Pics from Venezuela

Story to come...

International School status

Not so hot this semester as only 2 kids joined. One was the least attentive student yet progressing the most and a newbie. Two classes so far and still debating whether or not to cancel this semester. The coordinator tells me all classes have significantly dropped other than the usual football, basketball, volleyball, gymnastics so not to be too concerned. But I think there's a bit more to it; it probably has to do with the word of mouth: "Kendo's really hard !". I have to think about it... Before class today I was thinking "That's it, last class" but afted an hour I started having fun and seeing them improve by the minute. So now I don't know anymore...

On the positive side, we now have a nice wooden floor, right up on the stage!

Off to Venezuela

In order to get some equipment from E-bogu to the dojos of Venezuela I decided to hand carry it, avoiding the shipping, taxes and duties of that country. There's a full bogu, a titanium men, about 10 hakama/keikogi combos, 15 shinais and a bunch of other varied items. That means I barely have space for my underwear... Certainly no question my bogu & shinai stay here, so they'll lend me what's necessary there.

E decided to tag along, although for him it might end up being more of a sightseeing trip, as he injured his right wrist during practice last week. We're going to spend 5 days there, I can't wait... Lots of Kendo but it looks like they're planning to take us out quite a bit. No problem! I really need that change in pace. Things are getting heavy around here.

Excellent turnout at Kendo demo

The title says it all. In addition to all of my regulars, a few
different disciplines were present (details at
kendo.ipmtt.net/event.html). Everyone present told me it was a great
idea and was very enjoyable. I was concerned there might have been
some hot heads or factions present, but everyone pretty much blended
comfortably. Amazingly, things started on time, all my guys showed up
(the ones I expected anyway), and all the groups went along naturally,
ie everyone graciously took their turn without any bumps. Even better,
nobody monopolized the stage, as everyone kept it under 20-30 minutes.
Also I was expecting to see some odd MA, but everyone looked really
good and solid. Real good feeling...

Had looong conversations with local observers of martial arts, some
active, some not, and all had the same thing to say: the different
groups (they were absent) just can't sit down and talk. An event like
this helps bring everyone closer and encourage the kids to open their
eyes. The old guard is just too stuck in the past to be able to let it
go and get things organized. So maybe it does take a "foreigner" like
me to take a new and refreshing position, and encourage dialogue.

It's clear to me that there's a need to organise this regularly. The
feedback I get is similar, so figured we'll try to put this into place
every 3 months. As I mentioned, it's a good opportunity to
network/break barriers and promote in a public space. You never know,
it might grow into something interesting...

Getting equipment through customs, a cultural shock

Can't talk about that right now, I'm still shaking fromin anger and frustration... But it sure is a revealing cultural experience worthy of a thick book !

History of Kendo

For some very interesting insight on the "real" origin of Kendo, have a
look at:
http://www.kendo-world.com/articles/magazine/Synopsis_of_kendo/index.php

It's an excellent research and analysis by a prominent non-Japanese
expert living in Japan. Make sure you read it all, you might be a bit
surprised...

Eddy

Breaking things down

For each technique or kata I rarely ask them to focus on more than one or two aspects at a time. What is the advantage of doing that?
- they are more focused
- it makes it easier to present
- it gives us more things to do in 2 hours

I know a lot (most) MA instructor like to bark:
"use your left hand"
"you're too close"
"to the right"...
and on and on...
... Until the poor guy is completely confused, doesn't know what he eventually do right and feels ignorant.

I know how difficult Kendo is, with all the things you have to do at the same time, so I try to simplify as best as I can. For example, we might practice large men x 3. At first I'd tell them to focus on proper swing and kime, not to worry about speed or fumikomi. Then we'd add proper body position ("straight through") and maai, then speed and timing.

Or we might be practicing the dreaded kata #3. Depending on who's there at the time I might tell them not to worry so much about the tsuki deflections or even the complicated footwork, but instead to make sure their body is facing the opponent and the movement comes from the hips. Same with #1. Most people use their arms too much (from jodan to men) where the hit really comes from the hips.

I think breaking things down like this helps them put their focus on the most important items one at a time. It also makes for a very progressive class where we go from a basic step/movement and build it up to a whole technique. What I like to call a logical progression, one of my favorite topics. More on that later.

First Anniversary Kendo Celebration

This is a reminder for the event on Sunday. Please find attached at
the bottom, my original message.

Note the location: "across from QRC, near the coconut vendors"

Hope to see you all there, specially the ones we haven't seen in a long time !!

Eddy

This letter is to invite you to the First Year Anniversary Celebration
of the establishment of our Kendo activities in Trinidad & Tobago.
Over the past year we have taught Japanese Fencing classes to many
locals all over the country. As you might know, we now have classes in
two locations: St-Augustine and Port of Spain. Among our group we are
lucky to have very dynamic members eager to learn and progress in this
traditional Japanese discipline.

