Sei Tou Ken Yu Kai Kangeiko 2010
Okay Day Number 7
Sun, 07/11/2010 - 02:17 | 
Okay day number seven - training number ten. By the last day of kangeiko we were all very tired and just a bit mentally tied. I started to think about what I said on day one: “how can I expect you to train hard if I’m not prepared to do it myself?”. From that point I had just committed to train all ten times, I tried to think of a brilliant excuse so I could miss one or two trainings, but there is no excuse that can negate some one saying to me “where were you?” But what a fabulous week it has been with good turn outs and some amazing Kendo Even though it was our last training no one was slacking around, right to the end people were giving their all, so well done everyone and looking forward to next year!
Tags: The Saturday Marathon......
Today was one of those days where there is always a bit of salt with the sugar.......
The sugar: getting to wake up at 7am instead of 5am!!
The salt: it was the coldest temp so far!!!
This theme continued all day for us which made sure that we were always challenged, as you have probably worked out the daily training regime by now so I won't bother you with what it is we did from 8am till 9.30am. I do think things are becoming more automatic at the moment and you find yourself attacking openings you didn't even consciously realise were there, the 'salt' was that because you were doing this you weren't prepared for the zanshin due to that lack of conscious thought that was occurring after this week so far!!
After our 9.30am break we all ran down to the local brekkie joint for food and coffee loading, was great to chat to everyone outside of a freezing dojo and frozen dogi, the 'salt' was an hour later we were putting these wet frozen dogi back on our bodies!! Followed with more kihon, a now very easy 50 of the 4 normal warm up cuts then 100 jumping-men.
To have a bit of fun and bring a sense of realism to the week we did a king of the ring tournament, with the winner staying on to fight the good fight. A draw knocks you both out. The comment of sub-conscious realisation of openings seemed to come to the fore here. I witnessed some truly amazing strikes followed quickly by some truly dismal zanshin, was quite funny seeing the look on the attackers face when they realise where they are but not entirely sure how they got there!! We finished up with the shiai's at about 12.30pm so a solid 3 1/2 hours of kendo has me feeling great and wondering how thats possible?!?!
Think the real challenge for the final day will be to bring the mind back into the kendo equation, but that also will unfortunately mean realising just how sore the body is!!
At least next week with the body fixed, the salt will vanish and we will all be on top form WITH top bodies (instead of the rent a dents we are currently dragging round with us) ;-)
Hump day
Today, as we all happily realised, is hump day. This means that it is the very middle training of the seven early starts. Hooray, going over the hill and down the other side, the end is in sight!
Alarm went off this morning and I spent the next ten minutes coughing up a lung, before forcing down a little bit of breakfast. Arriving at the dojo I again faced the choice between the quite damp and incredibly smelly keikogi and the really wet but less odiferous version. Ah well, at least I have two! I think the part of the training that requires the most resolve (apart from the get out of bed part) is the moment when the keikogi that is still damp from the previous day's training comes in contact with skin - and tying hakama on to it presses it nice and cold and close. I don't know what goes on in the boy's changing room, but us girls are often found hugging our keikogi for a minute or two before putting it on, in a vain attempt to remove the chill. Yeah right.
So we had 11 people again today - go team! We did the usual drill of some taiso and then suburi, before off we go again. The intervals between coughs and horrible queasy feeling are getting slightly longer. Kirikaeshi x 2, gohonwaza x 2 then off we go again. For the kirikaeshi - I just try to do it big and strong, fast but not so my form is bad. Aaah my arms are sore, and anything above shoulder height they just don't wanna go, that makes this difficult. Six kubungeiko means in total 36 minutes of jigeiko, 3 mins kakarigeiko, and 6 minutes kirikaeshi each- written like that it doesn't seem so hard - but the effort everyone puts into it makes it horrible. Several people had googly eyes and awfully pained expressions on their face at the end of each kirikaeshi, but everyone I fought today did some really nice ippon, I think the ji geiko is actually better quality and more energy/effort than it is on a normal training.
Halfway through we finished our hump set on hump day - but did we stop to celebrate? Nah uh, no shugo for us today, no chatting, no breathers, just go, rotate, go, rotate, go, rotate, etc. I can feel improvement in all the things I've been working on, which is great, and making me want to do even better.
When we finish we gather round and sum up the training - which is usually along the lines of "yay we survived" and then Karl says "less than ... hours until the next training :)". Then we do our warm down stretches, and at Blake's suggestion this is when we tell jokes. Sadly I get more groans than laughs for my jokes - it's not my fault that the only jokes I can remember (that are polite enough to tell in the dojo) are super lame!
