Calendar dates for the next few weeks

It is shaping up to be a very busy couple of months for the Club and its members. First, as part of my trip up to Bundaberg next week, I will be stopping past Gin Gin and getting some sessions in with our sister dojo. Then, we are looking to have beginner’s Kyudo day down at the Tom Johnson sensei’s Pine Mountain dojo on either Saturday 23 or 30 October, Another trip to Gin Gin along with Takashi Itakura sensei is pencilled in for the 13th of November, and finally landing in December with QKR summer seminar and a Jujutsu grading opportunity before the year’s end. Oh and Greg Nicholas sensei may be joining Thursday night Kendo sessions through November pending some work that he will be doing up in the Toowoomba district. Additionally, John Isaacs sensei from Brisbane Kenshinkai is attempting to get some monthly inter-Club shiai practice up and running as well.

I think that’s it (for now). There may be more to add…

There is still a little uncertainty regarding the timing and location of the QKR seminar, which we will hope to confirm within the week. And we will also lock in firm dates for the other events that the Club will be supporting. And all of this will be subject to the whims of the COVID situation in Queensland. However, I’d strongly encourage everyone to take the various opportunities that we have over the next couple of months, and as always, I’ll look forward to seeing you in the dojo!

Maintaining your equipment (part 1)

Having woken to suddenly more wintery weather this morning, I was thinking about some of the things that everyone can reasonably do in preparation for the end of the academic term and the change of seasons.

While most of us are pretty good at keeping on top of the basics like cleaning and maintaining our training uniforms, looking after some of our other gear can seem like a daunting task, not knowing where to start and what precisely to look for/do. Prompted by the very generous donation of practice naginata from Perth’s Raymon Lawrence sensei (via Tom Johnson sensei) I thought that I might dedicate this post to some of the things you can easily do this week.

Wooden training equipment
Most of the Club’s disciplines will have you use wooden, bamboo or cane equipment in the ordinary course of training. These need to be looked after with regular maintenance, especially in Toowoomba’s relatively dry environment. If you keep your equipment in a hot place (like the back of your car) this will accelerate the rate of potential deterioration and hence make them unsuitable/dangerous to use over time. Some of my hot tips include:

• It’s a great idea to have a maintenance kit put together ready for use and available if you need to make running repairs as required. This will most likely include a sharp craft or specialist knife, wood-safe oil, sand paper, wax block, and replacement fittings as required for the items you are servicing (like spare tsubadome, tsuru, and leather parts).

• Make sure that you check your equipment for signs of wear either at the end of each session or very soon afterwards. This will save time during practice rather than having to deal with it in class. I set my gear in a way that makes it obvious whether I’ve checked it or not (usually there way I have tied the bag that I keep the piece of equipment in).

• Keeping the fittings in good order is critical to usability and safety. For shinai correct tension of the tsuru (string) and wear of the fittings like The sakigawa (tip covering), nakayui (bracing tie) are essential. Make sure these are checked before each class, as they can alter/deteriorate even when not used.

• Bamboo and cane needs to be regularly checked for any splinters or cracks. These can be dangerous if not seen to. For fine splinters, a light sand with 800 grit paper and the application of some candle or bee’s wax can keep things going. For larger splinters, you may need to cut them with a very sharp craft knife against the direction of the splinter before sanding and waxing. Any horizontal cracks are usually an indication that there may be a safety issue and that you will need to replace rather than repair. If in doubt, check with one of your more experienced sempai …

• Avoid heavy sanding or carving of wood and bamboo. It can affect the structural integrity and weight balance of the item, and lead to further problems down the track. The adage should always be “safe rather than sorry”.

• Wood and bamboo ought be oil treated at least every 6 months (better every 2-3 months) to increase an item’s longevity. “Hard wax”, tung oil, and linseed/turpentine mixes are all very good at preserving the wood, as is more expensive options like camellia oil or walnut oil. Just make sure that you give sufficient time for the oil to penetrate the wood and wipe off any excess before coming into training. Avoid peanut oil, as some people may have allergies that are triggered by even casual contact with it.

I hope that these tips are useful. If there is sufficient interest, I might even commit these to a YouTube video so that you have a ready reference of “how to”.

Will look forward to seeing you at training this week!

Store room tidy and inventory check

We will be conducting a full tidy and inventory check this Thursday of the Club’s equipment.

Could I please ask that if you have any uniforms or other equipment that you please let me know what you have before Thursday so that it can be properly accounted for.

