2004 NSW Championship

[Andoru]

Date:

Saturday, 4th December 2004



Venue

Five Dock Leisure Centre, cnr Queens Road & William Street, Five Dock



Today is the last say to register.



So who's going (to compete or to watch)? I'll be in the kyu category.

[Stephen]

Best of luck Androu, as well as to everyone else competing...hope you all fight well:) ...

You'll all have to post a rundown of the day for us lot in other states...can't wait to hear how it goes (maybe even pics?:-)

[Andoru]

Thanks Stephen! I'll be praying hard to the Kendo Gods that's for sure!

I'll definitely provide a rundownl! I don't have a digital camera but I'll try to steal from the others. ;)

Just noticed that the kyu category goes from 10.20am to 1pm!

[Stephen]

I'm sure you dont need to pray..its all in the head (i put way to much faith in positive thinking hehehehe)..

Sounds like a long day, but just think, you'll probably only have to win 6 or 7 matchs and the title will be all yours..easy (in theory that is)

Again, good luck - i wish i could be there but cant wait to hear all bout it:)

[Andoru]

Maybe more - in the last (smaller scale) shiai I had to win 6 to reach the final, and that's with 10 pools! T_T

[Chook]

I will be fighting in the kyu individuals as well.

I'm also bringing my digital video camera, and maybe a good-looking blonde girl. Still workin on that blonde tho... :D

[Chook]

Last year was a disaster for me... only my second shiai, and guess who faced the eventual winner? :(

I won a calendar in the raffle tho :D

[Andoru]

Is that the "Hot Chick in Bogu" calendar? :D

[Chook]

Hah! naw.... that'd be ok tho.

The 2003 AJKF Calendar.

[Chook]

The draw is up - http://www.nswkendo.org

[Martino]

:bored: another 5am start to get to sydney in time.

:p did I mention that I have my office christmas party Friday aftenoon/night.

:cool2: at least I am not in the Kyu comp anymore.
:ditsy: Five Dock Leisure Centre also has a pool dosen't it.

Andoru we are bring down 7 kyus

Chook as long as you enjoy yourself and
a: did your best and/or
b: learnt something

it is never a disaster :smiley: , just get your little black revenge book as start writing names in it :rolleyes:

[KHuang]

should I wear white or blue to the comp?

[Chook]

Not sure if there's any real difference one way or the other. Just bring your normal white. How are your pool matches?

Martino - Yeah, I did both. Last NSW Championships I got a total of 2 hours sleep the night before.... Was thinking of bringin a pillow onto the court :D

[Stephen]

Hey, if any of you guys see Hyung-Joon Kim (fighting in the dan individuals), could you please tell him everyone back in Perth sends their regards, and wishes him well for the comp (he used to train with us before moving to NSW)...If you dont get a chance its no probs, but figured there's no harm in asking, thanks:)

[Andoru]

No worries Stephen.

Dammit - I got Jayson on my side of the draw. I lost to him in the last shiai. :(

By the way, Nick Sordon will not be competing due to an unfortunate incident....

[Stephen]

Thanks Androu..btw, your lucky you got jayson on your side of the draw...the last loss is all the more motivation win this time (and if he may be a little over-confident) - besides if you win, it'll be all the sweeter knowing you fought the best:)

[KHuang]

what happen to nick?

[Andoru]

Thanks Stephen. If I managed to get past the pools and Jayson...then I'm sure I'd have to meet KHuang at some stage...T_T

It'll be fun though. I look forward to learning and having heaps of fun.


what happen to nick?
Left leg broken (dropped his bike) and will be out for several months. :(

[KHuang]

Go for jayson's kote , thats the only way I can get him.

[Aden]

Kai - you are a fashion victim - blue.

Martino - less whimpering and more drinking.

See you all there on Saturday, myself and Bob Brown are coming up to do a lunch break jodo, tameshigiri and iaido demo with some Sydney based iai people to show that the NSWKA isnt just shinai kendo - I will try and be there a bit early to see the end of the kyus.

Aden

[Chook]

That will be interesting.... will have to go shopping tonight for some spare DVD-RAM discs.

EDIT: Y'know, for recording stuff. :smoker:

[Stephen]

the more im reading of this thread the more jealous i am that i cant be there....sounds like it's gonna be a great day..(we just had our last shiai for the year last weekend and im already suffering withdrawal symptoms)...

Oh well, maybe next year

[Chook]

See you all bright n early @ Five Dock tomorrow. :D

Unfortunately a broken floor tile decided to puncture my foot today - Should be ok for tomorrow tho.... Just hurt like hell :D

[Andoru]

Make sure you bring your vodka for lunch! :D

[Andoru]

My brain is like jelly right now...so pardon my mistakes...

First of all...nice to see you again Chook! Now where are the photos dammit? No pressure mate. :D

Biggest turnout at the NSW Taikai ever! There were over 100 competitors all together. The kids started first, and as the cuteness factor took over, more ooohs and aaahs can be heard from the crowd.

45 mins later...it was the kyu grades...and the fun began. Chook and I made it out of the pools, along with some of my dojo mates. So things were working out according to plan. In the elimination round, I played against the eventual winner. If I win, I would face Jayson as expected. Was doing well keeping things under control and the match stretched over to encho. Was waiting for the perfect chance for kote-nuki-men since he was going for my kote alot. At tsubazeriai, I was careless and he scored a hiki-men. T_T Still, it was fun though and I learned heaps. Out of the 3 scoring cuts, 2 are my favourites: nidan waza and kote-nuki-men.

