"..OOPS" moments

[Aoi]

I've never started a thread before.. how exciting!
Anyway, I just feel that the forum is gettin a little "agressive" these days, so lets go back to our fundamentals.... our "oops" moments when we were still young. (though I do consider myself still reasonably young in the kendo world)
Most of the things I've listed here are (should be) unintentional, all based on my personal experiences and/or what my collegues have experienced. Some may be pretty bad, some may be the ones which you can just laugh at.
I'm not trying to start a massive argument here, though some people may be offended from the contents, and I apologise for that now. I just want to make it clear here that my point is, "everyone makes mistakes". Lets share our experiences and have our miniture "confessions" ;)

[Danny Boy]

How about...drawing your instructor in an individual's tournament...and then putting up the shinai to hip _before_ bowing ?

[nodachi]

Usually I am very neat about folding my hakama and gi. One day, I was very tired and so I figured for once I would just half arsed fold it up and redo it at home. Little did I know, stern sensei was leaning over me watching what I was doing, and the instant I was about to hide my lazy work and sneak away, I hear a not very happy ggrrrr sound from him as he is shaking his head no no no. Lesson to be learned, even if it is a one time thing done out of tiredness or laziness, and even if it is something as simple and mundane as folding your gear...

Don't let your guard down (also do it right the first time).

I am usually very good with my gear and treat it with much much respect, but I got burned on my one moment of weakness... damn!

:)

[kendokamax]

During one mokuso one year half ago.

In our club (in canada), there is always someone screaming MOKUSOOOOOOOOO out loud at the beginning of it. One time the person,s voice went completly wrong. I thought it was quite funny. So I was trying hard not to laugh during the mokuso, but my friend near me was also trying not too laugh..but we couldnt keep it quiet..so during the quiet mokuso you could heard 2 idiots having laugher. even thought we tried hard to shut up ..

[aru-ma]

has anyone said "onegaishimasu" when bowing before entering a shiai-jo? I did it once and someone told me thats pretty much sayin "please kick my ass"

but the worst must be passing gas during mokusou or rei, I know this has been discussed before but it makes a really interesting "oops" moment.

[sjp]

About 18 months ago i was watching a grading in the UK. My friend was trying for shodan and doing quite well in his keiko when suddenly he stops and raises his hand.
I thought whats up with the soft sod?
The floor manager comes across and Simon calmly says 'I think ive broken my toe'
Looking down his big toe was bent over at 90 degress and the bone was just sticking out of the top joint. Not really a lot of blood though.
This was definetly an 'Oops moment'
I told him he was a malingering bastard and was on a charge for self inflicted injury.

[KhawMengLee]

Hmmnnn....first one, more funny than anything was the wrap-up of training. Mokuso just finished so imagine, "clap!" sensei ni rei, bowed to the senseis and said "arigato gozai...etc". The "clap" shomen ni rei, turned to the shomen, bowed and said "arigato....etc" Totally silent dojo, everyone could hear...oops!

The second incident was a no-no. Was visiting a rival dojo. Training just finished and we all lined up. There was no person above godan so no one was on the sensei row. The order was given "seiza" and I just collapsed into seiza and immediately began to take off my men. It wasn't until I was wiping my face with the tenegui that I noticed the entire line looking down to my direction...oops! the sensei in charge had not yet order men's off.

[Phlebas]

First time in a hakama, I fell flat on my face climbing the stairs out of the changing room! I hadn't even made it to the practice floor yet. : (

Now I hike up my hakama and trot up the stairs like a southern belle at a garden party... and people STILL watch to see if I'll come crashing down again, but I keep disappointing them!

[Abe Froman]

This one has a double edge of embarassment...

I am a practicioner of "free kendo", that is kendo without underwear.

We were finishing up practice with kirikaeshi. I was recieveing first. First back and fourth went ok. On the second one, my partner stepped on my foot before excecuting a particularly hard tai atari, so I went flying, feet pointed almost straight up in the air and everything. The thump of my body hitting the floor fixed everyone's gaze on me. I sat up and wondered why everyone looked like they were about to bust out laughing. Well, the left leg of my hakama decided to fall all the way down to my waist, exposing my berries and most of my twig.

