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Showing posts from November, 2007

FW: February camp in Dunedin

Hello all, please find below the details for the upcoming camp to be held in Dunedin (and a bit in Christchurch) in Jan/Feb 2008. Visit to New Zealand of Tokyo Sensei led by Umetsu Sensei (8th dan). Following on from their popular visit to the 2004 Hutt Winter Camp, a group of five Kendo practitioners will be visiting the South Island in Jan/Feb next year. Led by Umetsu Sensei there are also Higashiyama S (7th dan), Hayashi and Sato S (6th dan) and Mrs Tahara (5th dan). They will be attending a special practice in Christchurch on Wed Jan 30 to which NZ Kendoka are invited. Umetsu and Higashiyama S are both instructors of the Tokyo Police. They have trained Kendoka in foreign countries in the past and are fabulous instructors. They will then travel to Dunedin and instruct a seminar at Kings High School from 7 - 9 on Friday night 1 Feb (exact time to confirm), 9 - 5 on Saturday Feb 2 and 9 - 3pm Sunday Feb 3 . A dinner will be held on Saturday night. This event is hosted by the Inve

Jeff's reply to Benji's Thoughts

Hi Benjamin, I have been wanting to reply your mail after I read it, but I have been pretty busy this week. Apologies. In Kendo training, we have always been asked to feel ourselves: whether we are using too much right hand; or our shoulders are too tense; or not band our kneels too much, etc. In the beginning stage, it would be difficult for beginners to do the movement right since they don't even realize they are using too much right hand or can't really feel how much we have banded our kneels. Therefore, realization is important. Realize your own feelings such as frustration, fear or pressure. And this would open the door to another stage of your own development. Usually, we get used to be ourselves, therefore we don't realize the things we did are wrong. Such as a lack confidence person might not even know he/she is lack confidence; on the other hand, a big-head person might not know he/she is too self centered. If we don't know what our problems are, there is no w

Some thoughts about the training last night - DABAO

Hello everyone, This is my first time to write a group mail, so exciting! I really really enjoy the training last night, it was great! it was my first time using a "stick" to fight someone legally in this country! :) It also was my first time to fight (keiko) with senior people from dojo, I really appreciate for their selfless help! My first fight was with Terry senpai, he was really fast! and he gave me a really tough training. (thank you very much, Terry). After the first fight, I thought I really ran out my energy and I said to Marleen "now, I know why you always tell us Kendo is so hard!" I think we can obviously improve our physical and psychological energy via the kendo training. Last night I only did two fights, but I believe after several this kind of training, I can do more fights than before. Here, I should say thank you to everyone in dojo ! Thank you very much for "fighting"with me. Tian /(DABAO) p.s. FAREWELL Benjamin! I think we will see each

Thoughts - Benjamen

06 Nov 2007 Thoughts. I don’t remember the last time I cried. Probably when I was young, whenmy mother left to go overseas or something like that. Well, yesterday I got pretty emotionally choked up: but out of happiness and understanding, not sadness or anger. As Omar put it – I was shell-shocked, after Jeffrey taught me what was probably the most important lesson of my kendo life. Let me explain. I am not an angry person. Generally, if someone annoys me, or makes me angry, I just walk away and get over it. Even when I wasa stupid young kid in high school, and we had fights on the field after class (as stupid kids tend to do), I was never angry, and always made sure the other person was alright. I can’t really recreate in writing how I felt yesterday fighting Jeffrey. Perhaps the best way to put it would be to say it felt, for thefirst time, as if it was real. The normally polite and calm Jeffrey was suddenly fighting, or so it seemed to me, as if he wanted to kill. Trust me: there is

Some training thoughts - Darrin

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 I thought I'd share some thoughts I have following last night's training... Sensei commented on my showing good spirit. My comment on this is that I actually find this not so hard; my skill level is still in the very beginner stages but I figure that I can still take the attitude that I am going to put everything on the line for this one cut. I got this message on the first day of the national camp when our Japanese Sensei said that with everything that we do in our training we should have the attitude that we are putting our lives on the line. I think that as we get older we become more and more faced with our mortality and I am recently coming to realise, I mean actually know for sure, that my life could be over at any moment; therefore, my life is on the line every living minute of the day. So, when I come to kendo training and try to take this attitude of putting my life on the line, it is maybe the one moment when I am actually saying I might d