gentlekendoist

[gentlekendoist]

I started the new season going to the dojo that's 40km away that I went to at the end of last season. They did a lot of events in the last few weeks, I skipped them all. I still don't have the energy to face the whole big social thing of kendo. Getting back into the social pressure, the norms, etc. Not ready for that but I'll do it. Slowly, but I'll do it, I promise. I'm gunning for a 5th dan first attempt next summer.

#kendo #budoblr #martial arts #budo #japanese martial arts

[gentlekendoist]

Update: I actually ended up going on a hiatus for this season, not renewing my federation membership. I had no energy, no mental space and no time for kendo. I needed a buffer zone between being a dojo leader and a regular practitioner. I also have a lot on my plate in other areas and it is hard to keep up. I just started going to a dojo 40km away once every two weeks this month. I enjoy the good sensations of training and I'll leave it at that for now. I'll delay my 5th dan attempt to summer 2024. I still somewhat would like to pass 5th dan age 39-40 and not too much later. Doable? I don't know, we will see. Too far to really project myself there.

News.

Okay guys.

Long story short :

Out of the first confinement, our dojo did well. We were training with masks but had a lot of people coming and participating.

Second confinement however, killed our practice almost completely. Lost almost all our bogu practitioners.

Since I've only kept practice running as I could, with a huge lack of motivation and feeling burnt out.

We took a difficult decision : after the end of this season in June, we're closing the dojo. Without a core of yudansha practitioners, I can't shoulder the day-to-day responsibilities. I can't lead the training sessions anymore. It feels like starting all over again and the truth is : I'm spent. I've held the dojo together for 11 years but the 2nd and 3rd confinement were my last straw and the final nail in the dojo's coffin.

So, after June, the couple kyusha that have bogus will transfer with me to the nearest dojo (with which we are on good terms and which has a similar spirit). We have removed one of the two days / week of practice at our dojo so that members can start the transfer process and get acquainted with the other dojo's members over the couple months that are left this season.

That's it.

For my part, regarding my kendo practice, it is a decision to fall back, to focus on myself. 5th dan is the next goal (shinsa in 15 months) and with my professional and family lives I don't have spoons for much : my weekends are always out of the question and I can only afford training once a week tops. This is my post-covid reality. I have nor the room nor the energy to give to other people in these conditions.

I learned a lot "teaching" and "leading" other practitioners for the past decade but now it's time for something else. But I won't quit helping others, as I'll be a senior member of the dojo I'm joining.

I'll still help and guide kyusha and lower-dan members but not in an official capacity. It will be natural, spontaneous.

No pressure. No crippling sense of duty.

I'm looking forward to this freedom. I hope that in time it will fill me with motivation again.

Slowly, I'm getting on the dô again.

[gentlekendoist]

Little throwback to my life as a kenshi

I did Kendo for 13 years of my life, in 2015 Sensei Terry Holt from Mumeishi kendo club in London asked me to make a few illustrations for his latest Kendo Beginners guide and for the Mumeishi 3′s international tournament.

Holt Sensei was one of my best kendo friends in the UK, if not the best, so I was happy to make the cover illustrations for his book and event.

Shortly after the event he passed away suddenly, so this project is very close to my heart.

RIP Holt Sensei

[gentlekendoist]

News.

Okay guys.

Long story short :

Out of the first confinement, our dojo did well. We were training with masks but had a lot of people coming and participating.

Second confinement however, killed our practice almost completely. Lost almost all our bogu practitioners.

Since I've only kept practice running as I could, with a huge lack of motivation and feeling burnt out.

We took a difficult decision : after the end of this season in June, we're closing the dojo. Without a core of yudansha practitioners, I can't shoulder the day-to-day responsibilities. I can't lead the training sessions anymore. It feels like starting all over again and the truth is : I'm spent. I've held the dojo together for 11 years but the 2nd and 3rd confinement were my last straw and the final nail in the dojo's coffin.