It's been 6 months and I still get jokes about it. Grr.

[KhawMengLee]

hmmnnn...so you go commando then, eh?...scary:eek:

[Old Warrior]

I had one tonight. In an interclass competition I went for a straight Muri cut (men) and was right on. With a loud ki hap (kiai) I clearly yelled out "Son Mok" (Kote). The shimpan raised his hand for me and trying his best to hold back the laughter, as he said "This is Muri (pointing to his Head) and this is Son Mok (pointing to his wrist) - point good".

What can I say, I think in English.

[sminki]

Hey OW, have you guys gotten that new instructor (younger guys w/ glasses) from Ohio to start teaching there yet?

[Old Warrior]

Yes, he's been here a few weeks and I like him. But, since I don't speak Korean - I missed the introduction. I don't know his name, rank or anything (tell me what you know). I can tell you he does a few things that are helpful. First, if he thinks your cut is short he gives you his juk do to hit at the correct impact point. Once, when I was fading in suburi, he stood in front of me and let me hit his juk do so the rebound from the impact made the exercise easier. Also, since he knows I can't count in higher numbers in Korean, he gives me hand signals to let me know how many I've done (at last week's test, it helped me do the 300).

He doesn't appear athletic, but from what I can see, he is fast and has nice form. I have yet to see him in hogoo, squared off with Master Seong. I have seen others who, compared to me, are teriffic, but Master Seong, makes them look no better than me; which is kind of scarey. BTW, he was the referee in my "oops moment".

[sminki]

Yah, I thought he was the referee in the"oops" moment. Don't worry about yelling out the wrong body part too much. The fact that you kiai loud and clear is the important thing. Let's see, what do I know about him...

He is a 4 dan who graduated from a Korean university with a great kendo team. I believe he was a member of the team, but I don't know if he was in the "A" team or "B" team or so forth. I have faced off against him once at your dojo. I thought he was very good. Nice guy too. Different style from master Seong. Due to his age and experience, he probably doesn't have the depth that master Seong has, but that's to be expected. I agree with your statement about master Seong's ability to make people look like they don't know what they're doing and it IS quite scary.

I think that the exercise of holding shinai/jookdo to receive hayasuburi is generally a very good idea (this is my personal opinion). That way, you develop a good feel of correct strike as opposed to tensing your shoulders and putting too much muscle into it and "axing" or not coming down enough with the strike and "fading", which defeats the purpose of hayasuburi.

[Kiki]

It was my second or third keiko in bogu. We started jigeiko, I began sonkyo, lost my balance and fell on my ass, feet going in the air as I rolled back, which made me laugh :D and embarrassed my sensei and the head sensei who turned around at all the commotion. :eek:
Since then, I am much more conscious when doing sonkyo.

PS Guess I wont be saying "onigaishimasu" any more either - thanks

[sminki]

well, at least you had the "be careful during sonkyo" lesson before your promotion test day. it would be bad if you fell when you're about to start jigeiko for the promotion test...

[Kiki]

Don't I know it! ...or beginning a shai
A nightmare for sure.

[Charlie]

Did the dude that broke his toe pass?

Seems we fart a lot around here...

[Old Warrior]

Did the dude that broke his toe pass?

Yes, he's now a well respected toedan.

[Sharpie]

March of this year I was challenging for nidan in Glasgow's fair city, I was working through some kata in the training room when John Hepburn sensei came in and suggested we nidan candidates get ready. I went over to where I had left my bogu and there it was... GONE! 3 minutes from grading and I got no armour! Turns out that my dojo-mate had picked up my men/kote by mistake (we have a club tenugui) and had gone off to challenge for shodan. Obviously I couldn't call her out as she was about to step before the panel.
As it turned out the panel understood and gave us a minute to swap between her grading and mine, but how she managed to do kendo in my armour I'll never know - I'm a big bloke and she's quite small.
So my bogu graded twice that day... didn't pass though. Oh well, next time eh.

[ken to kokoro]

how about my hakama falling down during warm ups?

