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| From Taiwan 2008 |
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| From Taiwan 2008 |
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| From Taiwan 2008 |
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| From Taiwan 2008 |
Today I visited the Taipei Kendokan, led by Ming-Hwa Ho, 7th Dan Kyoshi, who also represents Taiwan to fight in the individual division in the world championships. The 1.5 hours training is only for yudansha, starting with kirikaeshi, followed by men-uchi, kote-men uchi, oji-wazas and then jigeiko. Hsu Sensei commented pointed out that when striking men or kote, one should always win at the seme stage first. "Striking without having the centre is like suicide," he said, "you'd get killed certainly."
I fought 4 jigeikos, first with a 3rd/4th Dan, and then with Ho Sensei, Hsu Sensei and finally Mr. Do who is 4th Dan. The overall level is very high and the average age of the kendoka is relatively young, perhaps 28 years old. Most of them fights very competitively, however with also good postures, which is an impressive thing.
It was rather impossible with Ho Sensei. When he sees the moment he just went for it like a blitz. With Hsu Sensei I could manage some ippons, but he commented afterwards that my Kamae was not good. Perhaps I moved my kensen away from the centre too much.
I was really exhausted towards the end. My left leg just could not follow up quickly anymore, which is a shame. But there's not point complaining if I'm not putting in enough time to strengthen my leg muscles.
Next Monday hopefully I will visit the dojo where most of the Taiwanese national team members train. I hope that I will come out alive.
5 comments:
A cool experience to train with such skillful players Ivan!
Even a loss is valuable against those guys if you ask me.
Best,
Matt
Ivan i will say the same as Ikigai...some times from a loss u are learning and seeing more things than from a win...some times a win send u wrong informations about ur game, and many time a loss gives u more usefull informations...u r very lucky that u train with so important players...try to gain more experiences from that journey...i will be here reading about ur journey...keep kendo and keep writing my friend...
Stelios
sounds like a taipei showdown. these days they're showing bruce lee on tv like a tribute, so kind of hyped up about martial arts. do they have classes for real katana in kendo?
http://awesome-movie-sword-replica.blogspot.com/
Hi Matt and Stelios, thanks for the comments! At the moment I'm most stunned by the solid foundations the kenshi's here have. This is something I have to work on.
Hi Swordfiner, in kendo people don't usually use real katana. But in Iaido for example they do.
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