UCL Lost Boys

So, what AM I going to be working on in the next 6 weeks……..

I’ve been having some good practises recently. If you read this drivel on a vaguely regular basis you will know that one of my arch rivals is the captain of the power station team. Well I finally beat the fucker last week. 2-1, admittedly, but that is an enormous step forwards, because being able to beat him was a bench mark for improvement that I had set myself. Of course, it will mean fuck all if I don’t do it again, so consistency here is key.

I’ve also generally had some awesome practises recently. My general posture is continuing to improve, and my attacks are a far better “shape” than before too. Combined this means that things are more relaxed and finally (after more than 10 years…) starting to feel natural, which means my kendo is coming out again (not of closet. Not ready for that).

So the current emphasis, as well as just generally continuing to work on the above and my other points (good, concise footwork, not moving my hands, fully extended cutting), is Seme.

I practised with Yanai sensei two months ago (I have been bizarelly unable to get the time to do so again recently) and the main thing he said is that I need to be more active and pro-active, ie seme. So I’ve been working on upping my work rate in regards to applying pressure on the dude in front of me. It’s working after a fashion, and I am generally happy with the direction, so it’s really about fine tuning.

The combination of not moving the hands and some good pressure works wonders too. You stop the guy from coming (he’ll just impale himself – translated = I’m finally understanding the fundamentals of chushin a little more now….) and when you go in, if you keep them there as you start your attack, they have less options in their defence, because you don’t give them any. Set up over the “long game” ie not just diving in for a fast powerful men but setting up the decisive ippon, creates some very useful opportunities, that I am again finally beginning to be able to exploit. For instance, my debana kote, after a 2 odd year hiatus (ie when I came to Japan and reached the conclusion that I had to reconstruct my entire kendo….) is making a welcome return, and my tsuki has suddenly turned into a real weapon too.

So that’s it for now. More over the course of the next 6 weeks as I start to tune things more…..

I got the email I’ve been waiting for recently, I’ve been picked for the National team to represent the country in Hungary, at the European Kendo championships, in April this year. 6 weeks to go……

Now normally, you’d get me jumping up and down, giving it the spiel and laying out what my focus is going to be between now and then. I’ll do that, but I’ve got to say something first.

This is the first time in 6 years that I have been asked to pay to represent great Britain.  It’s not the first time, so you’re not going to get indignation and outrage from me (just in case your were hoping for a curse-ridden rant!), but I had really thought that we’d moved on from asking people who are going to, essentially, be the international face of the association, to pay for the responsibility as well.

I will always be happy and honoured to bear the flag on my zekken. I always have been, and it’s been a part of me and my kendo for all but a single year (the first!) of my kendo life. That’s a total of 9 years, and being a member of this team is one of THE most important things in my life to me. And I will go to Hungary and give my very being for the team, to take us as far as we can. I truly believe that we are capable of winning this competition this year, and I will be dissapointed not to be in the final, of both the teams and indies. But asking the  guys to pay is, just, a sad return, I guess.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the support that the squad, and myself personally, have recieved from the BKA, but this regression back to the old days, of essentially having the team that can afford to go, and not the team that can win the thing, is a potential step back to the days when team members who were stronger got left behind in favour of team members who are richer, and such potentially good results were left floundering in a sea of bank balances and pay slips.

Don’t get me wrong, this is by no means a rant, in any way really. At the end of the day, of course, I’ll go, I WANT to go, and I’ll pay my bit, and I’ll give absolutely everything that I have and I am possibly capable of giving, as I always have done, because it really is this important to me, and I really hate to lose. But a little part of me will be sad inside that, despite the significant improvements in the last 3 years (the team got medals for the first time in something like 10+ years in Portugal, then repeated that in Finland, cementing our rise and place among the top teams)  the value of the national team to the association has dropped to this point.

Not angry, not even dissapointed, just a little bit sad. It’s not really all about the money, I can justify that to the Mrs (she knows how important this is to me as well!), it’s more about the sentiment and meaning that this represents.

Get in there!

Get, The Fuck, in there!

I are ordering a new set of bogu this week. Valentine’s day negotiations went well, which means that if they make it quick I can take it to the European champs too….

Pics when it comes!

But I am slowly trying to convince my wife to allow me to buy some more armour (set number 6)….update soon…..if it’s worth it, that is!

Every time I go to Shinjuku for keiko recently, a new security guard asks me if I’m going to play basketball. It’s not:

“What are you here for?”

“Kendo”

No, it’s:

“Are you here for the basketball?”

And it’s every single time. How does that work…? Because I am tall? Has he not noticed that the entire basketball group is all chinese….? Or my shinai bag……?

Having done some major hansei after my idiocy over the new year, and gotten back into keiko and work (fucking work!) I polished off January with a small competition last sunday, the Jousai Goku (roughly translated as 5 wards west of the castle).

Involving (as the name suggests) 5 wards, Nakano, Shinjuku, Suginami, Setagaya and Shibuya, with the hosting area allowed 2 teams. Sounds small? Think again, because it is 17 people per team, and each match lasts for closing in on an hour.

So how did it go? Well, another mixed bag. It helped cement the conclusion that much of my shiai issue is mental, and that with that sorted I can do well. I had a very average first shiai, where nerves made me stiff and unwilling to attack, then the polar opposite in the second shiai where I scored men from something that felt like slightly outside of to-ma and ended up on the other side of the shiaijo when I was done.  Basically, without the nerves I can keep the variety, focus and concentration of my normal keiko right at the front.

I was happy with how my kendo was technically (following on from the improvements I’ve been trying to make for a while now) so this is for me the last big hurdle before the Euros. If I am in the state of mind and condition that I was in the second shiai, and can maintain it.

Time to start researching this stuff again I guess….meh.  Anyone got any ideas?