Been ages since I posted, but there isn't too much to tell really. Up until about a week ago I was practicing regularly, but now our dojo is in summer vacation hibernation until the 22nd. Most Monday's for the past month and a half I've been connecting with the capo to do some endurance training at the start of keiko. The heat has been seriously daunting, but I'm learning loads about relaxing my grip and shoulders. Last week I took a boat ...
Updated 27th August 2011 at 03:36 AM by tyler
Assisted by my brother Blake, and supervised by Satō Nariaki-sensei, for the past year I have been working hard on a translation of the Kendō Shidō Yōryō (The Official Guide for Kendo Instruction). This book, as the title suggests, is the official be-all and end-all textbook authorized by the All Japan Kendo Federation. This is the book that outlines the “correct” way of executing all of the kendo techniques, and definitions for terms and concepts. It is ...
I thought it was all just superstition, but yakudoshi really are the “years of calamity”. This is a Japanese belief that people who are at the “age of yakudoshi” are likely to experience some kind of catastrophe or illness. If you believe that new-borns start at one year old (kazoedoshi), yakudoshi for men is generally believed to be the ages 25, 42 and 61, and for women 19, 33 and 37. One’s yakudoshi is measured by adding one to your actual age, and as I was born in 1970, I fall plum into the 42 ...
I took a spill a few weeks ago and have been out of commission, but went to the dojo last Saturday to spectate practice. My dojo is a bit small, it being built in the middle of a tight residential neighborhood in Tokyo. The changing space (I don't say changeroom because it's really more of a hallway - you have to spread up against the wall like you're getting arrested if anyone wants to get by) is upstairs. The floor and surrounding area becomes ...
Updated 7th March 2011 at 09:18 PM by tyler
Practice over the past two weeks has been up and down as I’ve been trying to hone a more flexible kamae. Last night I tried to focus on my left hand and the angle of my hips. Over gripping with my right hand has led to a bit of pain in the elbow, always a sign of bad form, so last night I tried to be all about the left. I think this made for crisper men-uchi in kihon-geiko, and in ji-geiko I seemed to have better kensen control when it came to minor adjustments and trying to channel ...
Updated 27th August 2011 at 02:43 PM by tyler
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