IBF training Day 27 August

The official flyer for the IBF (QLD) training day have come out, and I'd like everyone to consider coming along and supporting the event.

The training day will be held on Saturday 27 August at the Hills District PCYC, Everton Hills. This year I have been asked to run one of he sessions, and I will be introducing folk to Kendo. Jason Griffiths, sensei and Don Ouellette, sensei, will be running an Arnis session as well.

Last year Maaike, Tony, Tracy and I had much fun at the day, and I'd encourage as many as can make it to come along, particularly the lurking Kendoka here as I would dearly love to put on a reasonable demonstration of the art! It is an opportunity to meet the wider marital arts community here in Queensland, and if last year was any indication, there will be many high quality learning opportunities on the day.

Please let me know as soon as you can whether you will like to come along so that we can organise transportation on the day.

Dojo cleaning and Dojo Dollars

Just wanted to say a quick round of thanks to Adrian, Dylan, Geoff, Ray and Tracy for putting in the effort this weekend to mop the MEAC hall and clean the toilets, a job made a little more difficult due to the "help" of a live, flying feather duster that had somehow gotten caught inside sometime Friday.

We put the newly purchased BBRD mops and bucket to good use, and have installed a racking system attached to the shelving in the store room. With the arrival of the specialist mat cleaner this week, we are now good to go for weekly sluice downs of the tatami and cleaning of the floor. I have to say that training Kendo on Sunday morning was a pleasure on the clean surface.

Please remember everyone that we are offering "Dojo Dollars" that you can put towards reducing your training fees (either monthly or casual). Make sure that if you are interested, you add your name to the sign up sheet, which can be found in the storage area.

Jodo

Hello everybody,

Jodo training is back to normal (7:00 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays at MEAC) starting this week (18 July).

There will be an announcement soon about some training possibilities one weekend next month down in Brisbane.  Watch this space.

Eric

Go news: New coordinator for Go

It was great to see a number of visitors to our market day stall express interest in getting some regular games of Go.

There will be some changes this semester to the regular schedule for Go, and a change of coordinator. Unfortunately, Jared Greenstreet will not be in a position to continue as Go coordinator due to a variety of work and family commitments. I'd like to thank him for the time he has been able to take on that role and for the valuable contributions he has made over that time to the Club. Jared has promised to not be a stranger, and come and grab a game or two when he is able.

Fortunately Raymond Undery has enthusiastically offered to take up the coordinatorship of Go, and I would like to welcome him on board the executive team. Go will be on Tuesdays still, though Ray is threatening to also have a second lunchtime a week for games, and start a little earlier on a Tuesday (from 12.30 pm).

Market Day this Wednesday

Welcome back to Week 1 of Semester 2!

I hope that everyone was happy with their results from S1, and are looking forward to the new term.

The first of the Club's community commitments is this Wednesday with the market day being run by Phoenix Central. Will will fortuitously be inside the Refectory on that day, given the predicted weather, but as a result will be a little more cramped for space. We will discuss on Tuesday night what we will be providing by way of demonstrations and whom we might need to staff the stall.

Have a great week everyone and I'll look forward to seeing you at training!

Kendo and Iaido weekend wrap up.

The weekend of Kendo and Iaido was, once again a tremendous learning opportunity, and a really fun weekend away. In addition, it was highly successful, with all members and friends of the Club meeting the challenge of the gradings they attempted.

Matt Greenhatch successfully double-graded at his first seminar to 5th Kyu in Kendo, Rob Doncaster graded to 1st Kyu in Iaido, I was successful in my challenge of Sandan, and Ryo Atsumi shone as the only candidate to successfully challenge Yondan.

I would like to thank all the Sensei whose input, encouragement and assistance facilitated these successes, particularly John Isaacs, Greg Nicholas, Noriuki Tamura and Tom Johnson. Without their support in the lead up to the seminar and over the weekend, we would not have enjoyed the success that we have.

Given that this year the seminar was held on the Gold Coast, we took the opportunity to drive down on Friday night rather than do the excruciating commute both days. Speaking for myself, I would like to express my thanks to everyone who came along and make the weekend as socially enjoyable as it was successful. It is a true pleasure to share a space with folk so easy to get along with and who made all aspects of the trip a breeze. Special thanks to Matt for driving the Toowoomba crew there and back.

So now onwards and upwards! The next opportunity to grade for Kyu grades in is December, where I will be getting back on the Iaido wagon. So Excellent work everyone and we are back to regular Kendo training this afternoon, and Iaido Tuesday night!

Visitors to Jodo

Last week (4th & 6th of July) two students of Sensei Glen Henry, Mr. Darren Higgins and Mr. Ron Payne, came up from Brisbane to Toowoomba and joined us for the Monday & Wednesday Jodo sessions.  They are advanced students at Chushinkan Dojo and gave some very helpful guidance and advice concerning various aspects of jo and sword work - including warm up, kihon and kata.  Monday's training was followed by Mr. Higgins and Mr. Payne demonstrating Omote Kata for the jo and Kenjutsu kata for both the long and short sword.  Wednesday's training ended with a meal at Mort Estate Hotel with discussions on various topics in SMR Jodo with Mr. Higgins and Mr. Payne.  I would like to give a hearty thanks to both Mr. Higgins and Mr. Payne for taking the time to come and train with us, and for giving as much of their experience and knowledge as they could over the two days.

Eric

Jodo for the next two weeks

Hello everybody,

As was mentioned in the post "Training this week (Monday 4 July)" two students of Glen Henry Sensei will be coming to training on Monday and Wednesday this week.  Glen Henry is sensei of Rembuden Institute of Martial Arts and Ways of Chushinkan Dojo (https://rembuden.wordpress.com/) on the North side of Brisbane.  I will be in the dojo (MEAC) starting at 6:00 pm.  I look forward to meeting our guests and seeing everybody who comes.

Jodo will not have training on the 11th and 13th (next week) due to my having other obligations, training will be back to normal starting the following week.

Take care.

Eric

Training this week (Monday 4 July)

I hope that everyone has been enjoying the mid-year break in whatever capacity the seasonal change brings. And best wishes for any Americans celebrating Independence Day on Monday. Given it is the last week of school holidays, we are still afforded the luxury of leaving the tatami down. We will, however, have to pack them up Thursday night as there will be no training this weekend, given I will be down on the Gold Coast at the QKR seminar and grading.

We will be taking the opportunity to train Kendo at the MEAC this week, so that some of our beginners can be fitted for Club bogu in order to take their training to the next step. It will be great to have more folk kitted up and fully participating in all aspects of regular training!

This week we will also have visitors from Glen Henry sensei's Brisbane dojo. They will be training with Eric Tavener in Jodo both Monday and Wednesday night. I'm personally looking forward to it as I'm (a) batching it, with Sara away on conference this week and (b) been bitten by the Jodo bug a little, after trying my best to help Eric with the demonstration at the Geham State School. So happy coincidence! Now I just have to fit in some regular training opportunities ...

Finally, could I ask that everyone try to be on time for training sessions. On Saturday, I demonstrated the protocol for what to do when you come in late. However, this ought to be a rare occurrence. And with the tatami down, I would ask that people are absolutely ready to go at 6.15 pm for jujutsu classes and 6 pm for other classes this week. Plenty to do in Jujutsu, with our biannual focus on goshin jutsu and heiki wasa this month.

Have a great week everyone! As always, I'll look forward to seeing you on the mat!

M.

Date Claimers coming up in the next two months

We have a number of things on the go in the next two months for the Club to participate in. First is the USQ Toowoomba Market Day Wednesday 13 July, which will be primarily held during the common hour. The Club will be doing a regular spread of demonstrations and meet and greet with students. More details will be discussed in class this week and in the next Budo Bulletin.

Second, the first anniversary of John (Panda) Watton's death on August 1, and I would like to commemorate that with an event around that date. We will be discussing the details of this at the next Executive meeting, and will let everyone know ASAP.

Third is the Toowoomba Languages and Cultures Festival, which will be on Sunday 14 August. We are currently negotiating a suitable place to hold a Kyudo demonstration on the day, in addition to the other activities that we will be engaged in.

Fourth, the BBRD Winter dojo open day is scheduled for Saturday 20 August.  We will be advertising more widely in the community to see if we can entice a few more members. However, regardless of the "new" turn out, we will be having a usual day of fun!

Finally, Saturday 27 August is the training day for the Queensland branch of the International Budo Federation, which we have been invited to participate at. It was quite a bit of fun last year to meet and train with new folk, and I am looking forward to it this year as well!