What's on this week

This week ought to be a fairly regular (and full) week of training. It will be great to see some of you returning to class after work and study commitments have kept you away.  

For jujutsu-ka, please remember to register whether you are coming to Saturday's session either on the newly created Facebook group or directly to me. If we don't get to five people, I will be cancelling the session. Additionally, we move through to a new cycle of our training focus, which for this month is nage waza. This week we will primarily be reviewing the nyumon throws, though I want to progress to the chuden and even joden waza for those who are at that stage of their training. 

For kendo and iaido folk, could you please let me know if you are wanting accomodation for the 1st and 2nd of December by Friday so that I can book appropriate accomodation for us while attending the QKR summer seminar and grading opportunity. Again, this can be done either via the new group or directly to me. Grading application forms need to be signed off and submitted by the 18th of November, so please ensure that you have spoken with me about your intention to grade. We will be putting in extra effort this month to finish polishing our performance in the lead up to that weekend, so make sure that you make the most of each training session that we have! 

I will be putting in a Tozando order tomorrow in order to take advantage of the triple-points promotion  that finishes then. If you are wanting something and have not let me know, please contact me ASAP with your request so that it can be included in this order. It is unlikely that we shall be making another Club order till the New Year (unless a whole rush of folk want something), so please make sure that you take advantage of that now.  

Now that I have a little bit more free time, I will also be spending some of it looking at the Club's promotional material and branded items. In particular, could you give an indication if you are interested in getting: 

• An official 2018 Club calendar
• Club board shorts/rashie (great for Gym and Swim) 
• Club mugs, phone cases,  pens, car stickers, t-shirts, polo shirts etc.

Basically, if you have a request for a specific item let me know and if there is sufficient interest I will draft up a design. We can use the Facebook group as a primary avenue for polling what folk want, and for those of you not connected there, you can let me know directly. 

So have a great week everyone, and I'll look forward to seeing you at the dojo.  

Thanks for all who assisted over the weekend

It is always a very proud Club moment for me when I see folk from a range of disciplines coming together to help out and to otherwise support arts that they are not directly involved in. This weekend provided an excellent example of that, with support on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday to set up, witness and pack up the MEAC for the Shinto Musi Ryu Jodo demonstration.

So to specific thanks, first to Aikikai Toowoomba for the loan of extra mats to provide a large enough surface area for the demonstrations. Then on Friday to Geoff, Tracy, Kateena, Minty, Kumudu, Matt M and Eric for the initial set up. Saturday to Glen Henry sensei and his students for the demonstration, as well as Sean T, Kateena and Minty for coming and watching. And on Sunday to Dylan, Suren, Eric, Minty, Kateena, Jack and Tracy for the MEAC tidy up and transporting the borrowed mats back to the University. 

I am hopeful that a few of the new visitors to the Club from Saturday may convert over to some training sessions with Eric. Regardless, we should all be pleased with the efforts made to make the weekend a success.  

Reminder: Hands on deck to assist this Friday evening

Just to pre-empt Eric's post regarding this weekend's training and public demonstration with Glen Henry sensei, I'd like to once again put a call out for assistance on Friday evening and Monday morning.   

Friday, we will need to collect the Toowoomba Aikikai mats from Q-block, Toowoomba campus and transport them to the MEAC. At the MEAC, we will need to give the hall a good tidy and standard set-up to show our facility in the best light possible. This will be an demonstration open to the public, and we have invited various media outlets to provide some publicity for what we do.  

And the adage goes, many hands, light work. We do this regardless of whether we practice a particular art because it reflects on our collective strength and identity as a Club to do so.  

I will be coordinating activity from the USQ end at 5.30 pm, and Eric will head to the MEAC to start tidying and giving the place a mop down. Assistance at either end at that time would be most appreciated.  

Saturday jujutsu

Attendence at Jujutsu classes has dropped off in recent months, particularly on Saturdays. In many cases I know this has been the result of a large range of factors including illness, family, work, and study. However, I have been concerned that with such low attendence, that the opportunity to train on a Saturday is not being valued. 

As a trial for next month, I will be setting up a Facebook sub-group for Jujutsu students with a series of "events" for the Saturday classes. Please ensure that you register whether you will be coming or not by the Friday prior to class. If we do not have five confirmed starters by first thing Saturday morning, I will cancel the class for that weekend.  

If you are not on Facebook, you can e-mail me directly and I will register that against the desire to attend. If you say that you are coming and then do not show up twice, you will be on a one-week "probation" where your vote will not count towards the total number needed to trigger a class. 

