I'm Doing A What Now???

[Newbie]

AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhhhh!!!!!! !!

I've been doing jo for two weeks. I'm grading in a month. Exactly a month. I've never done a grading before. I've been doing kendo for a year but haven't had the chance to grade.

Oh my god.

[bobdonny]

chill dude,

The big sensei dude would not have put you forward if he thought u weren't ready.

Have faith ;)

[MikeW]

Relax and practice.

[Newbie]

Not sensei, sempai. He just got his shodan in jo. He and his partner (who has unfortunately now gone to Japan) also came second in the last nationals for jo, which is very cool.

I know the whole 'just relax and get on with practise thing' and been told first grading in iaido, kendo and jodo is dead easy (one person put it as "rock up, wave your stick around, show proper respect and rei and you'll pass") but... well, does stop the butterflies. Thing is, we have a shodan for seitei jodo in Adelaide and that's it as far as I know so when you've got three senseis coming for a seminar that can grade people, you take the damn opportunity. There aren't many of us here that do jo and one of the guys organising the seminar that doesn't do jodo told me that because of that, it would be a waste for me not to grade.

*whimper*

You know though, what really surprised me was that the first time I did jodo, I was shown the first four, so that weekend (it was on a Friday) I practised the first four then my sempai told me just to do the first two and concentrate on getting them down properly. I started taking jo seriously cos my asthma's been too bad for kendo so whilst my dojo-mates have been doing kendo I've been doing jo. Because my sempai said to only do the first two, that's what I've been doing. I'm amazed that I can do the first two over and over again for over an hour and a half just on my own without getting bored at all. The guy I normally practise with when my sempai isn't there who knows a lot more than me (but still isn't graded and is a kendo nidan) also doesn't mind just doing the first two with me and I think he's getting a lot out of it even though he knows some of the kata and stuff.

I swear though I'll get out there and drop my jo in front of the senseis. *whimperwhimper*

[abryson]

Hi there newbie,

I am new to Iai and Jo, however I have done my share of gradings in karate. Important thing in any grading is to forget about the instructors panel, focus on your technique and your imaginary opponent, though you will have Shidachi(Uchidachi??) i would imagine.

If you make a mistake, try to continue without err'ing, if not possible then start fresh. Remain calm.. everyone who is there aside from your other peers doing their first grading has been there before, they know what you are going through.

Cheers,
Drew

[Budo Angel]

I've been doing jo for two weeks. I'm grading in a month. Exactly a month
What level grading are you doing after just 1 month ??? I'm shocked, its so fast. But I don't want to be assumptive...is it a low kyu grading...or ikkyu ?
Relax and practice
That too !! good advice, but after only 1 month ???!!

[Newbie]

Just gokyu (gokyu's lowest in jo, right). It's partly an opportunity thing. It's either that or try to get to the iaido/jodo nationals in January. However in July we'll have three senseis coming to give a seminar and do gradings.

Abryson - the first grading for jodo is just the first four kihon so no uchidachi.

There's a post miscellaneous events forum for the weekend :)

Unfortunately I've hit a snag - I discovered tonight that my third kihon (whassit called?) is craptacular. *whimper*

[Budo Angel]

Good luck, that explains everything.
Just gokyu (gokyu's lowest in jo, right)
I'm slight shocked Australia grade kyu grades - Britain does not. The first grading here is ikkyu (1 kyu).

[Aden]

Correction - the lowest grade in Australian ZNKR jodo is yonkyu. Yonkyu is (as Newbie correctly says) just kihon tandoku, kata enters the test at sankyu, from ikkyu the AKR examinations appear almost the same as the British Kendo Association examinations.

The yonkyu test is very straight forward and really an introduction to grading and an aknowlegement of membership, consisting of reiho honte/gyakute/hikiotoshi/kaeshitsuki run very similar to a kendo kyu grading with dojo steward calling out instructions.

Normally 6 weeks of practice (where Newbie indicates they will be by the end of July) is plenty of experience for yonkyu, especially if there is prior kendo experience so things like tenouchi and kikentaiichi are already present to a greater or lesser degree.

