AUGUST 2012: BU-TOKU-MU-KYO KENDÔ SUMMER CAMP

This year for the first time I when to the BU-TOKU-MU-KYO KENDÔ SUMMER CAMP organized in Bedollo (TN, Italy) by SEI CHU DO – BRESCIA and supported by ITTORYU KAI - FIRENZE, KEN-ZAN-DOJO GALLARATE, KENDO IAIDO - BERGAMO, AIK BUDOKAN NO FUTARI - MILANO, KENSEI DOJO – RHO and SHITEN KENDO DOJO - LEIPZIG.
The seminar was led by Ushioda Takeshi – Kyoshi 7th Dan, Ushioda Hiroshi – Kyoshi 7th Dan and Lancini Livio - Renshi 7th Dan.

The summer camp is 5 day long but unfortunately me and my son could only stay three days. The kendo seminar is held in the Gymnasium of the Bedollo elementary school. Although the gym is not very big the floor is ideal for kendo. The location is particularly nice even for persons not practicing kendo, there are a lot of walking and cycling paths and a very nice lake.

Day 1 Afternoon:

The lessons were two hours long. One in the morning starting at 10:00 and the other in the afternoon starting at 16:30. Each lesson started with a warm up led by Hiroshi sensei. Then we moved to suburi. The first lesson was very basic and focus on on the correct posture necessary to perform suburi. The videos below give a brief overview of the  suburi training.

Takeshi sensei stressed the importance of a correct body posture, which is the basis for all kendo practice.
After the men tzuke the practice of the first lesson was mainly focused on kirikaeshi, big men and kote men. The same main points observed in the suburi were also highlighted in the keiko: straight body, seme, hit and rapidly pass on one side of motodachi.

After the lesson continue with 20 minutes jigeiko with motodachi at least 4 Dan. In this occasion I managed to cross the shiai with Lancini sensei twice one the first day and once the second day. As usual I try to do my best. I focused during the jigeiko on the search of the right time to strike a good men or kote. Later after the end of the lesson I asked to Lancini sensei about suggestion and he was telling me that in the complex was ok although I was loosing the center during the attach, thus making easy the counter attach by the opponent. After motodachi continue the jigeiko between each other and kyusha and yudansha continue the jigeiko between each other.

Day 2 Morning

In the morning of the second day keiko was very similar to the first day and it was still based on kirikaeshi. We performed few rounds of standard kirikaeshi and we also did kirikaeshi do and kirikaeshi men do. An important tip related to kirikaeshi do was the way of striking the do. In general in kirilaeshi do we tend to focus mainly on speed. Takeshi sensei highlighted that an important step of the do technique is the cut. Each do cut needs to be finalized with the tenuchi to give the correct position to the shinai. Another intersting tip was relate to the kirikaeshi posture. To keep the body straight we did kirikaeshi walking on bent knees, this forced the body to be straight. Unfortuantely I do not have video related to this part of the keiko. After keiko we had the 20 mins jigeiko with motodachi and 20 mins  free jigeiko in two groups: below 4 Dan and 4 Dan and above.

Day 2 Afternoon

In the afternoon we started with warm up and suburi and then we moved to keiko with bogou. The lesson was focused on making the correct attach.  A basic exercise is shown in the video below.

Furthermore, we practice with the same concepts tsuki as an exercise to obtain a good little men. The over all idea was, seme, then  keep the kensen in direction of tsuki till the very last time and then strike little men. I have already practice this exercise and I found it very useful. At the end of the day  Takeshi sensei showed a summary of the effects that a good seme could induce in the opponent.
I found very useful also because although I know that I have to construct the condition for a strike in my mind was not clear at all how I can do it. This presentation open to me new paths to investigate in the incoming year.

Day 3 Morning

In the morning of the 3rd day I waked up  with the feeling that a truck was passing over me all the night. I discovered many muscles that I did not know they exist. Fortunately warm up and suburi did their job making me able to practice the keiko. The morning keiko was based on the application seme to construct an action that will induce a reaction in the opponent (see video above). It was great, very very useful. For me and my son the summer camp ended with the jigeiko at the end of the morning. I managed to practice with Takeshi sensei and I tryed to applied what we have done during the keiko.

Conclusions

As I highlighted at the beginning, this was the first time for me at the Bedollo Kendo Summer Camp. My son and me had a great time with all the participants, my only hope is to be able to participate again next year.