忍耐 + 掌握人生
Oh, That's Beautiful
So much has happened in the past few weeks. It's been so wonderful, exciting and memorable I wish time could just stop so that I could savour the moment if only for a little longer.
We have had a few visitors in our dojo lately. Michael Komoto Sensei joined one training session each at UNSW and Sydney Kendo Club in mid-July. And last week, we had Uchiyama-san visiting from Tokyo.
Nuki & Kaeshi-Do
Komoto Sensei visited UNSW on 13/7 and led the waza session where we practiced kaeshi-do. We first practiced the footwork for executing a good nuki / kaeshi-do, which is a forward diagonal step to the right. Here, it is important to move the foot forward diagonally, and not a side-step. Then we practiced the cutting movement. Lastly, we put everything together and practiced men-kaeshi-do, and slowly building up the speed.
Following the waza session was mawari-geiko.
I was very happy to have a chance to jigeiko with Komoto Sensei, if just for a short while. During the jigeiko, I could remember that many of my seme-men cuts were countered by his subtle suriage-men. I tried speeding up my men cuts to shorten his effective counter-attack reaction time, but without success. His suriage-men still worked wonders no matter how fast I cut.
Suriage Waza
Komoto Sensei gave me a few pointers regarding suriage-waza:
When the opponent's shinai is coming down, extend the arms forward so that your shinai is slanting diagonally. In this situation, the left hand will be on the right hand side of the body with the palmar side facing up. The right hand will be deviated slightly to the right of your own centre-line with palmar side facing down. Your kensen should still be in the centre-line.
With this positioning, your men and kote are well-protected by the angle of the slanting shinai. So if your opponent executes a cut, their shinai will be brushed off by your upward-extending slanting shinai. With your shinai directly above your opponent's head, it is just a matter of dropping your shinai on their men. No big twirling forceful movement is needed.
One more point. Don't be afraid to extend your shinai in a way that the kensen is well above your opponent's head. The gist of making a successful suriage is about keeping the kensen in the centre, and your hand positioning movement smooth and subtle in one fluent move.
A few more advices from Komoto Sensei after Saturday's Willoughby training.
My hand positioning in receiving taitari is too far away from the body. I should keep my hands closer to the body, so that my body will take the blunt of the force when receiving taitari.
In kirikaeshi, right hand traverses too much to the side of the body in sayu-men. I need to reduce the right sayu-men cutting angle.
Translating Komoto Sensei's comments for Ken (aka. Xiao Chen).
Dinner with Komoto Sensei after Thursday night training
UnWaki sama - a Korean with surprisingly big eyes
Lunch at Black Cow after Saturday's Willoughby training
Thanks Aaron for your effort in taking the group photo
Following Komoto Sensei's departure was the arrival of another visitor, Uchiyama-san, who is a Kendo teacher at Kinjo Gakuen, Tokyo. I had two jigeiko with him in his two Saturday visits to Sydney Kendo Club, and he gave me the following advices:
Men: Left hand punch
At the moment, my right hand is stretching out too much during men-uchi, resulting in my body twisting to the left. Uchiyama-san suggested that I should possess the feeling of punching in with my left hand when executing men cuts. This should eliminate the body-turning problem.
Kote: Cut with the body & move in
Uchiyama-san, as well as Sano sensei, both commented on my seme-kote. Uchiyama-san said I am cutting too much with my hands at the moment, and not enough with my body. Both Sensei said that I need to commit wholly to the cut by moving my body in when going for seme-kote.
We have had a few visitors in our dojo lately. Michael Komoto Sensei joined one training session each at UNSW and Sydney Kendo Club in mid-July. And last week, we had Uchiyama-san visiting from Tokyo.
Nuki & Kaeshi-Do
Komoto Sensei visited UNSW on 13/7 and led the waza session where we practiced kaeshi-do. We first practiced the footwork for executing a good nuki / kaeshi-do, which is a forward diagonal step to the right. Here, it is important to move the foot forward diagonally, and not a side-step. Then we practiced the cutting movement. Lastly, we put everything together and practiced men-kaeshi-do, and slowly building up the speed.
Following the waza session was mawari-geiko.
I was very happy to have a chance to jigeiko with Komoto Sensei, if just for a short while. During the jigeiko, I could remember that many of my seme-men cuts were countered by his subtle suriage-men. I tried speeding up my men cuts to shorten his effective counter-attack reaction time, but without success. His suriage-men still worked wonders no matter how fast I cut.
Suriage Waza
Komoto Sensei gave me a few pointers regarding suriage-waza:
When the opponent's shinai is coming down, extend the arms forward so that your shinai is slanting diagonally. In this situation, the left hand will be on the right hand side of the body with the palmar side facing up. The right hand will be deviated slightly to the right of your own centre-line with palmar side facing down. Your kensen should still be in the centre-line.
With this positioning, your men and kote are well-protected by the angle of the slanting shinai. So if your opponent executes a cut, their shinai will be brushed off by your upward-extending slanting shinai. With your shinai directly above your opponent's head, it is just a matter of dropping your shinai on their men. No big twirling forceful movement is needed.
One more point. Don't be afraid to extend your shinai in a way that the kensen is well above your opponent's head. The gist of making a successful suriage is about keeping the kensen in the centre, and your hand positioning movement smooth and subtle in one fluent move.
A few more advices from Komoto Sensei after Saturday's Willoughby training.
Translating Komoto Sensei's comments for Ken (aka. Xiao Chen).
Dinner with Komoto Sensei after Thursday night training
UnWaki sama - a Korean with surprisingly big eyes
Lunch at Black Cow after Saturday's Willoughby training
Thanks Aaron for your effort in taking the group photo
Following Komoto Sensei's departure was the arrival of another visitor, Uchiyama-san, who is a Kendo teacher at Kinjo Gakuen, Tokyo. I had two jigeiko with him in his two Saturday visits to Sydney Kendo Club, and he gave me the following advices:
Men: Left hand punch
At the moment, my right hand is stretching out too much during men-uchi, resulting in my body twisting to the left. Uchiyama-san suggested that I should possess the feeling of punching in with my left hand when executing men cuts. This should eliminate the body-turning problem.
Kote: Cut with the body & move in
Uchiyama-san, as well as Sano sensei, both commented on my seme-kote. Uchiyama-san said I am cutting too much with my hands at the moment, and not enough with my body. Both Sensei said that I need to commit wholly to the cut by moving my body in when going for seme-kote.
posted by Vivian Yung at
4:36 PM
Name: Vivian Yung
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