Don't panic if your hikiotoshi is currently craptacular - for the next couple of weeks continue to focus on your first two, and doing the last two slowly focussing on the gross motor side of things to give the visiting sensei enough to work on during the seminar weekend..

Do you have the ZNKR jodo manual and video available in Adelaide?

Aden Steinke
University of Wollongong Kendo Club
http://www.uow.edu.au/~aden

[Nakura]

Don't panic if your hikiotoshi is currently craptacular

Indeed! Especially considering hikiotoshi is one of the more difficult techniques to get right in jodo...but as bobdonny says, your sensei wouldn't have put you forward for it if he didn't think you were ready. My advice is just relax and focus on the techniques...gambatte!

[satsumaruma]

Unfortunately I've hit a snag - I discovered tonight that my third kihon (whassit called?) is craptacular. *whimper*


Arwen, if you are referring to the Tandoku Dosa, then it is called 'hikiotoshi uchi'.

To help, do you know the first two as Honte Uchi and Gyakute Uchi? If so then the above is correct; if not - it is not correct and i have no idea what you are on about.

And where is my Snotty,......weeps gently

[Newbie]

*hands Sats a hanky*

Grow up ya giant, shiney-headed pillock. BTW, ware the WWW. It's made its return. I'll blow me nose on ya prolly in the next couple days.

Yeah, I know honte and gyakute. It's all I've been doing for the last two weeks. Over and over and over and over again. :)

[pgsmith]

It's all in the attitude!
Thing is, we have a shodan for seitei jodo in Adelaide and that's it as far as I know so when you've got three senseis coming for a seminar that can grade people, you take the damn opportunity.
That is exactly correct. If you have three sensei coming in, you want to take advantage of any training from them you can get. Doing a grading is a golden opportunity to have all three watching you closely. They can give you a bunch of fantastic information on how you are moving and what you need to work on. Whether you pass or fail the grading is absolutely irrelevent. All you want to do is go out and do your best so that the sensei can all get a good look at just how you perform. At the after party (there should always be an after party!) make sure you buy the sensei drinks and ask for their honest evaluation. Good stuff to be had there man! Good luck with it.

[Maro]

Australia seems to be very lucky with the size of the Jodo Community here. I hope to join it in time :happy:

[Newbie]

We've only got three here now (including myself and one other guy who's ungraded at this point) that August has left.

Argh, last night's training was a right-off. After looking forward to Friday night training all week (can train till the cows come home and not have to worry about getting up for work the next day), I got a call from my sempai saying he'd slipped at work and screwed his already very dodgy knees. He had minimal mobility and had to work this morning (his job has him on his feet) so couldn't make it to training but kinda sorted out the hikiotoshi footwork over the phone. Not the best way of doing things but if he's better tomorrow we're gonna do some impromptu backyard training... though this weather bodes ill. But then, not long after starting, only about half an hour I started to feel really unwell so I sat down, made notes, watched kendo and timed jikeiko. Oh, and got a leg cramp in seiza. That's never happened to me before and my sodium levels should be fine, unless it was the cold from not moving about for a while. After they finished kendo myself and the other guy did some more jo but I went for less than an hour and only did honte and gyakute before my housemate came and picked me up. Today woke up feeling worse so no practise for me today, either. Dah. Head pounding. What a waste of a weekend that could've been spent training!

Ah well. Just have to go and watch Twilight Samurai instead.

Do you have the ZNKR jodo manual and video available in Adelaide?

Don't know. Have asked my sempai and I'll ask my other training partner. Between them they'll know if anyone here has it.

Don't know if there'll be an afterward drinking session - seminar's on Saturday and grading's on Sunday. Work the next day. Blah.

Australia seems to be very lucky with the size of the Jodo Community here. I hope to join it in time

Bugger that! Join it now! By the way, how many are there doing jo in Aus?

And Maro, do you know a girl called Melissa that does kendo and iaido? If so tell her Arwen says hi and ask her why she hasn't damn well emailed me yet.

[Maro]

Hi,

sadly, I don'y know Melissa.

Sorry!

[abryson]

Newbie,

Twilight Samurai - Great movie.. just watched it 2 nights ago.