My best effort was my only knock knock joke: "Knock, knock. Who's there? Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say banana?" Yup and as you can guess, I got a few groans! But Sui and Ria (age 5 and 7) who have been getting up at five every morning to come to training with Akiyo were quite inspired by it, although still learning the art of a good knock knock joke. (Ria: Knock knock. Who's there?. Chocolate. Chocolate who? Chocolate Cake! Sui: Knock knock. Who's there? Smiles. Smile's who? Ummmm... Sparkles! and Ria's moment of genius... Knock Knock. Who's there? Ken. Ken who? Ken do!!) They have draw us some pictures to help inspire us for the rest of the kangeiko...
Ramon is undisputed King of the joke telling - Today's effort was something about the two cows who are standing in a paddock, chewing their cud and discussing life. Cow 1: (*Ramon's best Cow voice*) "Didja hear about poor old Daisy in farmer Brown's paddock? I hear she got Mad Cow Disease. Mad as a hatter she is." Cow 2: "Yeah I know, it's scary stuff this mad cow diesase." Cow 1: "Gee man, I really hope one of us doesn't get it, and it might be contagious, we could give it to each other..." Cow 2: "Oh you don't need to worry about me, I'm extremely safe from Mad Cow Disease" Cow 1: "Why's that, I thought all cows are at risk", Cow 2: "I'm not a cow, I'm a banana!"
Anyways, the point of this wee digression is that it is super awesome that we are lucky enough to be training with such a cool group of people, that we can know that everyone else there with us is giving it everything and the harder we each train, the better everyone else will do too, and yet afterwards we can all have a good laugh together. This sort of thing is the way the best friendships are made. I said to David in the car on the way home that we could have still done this with 4 people - but it is having the core group of 10 or 11 people who are coming every day together that makes this pretty much one of the best kendo experiences of my life.
Day Three
Kangeiko Day 3! 6am starts are sharp, turnout is great; the dojo is full, intensity is high if a little muted. This morning is the fourth training for the week, after the beginner session this evening (yes, two training sessions again today) we will be at the half way point. YaaaaaAAAAAA hoo!
It was a pleasure to go to sleep last night without dreaming of kirikaeshi. Karl narrowly avoided injury at the end of training this morning when he suggested we finish on Sunday with a repeat of Monday, kirikaeshi. I was overjoyed to wake this morning only 10 minutes before the alarm, and somewhat surprised when it went off what felt like only 30 seconds later. Clearly my body was telling me to go back to sleep.
Christchurch weather continued being kind to us, 3 degrees, positively warm. At the end of training my own micro climate was tropical - if fog is a measure.
Small signs of attrition are appearing quietly; the focus is kendo. We're in the middle zone now, not far enough in to looking toward the end, too far in to be able to ignore the impact of what is the most physically intensive training I have experienced. Looking back the closest I have come is weeks of tailing lambs on a farm (some 26 years ago), the morning start is similar, the intensity similar, it's just packed into 90 minutes as opposed to 10 hours.
Today was the second day of a routine of kirikaeshi (1 minute), jigeiko (3 minutes), kikarigeiko (1 minute), switch roles and repeat, kotai and repeat. My own strikes are getting slower and slower as kakarite. I have to work to keep up both mentally and physically as motodachi for the stronger, fitter kendoka. In jigeiko my lapses in attention are being punished sufficiently to show me the value of maintaining my wits, my attention and an everpresent readiness. I'm hugely impressed with those who still seem to be attacking with the same speed they started the week with, gives me something to aim for.
As the days pass I am hitting what I thought to be my personal limit closer and closer to the start of training, for Sunday this will be some time Saturday night. As a result I am getting great practice at improving and maintaining form while exhausted. I really hope this translates to better kendo when I recover.
I couldn't possibly
have planned a better introduction to kendo, starting as a beginner in
October 2009, in bogu for a couple of months and the first ever
Canterbury Kangeiko this week. Superb!
Day Two
The grind begins. But after the kirikaeshi hell that was day one, everyone is back for more. Maybe we should change our normal trainings to morning; we seem to get a better turnout.
Quick warm-up, then into bogu and into it. Start with a couple of kirikaeshi, the memories of 24 hours earlier come flooding back, not liking this at all. But then it changes to gohan waza, I can do this. Then it’s kubungeiko, oh, can we go back to gohan waza, please??
Kubungeiko; what we all got up so early for and what we will be doing for the rest of the week. It goes like this:
- 1 minute kirikaeshi – about 7 or 8 sets
- more or less 3 minutes jigeiko
- 30 seconds
kakarigeiko
- change sides
- then kotai (change partners)
- rinse and repeat
So all up, one-and-a-half minutes of
hell and six minutes of getting beaten up, with a bit of a rest
being good motodachi in between.
First couple of sets, oh this is bad. I’m tired, my back hurts, there’s something in my eye, think I can stop to get it out, maybe miss a set, or two. This is taking more than a minute, surely time is up.