If you have gear that you have not been using, could you please make sure that you return it to the Club store ASAP and preferably before Thursday.

SEQ Regional grading and seminar: It’s a wrap …

What an amazing day! I am very please to report that I am still on a happy buzz from this weekend, probably partly due to slowly catching up on rest after a breakneck week of getting the majority of my Physiotherapy honours project in (on time). But the largest part of my continued glow is the satisfaction that the first SEQ regional grading and seminar to involve all three QKR arts was by all measures a wonderful success.

Everything appeared to line up for us this weekend. Perfect training temperature, no additional impact from COVID, enthusiastic participation from everyone, and bucket loads of good will and can-do attitude to spare.

First, I would like to thank Brooke Martin, the CBRC’s Centre Manager for her support of the event. It was very satisfying to be able to showcase the quality of the facility here in Toowoomba, and to be able to feel at home in our own dojo with the easy access to all of our gear. Brooke’s enthusiastic support of the Club has been much appreciated, and invaluable to our sense of being “home” and being able to build on our capacity to provide service to the community.

Second, a very big thanks to all the visiting senior sensei. We literally could not have staged the event without you. To list in order of distance travelled, K. Kuromochi sensei came all the way from Cairns, Dave Kolb sensei, from Bayside Budokan, John Issacs, Greg Nicholas, and N. Tamura sensei from Kenshinkai Brisbane, Tom Johnson sensei from Kohokai Matsuyama (Pine Mountain) dojo. I would like to provide special mention to T. Itakura sensei of Brisbane Kendo Club whose active encouragement and enthusiastic support prompted BBRD to host the event in the first place. And I would also like to thank Rob Doncaster for stepping in to guide the Iaido folk in the morning and help them to put that final polish on before their shinsa.

Third, a thanks to all of the participants. Some who like sensei travelled big distances, particularly the long journeys from Cairns and Gin Gin. The day had similar number of participants to some State seminars, which is was heartening to see. In a time of COVID restrictions, committing to an event like this can be somewhat fraught. However, I think the proof of the day could be seen in the number folk for whom it was their first experience outside of their home dojo and interacting with the wider QKR community, and who left the day feeling a welcome part of that community and very happy to work towards the next opportunity to come together.

Fourth, I wanted to thank all of the Club members that worked to make the day what it was. Sean T, Kateena M, and Jono H deserve special mention for going above and beyond to help our visitors and attend to the vital administrative tasks that were needed to keep the show on the road. All of our Club members the were an embodiment of our values on Saturday— Sian C, Daen F, Lachlan M, Chris S, Ivan H, Tamara K — I would like to commend you for (again) providing evidence to the adage that we are and always will be a “friendly Club” that just gets on with what is needed, providing service not as an afterthought but as an active commitment to ensure everyone has the best opportunity to get the most out of events like this.

Club members experienced very good success in their grading. Lachlan and Ivan both double graded in Kendo to 3KYU, Chris double grading to 5KYU; Lachlan doubled up to successfully grade to 2KYU in Iaido, and Daen and I were recommended to double grade to 3KYU in Jodo.

A special mention to Ivan’s success: he has been training most of the past 18 months via video link to the Toowoomba dojo with the odd visit south. To grade well on Saturday was a spectacular achievement. With my studies almost at an end, I am hoping to get up and visit Gin Gin more often than I have managed over the past 12 months. And Itakura sensei was hinting at a combined BBRD/BKC road trip to come and provide some close support to the Ken Jin Kan.

We had not gotten to the end of the day before participants were actively expressing a wish that we do this again. My hope is that regional level KYU grades become a diarised feature of the QKR calendar, and that the next opportunity will be in March. We will look to see where that event might be hosted. However, I have a strong desire to run the event next September and make it a two day event that includes a formal opportunity for shiai and the sharpening up of shinpan skills leading up to the Uni Games. So if the stars align (and COVID permits) we might be looking at the Toowoomba Tsubaki Taikai for the Carnival of Flowers parade weekend in 2022!

I hope that everyone who participated takes back to their respective dojo the spirit of Saturday and the tips and pointers they picked up. The next scheduled event is the first weekend of December to be held at the Sleeman Centre in Brisbane. To the wider QKR community, I’ll look forward to seeing you there, and to all our Club members, as always, I will look forward to seeing you in the dojo over the coming days!

Regional grading and seminar Saturday 18 September

Our first ever three-art SEQ Regional seminar and grading opportunity is almost here. It will be a full day on Saturday, with doors opening at 9 am and training starting at 9.30 am.

We are very fortunate to be hosting many of the Queensland-based senior sensei across Kendo, Iaido and Jodo, including Katsumi Kuramochi sensei, who is coming down from Cairns along with three of his students who will be presenting for grading. We will have a very busy afternoon, with 12 people challenging for Kendo grading (5 for their very first time), 7 for Iaido grading, and 8 for Jodo grading, plus club members and sensei from across SEQ to participate in the training opportunity and encourage those making grading atempts.

Friday night we will be going out with Kuramochi sensei and the Cairns contingent, which is certainly something to look forwards to.

Club members, friends and interested visitors are very welcome to come and watch. And I will be hitting up a few of you to come and help for parts of the day. We are putting on a pizza lunch, which you can pre-order on the Club website at: online at:
http://www.bbrd.org.au/memberships-and-courses/pizza-lunch-for-seq-regional-seminar-and-grading-18-september-2021-one-portion

We will be abiding by any COVID based restrictions that are in force on the day. This will mean that if anyone has been down the range to the affected SEQ local government areas, you will need to wear a mask while inside the CBRC. For those participating in the training, grading, or goodwill keiko at the end of the day, we are asking that you also mask up regardless of whether you have been down the hill just to simplify things and provide a bit of solidarity with our visitors who are affected. And we will be following our general hygiene and COVID safe protocols in and around the training spaces as per usual.

Have a great week everyone! I’ll look forward to seeing many of you on Saturday.

Classes this week

With my impending study deadlines and the SEQ Regional seminar and grading opportunity on at the CBRC this Saturday, there will be a few changes to the regular training schedule.

I am not going to make it tomorrow night for Jujutsu, and Brady will run the class in my stead. I am planning to be there for iaido so that we can do a final grading prep for Lachlan. Likewise, as my due date for two assessment items is Friday, I am unlikely to make it in for Thursday night, and will be subbed in by Sean T and Kateena to do the final Kendo prep. Finally, there will be no Systema or Jujutsu on Saturday due to the dojo being used, though as mentioned in the other post, you would be very welcome to come and watch or even volunteer to help through the day. In particular, it would be great to have a few of you staff the reception desk to help direct our visitors in the morning, and, of course, the more photos taken of the event, the better.

Personally, I’m very much looking forward to getting back to a sense of normality next week and into the regular rhythms of training. Train well everyone, especially those presenting for gradings on Saturday!

Change of seasons, change of focus

Despite a few cold days and windy here in Toowoomba, we have been very fortunate to be basking in the lovely weather of late winter here in the Hill. The plum and cherry blossoms are out in force already, and the daylight noticeable extending as we head towards the equinox.

We are often drawn to mark the start of spring as a way to focus on new beginnings and the potential of the season ahead. In a time of COVID and continuing lockdowns south of the border, I suppose that we should also reflect on our good fortune here on the Hill, that our usual rhythms have been broadly uninterrupted, and we can very much take advantage of what the season offers.

On a personal level, I am now only a month and a half out from finishing my four-year journey into Physiotherapy as a profession, so the turning of the season underlines the uncertainty-opportunity nexus that I’m facing as I venture into a new vocational identity. Not quite panic inducing (yet), but certainly that tingle of awareness that things will soon change.

Whether it is seasonal, personal, or professional identities that are in flux, the temptation is to become stuck on the loss of what is passing or fixated on the process occurring. All of us tend to be bad at cultivating the stillness and calm necessary to express heijoshin — a cool presence of mind while the world rages outside. It is difficult to detach the desire to ascribe meaning and value to change rather than just sit inside that change. In many respects, our training in the martial arts is an active project to develop heijoshin, with the aim of being able to apply it to our daily lives.

None of this is easy, of course. And the temptation is to retreat inwards rather than reach out. However, I can say from clear personal experience that reaching out, making connection, engaging wholly in the activities that sustain us is far more likely to have us building those reservoirs of resilience as we face the inevitable challenges ahead.

I am always grateful of the community we have here as a Club, its active members, diaspora, and external friends and supporters. It is what keeps me turning up each session to teach and participate. The past 18 month have been particularly tough on everyone, and I hope that in some way the collective project that is BBRD has helped to provide some comfort as we have navigated the roller coaster we have been on.

Be well, everyone! I will, as always, very much look forward to seeing you and training alongside you over the coming weeks as we straddle this liminal time at the end of the University semester.

Gambareba dekiru to omoimasu! (I think it can be done if we do our best!)

QKR’s SEQ Regional grading: update

Organisation for the regional grading opportunity is steadily progressing, and I would like to thank everyone who has already put in their expression of interest to grade, and attended to some of their preliminary administrative obligations.

Just a reminder that if you do want to challenge for grade (Kendo, Iaido or Jodo), you need to lodge your paperwork and payment with the QKR no later than this Saturday (4 September). We have already had folk from Brisbane Kendo Club and Bayside Budokai put in their forms alongside those from BBRD members, so the event is shaping up to be a good representation across the Clubs of SEQ. Hopefully, we shall see some more come in over the next few days.

The grading will be held in our usual dojo space at the CBRC on Saturday 18 September, and will be accompanied by training opportunities in the morning prior to shinsa. Unfortunately it will mean no Jujutsu or Systema training will be possible that Saturday.

I would also like to gauge interest in going out for dinner with Kuramochi sensei on Saturday night. It is the weekend of Carnival of Flowers, so we will no doubt have to book a table relatively early due to the expected increase in visitors in Toowoomba that weekend. I would appreciate it if you could let me know on or before training on Saturday so that we can get some planning around the weekend. Dinner is not limited to QKR-art practitioners/members either. Sensei is great company, and very knowledgeable across the breadth of budo activities, so I would encourage everyone to consider coming out to dinner.

COVID, USQ graduations and changes to training schedules

It was great to hear on Sunday from the Queensland COVID presser that there were 0 new detected cases, and that the past few days all detected cases had been linked to known clusters with the individuals involved being in isolation for the entirety of their infectious period. It brings some hope that restrictions may ease further this week (even early), pending on what might have filtered in from south of the border.

Unfortunately, with the existing orders in place here in Queensland, and NSW looking like it will be months before they have their COVID situation under control, the list of cancelled events has continued to grow. The planned martial arts demonstration on behalf of the Japanese Consulate this Friday has been postponed. And Uni Sport Div 1 Games, which includes Kendo and Judo competitions, have been cancelled. While it is frustrating that months of careful preparation has been cast aside, we can all redouble our efforts towards events that are still on track, such as the September regional grading opportunity for Kendo, Iaido and Jodo, grading opportunities for Jujutsu, and the QKR December seminar.

This week, while the current Queensland restrictions are in place, you will still need to wear a mask to and from the dojo if you have been down in one of the declared SEQ local government areas. Your mask will need to still be worn while training, unless you are doing high intensity physical work, and please try to be mindful of social distancing where possible. This is most important when setting up your training gear — make sure you leave sufficient space between yourself and others, and try to make your gear as neat as possible. Where needed, training will be modified for you to accommodate any public health directives. And please continue to scan both the QHealth QR code as you enter the CBRC, and the Club based one so that we can easily take our attendance roles. Your efforts make it easer for everyone to focus on our training, rather than getting swamped in administrative matters.

It is also that time of the year where USQ is celebrating the mid-year graduating classes with ceremonies and their preparation being held over the next fortnight. The only potential night that may be affected at this stage it next Thursday (26 August). However, from this week there may be some disruption to the parking lot, as large marquees are due to be erected just near the tennis courts.

Things may change over the next few weeks. Make sure you keep up with the relevant discipline chat channels for any announcements. And always, if you have a question about anything regarding training, please ask your instructor or discipline coordinator.

Hope to see you in the dojo this week!

Virtual Dojo — the value of mitorigeiko

I wanted to again plug the value of logging in for classes if for whatever reason you cannot physically make it in to train.

Mitorigeiko, or looking practice forms a critical element of any training, where you are actively watching to reflect on your own practice and take the time to see what you might be missing or perhaps not quite understanding.

We are going back to the two-camera system to try and capture different angles for our sessions. It has been great to see members of our Gin Gin sister dojo actively joining in, and certainly if you have someone at home who you are isolating with, you can join in too (within the parameters of your own home environment to remain safe).

If you are regularly paying monthly fees, you can join these sessions for free. If you are paying casually, you can purchase a separate block of online lessons (10 sessions for $25) so that you are not eating into your usual face-to-face allocation.

If you are interested, please ask me for the relevant log ins. We currently have three: our week night classes (Tuesday and Thursday), our Saturday afternoon, and Sunday FlexiFit.