Mat clean this Saturday (and Monthly dojo spruce up)

This Saturday is an excellent opportunity for us to have a mini spruce up of the dojo, including a thorough clean of the mats. This is an important part of our hygiene protocols at the Club, and is something that we should all contribute to.

Given that we will be transporting a portion of our mats for O Week Market Day activities, and we may well have new members come along for their first sessions in the coming week, I want for all of us to ensure that we are putting our best foot forward and providing the correct impressions of the Club's values.

So it would be excellent if as many folk as possible could come at 3 pm on Saturday, armed with an old towel to help give the mats a clean. In addition, if you have a bucket and mop to bring, we can give the MEAC floor a decent (and relatively quick) mop down too!

Return of the Aikikai mats

I want to let everyone know that from next week, the Club's matted training surface will unfortunately shrink, as Toowoomba Aikikai Aikido has asked us to return the remainder of their mats that we have in our possession.

While this reduces the maximum usable training surface to 64 square meters, this will not affect the Club's regular classes, only our capacity to host large seminars of more than 20 participants. We will, of course, be looking to extend our training surface through a variety of grants, fund raisers and savings to eventually be able to provide a full sized Adult judo shiai-jo to train and compete on (just shy of 200 square meters).

I would like to thank Aiki Kai Australia for their initial offer to provide an interest free loan for the purchase of the mats, and their agreement for the Club to continue paying a pro rata amount for the residual mats left with us once Toowoomba Aikikai Aikido relocated to the Clive Berghofer Recreation Centre. This has allowed us to continue training and purchase our own mats over the past four years.

Kendo for the next few weeks

As regular readers are aware, Toowoomba Kendo has been made partially homeless due to redevelopments at the PCYC resulting in a lack of suitable space for us to train.

In order to work a temporary fix, we have decided to train at the MEAC on a Sunday morning for the next few weeks, until we find a new permanent venue. The MEAC's floor is not the best for ongoing practice as the rubber composite is just a little too thin to protect higher level players from the wear and tear of fumikomi. However, it is our most convenient (read available) option for the moment.

So that we do not cause disruption to the Holy Name Parish's Sunday morning service, we will start training at 9.30 am, which may be better for some folk.

A final favour to ask — could those Toowoomba-based kendoka that are still willing or able to train of a weekend please fill out the time preference survey for weekend training, either on the BBRD group page, or the Toowoomba Kendo group page. It will make our task much easier to target an appropriate facility for training (and consequently secure the time that most can make it).

Some changes to class times this week

This week coming has birthdays for both Michael and his partner Sara, so there will be some changes to Thursday and Saturday training.

Gym and swim will be on as usual, but Brady will be running the Jujutsu class on Thursday, and at this stage Tracy will get things kicked off for Iaido in the second session. Sean should also be there for Systema.

There will be no training Saturday. Keep cool everyone!

Remember that Punchfit is on tonight and FlexiFit on Wednesday!

Classes are on from 6 pm, just before Jodo. Bring yourself, comfortable exercise clothes and some water — particularly in the heat we are expecting this week!

Hope to see some new faces.

Jodo introduction for 2016

A brief introduction to Shinto Muso Ryu (SMR) Jodo for the new year. Legend has it that Jodo was developed (and the invention of the jo as well) by Samurai Muso Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi after he was defeated in a duel with the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Using his new weapon and associated techniques, Muso Gonnosuke then defeated Musashi in a second dual (reportedly the only defeat Musashi suffered). SMR Jodo is different to the Seitei gata forms taught in Kendo and to Aikijo as taught in Aikido in that SMR Jodo is more directly based on the system developed by Muso Gonnosuke (both Seitei and Aikijo took from SMR various techniques and Kata to help enhance their foundation style).

The main curriculum of SMR Jodo involves not only the jo, but also both the wooden long sword (tachi) and short sword (kodachi). Practitioners need to become competent in the use of all three weapons. Additional weapons used in the art are the tanjo (short staff or walking stick), the kusarigama (sickle and chain) and the jutte.