I am intending on starting Jo shortly, however my sensei advised to wait a month after starting Iai, so as not to get too confused. So there are more of us popping up :)

How's the training going now? :cool2:

[Newbie]

Yeah, not too bad actually. Spent tonight getting better acquainted with hikiotoshi and kaeshi and trying to refine honte and gyakute. On Monday, sempai was very complimentary of the progress I made with hote and gyakute but I dunno, proof will be in the pudding I suppose. My sempai doesn't train on Wednesday nights (he has Western fencing) but I always sms him an update on the night's training :) I'm taking tomorrow night off cos his wife's away and he doesn't have a babysitter but Friday he does so instead of going to the dojo (he wouldn't finish work till training was nearly over) I'm going up to his place and training one on one (But don't tell His Majesty Lord High Sensei Kensen I'm having a night off! He's rife enough that I only train six days a week, not seven!). Probably do a little iaido too. Well, I'm picking up kneepads on the way up there. Last iai seminar I was at, I didn't have knee pads and the seminar was all weekend. I have learnt my lesson.

Sad thing is I have day surgery next Wednesday and wont be fit to train that night so that's a whole session gone a week and a half before grading!! Argh! At least it's a night when I train by myself and my sempai and training partner aren't there. Missing one of those would truly suck.

[Fudo-Shin]

Bugger that! Join it now! By the way, how many are there doing jo in Aus?


There is four regulars including 1 Sensei up in here in little Cairns. I too get the feeling that, per capiter, Jodo is thriving here in the land of Oz.

How many others are scattered around??

[Newbie]

Err...errr.. well, since August moved to Japan, myself, my training partner who's ungraded and our shodan. Umm.. that's it :nervous:

Hit a snag tonight training with sempai. Found out why I'm not honme (sp?) enough all the time, especially stuffing up my kaeshi tsuki. I don't have a terribly mobile lower back. In fact, I do chi kung every morning just so I can do kendo/iaido/jodo/whateverdo I'm doing that night/day cos I else I suffer from chronic lower back pain. Sempai moved my shoulders around to the correct position for kaeshi tsuki cos my shoulders were almost square facing the front and I'm currently sitting here with a nice warm wheatbag. Gonna do lotsa back exercises tomorrow before I practise, see if it helps. Afterall, grading's in two weeks and my hikiotoshi and kaeshi are far from adequate and I'm still not happy with honte and gyakute.

But getting back to the question, how many jodoka have you other guys got? Just curious, not really sure why :)

[Newbie]

Disaster. Strained muscle in my lower back. Recovery time is two/three days to two weeks. Grading and seminar is in two weeks. :(

[Aden]

Newbie

Bad news on the back - just be careful not to come back into training before you are ready - grading opportunities come around every year. It is not a race.

I think you are after the term hanmi - really ya ya hanmi, oblique angled with a line through the shoulders (and hips) rather than truely side on.

On the numbers, there are only @150 registered AKR jodo types running around (and in these insurance cover driven days registration is a pretty good indicator), though the number is growing fairly rapidly - there were under 50 back in 2000, probably more like 30.

We are still the smallest of the 3 arts in the AKR by a long way, iai is about twice as big and kendo about 5 times as big.

Fudo-Shin

You are very lucky being in Cairns - only a few dojo in Australia have instructors of Kuramochi sensei's level in seitei jo (and he is a very nice person as well which is a bonus).

Aden

[Newbie]

Yeah, under doctor and sempai's orders to do nothing but massage, stretch and relax until it's better. I'm planning on doing nothing at all this week and hopefully train all next week. Oh well, there's always theory.

And that's not a bad growth rate :)

[abryson]

Hows the back healing up Newbie?

[Newbie]

Well, I found out putting heat on it was a bad, bad thing to do so I've been icing it all week, haven't trained at all, been catching the bus to work instead of walking. Also had Wednesday off for day surgery so was able to just sleep and rest and ice it all day after I got home from the hospital (turns out I have a stomach ulcer. Yippee :( ). Today however, much, much better though still iced it a couple times at work cos I was filing a fair bit. Still going to rest it for the rest of the weekend, do some chi kung and see how I go training Monday night. Thursday I'll try and get a massage after work, ready for two eight hour days of training over the weekend.

[Fudo-Shin]

Fudo-Shin

You are very lucky being in Cairns - only a few dojo in Australia have instructors of Kuramochi sensei's level in seitei jo (and he is a very nice person as well which is a bonus).


Yeah...I couldn't agree with you more. We are very lucky to have Kuramochi Sensei, and in such an out of the way Town as Cairns too. He has somewhat pioneered Kendo, Iai and Jo around this area and these Budo are now quite healthy here, mostly due to his hard work. Hopefully before the year is out we can begin to learn some MSR from him also. He is an absolute fountain of experience in all the Arts under ZNKR and more.

How were the Nationals in Woolongong earlier this year?

[Newbie]

How were the Nationals in Woolongong earlier this year?

Heh-heh, just taking a break from watching them now ;) Wish I coulda been there but.. well, I wasn't doing Jo or Iai then. Hope to be there in Hobart though!

[Aden]

Fudoshin

Overall I thought the nationals went well - though as an organiser I didn't get much seminar floor time (@ 2 hours in each art....), but I did manage to do 1/2 an hour of jo with Kuramochi Sensei at one point - possibly the first time I had done so (he having always been several groups senior to me at the national seminars - I think he got yondan when I got ikkyu....).

Newbie

If thats August's DVD recording then I am the overweight one in the pale keikogi losing to Clare Chan in the Iaido Dan teams final.... not to be confused with Bob who will be in Adelaide next weekend for your seminar / grading who is the overweight one losing to Clare in the Iaido Dan individuals final shortly before.... Clare Chan 2 Wollongong Kendo Club 0 that day :).

Aden

[Newbie]

Yup, saw it. Very cool :)

Back's better but tonight kaeshi tsuke was inducing my asthma. Very weird, huh? But backs and asthma is often related. Still, I don't like to think of something inhibiting my ability to do jo, seeing as the reason I tried it in the first place was cos my asthma was too bad for kendo. Hmm.. I can't wait to get back to doing kendo and until I'm doing all three but I'm really glad my intro to jodo was during a time that I could utterly devote weeks and weeks to it without being distracted by anything else. Really gave me a chance to fall in love with the art! :D

[Newbie]

Passed :D

Actually, everyone who graded did! (woot)

[lucy]

:D Congratulations!! :D

[abryson]

yeah. grats and well done!

[Aden]

Congratulations, hopefully see you at the next Australian Jodo & Iaido Championships and Seminar in Hobart, (Mon 22 Jan - Sun 28th Jan. 2007).

Aden
University of Wollongong Kendo Club
http://www.uow.edu.au/~aden

[Newbie]

If I can get the leave. I thought it'd be easy but the boss is being unusually cagey about it..

Does anyone know the exact dates? The AKR website's a bit ambiguous on them.

[Newbie]

Got my leave approved from 19th-30th inclusive Jan. I figured this amount of time should surely be enough to ensure I can be in Hobart at the right time.. and with maybe a couple days of lounging at home before having to go back to work! ;)

[Nakura]

I know 'tis a bit late but congrats! :p

[Newbie]

It's never too late :) Thanks, man.

But oh! there's still so much wrong, still so much to work on and fix....!! And now I'm doing kendo again I'm trying to divide my time between iai, jo and kendo. Luckily iai and jo we usually do straight after kendo training so at least I don't have to divide the actual training days :)

[Aden]

Hi Newbie

Keep up the practice :). You have loads of time to work on problems (not that it ever ends)......

I travelled to Canberra to assist in the ACT leg of Lawrence Sensei's Iaido/Jodo seminar/grading trip to the smaller states last weekend,went well, had 6 people sucessfully grade in Jodo quadrupling the number of active graded seitei practioners in the ACT. (Had a few more than that grade in Iaido). Sensei was well pleased with the SA event the previous week.

Aden

[abryson]

Hi there,

Thats great to hear re: Raising the amount of practioners in Aus. Glad it all went well.

I had the priviledge also of training with Sensei Lawrence briefly but only in Iaido at Tojinkai. He was fantastic.

Cheers,
Drew