New T-shirts~

Hey guys, so it's the first week of Term 2 already, man does time fly fast. After over a month of waiting, the new belts have finally arrived! The seniors can now officially level up to Green and Black belts :D (and I can finally get rid of my dusky maroon belt)

On a separate note, the new designs for the next club t-shirt are finally out as well, designed by Hiok Ann and yours truly :D

The shirt's front design. Designed by Hiok Ann~                 

 Design no. 1 for the back of the T-shirt. Generic kenjutsu member acting cool after a spar. :)

 Design no. 2 for the back of the T-shirt. Two pioneers locked in battle. Guess who I referenced? :P




 We'll get around to printing these as soon as a vote is decided on which back design is more popular with our club members~

Enjoy the rest of the week, People! :D
- Afiq

What you need to know about the club

Hello everyone! Our dear Pioneer Radzif has kindly written down some of the information that you should know about the club so do read what's written below. Before you start, let me give you a brief introduction of this blog. If you guys have noticed, the club has 2 blogs. This is one of the 2 and the other is the one that ends with cca.sg for the link. Before SP started using cca.sg as a form of standardization for all the CCAs in SP, this blog was used as the club's blog (still in use) so do visit this blog every once in a while for updates. I will post on the club's wall on facebook as well to inform everyone when there are new posts.

Training Centre

There are 3 Training Centres under NihontoDo mandate where official training takes place. SP is one of the Training Centres. The other two are RP and HQ(hombu). The art appoints a Sensei-in-Charge as the head of each training centre, responsible for settling Syllabus and Teaching Cadre matters. Every year, a competition is held so that practitioners from across the training centres may mingle and get to test each other's ability.

School Club

SP Kenjutsu was founded in 2007 as SP Chanbara. It was later named SP Kenjutsu in 2009 as the club adopted NihontoDo as its focus martial art.

The SPKC main committee is in charge of maintaining day-to-day functions.

These include keeping track of equipment stock, booking of training venue, planning the annual Singapore Polytechnic Open, freshmen orientation and other social activities. Members who are interested in taking up more responsibilities should indicate their interest to the club seniors.

Some of the above responsibilities can be done through the Department of Student Development (DSD). The DSD are school administration who approve and give funding to certain club events. For example, they are able to provide budget for competitions and camps. The current DSD Officer is Ms. Cindy.

Three members from the pioneer batch of 2007 have remained to this day. They are Valerie, Ain and Radzif. As alumni who also hold senior positions within Nihontodo, their opinions are still strongly taken into account whenever major club decisions are to be made.

A practitioner with regular attendance may be able to attain 1^st Dan during his 3 years in poly. The colored belt ranks are entry, red, green, blue, brown and black.

Entry level fees are $30, intermediate level fees are at $40.

*students get a 50% off from full adult price which is $80 for entry and $100 for intermediate

**as students of SP, they get a further $10 discount

Brief introduction to NihontoDo

Nihontodo translates to 'Way of the Japanese Sword'. It is a modern hybrid kenjutsu system that significantly utilises sparring as a method of training.

There are several modules in NihontoDo. Swordplay is the first module, and it consists of learning the fundamentals of sword handling with the short sword, or kodachi. Then comes Sports Kenjutsu, where the practitioner moves on to the long sword, spars with the choken and practices kihon with the bokken. The next three modules of Combative Kenjutsu, Battodo and Tameshigiri are advanced modules taught after 1^st Dan. 

Sincerely

Tan Yu Fang 

Social & Welfare Mentor 

Special thanks to Pioneer Radzif for typing out all these information.  

Grading!

Sorry for the late post people! I was kinda expecting my webmaster to update but I guess he must be busy or smth. ><

As you all already know, grading is this coming Saturday. I believe you all have been practicing hard for it and well...nothing much to say I guess. Just remember your training! Hee!

For us being graded will need to be at the polycentre at 8.45 am. Please be punctual. I am going to need more alarms for this. Maybe we should get some people to wake us up. So anyway, check your email for more information. 

