I attended the Nabeshima Cup held in Dallas at April 22&23.
There are so many learnings from Dallas kendo weekend and of course I write them down here.
There are SO MANY LEARNINGS, literally, from kendo technique itself to how American culture digested kendo.
- Nabeshima Cup Overview and Timeline
Nabeshima Cup has four divisions; Mudansha, Yudansha (untill 3dan), Women, and Upper-Yudansha (from 4dan). The tournament is held on Saturday and there was Shinsa on Sunday morning following with keiko with all the sensei came to Dallas on the weekend.
I attended Women's division to lose at the second match. The opponent was a same age women from Dallas who has been practiced for 12 years (yes, if I didn't quit kendo at 18, I'd have been like her!) and passed 4 dan on Sunday. I skipped the Shinsa because I'm not ready for 4 dan at all, but attended the keiko at noon on Sunday.
The first opponent was 瞬殺 as clearly she was very very beginner.
The kendo style of next opponent was similar to Thomas (3 dan) in my dojo, who I really cannot find the way to beat. She was as tall as him, having strong center, and blocks men than coming to aiuchi.
So if you don't have a strategy to everyone in the dojo, that means you are not doing your best in the practice. I knew that and there is no regret on my lose since I did what I did in the dojo. My last question in dojo before the tournament was "How can I get ippon from Thomas?"
Yes, I know I don't know how to get ippoon from her neither.
Overall, I think Tucson kendo kai did our best. Mark got the 2nd place at Mudansha division (This is one of the cool part of kendo, someone shows their coolest kendo in shiai, not in practice. But those tend to fail in shinsa. Well, never mind he passed shodan this time.)
Everyone did great job, as the way they did in the practice. Everyone had very good opponent that hit very convincing ippon to us. No unfair judges. BUT, most of us lost at the second match. Mostly the opponent of the second match wasn't too bad. They would be as same rank as us.
Then what's the difference? - It is experience.
First, we don't have exposure to different kendo since we are isolated from other dojo and we only have few people in dojo. We don't know all different types of kendo, or we don't practice with same type person as oneself. The best way to get ippoin is to have strategy. It is not that random men you hit is gonna be ippon. Sometimes your men is so good that you can get ippoin without strategy, such as aimen. However, most of the people who have certain years of experiences know how to fight with different type of opponents. The opponent who is tall, short, big, small, fast, powerful, close, far, good at men, good at nuki-men, good at kote, etc. You need to focus on the opponent behavior, judges the type, read the behavior, and react in the best way to the opponent in shiai. In order to give a clear judge that leads you to winning, you need to know all the different styles, be exposed to them, practice and develop your kendo strategies.
Second, we don't have experience of Shiai. We get nervous, we get out of the court and get hansoku, we don't know how to effectively use 3 minutes, we don't know how to research opponent before the match, we don't know what is the most effective or the strongest waza of ouselves. This is related to the size of our dojo room too.
For me, it was the first shiai in this 9 years. No excuse that I'm not used to shiai.
The first point could be overcame by visiting different dojo more frequently and going to seminars. For the second point, we could practice at larger room at UofA. We could take time for researching our kendo and giving feedback to each other more seriously than before as well as watching shiai video.
- Second Dojo, what a fun practice!
So, first of all, I would like to nominate someone who named Second Dojo to Nobel Price in Literature or something. You genius!
Kendo people in the States call the drinking party after the dinner as Second Dojo. I'm guessing it is named after nijikai (Second party in Japanese).
I talked some people from different dojo and some sensei at Second dojo, well, the bar. It is amazing that everyone there has something (I mean kendo) in common to talk and you can talk about it very deeply with that person very immediately.
Also for me as an international student, it is always so difficult to get in the circle, especially the center of the circle of the conversation in any party. But in kendo community, thanks to my nationality and culture, I can really enjoy the conversation from my bottom of heart whenever wherever. It is so nice to have such thing at oversea, very far from your home.
As represented as Second Dojo, kendo community in US is way more casual than in Japan. I only did kendo in high school, so I can't call it as fair comparison, but still I wouldn't be comfortable to talk with sensei at off dojo situation as I'm still 3 dan and young and not good at shiai. (Yeah, I'm not shiai type of person.)
The most thing I respect in kendo here is that people start kendo from their 20s or 30s and work hard!
I was talking with Andres at the bar about hippy, yoga (not yogurt), life, and kendo. (But when 7 dan seisei says yogurt, it is yogurt.) For Japanese people who have at least one thing they worked very hard such as sports, study, or art in their lives, it is natural to work extremely hard for one goal. The goal is absolute and no doubt for the hard work because you decided to commit and achieve the goal even you don't remember why you've chosen to do it, or the goal is given by someone.
Here it is different. You choose. You think. You don't be a robot.
But kendo is very Japanese. You can't give up once you say "Onegaishimasu". You gotta give 120% of yourself in that 3 minutes. No excuse. Because you are committed.
I'm having hard time explaining this way of thinking to beginners here. It sucks when the beginner told me "but it is difficult" "this movement is so new to me idk how it works" etcetc while I'm teaching. Could you just shut up say "hai" do what I told you to do? But no, it is very rude if I say it here. But that's Japanese nature!
So Andres said that it is the mental training, zen moment, phycological learning. The most interesting point was that he thinks "kendo is safe, and that safeness makes you be able to work mentally extremely hard on myself". He enjoys the Japanese style suffering for his mental training.
I still don't know how to teach the way of thinking in kendo, but I love to hear how Western people who enjoy kendo appreciated (understand) and digested kendo by their own ways.
At the bar, Marstin sensei asked us "What is kiai?". He told us it is not mechanics, it is not how to make the open from center. but the attitude one has.
So up until 3 dan, you basically learn mechanics. How to hit men, kote, and do. How to use your tenouchi and foot work. From 4 dan, you need that kiai in your kendo.
When you are practicing with upper rank sensei, there is a moment that you try to hit the sensei in absolutely wrong timing, and you know it wasn't the right timing but you couldn't stay still there. What makes you make the move? It's kiai of the sensei. The kiai was too strong that you couldn't keep your kiai or seme. You made the openess (suki) by yourself.
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