Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.
The Club has been asked to double up this week for some extra colour and movement during the Wednesday Common Hour (12–2pm).
I will not be able to make it, so traffic will be directed primarily by Adam Brannigan and Brady Albrand.
It will be a smaller affair than the full Club's day on the Thursday, and we will be doing demonstrations that do not require the Club's mats. Please speak with Adam or Brady this week if you can lend a hand!
I spoke with Hatai sensei at Sunday training and he asked if we could put on a demonstration of our regular keiko for the YLC students who have been staying and working at USQ for the past five weeks.
I would like everyone who can possibly make it to be there for the session (4 pm in the GX room, upstairs in the Recreation Centre as per usual) to give them a strong show of our spirit and determination in practice. So any spare St Joseph's students, and even those that have been away from USQ kendo for a while, please come along this week!
The Club's Day of O-week is one of the best opportunities that we have to attract new members from the USQ community. In previous years we have not only gained new members but also new instructors/disciplines on that day (such as Tiff for Judo and Jack for Taekwondo).
It would be wonderful if you can at all make it along for whatever amount of time. We will be there from 8.30 am in the Quad through to around 3.30 pm. We will need assistance with setting up, packing up and of course demonstrations of the various disciplines, which quite frankly can only be done with warm bodies!
Please talk with your instructors over the next few days. In particular we need help with:
I am looking forward to the opportunity to make new friends and members this week, and hope that you all take the opportunity to do the same!
The Bunnings Family day has been pushed forward one week as the Toowoomba store did not want to directly compete with the mega water slide that is being set up in town on the 14th. In all honesty, probably a few of the Bunnings staff wanted to be at the water slide themselves!
This is good news for the Club as I was going to be away that weekend (celebrating my Dad's 70th) so it means we can offer a broader range of disciplines to be displayed. We will firm up precisely what we are going to do during this week.
Please let your instructor know this week of your availability for some or all of that day.
This is a quick note to let all know I will be off to Kyoto, Japan, for a few weeks. There will be no formal Jodo classes until my return on Tuesday March 24th. Michael will be leading people through the Internal Power exercises so please keep up the good work on Thursday nights!
Arashiyama bamboo forest
This will be a great time away to catch up with my wife's family, my old mates in the Kyoto Aikido club and a chance to meet some new training partners for Jodo. The positive side of being winter over there is that there are lots of yummy winter recipes to enjoy! So for the moment, sayonara... Adrian.
I have to say I am really looking forward to this weekend, where BBRD will be hosting Andrew Seyderhelm to provide a full day seminar in Russian martial arts.
Andrew is one of the founding members of BBRD and a fully qualified Combat Systema instructor under Kevin Secours and Vasiliev Systema instructor (in the days before some of the senior practitioners looked like they were auditioning for a spot in the Ministry of Silly Walks). In recent years he has worked as a Sydney-based officer in the Australian Federal Police.
Andrew intends to teach from his experiences with the AFP, in particular the ethical and legal framework that we exist within when practising the martial arts and engaging in self defence.
I can't oversell the opportunity to train with Andrew. He is a fine martial artist with an excellent knowledge of the core principles and training approaches that initially attracted us to the Russian Art. This is probably your best opportunity to see how the core pillars of breath, relaxation, posture and movement can be put into a practical, no nonsense, no bulldust delivery framework.
There will be two sessions — 10am–1pm and 2–5pm. Costs for the day will be $60 for BBRD members and $80 for non-members, or $40 and $50 respectively for one session.
We are also wanting to go to dinner on the Saturday night, with details to be confirmed by Wednesday. If you are wanting to join us, please let Michael know ASAP so that we can book sufficient seats.
Just to confirm, but there will be no Jujutsu on Saturday on account of the Andrew Seyderhelm seminar. Stuart will advise what the state of play is regarding the morning Tai Chi Ch'uan class directly to affected students.
Just a quick heads up that I may not be able to direct traffic for kendo this week. Many apologies.
I will provide an update directly to those players affected, but could you please let me know ASAP if you are intending to be there so that suitable arrangements can be made.
Just a reminder that all practitioners of Kendo and Seitei Iaido are expected to have current PCYC Queensland memberships. This will allow you to train without complication at the PCYC on a Sunday (for either discipline) and give us access to the PCYC bus when travelling to seminars and special training events outside of Toowoomba.
If you have not done so already, could you please ensure that your membership is up to date. The PCYC have apparently changed their systems to allow you to more easily renew your memberships, and I ask that you do so ASAP.
We are still to finalise the regular schedule for Seitei Iaido for the year. However, we are going to be locking in the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month in the second session of the evening (from 7.50 pm) starting tonight for those interested.
We hope to lock in one trip a month to Collingwood Park to train with Johnson sensei (most likely the last Monday of the month) and again the first Sunday of the month at the PCYC (after Kendo). However with Johnson sensei away till April, we will be firming those arrangement in the coming weeks.
Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.