Was I asleep?

The title is the conclusion from my competition at the end of March. Our team didn't advance into the finals. And I won only 1 match. The points I lost was by the total lack of maai, and the seme was not strong enough. I was rushing to attack. However, the performance by my teammates in the single competitions were really good.  Here I show some clips. The prizes were all won by my teammates. Click into the youtube link to see who the competitors are:

Match 1

Quarter Final 1

Quarter-final 2

Semi-final

Final:

Selection of National Team Members

Ok, so, I went for the nation team member selection on last Saturday, a tough day it was! In total, 65 male and 35 female candidates from all over the island took part in the selection. We were divided into 4 pools, meaning that each team has 16 people, and each of us had to fight 15 matches, whether you advance into the next stage or not.

The top from each pool will be selected as the team member, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th from each pool advance to the next round. In the end, 7 are selected as the first players and 3 are selected as the backup players.

The large number of participates meant that we had to fight for 7 hours. It was absolutely exhausting, both physically and mentally. I started out performing badly in my first 3 matches or so. My reaction and movement were slow. It's like I hadn't woken up yet. And it gradually got better.

Everyone fought differently, so I had to adjust my strategy for different opponents. I definitely lost far more matches than I should have, however, being able to perform wazas like kote-uchiotoshi-men a couple of times made me feel good.

My thoughts for the day are:

• Fighting spirit is very very important. I found the best way to get it out of me is to regard every opponent as a strong a respectable player. This way, my mind become sharp, as well as my movement. Because I found that my performance was much better against people whom I thought were stronger than me.

• My kote-men should be faster. This lies on my footwork. So I have to improve this during training.

• Sometimes I raise my kensen before striking men. DONT DO THIS.

• Relax my body more.

• Keep my foot close to each other.

• Be careful of my zanshin. Very often I let my men open after striking kote, and also not separating myself far enough from the opponent.

• Be careful when the opponent is at the close range, and also do not let go of chances to attack.

The below were two matches. I'll let the action speak for itself!
(I'm the white on in the first video, and red in the second.)

2011 Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup

This is the 3rd time I participated in the Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup, since I came back to Taiwan 3 years ago. It was the toughest competition experience for me so far, as I fought about 8-9 matches with my teammates.

The competition was teams-only, no individual matches. I was the least experienced kendoka in the 7 men team representing the Taipei Kendokan. However, my sempais continued to encourage me to fight, even though at one point I really wanted to give up, and wanted to let the other team mates to take my place.

The pressure built up tremendously as I got more and more tired, and seeing my teammates scoring points, while I could only drew the match or sometimes loosing one point. In my mind, I felt like a failure being the one who pulls down our overall performance.

Su Senpai, our Taisho, looked at me and asked if I wanted to stay on and fight, I was really hesitating. Then he said, "I'm not sure what your problem is. But if you don't want to fight because all your teammates are winning, that is because we have at least 13 years of experience, much more than you have. If you are getting tired, we are getting tired, too and so are the opponents. Of course, if you are injured, then that's another story." Hearing his words, I felt there's now no reason for me to back down. So, I continued to fight on until he asked me to take a rest in the last match.

We obtain the 3rd place in the end.

There are so many other things I learned by fighting alongside my teammates.

• Strategy and controlling the mental pressure. Apart from fighting as the senpo in the first match, I fought as the jiho for all the other matches. What I did well (apart from a couple of times loosing) was to draw the match, or if loosing, try not to loose the second point. This maintains a neutral mental pressure for my teammates.
• I need a stronger will to win. Ozawa Sensei's saids once to me, "Never giver up." I now realise how difficult it is when you have to fight the whole day.
• When attacking, move the body first and then the hands. Otherwise, it is easy for the opponent to strike debana-kote.
• Move faster.

North-South Competition in Tainan Butokuden

With my calves still sore, typing an article on kendo training is like the cool down exercise for the mind.

Last month on 7/31, we traveled down south to Tainan City to participate in the annual North-South Competition. The main event is the match between the North Team and the South Team, which consists of kendoka from the northern and the southern Taiwan, much like the idea of the Tosai (East-West) Competition.