Looking back, it's been a very exciting year and more is yet to come.
We plan on using this occasion to introduce ourselves to the Martial
Arts community and in doing so, hope to establish solid relationships
with other members of other disciplines. The details of the event are
as follows:

Date: Sunday April 17th
Time: 12pm (noon) - 5pm
Location: Queen's Park Savannah (across from QRC, near the coconut vendors)
Program (starting at 1pm):
- Kendo demonstration (1 hour)
- Kata
- Bokken Kihon
- Keiko (free combat)
- Promotion results
- Other martial arts demonstrations, including Iaido, Kung Fu, Tai
Chi, Karate and more... (Feel free to participate by demonstrating
your own discipline)
- Food and Drinks!

Invited guests: All the past and present Kendo members, their friends
and families. All our friends from the martial arts community. Members
of the media will also be notified.

We hope to see you there! Please feel free to bring your family and
other members of your dojo. For more information on our activities,
contact Eddy @ 787-9100 or visit http://kendo.ipmtt.net

Sincerely,

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Message
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an invitation to celebrate the first anniversary of the
founding of our Kendo dojo in Trinidad (Shoshin Kendo Dojo). As you
know, we've been growing from the first day we started and I was lucky
enough to pass along some of my knowledge to many people over the past
year. It's now time to look back and appreciate the result of our work.

It will also be a good opportunity to display our craft to our friends
and family, as well as other people not so familiar with Kendo.

In order to celebrate in a proper manner, I thought it was a good idea
to do it "Japanese-style", meaning an outdoor party under blooming
trees. We'll do some Kendo, check out some demonstrations, and more
importantly, eat, drink and be merry !

So please reserve that date in your calendar, and make sure to notify
everyone around you of the event.

For more details, please contact me directly @ 787-9100

Hope to see you there !

Eddy

-----------------------------------------
Details
-----------------------------------------
Date : Sunday April 17th
Time : 12pm (noon) - 6pm
Location : Queen's Park Savannah (precise location to be determined
later)
Format : Potluck picnic (Kendo members bring some food & drinks)
Agenda :
- Kendo demonstration
- Kata
- Bokken Kihon
- Keiko (free combat)
- Other martial arts demonstrations, including Iaido, Kung Fu, Tai
Chi, Karate and more...
- Food and Drinks !

Invited guests : All the past and present Kendo members, their friends
and families. All our friends from the martial arts community. Some
media will also be notified.

Night of reviews

I was expecting E to come but as we started he was not around and unreachable so we started. Damn good he wasn't there, because half the group wasn't there !! I was not happy... Specially after I had told them to make sure to show up on time! Well he eventually showed up 30 minutes into class (bad traffic), to a full group so we didn't look like the bunch of tourists that I sometimes think we are.

Had to repeat proper seiza methodology for the nth time; still some falling on their knees, using their hands to support themselves, throwing their bokken on the floor...

We reviewed kata quickly since there was no chance to do it properly last week. Quick run through the first three and good results. This time we focused on timing and solid/straight body. I always like to focus on only one or two aspects every time we practice a technique or kata. More on this later...

So overall good kata, people are learning properly and good bokken kihon as well. Not sure if all are following though; sometimes I wonder if some of them are awake... They seem to forget everything from one class to another.

Mr. E arrives !!
From that point on we switch to more intense keiko with shinai. I use E as motodachi. As it has been the case in the past few weeks the intensity & spirit are very good. On the other hand the tenouchi, maai and kikentai are pretty bad... Need to work on that. But overall I'm very satisfied that the level of intensity has dramatically risen in the past few weeks due to my nagging them constantly :-) It's working !

Did a lot of sutemi and a very nice and gradual buildup to kakarikeiko, that included a lot of suriashi and fumikomi/kikentai.

We kept 15 minutes for the three of us and I had a fun, but always too short fight with E. Prior to that K had seemed intimidated by E. Well, he can be intimidating I suppose... Then with me he seemed very weak mentally. He got a beating...

Finished the class, commented a bit on it and introduced E to all (most hadn't met him). Told them about our view of "no thought kendo", ie we push them to tire them, we hope they start doing (not thinking of doing) asap so we can have more fun and be more challenged. In a nutshell ;-)

Then for some reason I decided we'd have a grading this coming friday. I had been thinking of it recently and thought, what the heck, let's do it. Details in a later post...

Coconuts and beer after class. Good times but beer damn hard to find. Another fun night with E and the boys. We decided that next time (every Friday?) I'll bring a full cooler so that we can relax at the park ... Couple of coconut waters, couple of beers... The air is fresh and the area comfortable.

Boring class...

