I’m not really that interested in the more physical aspects of the guy’s life. He made a couple of decent films (Bullshit, Mr Han-man!), and is the only thing on this earth to have ever laid a finger on the mighty Lord Chuck of Norris.

No, what I was very intersted to read about were his thoughts on, in a wider sense, martial arts in general. Surprusingly, or not really considering what the higher ideals of kendo are supposed to be, a lot of it is similar to many topics of conversation in kendo, such as the idea of the centre line being pivotal, relaxtion and untelegraphed movement being key, or even the more shadey areas of being able to key in emotionally to your opponent and predict what they will do, or better yet, force them to do it for you.

The book talks at great length about his philosophical approach, and his motivation to further his technique and his understanding, and tries to address the key points that he apparently taught his students.

A good deal of it actually strikes me as very true to the kendo concept of Shu Ha Ri. He learnt Wing Chun, understood it, then made it his own. Although obvioulsy I will not claim to be the next Bruce Lee (or Naruto, or Yagyu Jubei….) this is something I can identify with currently in that I am definitely right in the mid flow of the Ha part, and shaping my own kendo much the same way as Bruce Lee began shaping his Kung Fu after developing his own fundamental understandings.  Other parts of the book also indicate the very circular nature of the Shu Ha Ri concept even when put in to the context of Bruce Lee’s life. It could be argued that he had a heightened understanding and ability for what he was doing, and yet he is known to have gone back to see his teacher to further train and learn, several years into the process of developing Jeet Kune Do. This again is something that anyone with sense sees as hugely essential to continuing to learn and improve, and maybe a reason some people don’t……., probably because they get to a point where they are unable to accept the teachings of other people (an advert for how not to use budo to “improve your character” maybe?) and so get stuck where they are. Hell, if even Bruce Lee felt that he needed to learn more from his old Kung Fu teacher in order to further develop his own style and understanding, that’s as good an example as I need.

And just in general, a lot of his ideas about challenging what he had learnt, actively trying to improve himself, learning to read, anticipate and control his opponent, are frankly hugely interesting to me. There is a lot of space given in the book to a Wing Chun exercise that helps with this, and comes across to me as accutely similar in some ways to the “conversation” that skilled kendoka are supposed to have when probing the other’s defence, trying to take chushin, and guide the other into the path you want them to go.

The book is called Bruce Lee Fighting Spirit (I think), and I would recommend at least for an insight into what I viewed as thought processes and attitudes that are extremely congruent (big word!) with what I am looking at for my own practise.

And as a further note, I do like the fact that someone who did Kung Fu more nearly 40 years ago is serving as a real inspiration to me and my kendo. That fact is also most definitely not lost on me.

I’ll still sweat like a fat kid with a cake though.

Went to practise with Yanai sensei yesterday. And failed because we missed each other in the tomfoolery with water breaks and early stoppages.

Keiko was good though. There is a really colourful sensei in charge there, Okubo sesnei, a real quick to anger quick to laugh guy, which makes him surprisingly easy to listen to and talk with. He also has this excellent ability, much like Yanai sensei, of being able to pick one important part of what you need to improve and to tell you at the right time.  I can see myself coming here more often, and as it’s close and on a sunday morning it seems pretty convenient too……famous last words!

Okubo sensei gave me a little gem yesterday. A way of cutting that I had known about for ages but had not thought about. Perhaps yesterday was just the right time for me to hear it, but I certainly like it….. it involves simply finishing the cut with your wrists as opposed to your shoulders, and streching your elbows towards the target instead of just forwards. From the side, for whatever reason, it looks like a more circular cut. I’m at the bingo hall tonight, so I shall be giving it a go. All good.

Crap. If it wasn’t for the heat right now I would be really loving my kendo!

1) On the journey to the school (it was in the boonies, in the same way the places like Morden are called London….) the Big O, Kodama from the dojo, and I were having a truly bizarre conversation about Ozawa sensei’s recent thoughts on buying himself a grave. No shit. General thoughts were to a cheaper out of state option, in Saitama….

2) I taught a class of kids how to do kata 1 – 3. In Japanese……. that’s a first for me! It was still pretty gun though, and taking the piss out of kids works in any language (as the school teachers who were watching from the sides and laughing pointed out)

3) The keiko was a good laugh as well. I can see how teaching kids who want to be there can be a lot of fun, and rewarding as well given the right group. It made me miss the good old days at UCL *sniff*

4) Lunch was a jumbo katsudon, with two big prawns thrown on top for good measure! Awesome. Nothing goes down well like a a bit of “ebi, nihon”.

5) The journey back to fucking ages as well.

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while, purely because of some of the absurd stream of concious type thoughts I have during my dull train journeys, from work or the dojo.

Twitter has been in the news here alot recently, because it’s one of those big growing things that Japan has suddenly grasped and become obssesed with (some record was broken recently, like the 100th twat or someting, and a Japanese dude claimed it apparently), and it’s use is becoming more and more every day, so I’m tempted…..

The down side of course is it’s just more to do……..so can I be bothered…..might be fun, might be balls….

*incidentally, they gave me 6 (yes, SIX) different types of medicine, which my wife duely confiscated 4 of as soon as I got home

Finally being better, and no longer pooping like a champion race horse (that’s just a figure of speech, in reality I have no idea how a champion race horse would drop one, and have no desire to find out. I imagine it being something like 2 girls 1 cup, just without the girls. Or the cup, for that matter), I managed to haul ass to the dojo last night for my first keiko in 9 days. It was fucking awful. Like, really, truly awful. I’ve lost all of my stamina, and at the worst possible time, the middle of summer. My arms were already killing me after the suburi, and by the end of keiko I was done. If I was a sausage, I would have been at the put-a-fork-in-me stage.

Not happy. I’m gonna have to get back in to the exercise thing to sort this out. I want to have my stamina back to some respectable level before the end of summer, so that once I get back from my trip back to blighty I’m ready to tear it up proper like.

This is going to hurt…

It’s not food, because even the water I’m drinking is different to the day before (ie bottled and not tap), so I’ve no idea whats given me the runs!

Not nice to have the belly gargle half way through a meeting…..or the constant fear that I might simply shart and end it all.

I am enjoying the suburi at the moment. 12 months ago, if you had said to me:

“Hey, Gibbo, next year you’ll be doing suburi almost everyday, and 300 of them, and you’ll be loving it!”

I would have said:

“Fuck off will I.”

But I AM loving it. It’s good, and cathartic. Just me and the shinai. It’s also helping me relax my cuts right now (which in turn is helping me relax my kamae), and is also some valuable time for me to think about my kendo in general.

But why?

Well, it’s bloody simple, actually. There are just no distractions. All you have to do is swing your shinai. After a while, the suburi start to do themselves, and you can really zone out and do some nice, relaxed, and sharp suburi. It’s also a perfect time to analyse things like my hikitsuke, my tenouchi, my shisei, it’s all there. Best 20 minutes ever spent! (“20 minutes?!” I hear you cry. Well yes, I like to take time, do it nice and slow, and enjoy myself. Like a good wank.)