Each team has almost 80 players, and there are two courts. 40 players from each team fights in one court with the "point-scoring" system, where one player fights with only one player (the most common system); The other 40 players fight in the other court with the "advancing" system, where one player stays on the court to fight the next if he wins.

There is also team competition between dojos. The North won overwhelmingly on the day, and the matches were exciting accompanied by lots of cheering.

I won two matches and lost one. Our dojo's team were not able to advance, and lost to a team whom we should have won. I think I played a big role in our defeat, because I was the Senpo and lost 2-0. My opponent wasn't impossible to win, but he was more experienced and calm. He made me think that I had the chance, so I launched a kote-men strike. He scored with a kaeshi-do. Then I became impatient, and wanted to get the point back. He caught a debana-kote.

It's a classic example of not being calm enough, making enough seme before striking. A good lesson to be learned!!

The event took place in a very special place called the Butokuden "武德殿". It's officially classified as a national heritage, and there's a similar one in Kao-Hsiung, where we also went for a competition 2 years ago. It was built during the Japanese occupation period for the police to train kendo and judo.

Though victory didn't smile upon us, we did had a bit of fun taking a day trip down south in a nice weather. And I did learned a lot from this competition!

2011 Taipei Youth Cup

Last Saturday was this years Taipei Youth Cup. It's been almost half a year since the last competition, which had been a major disappointment, not being able to even show a good kendo style. Since then I went to the training persistently, worked on the basics as well as trying to find what wazas work for me the best. And at the same time slowly building up more confidence. I can't say I'm totally satisfied with my performance this time, but at least there is significant improvements. Including:

• I don't attack without first putting pressure on the opponent.
• I can use wazas at the right time (Though not 100% successful).
• I can analyze the current situation and adjust my fighting style immediately. For example, if I find myself starting breathing heavily, then I would hold my kamae and spend more time on pressuring my opponent while gaining the breath.

The reason for me being hit was almost the same for all matches: Lack of concentration. This made me not being able to judge the maai, and let the opponent come too close.

Another major thing to improve on is that my left foot still sometimes lag behind during seme. So, when I launch the men attack I couldn't push my body forwards enough.

Overall, I received good and encouraging words from Ho Sensei and So Sempai. It's funny that no matter wining or loosing, I have a feeling that it's all what matters. And I learned a lot from this competition experience.

By the way, thanks to the friends who came to see me. I never ask people to come to see my match, but in fact I deeply appreciate the gesture. Afterall, kendo is such a big part of my life, and I devote so much time and effort on it, although most of my friends have no idea of what it is and why I'm so attached to it. So thank you!!

Short shiai-geiko

Last Friday we had a short shiai-geiko. I was in the less strong division, so I won all except one. My problem was that there is a tendency for me to return to kamae before any strikes, so when my opponent just comes up and strikes relentlessly, I just defend... Need to adjust this mentality for competitions.

Ho-Sensei told us:

• In Shiai, one cannot wait until the opponent shows a complete opening before striking. One should strike when it appears just a little chance.

30th Anniversary Taikai

The 30th Anniversary celebration finished successfully. About 10 teams participated in the competition including 4 teams from Taipei Kendokan, 1 team (all japanese senseis) from Shang-Hai, 1 team from Renpeikan (Japan), 1 from the police, 1 from Yi-lan County, 1 from I-Shin Kendokan, and 1 from Hsin-Chu City. The winner was the Renpeikan team and the second was one of the Taipei Kendokan team. The joint third were Shang-Hai and Hsin-Chu.

My team lost to I-Shin Kendokan, though I won my match 1-0 as the jiho. I scored a debana-kote, however wasn't able to score a further point despite some attempts to strike men. I guess that they were too slow, and my opponent just saw them coming and blocked. And I almost didn't use any kote-men, fearing that it might be too slow. More practices required!



All in all it was a good atmosphere. I was stunned by the performance from our most experienced team (members consisting 4~5 dan) and the Japanese team (many are 7th Dan). The matches were really top-notch, which further encouraged me that there are so much room for me to improve and perhaps that, if I work hard enough one day I will be like that!