This may seem drastic, but do remember that I give up my weekends largely to provide opportunities for others to train, and this includes making it difficult for Sara and I to plan activities on the weekend. Given that Jujutsu is already serviced by two weeknight classes, it is the obvious candidate to be trimmed from my schedule if there is insufficient interest to justify running it. 

No Go this Tuesday

Unfortunately, I will not be in a position to run a Go session on Tuesday as I will be engaged in final preparation for my exam on Wednesday morning. We shall be back to normal next week though!

Jodo Demonstration by Glen Henry sensei, 1 pm Sat. 28 Oct.

Hello All,

This Saturday (28 Oct.) Glen Henry sensei and students will be coming up the hill to give an extensive demonstration in the various arts associated with jodo.  This will include the arts of kenjutsu (Japanese long & short sword), tanjo-jutsu (walking stick or club) and jutte-jutsu (truncheon) in addition to demonstrations of advanced jo techniques (and possibly a demonstration kusarigamma-jutsu, the sickle with chain & weight).

It would be good to see the practitioners of the sword arts come as well (those of you in kendo and iaido); these demonstrations involve a vast number of sword techniques (the sword is used throughout jodo) and watching someone as skilled in the sword as Glen Henry can be very enlightening. In addition, anybody involved in the use of the short staff (jo) would find these techniques interesting, so it would be good to see people from jujutsu and kendo practitioners of ZNKR seitei jodo come as well. I would also encourage anybody in the club who are interested in the Japanese weapon arts to come along, this should prove to be an energetic and exciting demonstration.

This is a free demonstration and is open to the general public. It starts at 1 pm (1300 hrs) at the MEAC.

Hope to see everybody there.

Eric

End of Semester 2 is nigh!

I just wanted to wish everyone preparing or exams and finalising assignments all the best as we count down to the end of semester. Training ought to be broadly back to normal this week, including a functionally clean MEAC to train in (thanks to Tracy and Kateena for their help on Saturday).  

We still need to do some more work over the next week and a half to make the MEAC look its best in preparation for the Glen Henry sensei seminar and public demonstration, as we are hoping to achieve some media coverage of the event. Therefore, could I urge as many folk as possible to come to the Saturday cleaning session 3 pm this week, so that we do not have to do as much hard work the following Friday when we set the dojo up. 

So stay dry and safe this week folks, and I'll look forward to seeing you in at the dojo! 

Date claimer Friday afternoon 27 October, Monday morning 30 October

I'd just like to ask that if we could have Club members available on Friday 5 pm of the 27th and on Monday morning of the 30th in order to help with picking up and dropping off of extra training mats for the SMR Jodo seminar and public demonstrations.

Thomas Banhazi has very generously offered to support our event by loaning his mats to add to ours. As he will be overseas at the time, we will need to arrange to pick them up and drop them off. Kateena has offered the use of her ute. However, we will need to move them from (and on Monday, to) their position in the Q block theatre, and more hands will make for much lighter work. 

This includes setting up the dojo for the following day, including cleaning the toilets, tidying the main hall, and giving the floor a mop down on Friday. Please let Michael know ASAP is you are able to help.  

QKR December seminar and grading

The date and place for this year's December seminar and grading has been announced. Unfortunately, Toowoomba missed out this time despite putting in a strong bid, and we will look to make another attempt to host the seminar in 2018.  

We will again be heading to the Gold Coast for the 2nd & 3rd of December, and be training in the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre, Carrara, where this year's Kendo competition for the Australian University Games were held. It is $60 to attend both days of the seminar, or $35 for a single day. Family groups of three or more 

Gradings will be available up to and including sandan for both Kendo and Iaido. Grading applications and receipt of payment for the grading must be received by the QKR president no later than 18 November. Remember that your grading form must be signed off by myself for Kendo or Tom Johnson sensei for iaido as part of the registration process. 

We will be heading down on Friday 1 December and arranging to stay Friday and Saturday night as customary. Please let me know ASAP if you would like to stay in the group accomodation so that we can get the best deal for the size of group we have.  

Australian Kendo Team fundraiser

The World Kendo Championships is on next year, and Australian squad members for the women's and men's teams are in active preparation for what is building to be an intense competition in Korea.  

Sending teams is an expensive process, particularly for proper amature teams in niche sports, and the Australian Kendo Renmei is hoping to do some fundraising to help with these costs. The first cab off the rank are supporters t-shirts and tenugui. I've been asked to coordinate the Toowoomba based order by no later than the 20th of October. 

Have a look at the designs, and let me know what you would like to obtain. Pricing is:

• T-Shirt & Tenugui Package - $40
• Individual T-Shirt price Adults $25 / Kids $20
• Individual Tenugui $20