UCL Lost Boys

Don’t they just say the damdest of things.

Last week on Friday night at the power station, Watanabe sensei gave me a 60 second snippet that I’m fairly convinced is the key to pretty much all the physical issues in my kendo at the moment (that I have noticed, anway). It’s bizarre, but this one little thing has tied together two other pieces of fairly important advice that I was having trouble getting to grips with.

1) Stop raising my toes. (Yamamoto sensei) It’s a bad habit I have, and in canny opponents let’s them know I’m coming, almost telegraphing, because it’s done during and/or just before my preliminary footwork prior to an attack. And I couldn’t stop doing it.

2) Cut from the hips more. (Koseki Taro) Just to get faster and have better distance, as well as make the cut more upright (and therefore look nicer, and making the shinpan’s job a little easier too).

3) Slide your foot forward as you pressure the centre (The ubiquitous “Floating Foot”!). (Watanabe Sensei). He then went on to demonstrate it a few times, and it clicked a little as to why it works. I tried it out in my next jigeiko, and I’m fairly sure I got it right because a) I hit the guy using it and b) the only thing Watanabe sensei said while watching it was to the other guy. That means I’m at least off to a good start.

I also watched a DVD of last years All Japan champs, and sure enough, there it is, plain as the nose on yer face. Now that I know what I’m looking for it is, anyway! What was also quite noticeable was that the foot rarely went higher than a few inches of the floor, and the speed and economy of movement it was done with was generally amazing. But it’s there, and it’s the thing that I can see that will have a big effect on what I am doing, so I reckon that for the next few months concentrating on integrating this in to my kendo will be a good move forward.

Even now, when I think about it, I get pinned by peope who can do this well, as it’s a good set up in to pressuring the other guy to do something, the noticeable presence of “some” motion, but not immediately, that moment, knowing what’s going to happen.

And why is it a good thing? Very simple, because you are already moving and can still maintain your kame and therefore your flexibiltiy of attack or reaction. Like I said, I’m converted. For me this was another one of those moments where what you are told basically fills in the missing gap that you have been looking for for the longest time, and now I’m not going to let it go! After thinking about it for a great part of the weekend I can see that it’s not going to be “oh, that’s it!” and suddenly I’m doing it, it’s a big job of hard work, but it’s one where I can definately see the advantages, where it ties in with other advice I’ve had and now serves to help that stuff also make sense and be clearer, and one where I can see countless examples at the top level, so I can try out lots of different things to tailor my own approach.

I am a very happy man.

Isn’t it great when personalities get in the way of work and make a decent attempt at destroying your business model? Anyway, enough of work….

So, I’ve been working on my big intangible problem a lot recently, and I think I’m making proper head way. The main thing I think has been that in the process of working on relaxing myself more into keiko, I have allowed my opponents to also settle down too much, making things like shoubu a long pratracted affair, less tactical and more about the first to make a mistake. While taking advanatage of a lapse in concentration is obviously a good thing, locking down and waiting for it isn’t.

Rather than do that, I’ve been going back to what I consider a bit more of my grass roots kendo, and what I’m better at, ie piling on the pressure and forcing the mistake. The first results were pretty good actually, and a little experimentation here and there and obscene tiredness proving a few points has helpde big time.

The idea is a very basic one: insert a bit mroe genki in to what I’m doing to essentially speed up the whoel process. Put more pressure on, but not so much pressure that the opponent locks down themselves, because then we are back at who loses concentration first loses, but pressuring then allowing them back in, then pressure some more, see what they do, let them in, then pressure a little more and then smack them on the head. Sounds very simple, and it should be, but obviously the other dude isn’t a crash dummy. But things is definately on the move.

In the run up to the WKC I’ve also changed my focus of opponent as well. Until recently I’d been practising with a lot of teachers. They make less mistakes, so what you do has to be much more precise to force the opening. On the flip side they also don’t have the same physical work rate, which I believe has been a factor in this problem of mine. So, I’ve decided to go to the other end. I still practise with teachers, but am aiming for the more active ones, and the younger demographic, with the odd exception here and there. The thinking here is that if I’m going to be fighting young team members in Brazil, I should start now, and not in Sao Paolo. Again, it took a little getting used to to start with, re-adjusting to a kind of kendo that I’d drifted away from for about 2 months, but the results of blending the two together are finally starting to show through. Like I always say, kendo is great for oxymorons, and this concept that I’m working on right now of calm aggression is the big one!