Taipei Youth Cup 2010

Last Sunday was the Taipei Cup, in which we had one team consisted of 7 people including me. We got the third place in the end, lost unexpectedly to the Taiwan University Alumni, who came the 2nd.

I was placed in the Jiho (the second place) in the match. My opponent scored a men-nuki-men first, when I carelessly striked men while my left foot was too far behind my right, meaning I couldn't jump far. Now 0-1. "Be calm..", as I told myself. Then after a few exchanges of strikes, he leapt in, and without thinking I took once small step behind to void it, and immediate striked his kote. "Kote-ari!", a men-nuki-kote. It was a 1-1 draw.

We lost the match 2-3. Ho Sensei was not happy about my performance of the day because I made many mistakes with basics. I need to:

• always make sure I draw my left foot quickly when doing seme.


• usemore hiki-waza.


• do not bend my body when striking kote.

Of course the lack of practice lately was to blame. There is really no short cut but to do more suburi and more practice...

My friends came for some support. Thanks guys!!


Pretending to be bad asses.


I am the red one..


Not so pleased.. to be honest.

No one will remember me if...

Yesterday I went to the Hsin-Chu Kendokan. Not so many people turned up, and I wonder if it was due to the rainy and cold weather..?

Peng Sensei told me after the training that I was not confident and motivated enough, which was why I lost in the competition. I need to try harder and attack more, he said. "Otherwise no one will remember you, which is a pity because you are still young." I think I hesitate too much. This problem pops up every now and then. Can I get rid of this parasitic problem once for all?

National Chung-Cheng Cup 2009

Last weekend probably the biggest kendo competition took place in Hsin-Chu. I participated both in the team and the individual category. The total number of participants were massive. My feeling at the end of the two-days event was, "Gosh, I'm tired". It was hard to imagine the level of stamina a kendoka needs to fight until the finals. Ones really needs to be strong mentally and physically.

I didn't perform too bad, but I didn't bring any suprises either. I fought with Taipei Kendokan in the team shiai. So Sempai (蘇耿賢) said my performance was good, though I didn't win anything. I think he didn't put very much expectation on me. My expectation for myself was not to be nervous. I think I managed that. However, Ho Sensei told me I fought too conservatively. Indeed, I didn't take the initiative to step in and "provoke" my opponent. Instead, what happened was that I took one step in, my opponent took one back, and I took another step in, so on. In the end, what my opponent was doing was waiting for me to strike first, and use oji-waza against me. (Damn the number of men-nuki-men that I received!!)

I lost my first individual's match against a student from Taiwan Sports University. I didn't have enough confidence with myself, and didn't apply enough pressure. A kohai who watch aside told me my performace was very different from that in the jigeiko. Quite right. I think there's something I need to adjust with my attitude either when I fight in a competition or in the jigeiko, in order to connect to two.

Another big issue is that I am not confidence enough with my men cut. I need to work on that. So now is time to be back with more kihon...

2009 Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup

Yesterday, perhaps the biggest yearly kendo competition in Taipei took place in the Taipei Sports Hall. We (Taipei Kendokan) have two men teams, one above 30 years-old and the other under, and two female teams. This was the second time I fought in the competition in Taiwan, which was also the second time I represented the Taipei Kendokan. I feel privileged, of course, because there are full of strong players in my dojo, and still Ho-Sensei and Sempais asked me every time if I want to participate in the competition.

I've been also eager to accumulate competition experiences, since it's always been my problem bringing out anything resembles the level of my kendo in practices. Nervousness had always made my muscles tense.

This time though I proved to myself that I can do it, thanks to my teammates who encouraged me to fight in the final. They could have sent the best five, all at the 3rd/4th Dan level. "Do you want to give it a shot?" Our captain asked me. With a slight hesitation, I nodded. What went across my mind was, "What if I lose? Or worse, what if I can't even put up a good fight and make a fool out of myself and the team?" I don't know. But what I knew was that if I didn't try, I'd never know and never cross that barrier.

