Skip to main content

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 demonstration) to prevent showing weakness or opening to the opponent. Make the opponent feel uneasy to step forward without an opportunity.

2. Have good Kiai (the shout we generated before & during strikes) to show our determination & spirit.

3. Perform Seme (to attack or break through opponents defence or creating opportunity by taking centre) & step into Issoku-Ittou-no-Maai (one step one cut distance) to execute the strike on target.


The senior Keiko menu consisted of Kihon-geiko Kirikaeshi, Uchikomi-geiko focussing on Gohon waza as well as Hiki waza (Chiba Sensei's demonstration; Hiki-Men, Hiki-Kote). 

The difficulty of executing Hiki waza was being able to create proper opportunity by making the opponents move & expose an opening from Tsuba-Zeriai position (this is usually done by pushing against opponents Shinai to encourage them to counteract the force when we let go suddenly) then execute accurate strikes on target when going backwards to create enough distance for proper arm extension for strikes while maintaining same control & power of each strike with proper Tenouchi & backwards Fumikomi stamping & swift Okuriashi going backwards to quickly get out of the way to regain enough distance & maintain good Zanshin (alertness) & Kamae to be ready to block or counter opponents follow up strikes.

Even though a few of us had to excuse ourselves from Keiko early today to attend New Year’s Eve dinner with family & friends, other members who stayed behind with Sensei continued on with Kakari-geiko.

Many thanks to all those who turned up today to make this Keiko possible & thanks to Sam Sensei for leading the Keiko & Joyce Senpai for leading the warm up🙏🙏🙏

Best wishes to everyone at WKC a happy & prosperous year of the Rabbit 🐰



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

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.