As for the freshies, your training still goes on and venue will be at the T11 square (as I was informed, you all check your email for confirmation). For those who still not sure or does not know, come in p.e. attire and no accessories please and we train bare-footed. So best to come in slippers or sandals.

Weeeee! Grading! My hands will so be shaking again. >< Anyone else think they gonna be nervous?
Hahahah....Gambatte!!!

Oh one more thing, try to keep our voices down during grading. ^^

-Ezan (The guy that gets nervous on every grading)

Welcome new members!

To those that have been to our booth during the CCA carnival, I believe you have gotten this small flyer-like thing which has our blog address on it. Upon entering the address in your browser. You end up here! Thanks for bothering to look up the blog! ^^

Anyway, I believe most of you have already known but some of you might have not been informed. This Saturday's training is a try out for all you new members. This is where you come and have a feel of what our training will be like and what you will be learning. So be sure to come on down and try it! Believe me it will be fun. The venue for this Saturday's training will be at T11 square which is right beside T12. For those of  you who do not know where it is, turn left after exiting from Dover MRT station which will lead you to T12 area and then turn left again and walk straight under shelter through the carpark until you reach a very big open space area. If you come a bit too early and no one is there just wait for us. Hee ^^ Although I believe some of us would be there rather early. Our usual training is at the polycentre though. As for this Saturday, the polycentre is occupied so we have to move to T11 square. It starts at 9.30am by the way. Be punctual. ^^

As for attire, come in sports attire which would be t-shirt and shorts or track pants. You can wear dry fit shirt if you want. Make sure you are able to move around easily in the attire. You can bring your sports attire and change there instead of wearing them from home, your choice. Strictly no jeans. And no accesories is to be worn during training(or try out) as you might get injured. Which means nothing on your ears, wrists and ankles. Oh and fingers too. You might want to cut your fingernails and toenails as you might injure others as well as yourself. Make sure to bring a bag as you are going to have to put your stuff inside such as phone and wallet and maybe keys and whatever stuff you usually have in your pocket. Remember to bring at least one bottle of water or you can buy one on the way to the training area. As long as you have water to drink as it is going to be tiring. I almost forgot, we will be training bare-footed so it is best if you come in slippers or sandals and not shoes. As it will be a chore to take them off and wear them. ><

Do not worry if you have no experience in martial arts or whatsoever stuff that might be related to our CCA. None of us know anything about the sword before we came in here. Heee. You can ask any questions you have. Either here by comment or you can email those questions to our club email which is spkenjutsu@cca.sg

That is all I believe, hopefully I did not miss anything out. Remember to check your email which will be sent to you for information that you would need to know. Best to check on friday night before you decide to switch off your computer as there might be last minute updates too. Thanks for reading! See ya during training! :D

-Ezan (The happy happy long hair guy)

Another late post-

Hi everyone, forgive me for the late post >.< (I am waaaaay too busy)

School's gonna start in a week's time~ So many things coming up for the club, like the CCA showcase, the new juniors coming in, the May grading session. It looks like we're gonna start off to a busy new academic year! ^^

Looks like a lot of you guys had fun during the recent Kenjutsu camp. It's nice that the Club can get together and have fun over non training-related events, hopefully I'll be free the next time around. Some sample club t-shirt designs are also up and running on the FB page, let's all put in our input to have the most badass-looking T-shirt around~

Not sure what else to talk about now. Oh well, see you guys soon and let's work hard for our next belt~ :D

-Afiq

Holidays, holidays

Most of us enjoying our holidays I believe. Some looking for something new, some revisiting stuff from the past. Others just going with the flow. Let us all relax for the upcoming well...not so fun stuff.

Anyway, grading is coming so be prepared! For those who do not have enough hours(attendance), you can go for make up classes. I know it is on Wednesday, at RP at 6 pm. I am not sure the one on Saturday afternoon is still valid. You can ask your Sensei for the details. Oh and I think you have to let them know in advance. Well, good luck!

Nothing much to say during the holidays. And where is my webmaster? >.>

-Ezan

Back to training

After a long break from training, we are finally back. Training resumes as normal and grading is coming soon too! Other than that, we have the cca showcase nearing as well and we committee members will be busy preparing for all these stuff that is gonna come up. Training was normal as we were just practicing cuts and warming up as we had not trained for very long.

