Jodo demo 28 Oct.

Hello All,

Apologies for the lateness of this post about the Jodo demonstration that occurred on the 28th of last month.

The demo went very well with several members of the Kendo group attending and several from the general public also in attendance.  The demo was conducted by Glen Henry Sensei and he was accompanied by three of his students.  A large part of the Jodo curriculum was covered including the kata groups for kenjutsu, jutte and tessen, tanjo, and kusarigamma, as well as a history of Jodo.

I would like to thank Glen Henry and students for making the long trip up to Toowoomba; the demo would not have been a success without them.  I would also like to thank everybody who help to set up the dojo for this demo, and to Thomas Banhazi for the loan of the additional mats.  This demo would not have been possible without the help and involvement of everybody who were mentioned.  Here's hoping that future events have the same spirit of participation.

Eric

Kendo and Iaido news

As I will be away next week, I am wanting to ensure that all of the paperwork for the QKR Summer seminar and the attached gradings are completed this week. Tom Johnson, sensei, is intending to come up for Thursday's Iaido session, and I would like to provide him with the signed hard copies of the necessary paperwork for both Iaido and Kendo at that time.  You should also consider paying your seminar attendance fee and grading fee this week so that you do not forget. Please note, if payment is not received by 18 November, you will be ineligible to attempt shinsa. 

Remember that I will need to sign your Kendo forms, and Tom, sensei needs to do the same for Iaido. Please print out the grading form off the QKR web site, and bring them along to training this week.  

We will also be confirming accomodation this week for 1-3 December, so please keep an eye out on the Kendo & Iaido @BBRD Facebook group to confirm/vote on our options.  

Timetable changes

By way of official notification, we will be cancelling regular scheduled Club commitments on Saturday afternoons starting from this week. Attendance has been poor for both the regular scheduled clean up and Jujutsu for some months now, and with myself being away next weekend, the QKR summer seminar on 2 & 3 December, and an Executive planning day on the 9th of December, it is best that we given things a rest on Saturdays till the new year. We might have a one off session between now and then on a Saturday, but this will be by appointment and by confirmation only. 

As a result of this, it does not make much sense for us to do our scheduled clean on the Saturday. Instead, we shall do so Sunday morning 9 am before the Kendo and Arnis classes that are, in fact, getting some good numbers atttending.  

We are still to set an official date for keiko yame and New Year's keiko hajime, but we shall do so at the Executive meeting that is scheduled for this Thursday. 

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