I was assigned the senpo position (the first fighter), meaning that my job was to either win or draw. Because it matters to the overall spirit of the team. Up from sonkyo, I immediately applied pressure and striked men. My opponent blocked it, and pushed me to the floor. It was only seconds into the match. I bet my teammates were speechless. They told me from the outside that I should jump a little to loosen up my body, which also refocus my mind. I did as told, which you can see from the video. :) My moment came as my opponent missed a strike and, immediately after turning back, he wanted to strike. I took his kote. What a sensation! Especially from the cheering of my teammates! Though I lost in the end, my teammates were very happy about my performance and gave a lot of encouragement. They went on to recover and finally win the whole match. Wow!

To be honest, I think he wasn't much stronger than I was, but he certainly had more competition experiences than I did. I was pleased with myself that I didn't let my nerve took over, which had been my biggest problem so far. If I can achieve this every time in the future, it will be much easier for me to learn and gain the experiences I need.

(I was the red)

Some thoughts:

• If the opponent is large and keeps pushing, step sideways so that his momentum doesn't come directly at me.
• Execute hikki-waza immediately when the strike was invalid and we end up in tsubazeiai.
• Observe the habits of the opponent and react accordingly. For example, how he blocks strikes.
• When separating from tsubazeriai, becareful of strikes from mid-distances. For example, the second men point he got in the match.
• Eat more and put up some weight!

Hsin-Chu Cup 2009

Last Sunday I participated in the Hsin-Chu Cup which celebrated also the 10th anniversary of the Hsin-Chu Kendokan. The competition consisted of many catagories - team and north-against-south. The team is made up of 7 people, 2 female fighting first and the rest male. I fought along with the Taipei Kendokan friends and you know what? We were the Winner!!



Although I didn't fight in the final match, since I didn't perfom well enough on the day and I thought the opponents might be too strong for me, I didn't loose the earlier matches, and had two wins and a draw.

The north-south competition featured 39 kenshis from the northertn half of Taiwan and 39 kenshis from the southern half. Much like the Tozai (East-West) Competition in Japan. Being a mere Nidan I was placed as the second person to fight, or aka the jiho. I didn't know I had to go up so early, therefore it was a little shock to me. Anyhow, I won 2-1 with two kote points.



My performance on the day was unsatisfactory because my body was too tense, and at the same time my mind wasn't calm enough. It's only when there were large gaps between our kills could I perform clean cuts.

Some thoughts from the day:

• Learn to analyse my opponent and adjust fighting strategy accordingly.
• When facing an aggressive and young opponent, be calm and use oji-waza.
• Need more shiai experience!!

Here are some videos from the final match, the red side is Taipei Kendokan, and the white is Hsin-Chu Kendokan.

Senpo

Jiho

Gosho

Yonsho

Sansho

Fukusho

Taisho

2009 Asian City Cup, Kaohsiung

Last weekend was full of excitement and fun. About 10 of us from Taipei Kendokan traveled south to Kaohsiung to participate in this year's Asian City Cup Kendo Taikai, held at the historical Butokuden built during the Japanese occupation period. Renovated in recent years, it is a beautiful architectual work with nice atmospheric surroundings. It's also interesting to note that, the manager of the Butokuden and the organiser of this competition, Kin Chin (陳信寰), is one of the three 11th generation Soke (Headmaster) of the Hyoho-Niten-Ichi-Ryu, which is the school created by the lengendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi.

After arriving in Kaohsiung and dropping off our luggage, we headed for some food and drink - Taiwanese style. The video explains it.




Fortunately, I got up in the morning without headache. There was keiko before the competition instead of after, which was a little strange I thought.

The competition started after an hour. The system is 3 against 3 with winning by Ippon-Shobu. My first match took place after a long wait. I fought as senpo, and was in a team with a 3rd Dan and a 5th Dan senpais. Our opponent was one from the local teams, who seemed relatively unexperienced. I was, nonetheless, still a little nervous and didn't take every opportunity to strike. A point should have given to me much earlier in the match, but instead I won the match with a men-strike, which shouldn't have counted. A rather funny situation.. Anyhow, after looking at the video afterwards I was please to see improvement in my posture during men-strikes, that my upper body was kept up-right. See the men-strike at 0:26 seconds in the video (which should have counted). I was the red.



