Kuroda-san's Visit in Taiwan

Kuroda-san and I met in Czech Republic about 4 years ago, when Ozawa Sensei was invited to Prague to hold a kendo seminar. Since then we've kept in touch, and met up for kendo and drink every time when I went to Japan. It all seemed like yesterday, and yet so far away. He is truly a special friend. Now I'm happy that he finally comes to Taiwan and visit me.



He arrived on Friday 3/29, and in the evening I took him to the Taipei Kendokan. As usual the training started with kihon, waza-geiko, mawari-geiko and jigeiko. Kuroda san's perfect body posture and balance could not be more familiar to me, and that's his uniqueness.


After the training at Taipei Kendokan.





My practice that evening was not so great as my right arm was too tense all the time. But it was nonetheless enjoyable to play kendo again with my old friend.




At the world-famous National Palace Museum.

Monday, 29th March

I took him to the Nation Chiao Tung University (NCTU) kendo club, and Kuroda san was asked to lead the session. The members who turned up for training were:

• upon the point of contact between shinai and the men, the left arm is inclined with the shinai when looking from the side.


• one should practise more large men-cuts. If one is good at large cuts, he/she is naturally good at small cuts.
  
  
  

Wednesday, 31st March

On Wednesday I took him to the National Tsing Hua University kendo club. The members who turned up that evening included many more advanced, who have trained for 2-3 years. Kuroda san was again asked to teach. So I told him that, and suggest he gave more tips on seme-techniques and correct attitudes as well as how to obtain them during training:

Kote strikes:

• when practising kote, the kakarite should occupy the centerline first, and then the motodachi should push back at the same time create an opening while the kakarite makes the kote strike.


• the kakarite should strike along the centerline.
  

Seme:

• always keep in touch with the motodachi's shinai before striking.


• when sliding the shinai against the opponent's shinai, the kensen should lower slightly, so that it is difficult for the opponent to move the shinai to the other side and hit kote.
  

Do-strikes:

• To seme, move the body forwards and direct the tip of the shinai towards the opponent's kote at the same time pressing his shinai down. This makes him want to raise his shinai up. At this moment strike do.
  

For me, he gave me the following advices:

• My seme is too quick, and the opponents raise shinai easily to block. I should make the movement more subtle and slower, in order to let him feel the pressure and strike first while I use oji-waza.


• Relax my right arm.
  

I hope Kuroda-san comes again soon!!


Here is one short clip of our jigeiko. Note: At the end of the clip I struck men when he attempted a kaeshi-do, but didn't manage to block the men-strike.

Japanese delegation at Taipei Kendokan

Recently many Japanese senseis visited Taipei Kendokan, I was however busy and couldn't attend the practice most of the time. Fortunately, I made it to the practice this monday, when about 15 Japanese Senseis visited the dojo, including about four 8th Dan.

I was please with my performance in that evening. I even managed to hit the kote of a young 8th Dan Sensei! Somehow my body balance was very good, and could make straight and fast attacks. However, some senseis just knew what I was going to do. Like Yonekura (米倉) Sensei, he made me think that I could reach his men, but every time when I do that, he made kaeshi-do on me.

Tomorrow Kuroda san (5th Dan from Kobukan Tokyo) will finally visit me, I'm excited to meet my old friend again!!

Training to obtain the center

Last night I practised at Taipei Kendokan. There are some sempais from the dojo whom I just don't know how to fight. What makes me feel the most hopeless is when I loose over and over again the simplest ai-men strikes. When this happens, I get annoyed and want to make more men-strikes to prove that I can do it, which only makes my moves become even more predictable. I'm not sure how to act in this situation...

This Wed I practised at the Hsing-Hua University Kendo Club. There was a good turn-out rate, especially considering that they just had a competition last week. We started with the ooikomi-geiko with sayu-men, and then renzoku-wazas. My forearms were mildly tense after these exercises. "I used the correct parts of the muscles," I thought.

In the end we had about 20-minutes jigeiko. My opponents were all junior to me, so my goals were to use as much oji-waza as possible. However, I also found that most of them don't know how to hold the center, and how to attack the centerline of their opponents.

This is something really difficult to explain. For me, I understood what the "center" is after training with many Senseis and Sempais with strong centers. I think only when training with such people can one understand what it is.

Tomorrow I will attend the joint practice for all kendokas in Taipei. Looking forward to it!

Cut right down

"Cut right down! Cut right down!" The instruction from Ho Sensei still echoes in my ears.. "Cut it like you want to split the opponent's head in half."

Many kenshi, especially young ones, tend to only tap the opponent when striking. I know this is not good, but sometimes I still do it without thinking.

More suburi is needed..

In the past few weeks I trained only once a week which is really terrible. However, there're something else also that needs my dedication also at the moment. Meanwhile, I will have to make sure that I split my opponent's head in half, well in my mind.

Happy Chinese New Year 2010

Happy Chinese New Year!! Wish you a good health and fortune in the year of Tiger!!

There have been full of end of (Chinese) year parties from my company as well as working for deadlines, which occupied most of my Fridays in the past few weeks. So I trained seldom. This Wednesday my body couldn't stand anymore, and took a train to and back from Taipei on the same day just for kendo.

My left fingers felt rather weak from a mild injury, which I think was caused by overstressing it when I did suburis at home. And my body felt a little heavy from all that eating, so I didn't feel so agile. However, I tried my really best, especially when doing jigeiko with Ho Sensei.

Ho Sensei commented after our jigeiko that when I should hit kote straight-on instead of turning already sideways and hitting with an angle.