So, after June, the couple kyusha that have bogus will transfer with me to the nearest dojo (with which we are on good terms and which has a similar spirit). We have removed one of the two days / week of practice at our dojo so that members can start the transfer process and get acquainted with the other dojo's members over the couple months that are left this season.

That's it.

For my part, regarding my kendo practice, it is a decision to fall back, to focus on myself. 5th dan is the next goal (shinsa in 15 months) and with my professional and family lives I don't have spoons for much : my weekends are always out of the question and I can only afford training once a week tops. This is my post-covid reality. I have nor the room nor the energy to give to other people in these conditions.

I learned a lot "teaching" and "leading" other practitioners for the past decade but now it's time for something else. But I won't quit helping others, as I'll be a senior member of the dojo I'm joining.

I'll still help and guide kyusha and lower-dan members but not in an official capacity. It will be natural, spontaneous.

No pressure. No crippling sense of duty.

I'm looking forward to this freedom. I hope that in time it will fill me with motivation again.

Slowly, I'm getting on the dô again.

#kendo #martial arts #budoblr

[gentlekendoist]

I’ve decided to go for a home-training regimen since we don’t have much activity while quarantined. So here’s my menu :

At noon, 25 minutes of various flavours of suburi for a total of about a thousand followed by a 5 minute core workout routine. Then, shower and lunch.

On some days I might repeat it in the afternoon, especially on days where dinner is particularly rich, like today : japanese curry!

Faitô!

#kendo #budoblr #covid19 #home training

[gentlekendoist]

Due to Covid19 everthing has come to a grinding halt. What a time to live in!

Meanwhile, I’ll get a daily routine of empty-handed hayasuburi set up.

Like maybe 500 a day to start?

[gentlekendoist]

So happy with the attendance change! Best season in a long time!

[gentlekendoist]

These guys are real.

Exercises used in a high school kendo club, a lot of which are transferable to other forms of historical fencing.

Koryū Bujutsu 古流武術  For civilized discussion of any and all matters regarding classical Japanese martial arts

Gekiken: Japanese Historical Kendo Fencing For those interested in Japanese historical fencing A few websites useful to those interested in japanese swordsmanship.

And another great martial arts blog on the topic.

For more info on exercising for historical fencing check out this post and the links embedded within it.

[gentlekendoist]

I dare. This is my favourite combination. I’ll try indigo on top and persimmon at the bottom just for the sake of testing but I’m pretty much convinced it won’t look good. And brown on brown just looks weird and strays too far from the norm.

[gentlekendoist]

Did 40 min jigeiko at home yesterday. I think it’s going to be the new regimen for monday practice.

I’m still juggling with ideas about my practice, the practice in general, my values as a practitioner, as an instructor, as a human being.

I’ll probably write articles about this, but the opinionated part of me still has a hard time understanding adept practitioners not willing to engage into hikitate geiko. Taking evey jigeiko they get into as a chance to become better at winning, despite of who might be standing in front of them, and feeling sorry for themselves for finding themselves in front of lower ranked and/or less able sparring partners. 

There’s a point in your evolution where you can’t just keep taking from others. Gotta get out of that student mentality and start giving back, you know?

Also, utter destruction as a teaching method, without any pointers whatsoever, is not the type of kendo I want to perpetuate.

#kendo #martial arts #budoblr

[gentlekendoist]

So this happened tonight.  Usually shinai survive this but here you can see the shard of bamboo flying off. Also, don’t mind my kakishibuzome keikogi/hakama set.

#kendo #shinai breaking #budoblr #martial arts

[gentlekendoist]

[gentlekendoist]

Little update folks!

Life has obviously little time for my kendo at the moment and had a lot in store in other areas : my daughter’s birth, the toe I broke that didn’t heal well, a long-time coming ADHD diagnosis and finally a really bad lumbago.

Yeah there’s a lot to process that’s not kendo at the moment.

However I’ve been able to maintain a once-a-week presence in the dojo. Our club is doing better. Motivated newcomers eager to participate in federation activities, seniors with their own life-related delays and difficulties trying to come back and/or hold on to their practice...