We came out of the pool, but unfortunately lost to the Korean team B. They are extremely good at attacks in close range, and my kote was hit just after we separated from tsubazeriai.

Another team from our dojo beat the Korean Team B, and advanced to the final. Here is the semi-final match. We won with 2-1. (We were red.)

Senpo 



Chuken

Taisho (Gun-Hsien So Senpai who is in the national team and will be fighting in Brazil this year)

The tension was built-up so high after the first two matches, with a tie. In the Taisho match, So Senpai won with a blitzing kote strike. Look at how everyone cheered!!

The final against Korean Team A was another dramatic event. We lost the senpo, but won the chuken match. The taisho match was a draw, so it's down to the representative match. Unfortunately, they won it with a men-strike. Though we lost, we were not disappointed at all. Everyone tried their best and showed good kendo. 

Final - Representative match Taipei Kendokan (white) So senpai vs Korean Team B (red)

Here are some clips from other matches:

Leung senpai (梁文曲) (red) fighting. He has a very good form combined with agility and power.

First shiai-geiko at Taipei Kendokan

The heat and humidity were unbearable at this time in Taiwan. And it will get worse in July and August. I started sweating already just after wearing the gi and hakama. Twenty minutes into the training, my head felt cooked...

Fortunately the ventilation system was good, with 10+ electric fans, otherwise it would be hazardous to train in this summer climate..

My waza ability was obviously not quick enough, partly because the guys were fast. So I need to catch up.

At the end of the training, we had a shiai-geiko. I fought with 4 people, two 5th Dan, one 4th Dan and one 2nd Dan. Believe or not, I won 2-0 against the 5th Dan's, 2-1 against the 2nd Dan, and lost 1-2 to the 4th Dan. I can honestly say in normal geiko, one of the 5th Dan and the 4th Dan are obviously stronger than me. But this time in shiai, my will-power was strong enough to compensate the difference in the technical level.

Feedback from Ho Sensei:

• I have to identify better whether my strikes are valid or not. If not valid, then return quickly to chudan. Otherwise I would waste too much energy on doing zanshin.
• Identity better the good moments to attack, instead of making lots of invalid strikes. 
• He said that I have advantage in shiai since my fighting-will is strong. I hope to keep this up!

Of course I'm rather happy about the results. Afterall this gives me some confidence practising in this dojo. However, I know I still have too much to learn from these guys.

17th Leipzig Kendo Championship

Just came back from the 17th Leipzig Kendo Championship, which was a nice day out. I didn't prepare for it like I did last year, so I didn't have a particular goal and the pressure that came with it. It is important, however, that I attend Taikai occasionally, and I'm glad I did.

As a newly donned Yudansha I fought in the Dan division. I helped out with the refereeing, which was my first time in a championship. A valuable experience. It's very tiring to be a referee, because not only one needs to validate scores, there are so many things that can happen. If the binding of the armour is loose, for example. At the same time, the three referees need to maintain good relative positions as the kendoka move.

The whole day I fought only four matches, 1 in the Dan division and 3 in the team division. In the Dan division, I was very unfortunate to meet Tomowari Miwa Sensei (6th Dan Renshi) from Berlin, who is also the trainer of KenVO squad. I was overwhelmed by the pressure coming from him and myself, that when I watched the videos, I saw many passed debana moments. The fight was quickly over. I will let the video speak for itself.

