Glasgow Seminar and Grading

12-13th March 2005

Although this was my first, it's clear that the "Glasgow Seminar" is one of the big annual kendo events in Scotland. The fact that the weekend included my first (Ikkyu) grading attempt didn't reduce it's significance any.

No doubt my pre-grading nerves were at least partially to blame, but I did find the Saturday seminar a little fraught. Not the core teaching by national coach Honda sensei or associated practice, but little things on the periphery.

For one thing, the venue was very crowded, with Scottish Kendoka joined by people from the North of England and further exotic places like Greece and London. Honda sensei organised the space very well for practices, but lining up and storing/retrieving bogu was frequently a messy business - not helped by a (to me) surprisingly widespread disregard for basic elements of etiquette.

The significance of the event was underlined by the number of senior BKA representatives present, complemented by Scottish high-grades from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Dojo leader Michael Gratzke and 7th kyu Andy Crowe joined me from St Andrews - very much in at the deep end for Andy, as there were relatively few people there below (aspiring) Ikkyu level. I don't think Andy or I appreciated in advance just how much the Saturday seminar was geared towards the Sunday grading, but at least it gave him an intense introduction to kata 1-3 :)

Honda sensei did an excellent job of managing the large and disparate group throughout the 5-hour period, with his main theme for the seminar being "en".

En, he explained, is about the connection between two Kendoka when practicing or competing and he emphasised the importance of establishing and maintaining that connection from the moment you initially bow to your partner, right through everything you do until the very end and final bow.

En includes eye contact, but is more than just that - it includes the manner and intensity in which we practice kata or keiko-ho, our body position (not showing your back to a training partner), alertness and complete focus on what we are doing with the other person, not just our "side" of the activity.

Although Honda sensei was very clear and precise in his teaching of keiko-ho, it was apparent that knowledge of this element of kendo is very variable from dojo to dojo. We certainly spend a good deal of time on it at St Andrews and Edinburgh, but this obviously isn't the case everywhere and this disparity resulted in unfortunate situations where relatively junior kendoka from one dojo had to clarify the exercises for more senior kendoka from other dojos.

As well as keiko-ho, kata, waza practice and ji-geiko, the seminar included a session of refereeing practice. While I'm sure it's a great idea to be constantly developing future referees, I find it difficult to judge a scoring hit when I'm fighting, let alone judge others, so when the announcement was made "50% in bogu for shiai, 50% as referees" I was in bogu in record breaking time!

And so to the grading on Sunday …

More confusion for everyone about starting times and sports centre opening times, suffice to say I was there more than adequately early.

With 30+ entries for the Ikkyu grading, we were split into two groups by age, and did our two sessions of kirikaeshi and ji-geiko in age order, which meant I was positioned between two Edinburgh kendoka who I knew well - and who both understood we were there to demonstrate our ji-geiko for a grading, not competing in shiai.

After all the build up it was almost an anti-climax to only have to perform one "side" of the three kata, but a relief nonetheless to see my number on the list of 20 or so who had passed, along with three others from Edinburgh and two from Aberdeen. Followed shortly by three new Shodans from Edinburgh and Phill Thornton passing Nidan - the only one of the day.

So, a good grading success all round for the east coast clubs and a small landmark in the history of St Andrews Kendo Club with our first national grading passed. Looking forward to several more next year …

Stewart Hutton, StAKC membership secretary