[xvikingx]

One of the little kids in my dojo let a rather loud one fly during mokusou. I almost bit through my cheek trying not to laugh.

[Himura. Kenshin]

I think this happens to someone at some point during their kendoka years.
I'm only a beginner and not been doing kendo for too long a time however here is my oops moment !

We were practising fumikomi men with someone holding the shinai and we each lined up to hit the handle part of the shinai applying fumikomi men.

What happened today was just the most embarrasing thing lol.....I'm sure there's more to come hehe....

Well, all prepared, in Chudan no Kame.....shouting out AI.....and MEN....I tried to hit the handle with my shinai but woosh, I didn't hear any slap, just a woosh !

What happened there ? er hum. ..I missed my target ! it was an air hit ! how embarassing ! red faced.. ....hehe.....its all part of the fun lol.

[gdane1989]

We were practicing kendo... And I ended up with the most obnoxious little kid, We both attacked at the same time, It was his turn. 'nuff said.

[Infinity]

farting is a part of zanshin...

[Washington]

First class with hakama on.. do opening commands and everyone stands up and I try to and fall over side-ways... my feet were inside and I had pinned myself to the floor and couldn't get up :redface:

[ace]

well when me and my bro where in the state kendo kata comp we won the first 2 events then on the 3rd my bro smiled at me then i started to laugh and then he started and this went all the way through to 5th kata at which we finished needless to say we lost and only came 2nd

[taganahan]

my oops moment was during a shiai-keiko. it was, i think my 3rd time doing shiai keiko so i didn't know the terms used that well. when time ran out, my sensei called out yame. so we stopped cause it was over. when got down to sheath his shinai, i attacked his men. how embarassing. thus ends my oops moment.


~taganahan

[Old Warrior]

my oops moment was during a shiai-keiko. it was, i think my 3rd time doing shiai keiko so i didn't know the terms used that well. when time ran out, my sensei called out yame. so we stopped cause it was over. when got down to sheath his shinai, i attacked his men. how embarassing. thus ends my oops moment.~taganahan

I had a similar one. In Korean "a tie" is pronounced "begin". Needless to say, the action was stopped in my match because time ran out and my bout was over. The director yelled "begin" - AND I DID. At first they thought I was a bloodthirsty old fart sore loser, but when I explained they laughed.

[Lloromannic]

About three weeks before I was put in Bogu I was in the boguless beginners class. Everyone is having trouble wiith hitting Do. Do has always been my best kihon. So sensei says "that's not how you do it" and she points to me and says "you do nice Do, show them" I nearly had a stroke from the fear and shock of her saying that, so I approach her slowly and nervously. I lift my hands, bring them down and... I whack her on the breasts with a very hard Do. She managed to stay standing and act normal though at the end she almost collapsed. That was the moment I started being friends with her. :smiley:

[nalogg]

A couple weeks ago I was late getting home from work and heading out to kendo, so i grabbed some leftover noodles in the fridge and scarfed them down cold, then I chugged a coke 100% and headed out the door in a big rush....

Needless to say i was gassy at practice.

We do this thing where we all line up and use continuous footwork to repeatedly cut men of like 4 sensei in a row.
It got around to my turn and on the last cut i accidentally let one escape (gas).

LUCKILY my kiai was so loud that it covered up the sound... i looked back at the line and saw no amused/weirded faces... so nobody must've heard.
Chalk one up for the importance of strong kiai!

[Sakabatou]

Hmm.. Thats happened to me in martial arts before... but my kiai was loud enough to make it inaudiable. Anyways, another "oops" moment.. is another martial arts one.. I was practicing one of my kicks and I had gotten the perfect high, perfect everything, it was the best kick you could see, just to all of a sudden *THWOMP* land chest-down on the ground.. it was LOUD too... all me and my friend could do was laugh.. it was funny. It was so noticable.. I was a bit emberassed and dissapointed I missed the kick's landing.. lol

[nalogg]

I was practicing one of my kicks and I had gotten the perfect high, perfect everything, it was the best kick you could see, just to all of a sudden *THWOMP* land chest-down on the ground.
Once me and a friend were early to karate and we were trying all those "movie kicks" (you know... the ones that are not practical, but made up for movie showmanship) on the punching bag. anyways i tried to do a "double dragon" kinda hurricane kick, and my foot got caught in the chains on the top of the bag and i got hung upsidedown and then dropped on my head.

