I have returned from my sojourn to the beautiful and the breathtaking …France! This long-time dream of mine to step into the birthplace of Modern Art was a long one coming. It took some painful planning all year ’round, and it did take its toll on my overall mental, emotional and physical well-being, so much so that […]
Of late, we discovered that I’ve developed some very bad habits involving my footwork. These bad habits are the cause of my falling down from tai–atari (body attack) several times. J–sensei had been pretty rigorous with me in overcoming my fear of tai–atari and developing correct footwork, so last night’s keiko was dedicated to exercises involving a lot […]
Dō is a diagonal cut across the torso. This is something I still struggle with, especially the zanshin and footwork part. We usually hit the right side of the opponent’s dō but the left side (gyaku–dō) is acceptable too, except the strike needs to be a lot stronger because traditionally, that’s the place where the daisho (a pair of […]
That’s right, I have a sensei now. J–sensei is a 4−dan who had not been able to practice his art for about 11 years. He only began training again when he moved here to Cambodia late last year and found out about us. He is a really good teacher, and mainly because he IS a […]
Yes, I have been quiet for a while and mostly kept to myself these days, although a lot of interesting things had happened of late which brings me joy. I do still attend kendo regularly and although my training has become harder (my sensei and sempais are really pushing me further) I am quite pleased with […]
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
An esteemed sensei of a major dojo, whose book I’ve read and been an instant fan of, suggested that one should have a sensei or sempai or kenshi who knows one’s kendo and whom one can look up to, whose kendo one wants to emulate, and study them and learn from them. It would be preferable […]
When I visited a Philippine kendo club last July of 2014, one of the main critique of their sensei to my kendo is that I lack ‘shibori.’ Big time! Of course, I was ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know what shibori was, let alone heard of it! The sensei demonstrated it to me, […]
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