Yesterday's class was somewhat boring. I was planning on doing 1hr
kata, then 1hr keiko, but as always, there's so much work to do for
kata that we ended up spending most of the class doing just that. I
find that the new bunch are pretty bad at kata compared to the
previous guys. I'l not sure why... They've been practicing ipponme for
at least 5 hours so far and still can't hold and swing the bokken
properly. Perhaps it's because I don't give them the same amount of
attention. Or perhaps and more likely because the new guys don't have
the opportunity of the mirrors. That in itself could explain the
problem.

And there's this guy with heavy attention deficit... it's not even
funny. He just can't stand still and unable to do the same thing twice
in a row without screwing up. He's getting on my nerves so I have to
cool off. But how can someone be so bad ?!? It's unfortunate because
he's actually got a good body and strength, and seems to want it, but
he just can't process instructions in a logical manner. Odd...

Otherwise, the atmosphere is very good and all the guys are regularly
attending now, maybe the foundation I've been dreaming of is slowly
happening.

Aruba, we're coming!

Sent yesterday an email to everyone about the Aruba tournament. The deadline was pretty much today so at the practice I mentioned it openly. I hadn't really mentioned anything so far because I didn't expect anyone would be interested. I had talked to K about it and he was pretty excited about it but other than him, noone was likely to come. I thought. Well I was wrong... After practice, we all talked about it. I wanted to know what the 2 brothers had in mind. Daddy supports the idea. Actually daddy showed up after class and we talked. He wants to bring the whole family! Also, R the big man, K's younger brother and new guy C, K's buddy. Wow! Not only are we going to have a team, but there might be too many of us !
Now I need to find a way to make sure all these people commit in some form so they won't dropout at the first occasion...

Aruba tournament - Who's going

The friends in Aruba are organizing a tournament in October, the Panamerican Championships. Having been there a few times already, I'll be visiting again and I'm doing my best to encourage the guys to join as well. As would any beginner fear at this stage, they don't think they are/will be ready for the tournament. Well, it's still 7 months away, so technically they should be well on track, were they to commit to it. Here's the second problem... budget. It will cost about 3,000 Trinidad dollars, which for many people here represents more than a month's salary. Although I beleive my guys earn all above that amount, it's still a significant expense. I already have K's interest, I'm pretty sure he'll commit this week, and I'm hoping for the two brothers to do the same. They're used to traveling for tournaments (Taichi & Kungfu) so that's not new to them. It would be very nice to have them with us, I think they could go a long way ...

So we all need to think about budget, and, more importantly, raising funds. It's not an uncommon thing in this country, as people always try to organize events, activities or trips on the cheap. One of the most common method is called "Barbecue". No, not an open fire pit with grilled meat and veggies, it's actually a deal you make with a restaurant that sells boxed lunches for about $20 and gives you about 50% of the receits. I think it's quite lousy but it seems to work... We could probably think of something a bit more original, but here, originality usually doesn't pay off.

Another method is to find a sponsor. One that I have in mind is Toyota, a big importer of cars here and they seem to have quite an important marketing budget. Also most of their billboard ads include samurai-looking cartoons; perhaps they'd see a benefit in sponsoring us for the trip.

One year already !

Wow, it's already been more than a year. I actually gave a first class on February 3rd to a few karate guys, but it really started April 16th. At that time, I had a couple of semi-interested karate guys, and some very excited "warrior-type" guys with much MA experience. They had pretty much hunted me down and were very insistent on joining a class ("don't worry, at least 6 of us will always be at practice" was the quote). First class was attended by about 10 people, which turned to 8 after 1 week, 6 after 2 weeks and 3 after 1 month. Fortunately around the same time, 3 old dudes showed up saying they had learned Kendo 15 years ago from a Japanese expat who had stayed here for a few years. So they joined with much enthousiasm, only to be told (by me) that they had to start from scratch. That pissed off one of them, and the two others are still regulars today. Out of the original group of 10, only one remains, that's K. The brothers from down south had purchased armours on a trip to the states, but so far have only attend about 25 classes. Every time they show up (last time was about 3/4 months ago) it gets harder and harder, since they have to relearn everything, so it seems to me that they're goners.

Since the excitement of the first months, things have been up and down, many practices with only me and K, most of the times 3-4 people at best. But to me it was expected, since I did little or no promo. And our dojo at the time was located a bit far from where most people live. I took the necessary time to setup things properly and am quite proud of the result. In addition to the original practice local (Saturdays) we now practice in a nice, cheap and central dojo. Since we started there I've seen a steady increase in participation, and more importantly, less dropouts. So things have stabilized quite a lot since the beginning of the year. 6-10 consistently show up for classes, and there's a nice variety in levels so it makes it interesting and motivating to say the least.

Time to celebrate !