I hope i didn't brain my damage!

NYAAARGH!

[Nanbanjin]

Putting on men but forgetting to put on my do first. Happened a couple of times, but I've always realised before getting hurt.
Like sometimes when you put on your hakama before you put on your keikogi. You know something's not right but for a brief moment you just can't quite work out what it is.

[DanDan]

i've never done any of those...but i did trip and fall forward when i was doing the backwards fumikomiasi thing...-_-;

[DanDan]

i remember a guy @ practice didnt tie his hakama tight enough so it came undone and was starting to fall off but no one really noticed until one of the seniors pointed it out

[Sakabatou]

Oh... one other martial art day.. I put my pants on inside-out.. you could tell because the texture looked a bit different.. and the blue on the leg was brighter (I was in Leadership.. a thing you could get nominated/sign up for if you were a "better" MA person.. *shrugs* now they let anybody do it, but you gotta pay $400+ either way, and another $60 a month on top of the already-$100 a month.) but yeah.. lol I was all like "e.e shut up....I know....." every time friends would snicker or nag me for it. lol

[Ezmarelda]

I have one of the all time greatest embarassing kendo moments. I had been in bogu for about 3 weeks and it was my first times being motodachi in kirekaishi. I did not have my own bogu yet so I was using the old funky dojo bogu. My sensei was doing kirekaishi on me and on about his 4th hit I fealt something moving inside my men. So I started freaking out, tore off my kote (still attatched to the shinai) and riped my men unceremoniously from my head and threw it on the floor yelling "Oh my god! Bug! In MY MEN! BUG IN MY MEN!". So my sensei is looking at me like, 'ok this girl has lost her damn mind' and I am hyperventalating because there was a bug in my men. All this right in the middle of kirekaishi in front of the whole dojo.... but I did go back to practice (after furiously banging out my men) Needles to say I bought my own bogu soon after that.

[Twobitmage]

the farting thing...

thats all i'm gonna say about that

[Sakabatou]

Hm.. lets see if I can scrounge another one up, this topic is getting interesting! .. ah. Its sorta an oops/ouch moment..but in martial arts, me and my close friend Rob were sparring against eachothyer (Rob is a tank, bareley anybody can surpass him in sparring.. he went against the sensei once and almost won lol but that was a while ago).. so me and him are sparring and I threw a crescent kick (basically your leg follows a rainbow shape across the opponent).. and he came right in when I was at the peak of the crescent kick with a normal side kick.. hit me right in the spot... I fell down, my hands between my legs in pain (he hit HARD)... I was laughing though, it was hilarious.. I felt woozy/pain after, so I ended up sitting out for the rest of sparring..
...
But that was hilarious! I just get pounded by a foot right in the groin and I fall down laughing.. its one of those comical moments.. Everybody laughed, because it hurt, but it was bearable (you learn to get used to pain in some martial arts) lol and it was just so funny...

[Lloromannic]

But that was hilarious! I just get pounded by a foot right in the groin and I fall down laughing.. its one of those comical moments.. Everybody laughed, because it hurt, but it was bearable (you learn to get used to pain in some martial arts) lol and it was just so funny... I think it comes from the surprise of what has happened. I once got hit in the groin playing cricket (with no pads) and I just stood there laughing, I couldn't even fall down.