Kirby Smith (deathbykendo) played really well against some of the top players in the state to edge past Yoshiyuki Usami to win in the dan category. Congrats mate!

Vivian Yung played very well indeed and full of spirit too. She took the Womens title and a fighting spirit award. Well deserved!

Now, let's bring on the videos and the photos!

[Chook]

OK OK, I'm workin on em :D

I'm trying to pick my favourites....

Altho the debana-kote I scored on Malcolm Schultz was the highlight of my day :D Went in with the goal of scoring a single point for the day, got out of the pools. Not bad for my first shiai in a year ;)

[Chook]

CHOOK'S PHOTO POST OF DOOM!

I took 144 photos yesterday. These are some of the better ones... All have been resized and compressed a bit more for the 56k crowd (The originals are 6 Megapixel, that's 1.5MB a shot!) If you want larger shots, or the originals even, let me know.

And if Mingshi sees these... give me some feedback! ;) I wanna improve...

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw1.jpg - Great action shot.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw2.jpg - Two Wollongong members preparing for the kyus, one using Andoru as a practise dummy :D

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw3.jpg - Gravity-defying action shot.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw4.jpg - Andoru!

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw5.jpg - Smaller shot, this time of a leaping men attempt.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw6.jpg - The iaido demonstration.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw7.jpg - Wollongong's Bob Brown during the iaido demonstration.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw8.jpg - Panoramic shot of Court 2

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw9.jpg - A good shot of the dans in action.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw10.jpg - David Bunder and H.S Kim

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw11.jpg - Do you have any idea how hard it is to caption tsuba-zeriai?

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw12.jpg - Leon Withington going for a one-handed Men.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw13.jpg - And again, this time against H.S Kim

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw14.jpg - Leon's broken shinai. Brutal.

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw15.jpg - And to top it off, a random photo of some kid.

I've also got about 2 hours of video, but that won't be online as quickly. ;)

[Andoru]

Ahh thanks Chook! You're a champ! Can you send me those other photos of me please? Arigato gozaimashita!

[Chook]

Sure thing. Do you have MSN? Probably the eaiest way..

[Andoru]

barbequechook AT you-know-where :)

[JSchmidt]

I like this one:

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw10.jpg

[Stephen]

Thanks for the rundown of the day Androu - sounds like it was all a lot of fun...You gotta be happy that you took your last match to encho with the guy who won:) - I was impressed to see 2nd and 3rd place went to kendoka from ANU; do they produce a lot of strong kendoka? (Martino might be a better person to ask?)

Thanks for the pics Chook, they're great.

[Stephen]

Sorry, i should also say congratulations to everyone who competed and to all the winners:)

[nicuma]

congrats to all who participated!

[Martino]

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dpds2/nsw11.jpg - Do you have any idea how hard it is to caption tsuba-zeriai?


I belive that is me on the left.

----------------------------------------

Long fun day for the ACT people.

For me the day started at about 4 am. :)
We arrived at the venue just before 9 am. Only to find that it was been held at a different venue to the place it was held last. There was lots of bagging out of the guy who made the mistake (we ignored the point that nobody else decided to cross check the address). Fortunately I had picked up a road book and the agenda (which had the address). ½ an hour later we were at the correct venue. Thank god for children and junior events, our guys had a chance to get changed.

We had 4 kyu grades who were really firing. Unfortunately there were all on the same side of the draw. And after getting out of their pools had to knock each other out :( (if the draw was different we may have had 3 or 4 people in the top 4 as opposed to 2, not likely but the odd would have been worth betting on). Our guy who finally came second played 4 or 5 matches in a row, of which 3 went into long (3+ minutes) enchos. By the time he got to the finals their was very little left in his tank.

A job well done for all our Kyus.


Me on the other hand started off really well defeating two guys of similar experience 2 zip each (I believe) to get out of my pool. The first point I score was one of those really good slow motion matrix feel cuts, where you have all the time in the world even though you know everything is happening in the blink of an eye. I would have been happy to top pack up camp and go home then.

Then I watch 'deathbykendo' take out my club mate, in a really good match. Unfortunately I was watching to much and not preparing for my match. Suffice to say I lost, a match which on paper I should have won easily (we both agree on that point). I was (am) very annoyed with myself, but full credit must be given to Leon, he capitalised on my mistake and was not intimidated by my efforts to recover (I did manage to break 3 of the shaini slats between my do and arms).

My car had a bit to much sugar on the way home. We had a bit to much fun making fools of ourselves (no more will be said). Got home just befor midnight.

Hopefully I to will be able to direct people to some photos soon.

Club wise we did what we wanted to do, everyone had a good time, we had groupies come down from Canberra to watch (beginners), what more could you ask for.

[KHuang]

Taek I just want you to know ..... I hate you!!!!!!!!.

[Andoru]

Bahahahahaha! :D

[deathbykendo]

So when is all that video footage I saw being taken coming online??


Kirby

[Martino]

Kirby

we have a great shot of you and Phil. No video needed.

[Chook]

So when is all that video footage I saw being taken coming online??


Kirby

As soon as I'm able to re-encode the video and I get broadband. Hopefully the next couple of days. I also authored a DVD of it, but it's mainly Wollongong members. It's got your final on it though.... I took 2 hours of the stuff, I had to be picky... :beard: