considered in my cutting (i.e. no 'headless chicken' mode). Consequently, I am missing the opportunity to attack when the opponent steps into my cutting distance. I need to break from this way of thinking, even if i feel it's too soon to attack at the time.

The downer of the week is that I was caught on the right knuckle again and it's bruised up. Gutted. I've been icing it and using Voltarol gel to reduce the swelling, I will also resew extra padding on my kote for next week. I hope i've not done any long term damage.