[Stephen]

Well, this didnt actaully happen to me but has to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen in kendo; We were at a grading with almost everyone in the state present as one of the head Australian sensei were present. Due to these guests, everyone obvioulsy wanted to leave them with a good impression of kendo in Perth..with this in mind one of our sempai who was helping out with the grading had come over to quietly remind us of how we're expected to hold our shinai while waiting and how we should conduct ourselves in repectful manner etc...Twenty minutes into the grading, our sempai had just finished demonstrating what the grading pannel wanted the group to do when all of a sudden he starts yelling "Fu*k, Sh!t...etc etc as he proceeded to jump up and down while banging his shinai on the floor...everyone looked on in disbelief (I personaly thought he'd lost it) as this went on until one sensei finally spoke up and asked if wverytihng was alright (I'm sure he was trying not to laugh)...our sempai, looking rather embarassed, now acting a little more rationaly, went on to explain he'd trodden on a bee which had stung his foot....

it was the hardest grading Ive ever had to do as I was almost in tears with laughter and struggled to concentrate after that.


(Btw; if the sempai im referring to ever happens to read this, i do apologise, but it really was funny:) )

[Sakabatou]

mm, I could see the comedy in that.. lol..
Ah, another funny moment due to sparring:

Another time, me and my friend Rob again were sparring.. he decided to play around.. instead of the normal tank-technique.. he just roared while lunging at me.. I yelled in fright and jumped out of the way out of the ring.. totoally didnt expect it (this was all before I became not so weak.. lol so dont think I'd be afraid of that now) lol but it was hilarious.. I started laughing along with anybody..

[Mikeyprime]

It was a cold day. I was putting on my hakama and keiko gi. I decided to leave my socks on until i had put all my bogu on because the floor was so cold.

After i tied my do, i walked onto the dojo floor wearing my socks.

[nalogg]

But that was hilarious! I just get pounded by a foot right in the groin and I fall down laughing.. its one of those comical moments.. Everybody laughed, because it hurt, but it was bearable (you learn to get used to pain in some martial arts) lol and it was just so funny...
I think everyone who's practiced karate has taken a mae-geri to the nadsticles once or twice...

i find the snap kicks hurt more than the thrusts... because the snaps leave a stinging sensation.

[asian_knight]

Oops moments....
Well let me tell you something I saw in our mudansha tournament. There was two shia-jo. I was on the other shiai-jo and I looked to the other one to see how the match was doing. I saw this guy attck ruthlessly, and when he was doing a hiki waza, Im not sure really happen, maybe he got off balance or his foot got caught in his hakama. But anyway, when he was retreating, he trip. He fell on his back ( I know its not good to make fun of someone when a disaster happen), but what made it funny was he did a little flip to recover. His feet was way up in th air and use the momentum to flip himself and got up. The shinpan had to stop the match and told him to calm down.

For me, well my oops moment happen in a shia too. It was a team tournament. The other team had four and we had five. I was taisho, and I didnt have to go agaisnt anybody. I tied my men, and pick up my shinai. When I was about to step into the shia-jo, the shinpan gave me a hand signal. I was wonderin what he was saying, then I looked down. I forgot to put my kote on. LOL. I bet the shinpan just trying not to laugh, or if they did, they probably put there hea on the side and did it. That was a good lesson learn.

[Sakabatou]

Reminds me.. .tournoments, an oops moment would probobly be for sparring (wow.. every funny moment I've posted mostly related to sparring) well, whenever we'd have to go back to our starting positions, some of the people would forget to start behind the line.. and the judge was a funny guy, so he's all "...... heyy.... behind the line <_<" lol it was just funny...

[DanDan]

o man...today....i was doing hiki-men and the floor was kinda sticky so my foot got stuck and i fell flat on my back, shaking the whole dojo...so embarrassing...

[Miyu]

o man...today....i was doing hiki-men and the floor was kinda sticky so my foot got stuck and i fell flat on my back, shaking the whole dojo...so embarrassing...

Don't worry, I did that once in the dojo in front of the entire class while I was doing kakari-geiko. I had just started kendo at the time. Besides, that's all part of the initiation into kendo :wink:

Though, one time there was a Japanese Sensei who visited the dojo and started speaking to me in Japanese in front of the entire class. Now, I'm Chinese and don't understand any Japanese except for basic stuff so I just sort of had this deer in the headlights look as he kept on talking to me. It wasn't until he asked "Do you speak Japanese?" that I shyly said "no." Probably what made that experience worse was that it was in front of the entire class and they all laughed afterwards. But it's okay because he knows I'm not Japanese, though he will occasionally forget. :confused2

[Kaoru]

Actually, I have two.

