Blog Feed: Ivan's Kendo Blog

2012 World Kendo Cup Team Members

Published on 2012-05-15 01:43:00

These people from Taipei Kendokan will represent Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) in the world cup in Italy this year!! Beware, they are very strong!!Ben Liang, 5th DanHao-Chang Weng, 5th DanKay Liu, 3rd Dan > read more

Was I asleep?

Published on 2012-04-17 04:04:00

The title is the conclusion from my competition at the end of March. Our team didn't advance into the finals. And I won only 1 match. The points I lost was by the total lack of maai, and the seme was not strong enough. I was rushing to attack. However, the performance by my teammates in the single competitions were really good. > read more

After a short break

Published on 2012-03-21 20:43:00

After a 3-weeks break from the kendo training, which felt like ages while the guilt was piling up, I went to the training last evening. Since my senpai asked me to participate the competition in two weeks, I really have to practise now.In the pass 3 weeks, I was busy with my own outside-of-work project, and also took the chance to fix my neck-shoulder problem with some physiotherapy and > read more

Recent goals

Published on 2012-02-02 01:29:00

After almost two weeks of break due to the Chinese New Year holidays, I returned to the dojo last night. It was good to exercise having eaten so much!!! (CNY is somewhat like the X'mas for the Chinese people.)I've been more sure of my direction in kendo since the long day of matches at the Taiwan national team selection in December last year. Now I pay more attention to:The distance between my left and right feet in kamae. Making slightly larger and quick strikes, using the wrist power, coming m [..] > read more

Selection of National Team Members

Published on 2012-01-10 03:27:00

Ok, so, I went for the nation team member selection on last Saturday, a tough day it was! In total, 65 male and 35 female candidates from all over the island took part in the selection. We were divided into 4 pools, meaning that each team has 16 people, and each of us had to fight 15 matches, whether you advance into the next stage or not.The top from each pool will be selected as the team member, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th from each pool advance to the next round. In the end, 7 are selected as t [..] > read more

Happ New Year 2012

Published on 2012-01-05 21:34:00

First of all, let me wish everyone a Happy and Successful New Year!!!I had done so much in 2011 - making a lot of new friends, founding a rotary club, starting a new blog, finding a new direction in career, while maintaining regular kendo practices. Sure, I cannot say that I achieved a great deal in kendo last year, but overcoming obstacles and attending practices required a lot of self-motivation in my circumstances. I am glad that I was able to do it.My kendo level has gone from kihon-only sty [..] > read more

Congratulations Suzuki Sensei on passing 7th Dan!

Published on 2011-12-05 23:25:00

A big congratulation to Aki Suzuki san for passing her 7th Dan at age 39 only! And the pass rate was 11%! What a splendid young age to obtain such a high rank especially for a FEMALE kendoka. I practised with her several times in Europe and in Japan, and all I can say is, she is by far the best female kendoka I have fought with. And she certainly has the appropriate rank to go with it.I met Suzuki san (right) for the first time in 2007. The below is a video clip showing Suzuki san (in blue) demo [..] > read more

Debana techniques

Published on 2011-11-24 01:29:00

Ho Sensei gave some useful tips for doing men-debana-men/kote.Debana-men: when doing seme and fighting for the center line with the opponent, try to put the shinai slightly on top of the opponent's shinai, so that it takes a shorter time to strike his men.Debana-kote: similar in the case of the debana-men, this time try to put the shinai slightly below. By doing so, one also lures the opponent to strike men. > read more

2011 Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup

Published on 2011-11-14 22:12:00

This is the 3rd time I participated in the Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup, since I came back to Taiwan 3 years ago. It was the toughest competition experience for me so far, as I fought about 8-9 matches with my teammates.The competition was teams-only, no individual matches. I was the least experienced kendoka in the 7 men team representing the Taipei Kendokan. However, my sempais continued to encourage me to fight, even though at one point I really wanted to give up, and wanted to let the other team m [..] > read more

Developing one's own style

Published on 2011-11-09 09:54:00

Ho Sensei said at the end of today's training, that as we advance into higher Dan-grades we should start to be more aware of ourselves, and at the same time develop our own kendo styles. It will come naturally with the personality and the physical conditions. Below is the video from Monday's training between two Senpais (there's HD version if you click on it) > read more

Training video

Published on 2011-10-31 22:00:00

A little thought: In Kamae, if I apply equal force on both hands to grip the shinai, I tend to strike with the right. However, I found that if I grip harder using the left. I naturally use the left hand to strike, which evidently much more powerful.Now this is a video in yesterday's training, between Chang senpai (5th Dan on the left) and a visiting Ogawa Sensei (7th Dan) from another dojo. Good kendo and a good fight!! Enjoy!!! > read more

Recent progress

Published on 2011-08-31 22:44:00

Previously, I mentioned in the article on passing my 3rd Dan the things I wanted to work on. From then on, I have been working on these skills. Indeed, the foundation to all possible improvements are the kihon kills built up before now, for example, footwork, kamae, simple men/kote/do strikes, and kirikaeshi, etc. So, I sincerely advice all beginners to work on them step-by-step patiently and persistently. Especially, for the adult beginners, who usually tend to THINK more than to DO, sometimes [..] > read more

Maai (間合;Distance)

Published on 2011-08-23 20:34:00

Recently, I have been working on getting the correct distance, or the maai. Maai is the distance between the two opponents, and it is basically like the "shooting range" for guns. However, not only the distance is important, the kamae also determines whether one is ready to jump forward or not, and whether one can jump far or close. For example, if one were to strike debana-men, he must not jump too far because it would be slow, and also it is unnecessary since the opponent moves also forward. S [..] > read more

I am 3rd Dan

Published on 2011-06-19 07:07:00

Haven't written the blog for quite a while already, because there is too many other projects going on right now. One being my new website for promoting science communication in the Chinese speaking world, combining art, design, entertainment and scie > read more

Stepping right foot to the left while striking kote

Published on 2011-05-01 20:56:00

The weather in Taiwan is getting more and more humid, and in last Friday's training I felt that I could throw up in any minute after 30 mins into the training. Fortunately, the kakari-geiko stopped just in time. Phew~When I practised with Ho Sensei, > read more

2011 Taipei Youth Cup

Published on 2011-04-18 00:14:00

Last Saturday was this years Taipei Youth Cup. It's been almost half a year since the last competition, which had been a major disappointment, not being able to even show a good kendo style. Since then I went to the training persistently, worked on t > read more

Helping the Japanese earthquake

Published on 2011-03-18 04:29:00

Needless to inform you about the recent earthquake disaster that killed so far 5,000 people and thousands more missing, while 450,000 are staying in temporary shelters.Please help by donation.http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html > read more

Katsugi-waza

Published on 2011-03-18 03:44:00

Recently, there have been a couple of shiai-geikioes in the dojo, and there were wins and losses. I think I had overall a good control of my body, and didn't just hit relentlessly, but tried to pressurize my opponent until he makes the attack first. > read more

Improving debana-men

Published on 2011-02-27 22:42:00

Two weeks of Chinese New Year break arrived timely for me to catch up some sleep. But in the end, I guess most of you would feel the same, was that I couldn't wait to get to the dojo.Gradually I am exploring the finer details of kendo. It feels like > read more

Be more explosive

Published on 2011-01-15 21:18:00

Today at the mawari-keiko session, Ho sensei asked me to stand in the motodachi position for the first time. After a few fights, Ho sensei came to tell me that I should try to use more waza and execute every technique thoroughly and correctly, even f > read more

Happy New Year 2011

Published on 2011-01-07 23:10:00

Happy New Year everyone!!I've been to every training in the past month. Not for any particular reason, just because I enjoyed it. There have also been a few realizations of my own kendo lately.When cutting: One thing particularly important is that, r > read more

2010 Ozawa Sensei in Taiwan

Published on 2010-12-29 00:22:00

This year Ozawa Sensei came again to Taiwan for a few days. Again this year, Takano Sensei and Fukui Sensei (both 7th Dan) came with him. It was his first time in Taiwan after obtaining the 8th Dan, and was invited to give a seminar aimed at kendo in > read more

One day I will be strong

Published on 2010-12-15 20:57:00

The past few weeks were packed with activities, kendo or non-kendo related. There was the Taipei Chong-Chung Cup at the end of November, in which the mens team got the forth place and the women got the first. I was teamed up with four strong kenshis > read more

More on the hand grip

Published on 2010-11-08 19:57:00

To elaborate on the method of gripping the shinai I talked about in my last blog entry, I extract some figures from the manuscript from Toshio Matsumoto (9th Dan Hanshi), the same document which I quoted for describing the Natural Stance Kamae.The po > read more

V-shape hand grip

Published on 2010-11-04 22:37:00

After two weeks of absence, my feet become slow again. After striking, I felt that I was dragging my feet over the floor.However, Hsu Sensei corrected the way I hold the shinai with my right hand. I should hold it in such a way that makes the V-shape > read more

One beat too slow

Published on 2010-09-20 21:06:00

It doesn't always happen that more than two sensei/sempais are telling you about the same problem. But when it does, you know you've found a critical thing to improve on, and that's fantastic.What Tseng-Sensei (曾育仁) told me when practising wit > read more

To become one with the sword

Published on 2010-09-19 22:31:00

Sometimes I get striked on the men when I doesn't cover it properly with my shinai. I raise my shinai to block, but my upper body bends back instead of dodge to the direction of the shinai. The bending backward creates a space open for the opponent t > read more

Small cut

Published on 2010-09-06 23:32:00

My performance in the last few trainings have been up and down. In some trainings my strikes were solid and confident, while in some I couldn't seem to commit my strikes fully. In situations where confidence was lacking, I not only attacked less and > read more

Short shiai-geiko

Published on 2010-08-15 20:48:00

Last Friday we had a short shiai-geiko. I was in the less strong division, so I won all except one. My problem was that there is a tendency for me to return to kamae before any strikes, so when my opponent just comes up and strikes relentlessly, I ju > read more