Fight for Life/IBF training Day this Sunday

We are scheduled to head down to Brisbane this weekend to again participate in the opportunity to train alongside a variety of disciplines, hosted by Peter Hills sensei and the International Budo Federation.

This year, Kevin Walsh sensei, founder of the Fight for Life concept will be teaching a judo session. Kevin sensei is a 7DAN in jujutsu, recognised by the Dai Nippon Butokukai. Other sessions will include Leanne Walsh sensei (4DAN ZKR Iaido) teaching iai fundamentals, Jason Griffiths renshi 5DAN teaching karate, with Stephen Cosgrove (6DAN) and Leo Richards (2DAN) also teaching jujutsu sessions. As a special late addition to the list, AKA and WAKA President Ramon Lawrence OAM sensei  (3DAN Kyudo) will be demonstrating Kyudo at the conclusion of the event. 

Mat fee is $20 and they will be selling fund raising commemorative t-shirts of the event for $10, with proceeds going to the Dr Charlie Teo Foundation. 

Kick off time will be 9.00 am, so the aim is to leave Toowoomba around 6.30 am to allow plenty of time to get down there and get ready for the day. We expect to be finished around 1 pm, and grab a light lunch before heading back up the hill. 

Could I please get an indication ASAP if you are interested and able to come along. It will be good to just sort out how many cars we will need to take down. Additionally, could I please organise a loan of bokken (with or without saya) if you are not coming along, as we suspect that at present there may be more participants than available bokken for  Leanne sensei’s session. We will of course be taking the Club’s stock as well.  

An “ordinary” week ahead

In a month and a bit of extra committments, we shall be having a fairly standard week of classes this week ahead.  

For the first time in over a month, we out to have more or less a full compliment of usual training sessions this week, including the return of Fencing on Tuesday night, and Saturday afternoon classes.  So it will be great to see people for Kendo kata, Arnis, FlexiFit, Systema and Jujutsu tonight! 

I’m also wanting to express well wishes for all of you who have been laid low over the past few days and weeks with seasonal colds and flues. I hope you experience a speedy recovery! However, could I ask that you please let instructors know if you cannot make a session you regularly attend, as it will help with their planning and sequencing of the session.  

We will hope to see some of those who expressed interest at the Club Muster day last Wednesday. Many thanks to Jack Baker for stepping into that breech at the last moment to staff the Club stall.  

NCAS Jujutsu reaccreditation course

This weekend past Brady and I completed the intensive component our once every four year reaccreditation for National Coaching Accreditation Scheme (NCAS) Level 2 status. It required attendence at a two day, 20-hour class intensive, and will be followed up on Sunday 2 September with the delivery of two micro lessons observed by and with comments from our assigned mentors. 

NCAS accreditation is part of the quality assurance that we do in the Club, especially in Jujutsu. It helps to ensure that folk can be confident that we are committed to implementing best practice into what we teach, and are committed to maintaining our personal competencies and extending our knowledge. 

It was wonderful to catch up with friends forged four years ago, and to meet new folk who were undertaking accreditation for the first time. Many thanks to Roger and Lynne Quick for all of the time an effort spent in preparaterion and delivery of the weekend, and to the guidance provided by Jim and Meladee Stackpoole, Matt Cugola, and Alan Ward. 

As always the best session was the afternoon of the Sunday, where we had the opportunity to don dogi, and to put into practice what we had been previously covering. Over the next few weeks, Brady and I may well be practicing our micro lessons in regular jujutsu classes, so we would ask for both your patience and your feedback as we have to map some of the sports science/biomechanics language into our usual mode of explanation.   

Kenjutsu workshop

Hello All,

On Saturday 7 July there was held the second kenjutsu workshop for the year.  There was a good turnout of participants, mainly practitioners of kendo and iaido, with a nice even number so that nobody was left out when paired up (always a bonus).  We covered a good range of basic techniques with a dash of more advanced paired cutting practice, with enough cutting from left stances (hidari kamai) to challenge the kendo practitioners.

I do hope that everyone present at the workshop learned something new, were challenged and had an enjoyable time.

The next workshop will be in approximately three months time with the exact date, time and place to be announced, so stay tuned.

Eric

Classes this week

Just to let everyone know that we will be making some alterations to the regular training schedule for this week still.  

Michael S has notified us that he is unable to come in on Tuesday, so fencing shall recommence next week. I am feeling a little poorly, and will not be able to conduct tonight’s Jujutsu class, and so will get confirmation later today whether Brady will be able to cover for it.  

Wednesday night will see Kendo and Iaido restart at Gin Gin, and I will be looking forward to seeing everyone back there after the past few weeks of break.  

Weekend wrap up: QKR winter seminar 2018

We are back in chilly Toowoomba this morning after another highly successful excursion to participate in the QKR winter seminar, grading opportunity, and State Championships. As always, it has been a challenging, fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved who made the trip down to the Gold Coast. 

This year we had six participants from Toowoomba and two from our sister Club in Gin Gin. For Hernan, Ivan, and Tamara it was their first experience of the broader Kendo and Iaido community here in Queensland, and it was wonderful to welcome them into the fold. I will look forward to seeing them participate at future events. Everyone there commented on how useful the seminar was to their personal practice, and how welcoming everyone was to folk just starting their kendo and iaido journey.  

The Club did itself proud in the State Championship. In the Open Kyu competition, Sean T was 2nd placed, and Kateena third placed (Jack Dye from Kenshinkai managing to pip them for first place). Both played well above the level that is often expected at their grade, and this drew many compliments from senior sensei. Minty and I were knocked out at the pool level by the eventual winner of the Open Dan competition, and friend of the Club, Atsushi Sataka. In the Open Dan, Sorin Pienaru was 2nd place (Kenshinkai), and Ryo Atsumi 3rd. 

Sean T and Kateena were the only Club members challenging for grades this weekend, and both were successful— Sean managing to double grade to 3KYU and Kateena being awarded 4KYU despite suffering from a horrendous migraine. Both did themselves and the Club proud with their performance. 

The next major event on the QKR calendar will be the Australian University Championships, which the Club will be going down to support, and then the Summer Seminar. We will post details for both when they become available. 

The insanity begins early this year: QKR seminar and the month ahead

2018 has so far been a year where the “normal” has been a little out of kilter. Late summer, odd cold snaps, and of course my own personal adjustment to the rhythms of a new university’s timetable. 

CQUniversity goes back to class this week, so I will be making the trip north on Tuesday afternoon in order to do the face-to-face classes Wednesday and Thursday. This will mean that I can often come back of a Thursday afternoon/evening, which will come in handy, especially for the next few weekends. 

As the regular readership will know, August is usually the busiest time of year for the Club, and for me personally. However, this year, in keeping with the theme, the insanity starts a little earlier. This weekend is the QKR winter seminar and grading opportunity.  This year, there will also be a Kendo State Championship run on the Sunday morning. At least eight of us (six from Toowoomba, two from Gin Gin) will be participating across Kendo, Iaido and Jodo, with Kateena and Sean T. attempting to grade in Kendo. 

We will be leaving Friday late morning from Toowoomba, and I am both glad that I do not have to do the drive direct from Bundaberg, and indeed Kateena shall be doing the driving from Toowoomba, which will also be a relief for me.  

Next weekend, Brady and I will be in Brisbane to do our four-yearly NCAS coaching accreditation for Jujutsu. Two long days are scheduled (7.30 am – 4.30 pm) with follow up sessions afterwards to observe our teaching in action.  

The weekend after is a break (yay), but the following week there is a visit by both Ramon Lawrence sensei from Perth, and Nagayama sensei from Japan. We are hoping to get some high-level Iaido and Kyudo instruction while they are here, and there has been some talk of doing so up here in Toowoomba. In addition, Sunday 5 August is the IBF training day, which the Club has participated in for the past few years. 