The first happened this Spring. We were doing Mokuso and my stomach made this awful sound that was loud enough for me to hear,(And still am not sure what made it do that. It wasn't making hungry sounds. But, then again, I hadn't eaten for a couple hours. *shrug*), and it happened more than once, which made me want to laugh. I tried so hard to contain myself too. But, on about the third time it did it, I just doubled over laughing while covering my face and tried hard to stop laughing, because I was so embarrassed and thought for sure all could hear that noise, and I just could not contain my composure anymore. I am sure they all thought I was just nuts! Nobody said a thing, not even sensei. I was very very glad to be ignored, to say the least! :D

The second thing was last Spring again, when me and my sensei and his wife were visiting my current dojo.(St. Paul dojo was visting Minnehaha dojo, that is.) Well, ealy that morning at our dojo's practice, I had just learned Fumikomi. Well, we get to Minnehaha dojo, and we started practicing, and later, we were doing Men-uchi. Well, I decided to try my newly learned Fumikomi with a motodachi from that dojo whom I was paired with in the rotation. So, I took off, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the floor looking up at sempai feeling very stupid. I still haven't worked out how I managed that one, it happened so fast. :D I just got up and didn't say a word exept sorry, and tried again, hoping not to be noticed. So embarrassing...

Kaoru

[Fenix]

hmm happened yesterday...i havnt been to practice for like 2 weeks. Anyway, it was at the end and we were doing rei...on the first one, i started to say sensei, domo arigato....then oh crap..heh not yet...im pretty sure everyone noticed since the room is so quiet..but no one said anything.

[Vortex]

During keiko I had to play against the one kid whos about 14 and if he is around 110 pounds thats alot. Both at chudan, we both go at the same time, me for kote and him for men and he didnt stay centered and we clashed. I lift up the shinai for men and as I look under my kote for him where he should be, hes gone. I look left, I look right, left again and hes gone. I look behind me, not there. I finally look down and hes layed out like he got hit by mike tyson. The only thing we can think of was when we clashed my shoulder went into his chest and I knocked him right over. I felt so bad.

[Serenity]

My embarrassing moments: :p

-Once we had a practice with our neighbor’s dojo. We were doing fumikomi men. It was my turn. I don’t know how it did it, but I managed to catch my shinai in the shidachis men himo. And I don’t need to say, who the shidachi was … the instructor (from the neighbor’s dojo). That was so embarrassing. :emb:

-Lately we were preparing for a tournament, so we did a lot of sparing. I didn’t feel good that day, so I wasn’t really concentrated during ji-geiko. My opponent was a real strong sempai. In one moment my thoughts flew away, he goes for makiotoshi and in the next second my shinai flew through the sky 5 m away. :eek: Of course, in the second, my shinai got wings, he scored huge men … after he scored, I could pick up my shinai. I was so angry, because I did let this happen. :disapp: That’s my most embarrassing kendo moment (so far). :emb:

Serenity :wink:

[Richardtheweird]

This is my first post so I thought I'd make it a good one. In the short time I have done Kendo I have managed this About ten times. I have gone for a kote and ended up with my shinai stuch up my opponents sleeve and I don't know how I've done it.

[Gerald Audette]

I've got 2...one mine, and one a club-mate's

My club-mate's "oopppss" moment was during her ikkyu grading. We had blue tape on the floor to indicate center. She goes through with kirikaeshi and keiko fine. Unfortunately she and her partner got on the opposite sides at the end. So she walks back to her side in front of the judges in a half bow all the while saying "I'm so sorry. I seem to have lost my blue line." The whole dojo erupted in laughter, judges included. She was soooo embaresed. But, at least she was polite! We didn't let her live it down until she passed shodan!

Mine...well I tripped over my hakama during hayasuburi. I was rather stunned, and actually re-injured my left shoulder from a previous injury in the event. However, several clubmates thought I might have really hurt myself (thank goodness I didn't). I can laugh at it now, but it was really embarassing at the time.

Oh yeah...and the gas thing in moksou. :wink: