QKR Seminar and shinsa this weekend!

As regular readers will be aware, this weekend coming will see a record number of Club members go down to train and challenge for grades on the Gold Coast. I want to wish everyone all the best in their efforts this weekend, and at the final sessions of training this week. 

This will, of course, mean that there is no Kendo on Sunday at the MEAC, and we will confirm on Thursday if Arnis will still be on.  

For those of you heading down this weekend, please check the Kendo & Iaido @BBRD group for a checklist of what to do and what to bring for the weekend.  

Iaido this week (and hence, no FlexiFit)

In preparation for the seminar and shinsa this weekend, I will be travelling down the hill both tonight and Wednesday to get a little more polish from Tom sensei. Therefore, FlexiFit is cancelled for this week and next week (due to the Club end-of-year dinner). For those keen for a stretch, I am considering running a second, lunchtime class over the summer (subject to demand) so let me know your interest, and we shall see what we can do!

End of year Dinner and Awards night

We shall be holding our end-of-year dinner on Wednesday 6 December to celebrate a particularly successful year at the Club and as a farewell to Matt G, who will be leaving us mid-December to take up a post at Tully. I am aware that there will be a few folk who are unable to make that date, and I do apologise in advance. However, this date was the one where we could potentially have the greatest number of Club members come along. 

We are planning to have dinner at Kajoku, so please keep an eye out for the official RSVP on Facebook and the Club’s website so that we can give Jeff accurate numbears for the booking. As always, partners and family are most welcome to come. 

We will have a whole bunch of grading certificates and special awards to present on the night, so make sure that you have cleared your calendar to attend! 

Summer timetable and cleaning of the MEAC

School is out as of the end of this week, and as a result, we will be able to take possession of the MEAC virtually uniterrupted till January 21.  

I will be publishing a full summer timetable next week, which will include some regular lunchtime and afternoon sessions. I also want to start the process of setting up and cleaning the dojo space so that we can make best use of the facility. I will be starting next Monday (4th) with a thorough tidy of the store room, including the School’s portion of it so that we are working from a sound base. Any assistance would be most welcome as we will need to shift a number of items that even I find pretty awkward to move solo.  

I am also wanting to do a thorough, deep clean of the main hall, including hiring a floor scrubber. This will need as many hands on deck as possible due to the ingrained filth that previous cleans by the school has failed to shift. I would like for us to do this well prior to keiko yame on the 23rd of December so that we are able to simply do a light touch up when we get back from the week off over Christmas-New Year. Please keep an eye out for proposed times and let me know ASAP concerning your availability. 

Back from the wilds (training for the next two weeks)

The countdown to the start of summer is well under way, with two more weeks till the QKR summer seminar on the Gold Coast and two more weeks of the school year at Holy Name Catholic Primary.  

Over the next fortnight there will be a few configurational changes in the MEAC as the school will be preparing for its annual Christmas concert. This will mean that the stage platform will be up, reducing our overall floor space on which to train and necessitating an efficient use of what space we have. Be prepared to be a little flexible with how and where we will be setting up. 

One procedural change we will be starting from this week is to ensure that Kendo starts on time. Minty will be kicking off reiho at 7.45pm sharp, so that those who are coming in just for Kendo can complete it and a warm up while those of us who have been doing Jujutsu can quickly change and start class (we ought to be generally warm enough). This will mean that you ought to ensure you come to Kendo early enough to be ready for the start, and for those of us participating in the earlier class, your bogu and shinai ought to be set up ready to go before you start Jujutsu. 

In preparation for Iaido grading, a few of us are planning to go down the hill to Pine Mountain and get an extra session or two in with Tom Johnson sensei. This will mean that there will be no FlexiFit next Wednesday. And of course, there will be no Kendo on Sunday 3 December as we will all be down the Coast. 

Beyond that, we will be putting out a Summer time table that will have a few extra lunch training sessions and some slightly earlier start times for training taking into account the fact we will have the run of the MEAC till January 22. I am planning to have a thorough clean of both the main hall and the storage area in the first week of the holidays, so keep an eye out for when we are going to do that!

Oh and our end of year dinner (and awards night) will be held at Kajoku restraunt that week too, so keep an eye out for the details/RSVP deadline for that one!

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.