International Budo Federation training – Sunday 30 August

The IBF training day, organised by friend of the Club Peter Hills sensei,  is this Sunday at the Hills District PCYC.

Given it is a 10 am start, we would be looking to head from Toowoomba around 7.30 am to give us sufficient time to stretch our legs at the other end before training. As the flyer indicates, the $15 attendance covers some lunch afterwards, with profits being donated to Beyond Blue.

It promises to be a fun day down in Brisbane, so please let Michael know ASAP so that we can organise appropriate transport for those wanting to go down.

Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival this Sunday

So we are almost there — The Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival is this Sunday in Queens Park. We have some new promotional material for specific disciplines, and members have been working hard on putting together displays for the day. 

I'd like to extend an invitation for everyone to come along to what is always a really fun day of demonstrations, informal practice and meeting with the broader Toowoomba community to share a little of our passion for the martial arts. Even for the "out of towners", the sometime dojo visitors, friends, family and the just plain curious, the Festival has something to offer, so make sure you try to encourage as many people as you can to come along!

If you are going to be there, please make sure that you let Michael or Sian know (even if only a possibility) as we need to forward your names to the organisers so you will not have to pay the entry fee ($5 this year).

There will be no PCYC Kendo training on Sunday, nor Jujutsu training on Saturday. The former is because you will hopefully be there at Queens Park. The latter to allow Michael to attend to a few things beforehand so that he can spend a guilt free Sunday throwing people "wuffly" to the ground (among other things).

If you can, please come to the MEAC at 4.30 pm on Saturday to help load things up. On Sunday, we will be arriving at Queens Park at 8 am to set everything up. However, most people can arrive from 10 am when things properly kick off for the festival.

There are a number of things that you can do to help on the day. First is to participate in demonstrations for the disciplines you train (to which I am sure your various instructors have talked to you about). Second, we need people to chat to the public and distribute the various flyers that promote the Club. Third, we will need sufficient people at the end of the day (4 pm) to ensure that "bump out" is as quick and painless as possible.

For everyone attending, can you please ensure that you:

• ensure your uniforms are clean and your equipment in good repair. We want to put our best foot forward to the public.
• have a water bottle, hat and sunscreen. We will have some water and Club-provided sun screen, but everyone needs to take responsibility for being sun smart on the day.
• bring your lunch or some money to purchase it. There are sure to be many tasty food options available.
• take care when demonstrating and take sufficient breaks. We do not want to see injuries on the mat.

This year we have a whole demonstration area — theoretically properly cordoned off— to ourselves for the day, tucked near the USQ pavilion and near the Mediaevalists and Camels (what could possibly go wrong?, he says). I will also be setting up so Go boards for people to have a try.

I am looking forward to this, the 10th year of the Festival. Should be a great day out!

Reminder: Dojo Open Day Saturday 15 August

We will be actively promoting out Dojo Open Day from this week, including making flyers for distribution among the community and at the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival on Sunday. Please make sure that you widely distribute through your networks this marvellous opportunity to come and have a look at what we have to offer — both in terms of our regular classes and our facilities.

On the day we will definitely be offering session in:

• Dragon Wrestling
• Jugger
• Jujutsu
• Kendo
• Komei Juku (MJER) iaijutsu
• Kyokushin Karate pad work and conditioning
• Systema pillars and practices
• Sanda
• Tai Chi Ch'uan

With the possibility of running demonstrations in :

• Arnis
• Kyudo
• Seitei Iaido
• SMR Jodo

We are finalising the timetable on the next few days, but the details will be posted on the Club website at: www.bbrd.org.au/pages/open-day-2015

Hope to see many new faces there!

Farewell for Adrian Knight

It was Adrian's last night in the dojo on Tuesday and we had a brief joint training session with the SMR Jodo and Jujutsu classes before heading down to the Mort Estate Hotel for a quite farewell.

I want to again wish Adrian all the best in his move to Kyoto, Japan, and hope that he is enjoying the seminar in Malaysia he was attending on his way there. 

We are hoping that once he has settled in, we will be able to organise Toowoomba's (possibly Australia's) first multi location international martial arts seminar via the magic of the Internet and a couple of go pros projected onto the big screen of the MEAC.