The weekend after that, the Club is double booked. There is both the Gin Gin Judo seminar and tournament, and the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival. We will have to plan carefully for both events, as obviously I would like to see us supporting both adequately. And beyond that, we have Eric T off to the Jodo gasshuku in Brisbane, a commitment for Carnival of Flowers this year (which we will provide more details of in next week’s bulletin), and we are scheduled for a Dojo open/training day. 

So stay tuned everyone, strap yourselves in, and enjoy the ride (and opportunities) for the next couple of months!

Dojo times this week

It is second week of school holidays, and as a conseqence, there will be a number of changes to the timetable. 

Wednesday night Jujutsu is cancelled, as I will be up in Bundaberg, and Brady is taking a break up North. As a result, we will have to pack up the mats tonight after class.  

Fencing will return next Tuesday when Michael S is back from Italy. Likewise Gin Gin classes will commence next week once school is back. And a reminder that there will be no Tuesday night Systema until Tuesday 21 August, when Michael C is back from Canada. 

I will be coming onto Campus today at 12.30, if anyone is interested in a game of Go. Monday lunch will be the new time for Go to accomodate my changed timetable for the coming months.  

Dylan will advise directly if he is able to run Systema and Arnis classes this week, so please keep an eye out for that. However, there will be no Jujutsu or Kendo this Saturday as we shall be on the Gold Coast for the QKR seminar. 

Stay warm and safe everyone, and I hope to catch up in the coming weeks! 

Admin updates

Just so you don’t think that “holiday” periods mean that we are any less busy, I will be taking the opportunity provided by time this before I start back at CQU classes next week to give the various policy documents for the Club a going over. In particular we will be updating the Club’s risk assessment and management protocols (RAMP), position descriptions for the executive members, critical incident decision trees, and by-laws. 

In part this is to ensure that we are a step closer to a smooth transition for incorporating later this year, and so help meet requirements that Brady and I need to tick off in relation to the upcoming NCAS reaccreditation for Jujutsu.  

I will be ably assisted by both Jack and Brady this week. If anyone else has a burning desire to help with that process, please let me know as in this instance it will be very much a case of many hands making light work.  

School holiday times and opportunities

With school holidays starting today and University committments at both USQ and CQU in hiatus before the new term, I hope that we see some folk returning to regular classes at the dojo. 

At the MEAC, the tatami are down and won’t have to be packed away till next Wednesday night to allow for the hall to have a sluice down by the School’s cleaning contractors (which will theoretically happen either Friday 13th or Saturday 14th July). In the interim, we ought to do our own mop of the keiko-jo (i.e. the area inside the red border, including the tatami), just so the iaido and kendo folk have the benefit of a relatively clean surface on which to train. I would also like for us to take the opportunity to do a stocktake/audit/tidy of the Club’s equipment so that we can go into the second half of this year with some decorum. I will be putting out a call via the Club’s Facebook channels later today once we have a time sorted, so please keep an eye out for that.  

Given that we are without Tuesday night Fencing and Systema this week, I am going to propose that we run an Iaido class 6–8 pm in its place. This will hopefully make up for the fact that we have had a somewhat disrupted time of training the past several weeks. Additionally, I am intending to go down Wednesday morning to Pine Mountain to do some Kyudo taihai and Iaido practice with Rob Doncaster, so if anyone is interested and available, let me know if you would like to join us. I am also trying to arrange for Thursday this week a training opportunity with Tom Johnson sensei. We might travel down to Pine Mountain dojo again to save him from having to come up to Toowoomba, but again, I will post an update on the Kendo & Iaido @BBRD Facebook group once we have that sorted. 

Coming up this Saturday we have the Club’s quarterly kenjutsu workshop, with this session being run by Eric. I would actively encourage everyone interested to come and train. As a result, we shall be cancelling Saturday afternoon sessions this week.  

I’ll look forward to seeing you at the dojo in the coming days!