A Beginner's Point of View 38-47.5

Day 38 - 47:
The next several days were all spent practicing everything we would need for the testing. Sensei said, “Think of the tournament as practice for the testing. The tournament is for fun, the testing is important.” We spent all our time practicing kiri-kaeshi over and over. We practiced it in full bogu. We practiced it without men or kote. We practiced it in only keikogi and hakama.
Obviously, the less protection we wore, the slower we performed the strikes. This was to make us slow down and focus on making good, crisp strikes instead of relying only on fast strikes. Sempai reminded us many times, “It really doesn’t matter how fast you do kiri-kaeshi. The judges want to see you strike accurately.” This really set the tone for how we were to go down to the tournament and testing. We all decided that we wanted to go there and show that we were not going to rush our training just to show off.

We practiced kiri-kaeshi so many times, Sensei said, “You’ll be doing it in your sleep”. I didn’t dream about it, but I have caught myself doing it as I walk down the halls at my job and in my home. At first it was embarrassing, but I just decided to take the opportunity to just go through the motions and not only memorize it, but to ingrain the motions into my nerves so I may do it without thinking.

We also got out some athletic tape and marked off what a typical court would look like. We practiced the ceremony of bowing in and out of a court. The senior students got out the Shinpan flags and would practice regulating matches. The bowing in ceremony is not so difficult to remember. Both fighters stand at the appropriate edges of the court, facing each other. They take a single step in, then bow. They taito, then Kendo-walk up to their respective lines. They draw their shinais and then sonkyo. The lines will be taped out at such a position so that the shinais will be too far for issen-no-maai. The fighters rise and kamae. The Shinpan will declare “Hajime” and the match begins. We would also perform geiko (practice match) in order to tell if our waza was good enough. More often than not, the senior students would wind up telling us about our mistakes. But then, that’s the way it should be since we’re so inexperienced.
Day 47.5: (tournament and testing)

The Kendo club sponsoring the event made arrangements for the local hotel to have discounts for us as we would stay the night. Travelling to the location of the tournament and testing was a real pain. It took hours to drive there. I was smart and took the day off work the day before the tournament just so I could focus only on making arrangements.
After checking into the hotel, I went over to get a parking permit on the campus where the gymnasium was located. The directions I received were incorrect about where to go. I spent a couple of hours driving around the city and following the wrong road signs to the wrong places before I figured it out. Asking a couple of the locals helped also. I was very glad that I took the day off. One of our students could not take that day off and decided to drive extra early to arrive on time, only to have her alarm clock suffer from a power outage. She arrived late and missed taking part in the Mudansha division.

I could only take part in Mudansha and hopefully in team division. This will be the way it is for a long time, so I may as well get used to it. I can fill the time in between by helping out at scoring tables. My first match wasn’t even first at all. There were so many of us that we had to be split into two courts, each court having eight brackets, each bracket having three or four Kendoka. I was in the first court, eighth bracket. This meant I had a lot of time since the first round went round-robin. The winner, determined by the judges by wins and points, advanced to the single-elimination rounds. I was in a four-person bracket, and had to fight two other people. As the fights progressed, one of my classmates gave me his camera to take pictures of him during his matches. I took a few pictures of him as he walked in and as he struck targets.

When it came time for my match, I was nervous. I systematically went through every waza in my mind as a refresher. It took less time then I thought. Before I could get more nervous, I instead tried to study my opponent. He seemed very confident. I stepped in with as much dignity as I could and then performed the bowing in ceremony. When the match began, he immediately lauched into a flurry of attacks and action. I knew that my opponent was a hothead. His kiais were loud and aggressive. He was also smaller than me. I decided to use his aggression to my advantage. I let him attack me, then when his attack failed, I forced him into tai-atari. I let him scream at me, then I pushed him backwards. I stepped in to take his space and attacked his men forcefully. Over and over I did this, making him angrier and angrier. Soon, the Shinpan called yame. As we resumed our initial marks, the Shinpan gave him a warning for stepping out of bounds. I smiled and did it again. I would attack him, striking him over and over, circling around him, letting him attack me. I would turn my back to the edge of the court and let him push me close. Then I would circle around and push him out of bounds. I used lots of kiai and energy and men strikes without passing through. Soon, the judges were giving him another warning, which resulted in a penalty point for him. A penalty point for him in reality means a good point for me. The score was 1-0 in my favor. I knew he would not allow such a thing to happen again, so I deduced that he would not give ground. Instead I focused on men strikes and trying to trick him into giving me a kote strike. He got more and more desperate as time ran out. His defenses were getting sloppy and I knew I only had to wait for the right time. Suddenly, after I gave a kiai, I saw an opening for his men. I thought to myself, “I will strike his men”. Suddenly, I saw my shinai strike him on the men in a near-perfect strike. I actually do not remember going throught he motion of stepping in and swinging the shinai over my head. I passed on through and heard the judge call men-ari (point striking men). I knew I had won. I was completely ecstatic, but I was even more winded than that. My classmates congratulated me as I got ready for my next match. I had one match to rest before going out again. I couldn’t wait!

My next match was tougher. I studied my opponent and saw that he was giving nothing away. He probably saw me fight and decided not to let me push him. I decided to just attack head on and pass through. The entire match was attacking men and occasionally attacking kote. I would parry him and he would parry me. I knew it would end with no points scored, so I decided to make an impression on the judges. I would kiai louder and show more zanshin than my opponent. After we passed each other, I took three quick strides and turned around in chudan-no-kamae. I advanced on my opponent, who was taking many more strides more slowly. I waited for him to turn around and then launched another attack. In the end, the hantei (judge’s decision) was that the other fighter had won. I believe it was because his waza was more crisp than mine. If that is the case, I do not mind losing to that. It means I squared off against a superior opponent and held him off. Sensei calls it, “Losing without dying, which is almost as good”. After that, I was eliminated form the division. It’s too bad there are too many kendoka to keep track of. I would have preferred a double-elimination style, but the judges have too much to keep track of as it is.

The day of the tournament was very busy. There were over one hundred kendoka participating over all of the divisions. The few of us beginners were in the Mudansha division, which means all ranks below Shodan. The senior students entered the Shodan-Nidan division. The girls also entered the Women’s division as well. After that, Sensei entered the Sandan-and-above division. Halfway through Sandan-and-above, we broke for lunch. Bento boxes were distributed out to everyone, including a soda. Lunch was a combination of salad, sushi, teriyaki chicken and a few seafood items I could not identify. I’m normally a very fussy eater, but I was so hungry after just fighting in my own matches and then helping out with the scoring for Shodan-Nidan that I just started eating and nearly ate everything. It was very good.

Sandan-and-above division finished afterwards. Sensei did not win a single one of his matches, yet he was smiling the whole time. He said he was just glad to fight against others closer to his rank. It was fun for him and a great learning experience. I think he was trying to teach us not to focus on anything negative at all and instead just approach defeat with dignity and grace.

Then it was time for the team matches. Our dojo had enough students entering to form two teams. Sensei personally led the group of us four newcomers in our own team. He arranged us in a specific pattern to counter what he felt was the other team’s strategy. It turns out that in a team match, five kendoka line up. The number one position stands farthest away from the scorekeeper’s table. Normally, the first position is given to the fastest person and the fifth position is given to the strongest (or at least some kind of variation on those ideas). I requested the fifth position and Sensei asked me if I was sure. I told him that I was sure and I wanted it. This would be the only real time I could fight against a much higher-ranked opponent. Sensei let me have it and took the fourth position for himself. Our first two matches were fairly evenly matched, and no points were scored, so the Shinpan declared Hiki-wake (a draw with no winner). The third match had both fighters scoring a clear point each. We cheered for our teammate when he scored. The end result was another Hiki-wake. Sensei took his time and chose to attack his opponent intelligently instead of wasting energy. The result was him winning his match! The team score was 1-0 in favor of us. Then it was my turn to fight. We had the advantage. The team match was ‘mine to lose’ if I let my opponent win. I decided to curb my enthusiasm and fight intelligently, without taking foolish risks. My opponent was much smaller than me, which means I could have pushed her around a lot if I wanted to. Perhaps she would be expecting that. I decided to just try for crisp men strikes instead. Over and over, we struck and circled each other. The Shinpan decided that none of our strikes were good enough for a point. Finally, I saw a suki (opening)! She was leaving her kote open while hoping to attack my men. I let her attack, only to parry her strike. As she retreated, I saw her give me the kote suki, and I charged forward! Bringing the shinai up, I aimed for her kote. “YAME!” The Shinpan called for the end of the match because of time. On reflex, I finished the strike and passed on through. I heard the pleasant slap of the bamboo to leather and knew that if I only had half of a second more, I would have gotten the kote point. However, I had succeeded! My match ended in a Hiki-wake, making the final score 1-0 in our favor. We had won the first round of the team match! After shaking hands with our opponents, we had a short break until our next team match.