Eric will be the Club's point of contact for jodo, and study group sessions will continue to run at the same times on Tuesday and Thursday.

International Budo Federation training day, Sunday 30 August

One of the calendar items for this month is a training day down in Brisbane being organised and hosted by friend of the Club, Peter Hills, sensei. 

It promises to be a fun day down in Brisbane, so please let Michael know ASAP if you are interested to go and train for the day with a variety of different instructors.

Dojo Open Day — Saturday 15 August

Do you have friends that you have encouraged to join the Club but they have not known what they might be interested in? Are there some of the disciplines that the Club supports that you have been intrigued with but not had the opportunity to try?

The Club will be holding an open day to the public on Saturday 15 August at the Mort Estate Activity Centre from  10.30 am till 4.30 pm. It is primarily a hands on day for people to try out a variety of martial arts offered by the Club.

Price will be $10 to participate in a session or $40 for the day. Lunch will be available to be purchased.

We will be posting a full timetable in the next issue of the Budo Bulletin, and promoting it at the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival. So do keep the date free and let everyone know who might be interested.

Inaugural Kyudo session in Toowoomba

I just wanted to thank Tom Johnson, sensei and Rob Doncaster of the Kohokai for coming up the hill in the fog and rain on Sunday to direct and participate (respectively) in Toowoomba's inaugural Kyudo training session. To quote James Archer on this one — who would of thought that walking in the door could be so complicated!

I have to say I had an absolute ball on Sunday. A testing kendo session to gauge if we are physically/mentally ready for Itakura sensei's return to Toowoomba training next month, Seitei Iaido and Kyudo to really get the synapses firing. I am certainly looking forward to a massage tomorrow! It was wonderful to see Maaike, Michaela and Tracy trying out both Seitei Iaido and Kyudo for the very first time (and making a particularly good show of it).

Tom will be next up the hill for the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival in a fortnight, and I hope to be able to hive of some time going over what we did today. Tom has left some notes for us to consider and will be sending some more for us to continue out "homework".

If you are interested in getting some of the basic equipment for Kyudo (or other items for any of the disciplines that the Club supports), please talk to Michael ASAP. He will be putting in an order with Tozando this week (to strike while the exchange rate is still reasonable on a few items), so if you want to save some money on postage, please let him know.

Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival 2015

August is fast approaching and thus so too is the Club's hectic month of public commitments and training opportunities.

This year is the 10th Annual Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival. The Club has been actively participating since 2008 and we are looking forward to continuing that tradition on Sunday August 9. The Club will be setting up a desk in the USQ corporate tent, and has regular scheduled demonstrations throughout the day.

We will be attempting to arrange some of our broader circle of friends in the martial arts to come and help us celebrate this year. Don Ouellette, from the Ittoshinkan, and Tom Johnson from the Kohokai have both agreed to participate this year, and we will try to secure others in the coming week. We should have an excellent spread of disciplines to put on our demonstrations, including setting up some "speed" Go boards for open public participation.

Please let your instructor or Michael know if you are available to participate this year and help with everything from demonstrations through to handing out flyers and encouraging folk to come see the display!

Kyudo and Seitei Iaido training opportunity this Sunday

This Sunday we will be starting some regular sessions at the PCYC in Seitei Iaido and  Kyudo with Tom Johnson sensei.

We will be starting around 10.45 am, after Kendo finishes. Depending on who is there and the level of interest, we will be doing a mix of Iaido kata and some of the core movement and etiquette for Kyudo. Everyone is welcome to come along.

Please let Michael know by Friday if you would like to borrow some equipment, so that we can have sufficient bokken with saya and obi (for Iaido) and gomu yumi for Kyudo.

Change to the timetable — Seitei Iaido shifting to Thursday nights

In a bid to spread out the seitei iaido training opportunities across the week, we will be shifting the seitie iaido study group time at the MEAC to a Thursday night with the same start time—  7.50pm.

This change will create a better compliment for the Saturday and Monday training down at Collingwood Park, and the fortnightly Sunday training at the PCYC.

I look forward to seeing some more faces at training!