Spring Break? Not for us!

Hey, guys. Just a quick note to say we should be unaffected by EMU's spring break, with runs 2/27 to 3/1. HOWEVER, if you show up at the gym and the facilities are closed for some unforeseen reason, we'll meet over at the Tower Inn for some biiru-geiko. Sound good? Get my cell number and Abbey-sensei's cell number if you don't have it.

Also, I wanted to let you know that there's a great online resource for kendo info called The Cyber Dojo. It's run by Hiro Imafuji, a godan from Japan-Australia who also practiced in Latin America and is now in Indiana. A lot of good info for beginners and advanced people alike - if you're not a subscriber, think about becoming one, because there are benefits to being a subscriber, some great content. I know I frequently give the noobs "homework" and this site can help with that. I get a lot out of it.

Detroit 2008

Photo taken by Wakabyashi san

The detroit tournament was another great success. The seminar before hand was also wonderful. Teramoto sensei was absolutely wonderful to watch. As the All-Japan Champion it was great to see a taller person move so quickly. I have to figure out how to move that quickly with such grace. Also, congratulations go to John Ellison on passing shodan and our old member Amy Dawson for passing shodan as well. Uetake sensei from UofM must be congratulated as well for passing his Yondan exam, as well as Joe Ponchart on passing Sandan. Onto the matches. I was feeling pretty confident with my jodan again this year and faced an old rival of mine from Ken Zen in NYC Takahashi sensei in the individuals, which were yondan and up. The match was very evenly matched and I felt that I could have won but he got me to commit too quickly and scored with a men kaeshi men for the first ippon. After that point I was determined to get one back and rushed again into another men kaeshi men attack. This match was very frustrating for me but showed me that I need to continue working on paitence on the attack. The comments afterward from Takahasi sensei were that my jodan had improved since the last time we had fought, so that was a good thing. Onto the teams. Eastern had one of the strongest teams we have ever had this year and we did extremely well. The order was Kondek, Ichiki, Myself, Ellison, Fukuma sensei. The first match had Charlie score two ippon and Ichiki scoring two one as well. Then it was me up against another nito kenshi. What is it with nito these days. Anyway, I took the match to him and made him attempt to strike targets that I wanted him to hit. He tried to hit do and I took his shinai out of his hand for hansoku. Then he tried it again and, again, his shinai went to the ground. Hansoku number two and a point for us. Now, I really do not like getting points ths way but if you can not hold onto your shinai you deserve it. We were through to the next match. The next match had us up against Ken Zen with Takahashi sensei as Taisho. Charlie got one point and lost one point for Hiki wake and then Ichiki lost two points and we were down a point. I was up against someone I had not fought before and got him to raise his hands and struck kote for ippon number one. Then, as he dropped his attention I got a hiki men for ippon number two. We were now up by one point. Ellison was next and went up against a sandan who got a kote, that really should not have counted, but he got the point back with a kote nuki men. Very big point. We were still up by one and it was Fukuma sensei against Takahashi sensei. Great match where Fukuma sensei scored two points. We were through to one match before the court final against JCCC. We started off this match down three points and it was me against an old friend of Ichiki's. I went down a point because my men fell short and stuck into my aite's keikogi and I stopped, never stop, I was pissed at myself and quickly tried to gain the point back only to lose another one to kote nuki men, my nemisis. All and all we did very well and it was a great success for Eastern Kendo. We have to figure out a way to get past that level in the teams. It has now been four tournaments of reaching that level. Thanks to everyone in Detroit for a great tournament and we'll see you all soon. Cheers!

"Life ain't nuttin but war..."

I want to share something with you. This is one of my favorite workout songs. It's kind of silly, but I love it. It comes from the soundtrack to the film Black Mask.

Black Mask was a terribly Jet Li sci-fi/actioner that was rereleased in the U.S. in 1996. For its US release, they slapped on some bad dubbing, edited it to shreds - and gave it a great gangsta rap soundtrack. I've loved it ever since. This is the music I listen to to run, hit the bag, etc.

So, if you'd like to share in my glee, please do so. You can tell people you are in "the 701 Squad" with me!

What's the Diff?

A friend and colleague of mine invited me to guest blog at the blog his company, Quicken Loans, maintains. "What's the Diff?" attempts to describe "the gap between average and excellent and focuses on the human side of the company. For my guest post, I wrote about my impending second try at the yondan exam. I hope you'll check it out. The post really helped me articulate some of my feelings on the subject. Check out my post and the Quicken Loans blog here.

Superbowl Sunday at Battle Creek

I went to Battle Creek for practice on Sunday. It was well worth it, always is, and I encourage all of you to do so as well - I'd definitely like to go again as often as possible (which, admittedly, isn't very often for me). Props to John Ellison: he was going to come up from South Bend but blew out a tire and had to change that bad boy while wearing hakama, keikogi and winter coat. Then he limped home while his adopted Pats lost the Superbowl. Argh! Sorry, John.

We had a great practice lead by Matsuura-sensei and also Yoshida-sensei and Suganara-sensei. We covered basics, some advanced waza (including debana waza and tsuki-men) and did a lot of intense jigeiko - everybody had keiko with everybody. I got to fight the afore-mentioned sensei and the hard hitting drew of Stephen Chaffin, Bob Mack and Travis Hill.

Here in Michigan all the kendo clubs have an open invite to each other to attend practice and if you can take advantage of that to practice with this great, diverse body of people, you should. Definitely write or call ahead to let them know you're coming and have at it. Very valuable.