Seminar - By Gary Greenwood

I put my name down for the weekend seminar with Sensei Matsumoto with great enthusiasm. Between then and the date of the seminar I still wasn’t sure what to expect. This was my first seminar and to be honest I didn’t know what to expect.
At least it was on home ground so I would know a few faces.

On the day we arrived early, didn’t want to be late. After helping sweep the main hall I headed of to get changed. While changing I saw a few friendly faces, a few I had seen once before and a few I had never seen before. I got a few good mornings and a few hellos but one person came over and said hello, shaking my hand. I didn’t know who it was, never seen him before.

We headed to the hall and started getting things ready.

First off was a talk about Kendo and going back to basics. This was good for me as I am still way off getting even my basics somewhere right. It did make me think about a question I asked Sensei Needham the previous week about trying things in ji geiko though.

After the warm up and once we started training I noticed straight away a change, how slow things was being demonstrated. I really didn’t know what to expect but though we would be seeing demonstrations of high grade techniques at lightning speed, how wrong could I have been.

This set the mood for both days.

Later during ji geiko I had the privilege to fence with Sensei Matsumoto and again no high grade techniques at lightening speed but basics just above my level and lots of signs when I was doing things wrong, no words but I understood what was being conveyed.

Day 2 started again with a talk, this covered the history of the Samurai which was interesting. The thing that stuck with me was the saying “without ego”. Do I have ego ?, would I know if I had ?. I don’t know if I have an ego, I don’t know how to be without ego. The only thing I know is this has made me think about ego, something I have never even thought about. After the talk and after a warm up back into basics.

So while I could talk all day about the weekend what did I learn.

a) It wasn’t what I expected, I was a little worried it would be way above my level. This was not the case.

b) A much better way to hold my shinai

c) A useful cote technique.

On paper that was what I learned, which does not look like much, but the seminar raised far more questions for me then it answered and really made me think..

What is Kendo for me ?., well for now its fun. I enjoy it. but I am beginning to understand that its far more than 7pm to 9pm on Tuesdays and 10am to 12.30pm on Sundays. One thing I have learned from the seminar is while I can be taught to do a perfect men cut, a perfect cote cut. This is just going through the motions and the reason, the feeling in you and your opponent can only be learned for yourself.

When we “go for the cut” it is often with a very shallow feeling sometimes not fully committed even. In the past that cut really could mean the difference between life and death and so really really was a life changing feeling. I know now that Kendo is not just short training periods, know that great focus and commitment should go with everything I do, and this should not just apply to Kendo. At the moment I am either doing Kendo or something else, but sometimes I do things in normal life that have come from Kendo, is this progress ??. Am I their yet, hell no, will I ever be, I don’t know.

All I know at the moment is I am really only “going through the motions” and really don’t understand Kendo. I don’t even really know yet where I want my Kendo to go. At the moment I just want to enjoy, listen and learn and hopefully me and my Kendo will grow together. It has also taught me that however good you get, however high grade you get the basics and the ”feeling” is the most important aspects.

While we was at the seminar Liam my son asked Sensei Matsumoto to sign his first shinai. Its now no longer fit for use but while he will have many shinai he will only ever a first one. We was expecting something like sensei’s name, train hard, never quit etc etc.

What Sensei wrote was “never forget respect” and finished by saying to Liam to your father, to your sensei etc. This made me realise that Kendo is a way of life and not just training sessions. This was also the person who took time to say hello and shake my hand the previous morning, a person he had never meet before.

I would like to thanks Sensei Matsumoto for the training, for his time, for sharing his knowledge but most of all for making me think and give me many questions I now need answers for.

I would also like to thank Sensei Needham for organising the seminar and allowing me the opportunists to learn.