Skip to main content

Things I learned from the National Seminar by Amigo Huang





Things I learned from the National Seminar.

From Morioka Sensei:

One of the most important thing I learned from Morioka Sensei is the idea of “holding the pressure”.

Kendo beginners are often encouraged to “attack first” and “be more active/aggressive”, which is not wrong. However once they gained experience and knowledge, they often became too active and aggressive, striking mindlessly.

Morioka Sensei's said that we need to try to “hold down” our feeling of attack, this does not mean we should “wait” or “don't attack”, this means we still need to have the intension of attack, but do not “release” it until the timing we want comes.

This reminded me what Yamaji Sensei was talking about few years ago; tame.

Yamaji Sensei's original description was “the feeling of like you have pulled the arrow back on the bow and are about to shoot at anytime”. Sometimes we attack first because we are scared, it is hard to take the tension/pressure so often tries to avoid it by striking first. Sometimes we attack mindlessly and continuously just so we can hold my opponent down avoiding the kamae-to-kamae situation/tension.

Morioka Sensei told us that we need to have courage to tolerate/resist the feeling and not to be afraid of being attacked (Sam Sensei also told me the same thing.)

This also follow up to what Morioka Sensei said about “the important thing is not the attack, but what you do BEFORE your attack.” ie. Your posture, your mental status, your position.

Another thing sensei told me is that when in tsuba-zeriai don't always be passive and go back, I should stand strong and pressure the opponent to go back.

Personally I feel Morioka Sensei's teachings for the seminar is very well focus for people with few years of kendo experience(very helpful for going to 3rd dan). However it is less suited for the those people who are just starting to do shiais.

I recommend those people still need to develop their vigor and be more active/aggressive during shiais, in order to learn the most out of it.



From Jason:
Jason said I need to be more “heavy”, my kendo is too “light”(eat more, i guess...). My kendo need to focus on going downwards and be more sturdy/stable. This will make my kendo look more powerful. He said that if I want to go to 3rd dan, I also need to calm down and push my opponent giving him/her more pressure rather than keep attacking.

Amigo

*****


Join our Kendo talks at Facebook:



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How do you practice seme?

Kobayashi Hideo Sensei – How to Seme (w/English CC)  小林英雄 先生 - 攻め方 How do you practice S eme ?   Very early on, I have heard of the “Three Opportunities to Strike”: strike when your opponent’s technique is about to start, strike when your opponent’s technique ends, and when the opponent is mentally and physically depleted. Since then, this line of thinking has given me a direction in how to train. In 2017, Utsunomiya sensei, 7-dan kyoshi, came to visit us and taught me the concept of “okori”. That reminds me of the conversation that happened 8 years before that in 2009 with Morioka sensei, also 7-dan kyoshi, who asked me: “What is the timing or reason of your strike?” I think most people are familiar with the idea that you should “ seme then strike ”. However, when do you strike after seme has been a source of struggle for most kenyu. That’s why when I saw the video from Kobayashi Hanshi where you seme for the purposes of creating “okori” , I felt this added a whole other d

Happy Rabbit Year 2023

We wish everyone have a Happy Rabbit Year Saturday 21 January 2023 Keiko Reflection - Janet As lunar new year of the rabbit arrives so is our Dojo welcoming new beginners to get a taste of what kendo is like. While the beginners learned brand new ideas, the senpais were reminded of the basic purpose of Kendo, which is self discipline, development & improvement of our body, mind, & spirit. Constantly striving for a more perfect & beautiful cut rather than being just a form of self defence or stick fighting. Ashi-sabaki or footwork ( Kouda sensei demonstration ) is very important in Kendo particularly Suriashi or sliding steps as it not only look more graceful & elegant, but also would reduce noise when moving on wooden floors & reduce likely injury from stepping onto hidden weapons or obstacles on the floor in medieval Japan. We were also reminded of the basic sequence of engagement during a kendo duel: 1. Holding good Kamae (on guard position, Kouda sensei demonst

Having good Senpai is a wonderful thing in Kendo.

13/03/2016 Yesterday's training was really hard! I thought everyone there make effort to do kendo without sensei (going to Auckland for the  Yamagami sensei's seminar ) . There were quite a few problems I met from the training, for example I was scared when Claire senpai and Kevin senpai was about to hit me, and let kensen move away from centre. It may take time for me to modify my psychology. And I should improve my posture in the following training. Thanks to Nicole senpai for telling me a lot about how to maintain boku. I felt her passion in Kendo is exactly the same when we were training together and chatting after class.