Last weekend the bingo hall claimed a mighty first place in the heady heights of the Nakano ward local team taikai. Whilst this is not exactly the Police Championships it still felt good to grab a little gold, especially in Japan too. It’s worth nothing – not with sarcasm either, honest – that the general level was distinctly higher than the british national level team taikai too, which I never took first in, so I am pleased.

On the dull side, I had nothing to do! Every single match, including the final, was done before I had to do anything, so I never really got moving. I didn’t get crushed or anything silly like that, but it’s hard to motivate a morote-zuki when the team has sewn it up already for the 4th match in a row.

But still, gold is gold! And the ‘kan hasn’t won that competition for 8 years either, so the Big O was fairly pleased too!

It’s been a while, but I had a truly awesome keiko last night at the power station. It’s strange that they seem to happen when I feel like shit, but I’m not going to complain, though I will complain about feeling like shit:

Axel didn’t sleep until late, I’m stressed out by the idiot at work who thinks that giving Japanese applicants Japanese language job descriptions is a waste of time (he’s Japanese….go figure) and I’m STILL recovering from the arse end of the throat infection that I’m now convinced was a minor dose of influenza. In short, I’m not exactly at my  physical peak.

But last night was bizarrely special. 6 shoubu (ippon and sanbon) and I won 5, against Tokyo Electricity regulars and a Sougo Keibi regular too. What the fuck happened?!

So, on sunday Emi’s brother drove us to Ibaraki to see their sister and her family, and on the way back we were talking about kendo. One thing we spoke at length about is my own practise and what I’m doing. Basically, I’m generally happy with the way my keiko and kendo is going, I’m stronger than I was when I got to Japan, considerably so looking back on some old videos, and I feel very happy with the general shape of my kendo, but I still feel there is something vital, something fundamental missing. The bigger issue is that I can’t put my finger on it, I don’t know what it is, and it is this that I am chasing, as I explained to my brother in law.

I’d love to be able to explain it better, but to be able to do that would be to know what it is that is missing. I can pinpoint examples of when I’ve known it is there (or not, as the case may be), but I can’t pinpoint the reason, and although the examples are different, both in terms of content and circumstance, I am convinced that they are caused by this one over-riding “missing element”. The search is on.

Last night at the power station though, I felt like I took a step towards this mystic something that is lacking. Kendo is great for oxymorons, calm aggression and what have you, but that is definately what I felt like last night. And add to that, everything appeared to be working, and working well. Whether it was my range of techniques (I had debana men, degote, morote zuki, kaeshi dou, osae kote all working very well) or giving and taking  of opportunities, or controlling my opponents and piling on the pressure, or letting go of the pressure and picking them off when they came, no matter what it was, apart from one blip (when I lost to their captain, 2-1…..) it felt effortless. I was indestructible. And I truly felt it as well. This is the first time since coming to Japan that I have been so in control of what I was doing, and so able to dictate the pace of my opponents kendo. And I want more. I can still remember how I “felt” while it was going on, and I still rememebr the processes that were going on inside my head, what and why I was doing it, and what my reasoning was behind it all, and I believe that a good part of understanding this missing element is in this, and making better use of it.

It’s a good start for sure, so I just need to keep at it. This is, for me, one of the most significant steps forward in “the big picture” of my kendo that I feel that I’ve had in a while.  A proper example of me, both mentally and physically, doing exactly what I want to. Just got to keep it up…if this what happens when I feel a mess, what am I capable of when I feel good…?

As promised….

A Moose Knuckle’s Moose Knuckle?

Classy….

Someone else with cleft garbage.

And just to show that I’m all for equal opportunities:

Fnar. Hot Wheels indeed….

Heh…more hot wheels?

And finally an internet classic for you:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner.

I recently came across this gem of a website:

Minneapolis Life in the Cubicle

It’s the new failblog. Failblog gets a regular daily read because I like viewing stupidity. This new one gets it because it contains photo’s like this:

Check out the guys moose knuckle, it’s like his garbage has been cleft in twain! More alarmingly, this fella bears a passing resemblance to my dad.

Little sites like this are the joy of the internet as far as I’m concerned. I’m going to compile a hideous library of Camel Toe and Moose Knuckle and inflict them upon you all.