Dan in Japan 2007 Part 1
Guys and Gals,
I decided it is about time to get in contact with the lot of you, and seeing as i am a bit of a lazy-ass recently, i decided to do one mass email.
All is good here. I spent the first 3 weeks here at Fukuoka University of Education practising with Honda-sensei and his lads. A lot of kirikaeshi, a lot of Kakarigeiko and a lot of getting beaten up by guys half my size. On a plus note, Max Davies is here, so I had someone to beat up.
We both managed to do the summer training camp for 1st and 2nd years (a sort of initiation rite for the newcomers)...even more kirikaeshi, even more kakarigeiko...and even more of getting beaten up. For 4 days we had 3 2 hour practises a day with Sumi and Honda senseis. We managed to have a session with Sumi-sensei on kodachi-kata. Awesome stuff (once i get a camcorder, i will ask him (Him?) to make a few kata vids, ought to be useful).
Thankfully after the whole thing we had a damn good party, with a lot of beer, whiskey, shochu and all sorts of weird foodstuffs made from various seacreatures. All in all good stuff.
From 27th September i moved into my student dorm in the Ijiri area of Fukuoka city. Since then I have been commuting daily to the University, where i spend all of my waking hours (8am - 10pm). I managed to get into the practise of the Kyushu Denryoku company dojo (one of Sumi's sons practises there). 2 hours every tue and thur evening and a good morning session on saturday. And so far all is going well.
I was thinking of useful stuff to write to you guys on the kendo i learned so far here, check it out, try it out, see if it works out for you (and if it does, use it).
1). Feet position in the kamae. I was told that even though the traditional way is to align the toe of left foot with the heel of right foot, the younger folk should put the left foot slightly further back (about a fist's width from the heel). This is supposed to be more powerful and elastic (I noticed that Sumi and Honda do this as well).
2). Position of arms in the kamae. Once again, i found out that it might be advaisable (under certain circumstances) to hold the shinai further from the belly than usually. So basically start outside of issoku-itto-no-maai with the hands stretched out a bit...and as you sneak your way closer...adjust your arm position as well so it looks to the other guy that nothing is changing (where in fact you are getting closer).
3). Honda was teaching us how to cut men from Toi-maai, when we moved a little step (doing suri-ashi) in and then lunching a men attack. I talked to a few students and i was told (and later shown) that this is how they do their seme. They start at issoku-itto...do a small quick step in (with suriashi, so the basic position is still correct) and then launch a fumi-komi.
4). At Kyushudenryoku, the taisho of the company team (that also happened to win the west japan area company team competition this weekend) has been doing this really awesome men on me. I was trying to figure out what it was....and basically...he launches the fumikomi first and _then_ does a big men uchi. Doesnt matter how slow your hands are, the body is already moving in and there aint that much time to dekote it anyway.
Thats about all the points I can think of right now. I am sending Sofie some books and the Kendo Nippon/Kendo Jidai magazines with a lot of good stuff in them (Kendo Nippon ; ways to cut do taught by Sumi-sensei and his students...).
That would it be it for now....hope you guys keep practising kendo and get stronger by the time i get back.
I would also like to thank everyone that was involved in practises at GUKC, that thing gives scottish kendo great opportunities ! (Reminder Niall, sacrifices ;) ).
Dan
I decided it is about time to get in contact with the lot of you, and seeing as i am a bit of a lazy-ass recently, i decided to do one mass email.
All is good here. I spent the first 3 weeks here at Fukuoka University of Education practising with Honda-sensei and his lads. A lot of kirikaeshi, a lot of Kakarigeiko and a lot of getting beaten up by guys half my size. On a plus note, Max Davies is here, so I had someone to beat up.
We both managed to do the summer training camp for 1st and 2nd years (a sort of initiation rite for the newcomers)...even more kirikaeshi, even more kakarigeiko...and even more of getting beaten up. For 4 days we had 3 2 hour practises a day with Sumi and Honda senseis. We managed to have a session with Sumi-sensei on kodachi-kata. Awesome stuff (once i get a camcorder, i will ask him (Him?) to make a few kata vids, ought to be useful).
Thankfully after the whole thing we had a damn good party, with a lot of beer, whiskey, shochu and all sorts of weird foodstuffs made from various seacreatures. All in all good stuff.
From 27th September i moved into my student dorm in the Ijiri area of Fukuoka city. Since then I have been commuting daily to the University, where i spend all of my waking hours (8am - 10pm). I managed to get into the practise of the Kyushu Denryoku company dojo (one of Sumi's sons practises there). 2 hours every tue and thur evening and a good morning session on saturday. And so far all is going well.
I was thinking of useful stuff to write to you guys on the kendo i learned so far here, check it out, try it out, see if it works out for you (and if it does, use it).
1). Feet position in the kamae. I was told that even though the traditional way is to align the toe of left foot with the heel of right foot, the younger folk should put the left foot slightly further back (about a fist's width from the heel). This is supposed to be more powerful and elastic (I noticed that Sumi and Honda do this as well).
2). Position of arms in the kamae. Once again, i found out that it might be advaisable (under certain circumstances) to hold the shinai further from the belly than usually. So basically start outside of issoku-itto-no-maai with the hands stretched out a bit...and as you sneak your way closer...adjust your arm position as well so it looks to the other guy that nothing is changing (where in fact you are getting closer).
3). Honda was teaching us how to cut men from Toi-maai, when we moved a little step (doing suri-ashi) in and then lunching a men attack. I talked to a few students and i was told (and later shown) that this is how they do their seme. They start at issoku-itto...do a small quick step in (with suriashi, so the basic position is still correct) and then launch a fumi-komi.
4). At Kyushudenryoku, the taisho of the company team (that also happened to win the west japan area company team competition this weekend) has been doing this really awesome men on me. I was trying to figure out what it was....and basically...he launches the fumikomi first and _then_ does a big men uchi. Doesnt matter how slow your hands are, the body is already moving in and there aint that much time to dekote it anyway.
Thats about all the points I can think of right now. I am sending Sofie some books and the Kendo Nippon/Kendo Jidai magazines with a lot of good stuff in them (Kendo Nippon ; ways to cut do taught by Sumi-sensei and his students...).
That would it be it for now....hope you guys keep practising kendo and get stronger by the time i get back.
I would also like to thank everyone that was involved in practises at GUKC, that thing gives scottish kendo great opportunities ! (Reminder Niall, sacrifices ;) ).
Dan