In the team division, I was in the Dresden A team (with Stephan, Georg, Tino, and Partrick), fighting as Taisho. Normally Stephan fights in this position, but today we placed each person in order to win the Berlin team. And since Miwa Sensei is their Taisho, heh heh..., I'm the sacrifice (quite happily in fact, since how many people at my level have the chance to fight a 6th Dan sensei in Taikai?). We met them in the final match. And before that, I won my two matches against less experienced kendoka, so they weren't that difficult (no videos unfortunately). My match against Miwa Sensei was the last of the day. I changed my style from the first to the second fight.  I jumped too much in the last fight. Everyone told me afterwards that the first men should have counted (including one of the referees and Miwa-Sensei himself, which was comforting). Again I'll let the video speak for itself. (note: I lost to 1 kote-suriage-men and 2 Hanzoku :((.. )

In the end, our team won the second place. Our all-women team also won against all-men team, which was exciting to watch! In the other divisions, we also have good results. Lilli won the women's division and the third place in the Kyu division. She performed very nice and strong kendo today as well as all the other Dresden girls. Seeing the great performance by the Dresden kenshis inspired me to train harder. 

Here are some thoughts:

• Overcome the nerve and be more stable. In the past I could bring at least 70% to competitions, but this time only 50%... 
• Train the eyes.
• Some of my men strikes were good but the rest so so.  I need to be consistent.
• Train the eyes even more.

The other videos will follow shortly.

 

Île-de-France (Paris Region) Championship

Last weekend I went to see the Île-de-France kendo championship. It was a nice overview of some of the finest kendo in France. But of course there are plenty of goood kendoka from elsewhere in France. Due to a friend's visit I missed the finals of the senior individual matches (also a misunderstanding of the program). I watched however the 1-2 dan division, junior division, women division, and the team matches.

I was most impressed by the junior division (less than 18). There were a handful of very good young kenshi's. Amongst them, Nakayashi Koichi (Budo XI) and Simone Cohen (IBK) obviously stood out. They met each other in the semifinal, which lasted for 20 mins or so without any scores. In the end, while they both had hanzoku, Nakayashi stepped outside the court and lost the match. It was rather dramatic, because the tension was being built higher and higher. There wasn't any moment when I felt bored. When it ended this way, there was a loud sigh by everyone watching. It was utterly mesmerising. I post here a video of them fighting in the French Championship last year. It gives you an idea of what it was like.

Nakayashi (red) - Cohen (white)






On the second day after the team event, there was an open practise with the students of Kokushikan University in Tokyo, that has one of the strongest student kendo. This time about 15 students travelled with their teacher, who was invited to oversee this championship. It was such a great SHAME that my foot injury kept me from joining. Otherwise it would have been such a good experience! T_T...

This is, in fact, my last weekend in Paris. Since my foot injury I haven't been able to get back into bogu. The broken toe has heal to perhaps 95%. I would have started training if it was just the toe. However, a few weeks of walking crooked has caused the ligament and muscles about my ankle to be very weak and sore, with the symptoms of a foot sprain. I hope in a week I'll be able to start practising. Meanwhile, I have increased the frequency of suburi at home.

Off again - to Quebec!

I have been to every training so far after coming back to Dresden. On Tuesday night the nastiness of my fellow Dresden kendo mates far exceeded my expectation :). They gave me another farewell training which involved again with me fighting five people. I won against Lilli, Martin and Jens, but lost to Tino and Georg. To me, it was sort of a trial to see if the kendo I had learned is actually applicable. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the result, not because of winning the matches but being able to maintain my posture and apply pressure forwards instead of hopping forwards and back all the time.

Two main things to improve:

• My hip is still not following me during strikes. Really need to work on that.
• React more quickly to seize the moment to apply oji-wazas.

My next stop:

21st Nov 07 - 6th Dec 07,
Quebec City, Canada

Here is a clip showing all the matches from Tuesday night (many thanks to Thomas, who took the video!):

Rising star

In the past two week I have been training three times a week. Not all of them went as well as I wanted, but I have improved on my men-strike to a point where I don't hesitate. But my strike is still too slow, and I need to push my body farther, or otherwise at the end of the day I would be packing home with a bagful of debana-kote.

Sometimes it did happen though, that my strike was further enough. Today Georg praised my men-strike during the jigeiko with him, which he did not expect to reach given the distance in between.

After some jigeiko we had some team shiai practise. Three teams were formed, with a girls team, a Budoclub's team, and a university team. I was on the university as well as Martin, Tino (the beginner), Lino(?), and Stephan, as the taisho. We played the system like the Gyokuryuki competition in Japan, whereby the winner stays on until he either looses or draws.