SMR Jodo was brought to Toowoomba in 2012 by Sensei Adrian Knight who studied Jodo in Japan under Sensei Nishioka Tsuneo. Sensei Knght moved back to Japan mid 2015, and training in Toowoomba has been handed to his two senior students, Eric Tavenner and Adam Brannigan. Eric first experienced jo with Griffith Aikido as part of their weapons training, and received two years training in Aikijo. He has 2 1/2 years experience in SMR Jodo under Sensei Knight and with quite intensive training six months prior to Sensei leaving to Japan. Adam Brannigan has 3 years experience in SMR Jodo under Sensei Knight, and has extensive experience in iaijutsu.

SMR Jodo training is on Monday and Wednesday nights at the Mort Estate Activity Centre starting at 7:00 pm (19:00 hrs). Please see the Jodo web page on this site (www.bbrd.org.au and click on MARTIAL ARTS) for further information. If you are considering Jodo, please stop by and watch, or contact Eric at tazman1492@gmail.com

Kung Hei Fat Choy: Happy Lunar new year!

Today marks the start of the new Lunar year — a year of the Fire Monkey. I hope that the year ahead for everyone is filled with curiosity, quick wit and fun, in keeping with this year's mascot.

Farewell for Aaron De Smet this Thursday night

Just a heads up to say that we will be calling an early halt to training Thursday night to farewell Aaron De Smet, who will be relocating to Brisbane for study this weekend.

Aaron has been a stalwart of the Club, and has thrown himself into training across a number of the disciplines with gusto over the time he has been with us. He will most certainly be missed as a regular member of the training cohort! He is house sharing with other relocated member Tony Schirmer, and they are both looking to continue their training this year under Don Ouellette's guidance in Brisbane.

The plan is to have the regular jujutsu class from 6–7.45 pm an then decamp to the Mort Estate Hotel for a light supper.

Executive News: Members, Timetables and more

We held a Club Executive meeting on Friday to discuss preparations for the academic year ahead and planning for the next two months.

First, I would like to formally welcome Sean Crust and Tracy Campbell onto the executive in their roles as the coordinators for Systema and Seitei Iaido respectively. We are all looking forward to working with them in the year ahead.

Second, we are currently working towards supporting Jesse Gough to run a regular fire-twirling class under the auspices of the Club. Jesse is an experienced teacher, and while not directly "martial" in nature, fire twirling provides an excellent opportunity to improve coordination and dexterity. Before people become too excited (or concerned), the "fire" part of the fire twirling requires a considerable foundation of "twirling" skills, so it will be some time before anything is set on fire.

Third, there are some additions and changes to the regular class timetable that will kick in from mid this week. Posture and Flexibility (now called FlexiFit) will be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday 6–7 pm. Sean Crust will be running a PunchFit class on Mondays (also 6–7 pm), and Jodo will start 30 minutes earlier at 7 pm on both Monday and Wednesday nights. Also, Michael Conroy has again expressed interest in running a Saturday late-morning Systema class (probably starting either 10.30 or 11 am) but we will confirm that over the next week or two.

Fourth, could I ask that you start giving some consideration as to whether you might want to step into the role of Treasurer for the Club. For USQ students, it is a role that contributes towards Phoenix Awards, and is relatively low work. It requires you to do a monthly reconciliation of the in-goings and outgoings from the Club's account, counter sign the "spendings" that we have to do, maintain the membership database, and make yourself available for monthly Executive meetings.

Finally, can you look to spare some time on Wednesday 24 February for Market Day at USQ. This is one of our main opportunities to encourage new members, so your assistance will be most valuable and helpful! More details next week ...

Kendo this week

It was wonderful to have a chance to train with Maaike Stehouwer last Wednesday for what will likely be our last Wednesday afternoon session for some time.

USQ Kendo training sessions have now switched to a Monday 4–5.30 pm timeslot, starting this week. We will be holding them in the Stadium area of the CBRC, and Michael will be down there today in case someone is free for a hit up.

There is a small chance that Greg Nicholas, sensei, will be in Toowoomba this week (the vagaries of his work may keep him in Brisbane). If so, we will have a training session Wednesday night, so keep an eye out for updates on this.

Finally, we are still looking for a permanent venue for Sunday training. The plan at this stage would be to use the MEAC as a temporary solution until we find a venue with a more suitable floor.