Last Hurrah of the year ... some timetable changes ahead

As we enter into the last few opportunities to meet as a Club community for 2022, I just wanted to thank everyone for the contributions you have made personally and collectively to the culture and spirit of the Club. We are heading into the Club’s 15th year in 2023, and I look forward to what this year ahead will bring.

It has been a year of significant change for me personally, re-entering the world of full time work after four year’s spent as an undergraduate student (again), and now with the added change of a new workplace commencing as of last week. It has also been a year of change and challenge for a number of the Club’s membership.

Just to flag that there will be one significant change to the timetable of classes in the New Year. Kendo will be moving for the first time to the earlier Thursday time slot of 6:15 start, and Iaido will be run after the kendo class. Consequently, Jodo will shift to Tuesday after Jujutsu. We have a number of regular class attendees who are travelling significant distances to get in for training, and the time shift will facilitate an earlier, safer journey home for them at the end of an evening.

Take care everyone! I will hopefully catch up with some of you this week before we close down for the year, and will look forward to seeing you once we get back in the swing of things.

Reminder: Taiko solstice event this Thursday from 5 pm

As noted last week, we won’t be training on Thursday night in order to free people up to go tot he Taiko Summer Solstice event in Queens’s Park. Things will kick off from 5 pm at the Campbell Street end of the park (opposite Cob and Co. Museum).

Grading successes

The past two Saturdays have been very full with the QKR seminar and grading opportunity, and the Jujutsu grading held in consecutive weekends.

I would like to thank all of the sensei who travelled up to make these opportunities possible — in the QKR space K. Kuramochi sensei, G. Nicholas sensei, N.Tamura sensei, and T. Johnson sensei both for grading panel duties and providing excellent instruction as always in the seminar that followed. For Jujutsu we had the pleasure of Kyle Elkenhans sensei of offering to come and sit on the panel for our Nyumon exams.

There is an astonishing amount of effort that does into the background in order to run these sort of events, and I want to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of these events.

And now to results! I’m very please to announce the following grade promotions:

• Clint Duffill 3KYU Iaido

• Tamara Kelly 2KYU Iaido

• Ellyse Reese 5KYU Kendo

• Aren Rossiter 5KYU Kendo

• Quentin Brandy 3KYU Kendo

• Ivan Hills 1KYU Kendo

• Ryan McGrath 9KYU Jujutsu

• Brett McGrath 8KYU Jujutsu

• Lochlan Reese 7KYU Jujutsu

• Oliver Boucher 7KYU Jujutsu

• Mathew Clulow 7KYU Jujutsu

• Heather Butler 7KYU Jujutsu

• Rebekah Caudell 6KYU Jujutsu

• Imogen Caudell 6KYU Jujutsu

Gradings are a critical for learning. They throw a spotlight on what you need to focus on in your training for progression, whether it is consolidating things you have started to practice, or learning new skills.

Well done everyone who sat for examination in this past fortnight. I am genuinely looking forward to helping you on your journey forwards in the new year!

Equipment and uniform orders

I have spoken to a few people over the past few weeks and am keen to place a few orders for uniforms and equipment with our regular suppliers.

Make sure that you have a look at tozandoshop.com and Grapplingstore.com if there is anything you want to purchase. You must get a firm order into either myself or Sean no later than Thursday and transfer your deposit money to the Club’s purchasing account no later than Friday, so please get that done as soon as you can.

By way of deposit, you need to deposit 70% of the web-listed price from either of those stores. We will then purchase and work out what you need to contribute to pay the remainder once Club discounts have been applied. You will need to pay in full before you receive your items.

We are always wanting to pass on the full discount to members, but have had difficulty in the past getting everyone to pay on time. By doing things this way we hope to smooth this process. In addition, we will be making separate orders for “in-stock” items like uniforms and custom jobs like wooden weapons so that people can get their gear ASAP.

I’ll look forward to receiving orders over the next few days.

Classes over the next few weeks

We are rapidly approaching the end of year and I just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the important dates coming up.

First, the last training evening of the year will be Tuesday 20th December. We will be training BBRD Jujutsu, Iaido and (TBC) Systema for only last time this year.

Last Kendo and Arnis sessions will be on Saturday 17 December. Last Jodo session will be Thursday 15 December.

Our traditional Keiko Hajime will be on Tuesday 3 January, and return to scheduled classes from Thursday 5 January.

There may be some shuffling around of classes in the new year once my new work schedule has been established but we will be consulting with everyone to make sure that we have the best spread of classes for everyone.

Next Thursday 22 December the Taiko Tribe are holding an inaugural Summer Solstice session in Queens Park. I’d encourage everyone to come along and say hi in support of this! Details will be sent through next week.

As always I hope to see everyone in the dojo (or out and about during the festive season)!

Long time between drinks …

I want too start by acknowledging that it has been a very long while since the last Budo Bulletin came out in August, and we are now rapidly heading towards the end of the year that was.

There has been a lot that has occurred since the last post in August, so I will probably send out a more fulsome “year in review” post before New Year. In this edition, I’d like to focus on a few of the end of year tidy ups, so lets get to it!

More items for the training calendar

Just a quick reminder that the next few weeks will involve a bit of a disruption from normal programming.

First, I am off to Gin Gin next weekend to help prepare folk for Kendo, Iaido and Jodo gradings coming up, and to conduct a BBRD Jujutsu grading.

The following weekend, I am in Brisbane for some Physiotherapy related professional development, so will be unavailable Saturday. We will confirm the availability of people to cover Saturday classes.

Two weeks after that (Saturday 17 September), the Club is hosting the QKR SEQ regional grading opportunity. At this stage grading opportunities for Kendo and Iaido are guaranteed, and we are awaiting confirmation on Jodo.

Unfortunately, as QKR members will be aware, the proposed QKR North Queensland has had to be cancelled, but this will mean that I will actually be in town that Saturday for regular training. In addition, Sunday 25 September there will be the first post-COVID IBF training day in Brisbane for those interested in participating.

1 October I’m hoping to make a day of it and get some training in with Tom Johnson sensei for iaido and jodo in the morning and with Takashi Itakura sensei in the afternoon for kendo

Finally, the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival will be held on Saturday 15 October, and once again the Club will be there providing demonstrations in support. This year will be a little different in format, with the activities happening over the afternoon and evening (3–8pm) in the theme of a street festival.

So plenty to look forward to and sink your teeth into over the coming months!

The three Rs: Reconnect, restart, refocus

It’s been a while since our last Budo Bulletin. The past few months have been a bit of a blur personally, in between work commitments, hosting events here in Toowoomba, a family trip away, and being unwell the past few weeks.

As a result of all this, it has felt like it has been difficult to build the momentum necessary to front up to train and teach, and to keep on top of the behind the scenes activities for the Club and QKR Treasurer’s role.

This feeling of burn out is fairly common at this time of year. Short hours of daylight and cold weather can make it much harder to feel like you have the energy to go into the dark and cold to go and train something that will challenge your physicality and your focus. As a result, class numbers wildly fluctuate and people who were once regular stalwarts become absent friends.

I would like to put out a rallying call to our community. A call to reconnect, restart and refocus our own individual journeys in a way that will help all of us to do the same. This is because our training always happens in the context of someone else’s contribution of their time and physical presence. We don’t progress by throwing our effort into the void.

In saying this, I acknowledge how hard all three can be to address when restarting after an absence.: The re-familiarisation with the reason you wanted to start in the first place; the decision to make sure that you actively choose to walk into the dojo.; and, of course, reflecting on the “what now” to guide what you want your training to achieve. These all time mental energy and time that can seem scant, especially before the Equinox.

I want to help by restating my own commitment to reconnect, restart and refocus my martial arts journey. This includes some grading goals in the short to medium term and a reorganising of my own training schedule to facilitate this. And of course that cannot be done without the help and support of the Club community.

So I ask everyone to step back into the breach. Reach out and let us know how you have been. Just turn up. And think on what you want to achieve from your training. Together, all things are possible.

私たちが頑張れば、それは可能です
Watashitachi ga ganbareba, sore wa kanōdesu

If we do our best, it can be done

Streamlining uniform and equipment orders

We have been refining the way that we fulfil Club orders over the past year or so, and are wanting to bed down some regular protocols to avoid some of the difficulties that we have encountered over the past few months.

In particular, when putting in our Tozando orders, we have often been caught out by the slow pace that wooden weapons are currently being manufactured in Japan. This is down to a range of factors including fewer artisans working in the industry post-COVID, problems with securing supply of raw materials, especially Japanese white oak, and global supply chain issues that have slowed the shipping of orders once ready.

In response we will be putting in a “recommended guide to purchasing from Tozando” page in the members section of the website, which will put our recommendations and experience with specific items. Next, we will be separating orders into “fast ship items”, which are those that are usually to hand and will ship quickly” and “slow ship items” such as wooden weapons and custom items that may take weeks or months to made before they are ready to ship.

Third, we will be posting a step-by-step guide to placing your order through the Club so that this can be done as smoothly as possible. This will be your go-to information source, and hopefully avoid having to resend the same information out each time.

I will try to have both guides up ASAP, but certainly in the next week.

I’m hoping that we can make our next order within the fortnight — uniforms and shinai, so that they can make it in time for upcoming events. Remember that ordering through the Club allows us to pass on savings, and the larger the order, the bigger the saving as a percentage overall.

Upcoming events

There are still quite a few items coming up on the Club calendar over the next few months. First is a trip to Gin Gin in support of those attempting Kendo gradings in September and December, and to conduct a jujutsu grading. The date for this is still to be set, but likely on 27–28 August, with a Toowoomba jujutsu grading opportunity the following week.

I am also wanting to put into the calendar a once a month Saturday trip down the hill to train with Tom Johnson sensei in the morning (Iaido and Jodo) and then Takashi Itakura sensei for Kendo. We are pencilling in the first Saturday of each month for the regular training trip.

Next are the QKR regional gradings in September, the first being hosted by us on Saturday 17 September, the second in Townsville on Sunday 25 September, which I will be heading up to support.

And to round out the big Toowoomba QKR year, we are scheduled to host the December seminar and grading, with a date to be confirmed, but likely the first weekend of December.

As always, we will put notice of any class changes prompted by these commitments via our discussion channels and through the Budo Blog, and if in doubt, please talk with your instructor or discipline coordinator.