Kiecks

So I attended two Kendo tournaments.

My first tournament ever was the 20th Tengu Cup in Frankfurt.
For someone like me it was a tall order. And to be honest, it took alot out of me to
go in there and fight. My most significant other gave me alot of support.
We knew that I would have no chance at anything there.
That particular tournament is a beast of its own.
So my goal was to go in there and try. Get some experience and see how good I can take that pressure.
Well, I went in there. One could argue that I could not take the preassure.
But I stood in there and tried to fight.

I say I tried, because I was awful.
During my first fight my mind went blank and I was just blindly attacking.
At least my opponent was taken aback by that and the fight took almost 12 Minutes.
My second fight was over almost too fast.
I saw that my opponent startet to move.
And that was it.

So my ego took alot of damage.

Next I attended the bavarian championship.
It went way better. But I wont just squabble how much better.

I have never been to Würzburg before and it was beautiful.
The qym was located right next to the river Main. I found an awesome view hiding
just a view steps away from the entrance.
It was nice to meet some of the friends I only ever see at the new years seminar, so that
was a great bonus.
There was some bad blood flowing through my dojo that day and some freedom got
taken from me. But I will leave that in the past and move on.

The last months were quite informative, I found many truths about myself that I never
even realized. I guess that is what martial arts do for you.

Side note: The Iaido presentation was pure awesomesouce!!!

Take care!
  

So last week the time had come.
Training time - and I was ranked highest in the dojo.
(Which is quite a feat, as I´m really far down the pecking order!)

It wasn´t my first time leading. For years on end I practiced
Karate and did my fair share of training others.
But it was the first time since I started practicing Kendo.
And it still makes me smile.

The feeling you get once your ego inflates...
 
Well, I hope they liked my style.

And there are even more things comming up this year.
What a ride.

  

Deep, deep down I am a very simple person.
There is only one thing that I truly strife for.

And that thing is beauty.
Not in looks or any such shallow thing.
I strife for beauty in action. All my friends say I have it
completely backwards. But for me, it is important do do
things the right way.
From walking down a flight of stairs to jumping headfirst into water.

And that is why I chose to practice kendo. I love the importance
of everything. From the way you hold your sword to the moment
you finish your cut.
For me, the essence of this pracice is beauty.

But it does not stop there.
For me there are two things, that are the epitome of beauty in kendo.

The first one is debana - waza.
I find it exhilarating to wait for your opponent to act, only to cut him down.
It empties my mind. I lay in wait.

Now, of course I am still struggling to make a straight cut.
And my opponents are way faster then I am. But it is the idea, the picture I have of myself
while trying it. It is awesome.

The second is nito - ryu.
After all it is 60% of the reason I startet training in this dojo.
I just adore it. It looks so beautiful.

Well, it will take ages to get where I want to be, but I just wantet to share these thoughts.

Take care!

This year started pretty good.
Awesome seminar, great teachers, everything was as good as it gets.
After that, it just trailed off.

There are not many people practicing kendo around here.
Most of the time we are happy to have 4 people.
Sometimes there are as many as 20...
And then, there are times noone shows up.

It started with one training being canceled.
Then life got in my way and I had to skip again.
So another one starts taking the evening off training.
It is a vicious cycle.

And it´s allways hard to go back to training.
But one thing: I have the most amazing teachers possible.
Our last session was just the two of us.
After 4 weeks of nothing but training with children.
It was brutal, and I loved every second.

And I cannot say how happy I am, that he decided to
train, even though it was just the two of us.

 

Next in my Kendo year: the new years seminar.

Organized by my Dojo in Deggendorf.
It was awesome!
Best part is, I even got to train once.    
Organizing sure is though.

On the second day it started to snow. Snow is something I surely
missed the last year. And it was not just snow. Right now we have
45 cm snow outside. (I only live about 200 Meters aways from
city center!)
I love winter and I love the snow.
For me it is even worth all the work that comes with it.

Training Kendo in a winter wonderland is just awesome.
And Sensai Ohsawa was awesome too.

I learned alot and I hope the others enjoyed our seminar too.