Eastern Kendo

A blog on the Eastern Kendo Club and Kendo related issues.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Practice 7/24/07: Welcome Fukuma-san!

Hot, small practice last night in which we continued to work on kihon for bogu and new people ("big, slow, correct!"). We are joined by Mr. Fukuma, godan, from Ube, Japan (<--I hope I'm spelling that correctly) and very happy to have him!

Great practice, everyone working on what they need to work on. Wakabayashi-san of UM reminded us that arriving early for practice and having a proper warm-up is not only traditional kendo but important for safety.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

MSU Visit, 7/17/07


Ron Fox and Wendy Chen of MSU Kendo visited us for practice last night. Great practice as usual with Fox-sensei. Attendance last night was roughly half bogu and half new people, so Fox-sensei covered a lot of important ground for the new people and kept them working (footwork and swing) and instructed the bogu people in a series of drills, then leading us into jigeiko.

Let's all try to remember what Ron taught us about footwork, balance and cutting. Some key points (and please help me out if you can):



-bring the left foot up quickly to join the right when stepping
-keep your balance, don't be cutting with your chest and arms in your hurry to make the cut
-remember the drills, stepping in from to-ma, extending the kiai, making the attack from to-ma and following through
-Fox-sensei said the Japanese believe practice should be "big, slow and correct!" This is good to keep in mind
-Relax the shoulders and float the sword up and down, cut with the legs

Always great to see MSU Kendo. Let's all try to get out to MSU to repay the favor!

We're Back! (And Badder Than Ever?)

So, you guys are gonna think think is ridiculous but I have not been updating this blog lately because...

...I forgot my username and password. And then had to redo it through gmail blah blah blah.

I'm so sorry I haven't been updating this very useful tool. For now, let's recap what's been happening with the club over the summer.

1) As you know, we had the Family Tournament in May. Wonderful tournament, already been covered.

2) Summer has been slow. Practices have often involved only a handful of people for various reasons (school, work, vacation, etc.). That's not that unusual for our club, though. U of M personnel have been in regular attendance.

3) Abbey-sensei and his wife had their first baby, OWEN! Welcome to the world, Owen. Abbey-sensei, we'll see you when we see you!

4) Practices: we have been working on a lot of basics as usual. We have been working on the footwork drill that Abbey-sensei instructed us to work on (walking across the floot, cut on three, recover on steps 4-6, repeat). Because it has been hot, we've also been closing with kata, which allow a good cool-down period. Plus, it's always good to work on kata!

That's a good recap for now. Expect more regular updates from me and, wherever you are, hope this finds you doing well!