Things are getting better.

I’ve obviously lost some of the “we-need-to-step-up” fire I had beginning of this season but well, c’est la vie.

#kendo #martial arts #budoblr

[gentlekendoist]

Kendo at home.

#kendo #martial arts #japan #japanese martial arts #budoblr

[gentlekendoist]

TFW I’m coming up with a new way of explaining something on the fly.

#kendo #martial arts #budo #budoblr

[gentlekendoist]

As someone who's practiced fencing and remembers the "unleashed / cinema-like" matches we would have with our friends at the back of the salle d'armes, out of the Maître’s sight, this is making me nostalgic.

Thrusting with a sword from behind the back or rather ‘Of the disarm from after the parade on the outside of the sword’ or as some today refer to it ‘I'm a goddamn badass thrust’

An interesting move that appears in only a handful of treatises but something that can be done. This particular move can be found here within the manuals section of the wonderful hroarr website, just go to the page 122 of the pdf, or rather 78 of the original book called ‘The School of Fencing with A General Explanation of The Principle Attitudes and Positions Peculiar to The Art’ by Mr. Angelo from 1787.

You can also see a variant of it within the rapier section of Joachim Meyer’s work titled  “A Thorough Description of the Art of Combat” that can be found here on the awesome wiktenauer website, specifically within the I plate.Look at the top left part of the image. The technique itself isn’t specifically described anywhere within the so far translated text however.

There is a modern interpretation of how to accomplish the move though and it can be seen in the video below.

One can also see it within  Pierre Jacques Francois Girard’s smallsword treatise where the technique is titled ‘Contre,du contre desarmement au dehors des armes’.

The scans of the original treatise can be found here and the plate showing the above picture is here. This might contain a translation.

Another variant can be found within  Johann Andreas Schmidt’s manual titled  ‘The Body-Protecting and Enemy-Defying Art of Fencing’ the scans of which can be found here. A partial translation can be found here.

A copy of the second edition of his treatise is available at the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek and has been scanned and published online as Gründlich lehrende Fecht-Schule oder Leichte Anweisung, auf Stoß und Hieb sicher zu fechten : Nebst einem curieusen Unterricht vom Voltigieren und Ringen, Mit viel saubern darzu dienlichen Kupfern versehen, 1749.

A copy of the fifth edition of the treatise is available at the New York Public Library, where it was uncovered by modern day fencing student and instructor Thomas Van Hare. Being 374 pages long, it has been scanned and published in Google Docs and is available online at Johann Andreas Schmidts, Fecht- und Exercitienmeisters Fecht-Kunst, Nurnberg, 1780

A variation of it can be seen in modern olympic fencing as well.

The difference seems to be that in this situation the fencer is avoiding to touch the opponents blade. Which is due to the fact that the modern version of the sport disallows anything but blade to blade contact, so some permutation is expected.

However the legality of the move changes now and then.

It was also done a few times in modern HEMA tournaments by Kristofer Stanson at Longpoint 2016, as well as Sweden Open 2016. And here are the videos of it.

Do add more videos of modern day fencers using the move if you’re aware of any.

It also shows up in Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” duel scene 

And it was also seen in the Firefly episode called ‘Shindig’ during the duel scene.

#we had a guy who was like full on goth and who would fight like if he were a vampire lord from the 17th century. Ha!

[gentlekendoist]

Showing Kihon Menkirikaeshi (without taiatari)

And giving extra guidance about the importance of making real cuts and not an automated hit’n’swing. The hardest part of getting into instructing is learning how to keep doing good kiai with slow motions for people to observe and still being able to keep talking after. Now I’m good but a few years back I would’ve been visibly struggling.

Anyway this is a reminder : I’ve got to allow myself feeling valid as dojo leader. Slowly but surely. But I need the reminder. I’ve been doing this for a few years now. Becoming more natural by the day. Having a teaching degree sure helped!

#budoblr #kendo #martial arts #japanese martial arts