This time, we came up against a much better team. Their first opponents had not shown up so they were more rested than we were. We lost every match, making the final score 5-0 in their favor. However, no one was disappointed. We were all smiling because we had fought against high-ranked people and gave a good effort. They really did work for their victory.
After the tournament was over, Sensei let me know that the fifth position on the team that defeated us was a 2nd Dan who was displaying the skill of a 3rd Dan that day. Overall, I think I performed very well. Twice I nearly got a strike in against him.

The next day was the day of the testing and promotionals. I wasn’t very nervous for the sole reason that I had fought in front of and sometimes with everyone who might be judging me. So, it was not as if I were to be testing in front of strangers, instead it was like a formality in front of an extended family. I kept my focus on behaving in a proper manner and chose to let my Kendo happen naturally. I did decide beforehand that I would step up my energy and kiai more. I have a habit of being too quiet sometimes.

Since we rehearsed the actual testing part at the dojo over and over, that was no big surprise. There were forty-five of us testing for various ranks. I made sure to remove my zekken before warmups. At some point, the director told us to line up. We lined up single-file and gave our names one at a time. The director would tell us what number we had to remember. I was number twelve. There didn’t seem to be a real system to the numbers except that people testing for lower ranks had lower numbers. Afterwards, we were told exactly where to sit. They arranged us into a grid-like formation twelve people wide, so I had the position in the front left corner. Then, they grouped us into four Kendoka together. We would put on men as a group, last-minute warmups as a group, approach the court as a group, and test in sequence as a group.
The panel of judges seemed to think that the first eight Kendoka were taking too long through the intricate ceremony of bowing in and out. Although we had all day, I think they were trying to speed things up to be fair to the ones who had higher numbers. Each and every Kendoka for the first twenty or so did the same things. They did kiri-kaeshi and ji-geiko (free-form sparring) against two different opponents. However, I did not receive kiri-kaeshi that day, only gave it. Others gave and received it. I think I was passed over by mistake. After that, we sat back down in formation again. Then, I realized that my ordeal was over for the whole day.

I felt more relaxed and decided to just watch and observe the good and bad that others were doing. However, I soon realized that the most difficult thing that day was all the waiting. I knelt in seiza as much as I could because I thought it was required. After a while, one of the coordinators came by and told us to “relax”. This meant “sit as you would like”. I immediately moved into the cross-legged position gratefully. However, the gymnasium floor was very, very rigid. After several minutes, even sitting cross-legged was painful. I had to fidget and re-align my legs over and over, still not being comfortable. I realized that only half of the Kendoka had been tested. It was a long day indeed.

After all of the testing happened, I thought we were done. Not quite. There was a break as we got up to stretch our aching legs. The 1-Kyu and 1-Dan candidates pulled out their bokkens and began to practice kata in the back of the gym. I knew kata 1 and 2 from practice, but I also got to see kata 3, 4, and 5. I liked kata 4, when you block with the bokken, then spin it around to attack the head form the opposite angle and shout, you can see how Sensei says, “This kata shows the fire coming out of your eyes”. The kata test was actually over very quickly, as they would test four pairs of Kendoka simultaneously. After that was done, then we were dismissed.

It took the better part of an hour to post the results. All my classmates got 3rd Kyu for their initial ranking. I got 4th Kyu. I was so disappointed. I had applied for 4th Kyu on my registration at first. After a couple of weeks Sensei asked if I wanted to change my request to 3rd Kyu, but I said no. I didn’t want to seem arrogant. However, I was secretly hoping they would give me 3rd Kyu anyway. I tried to hide my disappointment, because I didn’t want anyone feeling bad for me. After some time, I began to realize that the panel of judges most likely gave me 4th Kyu because my waza was sloppy. It was within their power to give me an even lower rank, so I should just accept it and plan for the next test. I should also work on my basic waza.

My body was in pain as I drove back home. Most of the pain subsided, but there stayed a persistence shooting pain in both my left arm and my left ankle. I knew I had sprained both. I had probably stretched both too far at the tournament, but then exaggerated them at the testing. A fellow student told me the arm sprain was from gripping the shinai too tightly. I know the ankle comes from trying to put all my weight on my heels during seiza for long periods of time.