The star this evening was undoubtedly Lilli, who served as the senpo. She single-handedly eliminated the first three opponents of both the other teams (including me), almost all won on men/kote-nuki-men.

Yes, so here we go, what you guys have been waiting for...

Lilli defeated me with 2-1
(honestly it was 2-0, because my kote was on the tsuba)

Well, deserved Lilli, I have to say. Now it's your time to make a speech here...

We also gave Georg his birthday kakari-geiko. I especially took care to give him that extra push during the taiatari, hee hee.

Lilli (far right) smelt blood..

Georg explaining distance

Tino, I and Stephan's hands

Stephan measuring the depth of Patrick's nose.

16th Leipzig Kendo Championship

Yesterday to my complete satisfaction I came back with a trophy from the 16th Leipzig Kendo Championship! I won the 1st place in the Kyu division, with that I got the chance to also compete in the Dan division. The levels are in fact quite mixed. Some in the Kyu division are definitely better than some from the Dan division. Part of it results from the strict and bureaucratic examination system of the German federation. One has to begin their official test from 6th Kyu, with each year no more than two exams. A shodan would require a minimum of 3.5 years experience.


Pre-match

Last week in fact I went to only two trainings due to large amount of work to do. When I showed up on Friday, some said that I lied on my blog! Well, in fact, you know, it was just a test to see who are reading my blog and trying to steal my secrets. Now I know wa ha ha ha... (Just kidding, of course.) So it takes a year for the others to find out that I'm blogging, that's interesting..

Hej du, schreib auch was. Make some noise here.

Anyways, let's get on to the main story..


Kyu Division

I finished my first two fights rather quickly with 2-0. In the first fight I faught with Moeller from Berlin: 2-0 (hiki-do, debana-kote). In my second match I couldn't remember what I did. But I was quite agitated. Stephan reminded me that I should keep cool. Then I gradually got better. In the third one I faught with Giessner from Leipzig, whom I won 1-0 with a debana-kote. From him I got plenty of tsuki marks. One of which was especially painful. Immediately afterwards, for a while, I had pain at the back of my head. The artillery must have been hit. It is very dangerous indeed if one does not take care and uses tsuki before he/she masters the technique.

I also think that in a competition, one is supposed to show his best and try to show the beauty of kendo, instead of just winning the competition. So, out of this principle, one should always show what he's best at instead of going through all the techniques he knows.



Quarter-final (Kyu): Me (red) - Giessner from Leipzig (white)


In the semi-final, I fought with Tino (also from Dresden). I won 1-0 on a kote-suriage-men. He was full of fighting spirit and did well on putting pressure, so it wasn't easy.



Semi-final (Kyu): me (red) and Tino Lehmann from Dresden (white)


Then I realised that I was in the final, fighting against Martin (also from Dresden). I had much hesitation during the match because I knew that he is fast. The moments when I didn't hesitate I got points. First on a debana-kote. He followed up with a easy kote-nuki-men when I launched my strike from to far away - a lesson to remember! Finally, I finished the match 2-1 with a kote-men. Only afterwards from the video, I realised that at the first kote, with no intention of hitting on target, I used the normal footwork to step forwards. Then with the left foot slightly in front of my right one, I launched the men-strike with that extra acceleration and distance, which allowed me to take a large leap forwards. This combined with Martin's backward movement and low alertness, I was able to get a point.



Final (Kyu): Martin Petrasch from Dresden (red) and me (white)


First medal for any sport, at the age of 26 - a rather amusing fact.

Elisa took a lot of videos of my matches for me (Danke Elisa!). So today I let out the Narcissistic side of me, and enjoyed the recordings again and again.


Dan division

So the rule is that if you are in the top 4 of the Kyu division, you get to compete also in the Dan division. I had not much difficulty with my first opponent. He seemed also very nervous. The match ended 2-0 with my kote-men.

