Well, today was entertaining in some respects.
I hopped over to the EMU to use the CM12 TEM for the dental biofilm project, and I had a epic fail LOL. I already knew this was going to happen, so it wasn't surprising when it did, but I pretty much had to follow the procedures book to get my imaging to happen, and when I did, it was still pretty crummy. I got some images but they were just terrible. I got some help, and well, I have to book a long session block and get re-trained on the CM12..... Bah. I already knew I'm not a good TEM person... SEM for me is the way to go.
Anyway, Kendo training was on today since we now don't have any regular trainings due to StuVac and Exams season for this semester. Since we can't use HK Ward Gymnasium we managed to book our session for Wednesday 3-5pm at Peter Forsyth Auditorium, behind the Broadway Shopping Centre. It's a basketball court auditorium in reality, and it is a bit run down. The lighting inside is pretty good though but it echoes quite badly, and the floor is damaged in some places with the timbers split and having edges. The floor is properly springboarded though so it does give really nice sounding fumikomi when you hit it right.
Training was a bit lax today, we didn't do our usual warmup routine and there was only ten of us today including beginners. We did a quick individual warmup and then into some training. A little footwork, and then Men cut practice. The four bogu players were in rotation with the beginners, and we all practiced our cuts on each other, and rotated around as usual. Men cuts stationary, men cuts with fumikomi, kihon men cuts. That was about it really. Then the bogu players did kirikaeshi and then rotational jigeiko.
On thing that has been bugging me, which will probably continue to bug me since there isn't much I can do about it, is the way some people do their style of waza. One of the people in our club, well, really, lots of people do the same thing, is they are very kote orientated. What I mean is, they will just attempt to nail kote all the time, very very little attempt at men cut. Fair enough, kote is the closest target, and can be quite easy if your opponent isn't being careful on guarding it in their kamae and seme position. What bothers me, is when they go for it but don't bother with the actual attempt of a cut. They strike, but barely kiai or fumikomi, it's like they are just out to hit your kote.... And it is terribly predictable that in hikiwaza, they will go for kote, and if they do a men and you block the men cut, they will go for kote.... The person I played today was like that. Kote kote kote kote kote kote..... to the point where I was just doing one hand blocks for men because I knew the kote was coming.... They also missed one cut majorly and slammed my elbow and now I have a massive bruise on a bruise from when someone else hit me on Saturday in the same spot with a missed kote cut. It's ..... it's not like I am better than them, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that even though I don't score hits/cuts/points on them, I personally feel that they aren't really developing to be a full kendo player if all they want to do is kote. Being able to do kote is essential, but then so is being able to do men and doh cuts too. But if you just keep hammering out kote, and you let your men and doh cuts get weak and poor, when you come up against someone who can easily read your attempts at kote and protect themselves from it, you're stuffed. Oh, and well, their playing style of doing rapid kote is also machinegun style which is not my own philosophy.
I don't tell them because it's not my place to, everyone is entitled to their own style and opinion. I watched some guy Itane (I think was his name) at the 33rd AKC weekend and his kote was lightning fast and that was how he scored the majority of his points. It works, but it's just not how I want my kendo to be. Just my opinion.
On the other flip of todays practice, one of the beginners was using club beginners shinai. I was being motodachi for them, and on one cut, something hit my face and I thought, ??, then on the next cut, something hit my eye, and I thought, crap, ~blinks~, then as they were raising their shinai, I saw these thin 'lines' coming off their shinai and though "oh shit", and quickly put my hand up to stop them. The shinai they were using had pretty much died in a splintered mess, probably because she was hitting my megane more than the top of my men, and was bashing splinters through the megane into my face..... luckily it wasn't that bad for my eye, but I got her to obviously get another shinai. Methinks that the club shinais need to get checked, and dead ones like that have to be chucked lest a nasty accident actually happens....
I hopped over to the EMU to use the CM12 TEM for the dental biofilm project, and I had a epic fail LOL. I already knew this was going to happen, so it wasn't surprising when it did, but I pretty much had to follow the procedures book to get my imaging to happen, and when I did, it was still pretty crummy. I got some images but they were just terrible. I got some help, and well, I have to book a long session block and get re-trained on the CM12..... Bah. I already knew I'm not a good TEM person... SEM for me is the way to go.
Anyway, Kendo training was on today since we now don't have any regular trainings due to StuVac and Exams season for this semester. Since we can't use HK Ward Gymnasium we managed to book our session for Wednesday 3-5pm at Peter Forsyth Auditorium, behind the Broadway Shopping Centre. It's a basketball court auditorium in reality, and it is a bit run down. The lighting inside is pretty good though but it echoes quite badly, and the floor is damaged in some places with the timbers split and having edges. The floor is properly springboarded though so it does give really nice sounding fumikomi when you hit it right.
Training was a bit lax today, we didn't do our usual warmup routine and there was only ten of us today including beginners. We did a quick individual warmup and then into some training. A little footwork, and then Men cut practice. The four bogu players were in rotation with the beginners, and we all practiced our cuts on each other, and rotated around as usual. Men cuts stationary, men cuts with fumikomi, kihon men cuts. That was about it really. Then the bogu players did kirikaeshi and then rotational jigeiko.
On thing that has been bugging me, which will probably continue to bug me since there isn't much I can do about it, is the way some people do their style of waza. One of the people in our club, well, really, lots of people do the same thing, is they are very kote orientated. What I mean is, they will just attempt to nail kote all the time, very very little attempt at men cut. Fair enough, kote is the closest target, and can be quite easy if your opponent isn't being careful on guarding it in their kamae and seme position. What bothers me, is when they go for it but don't bother with the actual attempt of a cut. They strike, but barely kiai or fumikomi, it's like they are just out to hit your kote.... And it is terribly predictable that in hikiwaza, they will go for kote, and if they do a men and you block the men cut, they will go for kote.... The person I played today was like that. Kote kote kote kote kote kote..... to the point where I was just doing one hand blocks for men because I knew the kote was coming.... They also missed one cut majorly and slammed my elbow and now I have a massive bruise on a bruise from when someone else hit me on Saturday in the same spot with a missed kote cut. It's ..... it's not like I am better than them, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that even though I don't score hits/cuts/points on them, I personally feel that they aren't really developing to be a full kendo player if all they want to do is kote. Being able to do kote is essential, but then so is being able to do men and doh cuts too. But if you just keep hammering out kote, and you let your men and doh cuts get weak and poor, when you come up against someone who can easily read your attempts at kote and protect themselves from it, you're stuffed. Oh, and well, their playing style of doing rapid kote is also machinegun style which is not my own philosophy.
I don't tell them because it's not my place to, everyone is entitled to their own style and opinion. I watched some guy Itane (I think was his name) at the 33rd AKC weekend and his kote was lightning fast and that was how he scored the majority of his points. It works, but it's just not how I want my kendo to be. Just my opinion.
On the other flip of todays practice, one of the beginners was using club beginners shinai. I was being motodachi for them, and on one cut, something hit my face and I thought, ??, then on the next cut, something hit my eye, and I thought, crap, ~blinks~, then as they were raising their shinai, I saw these thin 'lines' coming off their shinai and though "oh shit", and quickly put my hand up to stop them. The shinai they were using had pretty much died in a splintered mess, probably because she was hitting my megane more than the top of my men, and was bashing splinters through the megane into my face..... luckily it wasn't that bad for my eye, but I got her to obviously get another shinai. Methinks that the club shinais need to get checked, and dead ones like that have to be chucked lest a nasty accident actually happens....
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