Third set, I’m at the end of the line, which means I do two sets of hell back-to-back, I’ll think of something to get out of this… hey, he blocked my shot, why didn’t I get it. Another opening, too slow this time. Watch for his movement, there it is, damn he’s too quick, but at least he didn’t get me. He’s going back, sucked in, try tsuki, fall short. But sucked in to the fight. Times up and he comes at me, full of energy, I struggle to keep up to offer openings, doesn’t really matter as he’s hitting me anyway. Ok, my turn for kirikaeshi, let’s get through this so we can get back to the fight. I get a couple of good shots in, he gets more, but I’m happy with that, it was a good tussle. A bit of kakari and we’re done.
Oh that’s right, quick turnaround, can I take a break? Nah, do one more, we’re half way there. Ok this kitikaeshi is a struggle, maybe I should have stopped, now take a breather.. bam, he comes straight at me, so that’s how you’re going to play it is it? Tries again, but not a clean shot this time. Third time’s the charm, I hit him with a beautiful debana-kote. Now I’ve got him. His turn for kitikaeshi, do I hit him as he’s turning around to teach him a lesson? Nah, better to teach by example, I make sure he’s ready then hit him with a nice straight men. That’s how it is done.
Fifth set, hey almost at the end. Breeze thru the kirikaeshi, but notice my steps are pretty small. Try to keep moving, but my feet seem stuck to the floor, the words ‘lead’ and ‘weight’ come to mind. Hey his kirikaeshi is pretty good, nice and big cuts and using the whole dojo, ok have to lift my game.
Last set, my best kirikaeshi, at least until the last couple of sets, ran out of voice. Good fight too, legs are moving again, probably moving in slow motion but it feels fast. Then we’re done. Finished.
Bowing out, we say ‘arigatougozaimashita’ just like at the end of every training, but this time we really mean it. We truly are thankful to everyone for turning up and getting us all through it. Times like this that you understand how Kendo is not an individual sport. And there are smiles all around, we all hurt, but we start comparing blisters as though they were old battle scars, badges of honour.
Till next time, oh f@%! that’s
tomorrow!
Day One
One of the hardest parts about kangeiko thus far (one morning training in!) was setting my alarm for 5am last night. Following that I had the most dreadful sleep, dreaming that my alarm was just about to go off, and that I was terribly dehydrated, and that I had slept through my alarm and missed training. Unfortunately, the last one definitely wasn't true and I struggled out of bed feeling like it was the middle of the night. Even Tippy the dog didn't know what was going on - "Going outside - now, already! Oh boy something exciting must be happening!"
We were very lucky in that it was an unusually warm morning. After all the freezing weather we have been having, it was very refreshing! I was amazed to have 11 brave souls who had resisted the temptation of the snooze button. All 11 people were at training on time. Lets hope this behavior filters into regular trainings! Akiyo had got poor Ria and Sui out of bed to come too on the first day of their holidays!
Straight into training - Akiyo had suggested that the first day be just kirikaeshi (yes folks it was her idea not mine!). So after a quick warm up and suburi we did just that! Starting with to sets, increasing by a set each rotation up till 8, counting back down again to two, then counting up again in even numbers to 8, and counting down to one set on the odd numbers. That is 96 sets of kirikaeshi (that's 1043 cuts). The first count up to 8 was the hardest - knowing we had only been doing it for 20 odd minutes, and there was so much more in store. Everyone was putting in a lot though - they came knowing the whole idea of kangeiko is that it is hard, and they knew that the only way it would be great is if they gave it their all.
With a small amount jigeiko to finish on a high note, all was right in the world! It was the first time in a long time I got to work before all of my colleagues. I couldn't stop eating all day. I finished my lunch by 11 and the hunger pangs remined. Evening training was somewhat subdued, but enjoyable - even with the realisation that the aches and blisters would never have time to heal over the next week. I must quote our good friend before he gets on here and writes - Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!
I am guessing Chris smelled really bad for the final photo and that's why he has been pushed off to the side? :P What a relief that final bow out was! The celebratory breakfast at Honeypot tasted the kind of good that can only be created by 7 days of hard morning trainings!
Well done to all that made it to all of the morning trainings, and all those that made the effort to take part one way or another. I think special mentions must go to Jamie - even after getting an injury he still got up early and came to support us, bang the drum and take the great photos we now have to remember the event by; Richard, who hadn't trained for a good month or more beforehand but came anyway and turned up even after the soles of his feet seemed to lose all of their skin (although you almost negated your special mention by sleeping in two of the mornings Rich :P) and Shinrii who similarly hadn't trained for quite some time but still went hard for all 7 of the morning trainings.
Proud of you folks!