Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.
Hello All,
Due to some back problems, I have to cancel PunchFit and Jodo for this Monday. With any luck the old back will be up to some proper use next week. Wednesday's Jodo training is still planned to happen (given back problems have alleviated).
Eric
It has been good to see some of the faces pop in of a Tuesday lunchtime this semester to play a game of Go. In particular, I've personally benefited from Wooram's patience and insight to help improve my own strategic focus in the past weeks.
I'd love to see more of you of a Tuesday lunch time (1 pm in the Refectory — look for the banner), or indeed another time that we can carve off to have a game. If you are interested in dipping your toes in the water, and learn a little more about how to play, point your browser to https://online-go.com/puzzles, where you can start to learn about how to think in terms of tactical and strategic play within the game.
If there is a little interest, I will restart the Club's on-line group where we can play some correspondence games. You will need to create an account and then join up to https://online-go.com/group/792 in order to play.
And I'm making a promise to myself to finally finish off some of those wooden boards so that we are not playing on "shopping bags"!
Finally, while the Brisbane Spring tournament was held this weekend past, the next opportunity for interacting and playing with the SEQ Go community will be the Seventh Gold Coast Classic on Sunday 29th October - Links Hope Island clubhouse, Hope Island, Gold Coast. Five rounds of go (45 minutes + byoyomi) at the home of the Gold Coast Go Club (8am for 9am first round). Open and kyu (handicap) division. If you are interested, you can directly contact tournament director Horatio Davis (horatio@go.org.au) to RSVP, and if sufficient folk are wanting to make the trip, we can bundle ourselves into a car, as we often do, and go as a group.
I just to let everyone know that we will not be having any training on Tuesday night. I will be going to the Yamato Drummers performance in the evening with members from the Club's Taiko group.
Other than this, we ought to have pretty much our usual full compliment of training sessions this week, including the return of regular Fire and Flow sessions offered by Jesse.
I'd also like to just note that we have been missing quite a few of you in our regular Jujutsu and Systema classes. Compared with April/May, where we were regularly getting 10-12 on the mat, we have been down on some sessions to three (including myself).
I know that some of you have had work, study, family and health issues over these past weeks, and I just wanted to say that I hope you are seeing some light at the end of those tunnels. You are missed. With luck, we will start to see numbers improve. And give thought to anything that we as individuals or as a Club community can do to make it easier for you to return to regular classes.
I wanted to just express thanks to those who were able to donate their time on Saturday morning and provide the MEAC with a spring clean— Brady, Jack, Johnno, Kateena, Matt G, Matt M, Minty, Stuart, Tracy, and Travis.
It as great to have the muscle and determination to get into some often forgotten corners of the main hall, service shinai, and put the store room back into better order. The next major clean will be in December at the start of the school holidays. However, do remember that we are engaged in a weekly clean before Jujutsu on a Saturday afternoon, and it would be good to see more folk there so that we can keep on top of the state of the floor.
September has a few kendo-related items on the calendar. First, there is a contingent of us going down to support the Australian University Games as volunteers the weekend of the 22-24th (yes, we start on the Friday). This week we shall be finalising plans for this event, and I will be in touch with everyone regarding the details. All volunteers require a white long sleeved business shirt, black or dark grey pants and black or dark grey socks. A red tie will be provided by the event organiser, but bring one if you have it. A blue sports jacket is optional.
Given the tightness of the timeframe, we will be postponing out regular trip to train at the Kenshinkai till October. This is in part due to the Mt Gravatt hall being unavailable and the Uni Games commitments, which will see us having an opportunity to get some practice in while we are down there.
I will also be hoping to hear back in the next week or so if we have been successful in convincing the QKR to hold the December seminar and grading opportunity here in Toowoomba. So please watch this space as it will require some support from the broader Club membership.
I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank Alex Lee for coming along to training on Sunday. Alex has been in South East Queensland for work (his usual home base is in Sydney), and has taken the opportunity to train with all the Kendo Clubs here. It was a pleasure to meet and train with him, and we would love to see him again the next time he is through!
We will have to confirm later this week regarding training for Sunday. I will be unavailable, but we shall see if Minty and Matt G can run the session. It has been great to see some new faces this past fortnight (welcome Holly, Michael T and Jessica), and the excellent week-on-week progress made by Kateena. With luck, we may see some new and returning faces over the next few weeks!
Tuesday will experience a little delay to our usual start as the School has parent teacher night on.
We expect to be able to start laying down mats (and helping to pack up) from around 6.15 pm. However, if you could be there at the usual time so that we are ready to make a move as soon as we are able to.
Just by way of a reminder, we are scheduled to hold a dojo spring clean this Saturday morning.
We will be starting at 9.30 am and depending on numbers, we ought to be finished by around 12.00 pm or 12.30 pm, where we shall have lunch. We will not have training in the afternoon as a result.
I want to again stress the need for your help. First, we all share a collective responsibility for the maintenance of the space we share, and there are solid health and safety aspects to ensuring that a high standard is maintained.
Second, we will need as many hands on deck as possible as the task is not small. Because we were unable to do a clean over the winter holidays, the base level of filth in the MEAC has not been addressed for some time, and we need to thoroughly get into the forgotten corners. We also need to do an audit of the Club's equipment so that we can identify and address any wear or damage to items.
So I hope to see you there on Saturday where we will need to:
Could I ask that people please bring some cleaning equipment in with you so that everyone can be put to task efficiently. Additionally, if you have a high pressure water cleaner that you could lend for the morning, please let me know as it will make the outside clean-up task much easier.
I wanted to express both thanks and congratulations to Peter Hills, sensei, for organising another successful IBF training day this Sunday. This came off the back of his successful gradin to rokudan in Jujutsu on Saturday. Numbers were a little down from previous years, but we suspect that some sort of televised event might have been responsible for a little of that ...
Kateena M. Made the trip down with me, and suffice to say we may have another Jujutsu-ka on the mat come Tuesday. It was wonderful to catch up with Tony S. and Don Ouellette, sensei, both of whom have been completely flat sticks with their work commitments in recent months.
Many thanks to Terry Riches, sensei, Kym Reid, sensei, Nigel Farrier, sensei, Steve Newson, sensei, and Don Ouellette, sensei, for running their seminar sessions. My sessions focussing on the use of the Jo to understand harai wasa seemed to be well received.
So I will look forward to next year, where hopefully more of the BBRD crowd will be in a position to come and participate. And with any luck we may be able to encourage some of the Brisbane-based folk to come up the hill and train with us!
Just a reminder that this Sunday we will be heading to Brisbane to participate in the IBF training day at the Hills District PCYC. The day runs from 12-3 pm
We will be leaving Toowoomba around 10 am, so unfortunately we will not be able to run our usual Kendo session this week.
Please let Michael know ASAP if you are intending to come so that we can arrange sufficient transport and let Peter Hills, sensei better organise the day.
I want to put into everyone's diary the intended dojo spring clean for Saturday 2 September.
The MEAC has been getting into a fairly ordinary state of late, and I want to ensure that we address that. In recent weeks, it has only been Tracy showing up on a Saturday to do the Club's obligatory clean of the toilets, and this leaves little opportunity to get on top of other things in both the main hall and in the storage area.
I want to remind everyone that it is an expectation for all members to come and help clean at least three times in the year. With sufficient folk we can ensure that:
We will commence the spring clean at 9.30 am and go through to roughly 12.30 pm, where we will put on some lunch for those that come along and help. Many hands and all that ...
Hope to see many of you there to assist!
Keep your comments polite, on topic and succinct. Play nice and everyone benefits!.