Skip to main content

Grading Reflection - with an open mind, positive attitude, & be willing to learn from our mistakes

Image
By



Saturday 15th October 2022 Junior Grading/ Shinsa & Keiko reflection - Janet

Another Junior grading been & gone, first of all, well done to all those who participated in the grading, it was a great effort & achievement on your Kendo journey & a true testament of your hard work & training so far. Keep up the good work as we all help each other to get better & better through every Keiko.

Sensei reminded us that grading & rank promotion is not the ultimate goal in learning Kendo, it’s merely a way to systematically evaluate one’s learning progress so far & to check if we’re on the right path or not. It may act as a motivation to work & train harder, but unlike other martial arts with the coloured belt systems to symbolise one’s ranking, in Kendo there is no outwards signs to distinguish between ranks. The emphasis of Kendo is on personal growth, development & humility regardless of your experience & skill. 

True Kendo spirit is to not be afraid nor withdraw & never give up in front of obstacles or failures. 

Like how one of our Little Samurai kendokas reflected today, the grading for them was fun, therefore, we should learn from them also to enjoy Kendo & the learning process.

Listen to Sensei & Senpais feedbacks & suggestions with an open mind & positive attitude, & be willing to learn from our mistakes. 


Come to Keiko regularly & always train with a mindset as if we’re in a Shinsa or Shiai, that way, when it comes to grading or competition day, all we need to do is to do our best like we always do. Likewise, what we learned from the grading & competition, we can bring back to Keiko to improve & work on, like a positive feedback loop.

Always appreciate those around us (Ichigo-Ichie/ 一期一会/ treasure every encounter as it will never recur as no Keiko is ever the same) & support each other to maximise training so we can keep refining our swords to make our Kendo become more beautiful as we go on this lifelong journey together.



For those of us that observed the grading from the sideline, it was a great learning experience to do Mitori-geiko, stepping up to become a Senpai ourselves & learn to observe, evaluate & provide some advice, share & pass on some tips we had also received from our Senpais before us for the new Kohais to improve on. As often we won’t be able to see or feel our own posture or movements easily, so we are essentially each other’s mirrors, reflecting through each other’s eyes 👀 to help pick out some learning points to improve our kendo. Therefore, it becomes a mutualistic partnership.

For the senior Keiko today, we welcomed the new Kohais joining in with us. Following our usual warm up drills, double Shinai suburis, foot work drill team challenges, we had a fruitful afternoon doing Uchikomi-geiko: 

  1. Big & Small Men-Uchi.
  2. Small Kote-Uchi followed by Tsuba-Zeriai (one of the ways to perform Zanshin after the strike by closing the distance & disrupts opponents Kamae)
  3. Small Kote-Uchi followed by slight touch on Tsuki (one of the ways to perform Zanshin after the strike by maintaining centre line with proper Chudan-no Kamae with Kensen pointing to opponents throat restricting them to move forwards easily)
  4. Small Kote-Men-Uchi with slight pause in between to ensure Kote-Uchi is done with proper Tenouchi, maintaining centre & Chudan-no-Kamae, before executing the Men-Uchi.

We were also introduced to different Shinai techniques to create opportunity for effective Small Kote-Uchi: 

  1. With Kensen going over top of opponents Shinai if their Kensen is lower. 
  2. With Kensen going under opponents Shinai if their Kensen is higher. 
  3. With Kensen going under opponents shinai & using left wrist to perform Harai waza, a straight line horizontal slap with the Ura or right side of Shinai to knock away opponents Kensen from centre.

Many thanks to Marleen & Sam Sensei, & all the Senpais for being on the grading panel today & continued to lead our intermediate to advanced Keiko afterwards. Thank you all for your hard work/ Otsukaresama deshita/お疲れ様でした🙏




 

 




Many thanks for Rhone for all the photos!

Information for Kendo Beginners 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

2025 Beginners Information

By
You are warmly invited to join us and  start your New Year resolutions as a  Modern Samurai .  --- Information for Year 2025 Beginners --- Little Samurai Class (age under 14): 1.30 - 2.30pm, Saturdays  Beginners Class (age 14 and above): 2.30 - 3.30pm, Saturdays Intermediate and Advanced Class : 3.30 - 6.00pm, Saturdays Starting Dates: Term 1: Saturday 25 January Term 2: Saturday 10 May  We will be accepting new students all Saturdays of May, but the earlier you can start, the better. Term 3: Saturday 19 July   Term 4: Saturday 11 October Join our 2025 Beginners Facebook Group  now to get updates. Or, email us for more information.  Course Information: No previous experience required. Regardless of gender,  ages from 6 to 60  are all welcome. First lesson  is your Free trial. Membership Fees:  Kids and School students: 50.00 per month Tertiary students and adults: 80.00 per month Family discounts : the 2nd family member is 50...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kendo Journey: A "Travel Guide" from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half

By
Waikato Kendo Association Grading (2009)   Kendo Journey: A Travel Guide from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half （ 中文 ） by Sam Tsai December 27, 2017 Those that know me should know that back in 1998, Marleen and I moved to Hamilton, New Zealand and ended up being the only two people that practiced kendo within the 100 kilometers radius. In the following year, the stars were aligned as we formed the Waikato Kendo Association and I found myself shouldering the responsibility of being a kendo instructor. Practicing kendo myself and teaching others how to do kendo are totally different things! About half a year after we established the dojo, Hsu Heng-Hsiung sensei , coach of Team Taiwan, led a delegation of more than 20 kenshi to come visit us in New Zealand. About a year after their visit, I was in Taiwan visiting sensei. The first thing he said to me was, “Tell me, what are you having trouble teaching?” I could not help myself but laugh out loud as I replied, “Coach you are ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do you practice seme?

By
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 whol...
Post a Comment
Read more