In the second round, I got knocked out by the eventual champion, Mesenholl from Wuppertal, who fought in Nitto. Though I lost, it was a pleasure to fight him because he is stable and powerful kendoka. It was my first time fighting a nitto player. I wasn't sure what I was doing except I kept a good mobile footwork. But only afterwards I thought of better strategies.

He dropped his shinai when I hit his kote, so that I missed it and hit on the tuba or shinai instead. I think a good idea would be to feint the kote and then switch to men, since the men is open when he drops his hand.


My second round (Dan): Mesenholl (red) and me (white)

There was also a moment of opening when he missed and had his men open. Only if I had reacted quickly enough...

The hiki-do would have been better if I move more backwards with my upper body straight

Eventually, Mesenholl won the 1st place, and the second and the third are Marco (Leipzig) and our His Majesty Stephan, respectively.



Third place play-off (Dan): C. Rohde from Berlin (red) and Stephan Hernschier from Dresden (white)

Stephan first gave a blitzing men-suriage-men, and then a straight men when Rohde seemed to have let his men completely open (hear that popping sound!)



Final (Dan): Mesenholl from Wuppertal (red) and Marco Schulze from Leipzig (white)


Team Events

In the team events, I played the Senpo in our A team, consisting of me, Martin, Georg, Jan and Stephan. Apart from another all male team, we had also an all female team.

We won the first match 4-0 against Halle, but lost 2-3 to Leipzig. I drew the first match, but lost 1-2 in the second. A little disappointing. But they eventually won the first place, successfully defended their title from last year.


Summary of results

Junior:
1. Patrick Koko (Dresden)
2. Georg Schröter (Leipzig)
3. Jacob Mack (Leipzig)
4. Martin Streitz (Halle)

Women:
1. Eori Satoh (Berlin)
2. Fanni Fröhlich (Leipzig)
3. Lili Dombrowski (Dresden)
4. Jasmin Rodig (Dresden)

Kyu:
1. Ivan Liu (Dresden)
2. Martin Petrasch (Dresden)
3. Eori Satoh (Berlin)
4. Tino Lehmann (Dresden)

Dan (and top 4 from the kyu division):
1. Torsten Mesenholl (Wuppertal)
2. Marco Schulze (Leipzig)
3. Stephan Hernschier (Dresden)
4. Christian Rohde (Berlin)



A year ago..

I started wearing the bogu almost exactly a year ago. It's really interesting looking back at the videos last year, how much my kendo has improved (which is never enough). By the way, the motion in the last year's videos seem to have accelerated by YouTube. Don't think I was really that fast.


There are however still reflections to be made:

• Keep calm and don't panic when the other launches a strike. Instead, think of oji-waza.
• Do not hesitate when a moment comes. In fact better launch the attack before you realised that there is a chance.
• Be more aggresive, and don't be afraid of moving into issoku-itto-no-maai, as long as the centre is maintained.
  
• Do not launch strike from too far away.

For the last year's event, click here.

Some photos (more on my picasa web album):








Dresden style

Team shiai-geiko

In yesterday's training we did 30+ mins jigeiko and then shiai-geiko with two teams. No kihon as for the first time in a long while we didn't have beginners.

In shiai-geiko, we We split into an all female team and an all male team. We had only four in our team so Patrick had to fight twice. The lineup in our team was: Patrick-me-Georg-Patrick-Stephan; and in the other team: Anna-Lilli-Liv-Christin-Elisa. We won all the matches. But they gave pretty impressive performances. Elisa was especially strong, who showed a lot of fighting spirit.

I won my match 1-0 with a harai-men. Most of the time when I attacked men, Lilli blocked it. So I tried some feinting techniques and a do-strike. But the do-strike was not strong enough. A feint-men-kote landed sharp, but was not called out. (We had only one shimpan.) I guess it's because the view was blocked. Anyhow, I should be more efficient, and cleaner, otherwise exhaustion can reduce my performance.

Advices from Georg:

• Faster kote-men.
• Don't let the left foot fall behind
• When someone raises shinai to defend men, it's the chance to strike kote.

At the moment I really need to increase the speed of kote-men.