Azuki Panda

Friday, April 17

Day 1 of the [21st Cleveland Kendo Tournament]

It’s already been quite a long week for me, with a lot of looming deadlines for the final two weeks of class. The Cleveland Kendo Tournament is one of the things that I look forward to every year because it doesn’t require driving a long distance to go to a tournament so it doesn’t feel quite as bad when I don’t do as well as I think I should. I picked up the T-shirts from Jakprints at 5:30 and was somewhat surprised when I looked at the back of the shirt - the design was kind of small even though I told them to fit it to the back of the shirt (i.e. make it as big as possible).

The period from 5:30 - 7:30 PM was gi geiko (free practice) and there were a few senseis (Kato, Gonzales, Inoshita, Sugawara, and one or two others)  at the front with people lined up behind them. Since I got there at 6:30 I decided waiting in line would take too long so I just practiced with a few people who were also in the back of the gym. I practiced with Lopez, Ju, and Chan (U of Wisconsin). Ju was really quick and used short strikes. Chan was very good at keeping his distance and when he hit he would usually be able to strike on target.

Following the free practice there was a seminar for how to take the promotion test. There was a lot of good information from this seminar since they had one or two sets of people from each group that was testing do a short shiai geiko and then the senseis would give pointers. The people testing for kyu received comments regarding the loudness and power behind the kiai as well as keeping the center and knowing when to strike. A lot of the time they would hit when they were not displaying any seme or they would repeatedly hit as soon as both people turned around. Another thing the senseis said was to make sure to maintain good form, both for bowing and for sonkyo. The people testing for shodan (Andrew and Raj) put on a better display with louder and more forceful kiai and better form for strikes.

The first set of people testing for nidan were about the same level as the people testing for shodan, so the senseis were quick to point out that both would fail just on that basis since each rank is supposed to be better than the previous one. Several of the things mentioned for the higher ranks was to give it 200%, to have a strong kiai, and to perform good hits and not just large men. Inoshita sensei said that it is important to show a good large men for lower ranks and even up to shodan or nidan, but higher than that it is not as important. The other senseis chimed in and commented that at the higher ranks you should be able to use the opponents to your advantage and create your own opening by forcing the opponent to react like you want them to.

After the practice there was a person who had injured his hand, so I was assigned to take him to the hospital. After some introductions he told me he was Paul McCarthy and was with all of the Rutgers people. He was previously the president of the Rutgers club, but I believe he is currently just under the instruction of Bella Church sensei. He said that he had broken three of his fingers before and thought that this was a fractured knuckle. I went with him to the ER at UH and admitted him to get it checked out. Later at night I saw him and he said that it turned out to be just bruised and was not fractured, but he would be out for at least a week.

There was a lot to help set up, and we were at the gym until about 12:30 AM. We had to move tables, get chairs, and set up the tables at each court. We also had to set down all of the tape to make the bounds for the court. We had to move one of the courts because Dr. Matsuyama thought it should be moved toward the front. It was really tiring and I’m pretty sure we are all exhausted at this point.

Too bad we have to wake up early and get to the gym before 7:30 tomorrow. This is going to be a reaaaallllly long weekend.