Anyway, we will be having extra training on every Wednesday. Our president will be getting the mixed weapons as we will be training for the cca showcase. We are planning to use them. So if you are interested or are willing to help in the showcase come down and train with us! Or if just want to train normally of course you are welcome to train. Heeeee.

Oh and I am webmaster mentor as said by Sensei Radz, not asst. webmaster.

See ya all soon!
Ezan - Webmaster Mentor

End of the Academic Year~

Wow, a whole year of poly is gonna come to an end soon. Whether you're Year One or Year Two, I'm sure now's a good time to reflect on the ups and downs of AY2011-2012, to take a look at how far you've come, and plan how much further do you intend to go this coming year, be it in studies or cca.


By the end of this week, we can officially begin our much deserved holiday break~ ^^. I trust that all of you guys are satisfied with your performance the past two weeks of exams, cause I'm very sure you've all been putting in a lot of effort in studying for this last stretch. Honestly, here in my course I don't have examinations. So I've more or less been slacking at home/chalets for the past fortnight... yeah, you can beat me up next session if you'd like. >.<


Personally, I'm looking forward to resuming our training sessions- one month without kenjutsu has gotten me all fidgety inside. Let's all make sure we let loose this coming March and have a great time in future sessions to come! :DD

See you guys soon,
Afiq - Webmaster

Exam stress

Its the exam week and everyone is having their fair amout of stress. Some praying more than usual. Some hoping to get A while others study hard just to try and pass. It is a war for all of us and we all want to win. It is a bit too late to say good luck to everyone but I am still wishing you all the best for your other exams. I was busy studying myself. ><

Oh and I am really really really missing the usual training. Three weeks of no training is like umm...well I am a gamer so I would say like 3 weeks of no gaming which is very very sad. Oh and extra trainings on holiday? Hahaha.

Keep moving forward,
Ezan - Asst. Webmaster

Close range combat

We had an interesting kind of training for the latest one. It is called the shadow kihon i think or shadow sparring. For those who missed it, it is the same as shadow boxing which means you imagine fighting an opponent. It is not just random swinging of your sword though. You imagine what your opponent is doing or will be doing and you do what you must to attack or defend. It is a practice for sparring or even in a real fight. Just like during sparring without fighting a real person. Other than that, our seniors which are black belt and above, did a few stuff for us to see what our mistakes are. One of it was making sure we move back fast enough after attacking. Another one is making sure our balance is still correct after moving back quickly.

The more interesting part though is having our senior Bryan pushing us backwards after we move back. Its good that none of us lost balance but we later learn that it was for us for us to resist and not continue moving backwards which some of us did. It was explained to us by Master Dav to why we have to stop the person from pushing us backwards. The reason is because if we do so, our opponent will have an opportunity to attack us. We will learn more of this in Combative Kenjutsu. I actually got kinda shocked by him coming to me and accidentally putting my bokken forward which might have actually hurt him. ><

Anyway, something I would like to emphasise that was said by Master Dav. The long sword is a long range weapon which means it is useless when your opponent comes very close to you which Master Dav have demonstrated to us. Which Senior Bryan also did to some of us but without the sword. This is where close range combat is important. It is important even with other other form of martial arts too. Someone might have the advantage when attacking you with the naginata or spear when you are using the sword but it will be your advantage when you come very close to that person as he cannot use the spear anymore. So do not be complacent just because you have a longer weapon. Skill and fundamentals play a very important part too and do not forget about brains. Knowing what to do is most important.

Anyone learning how to use the stomach to ki-ai?

Fight on,
Ezan (Assistant Webmaster)

Passing over the mantle

Hey guys!

This is Afiq speaking, and as the title suggests, henceforth from today for the rest of the year I'm taking over Ezan's job as the webmaster for both of our blogs (Ezan's now the assistant webmaster~). For those of you who do not know me, I'm that one malay guy who always wore the black SP shirt to training (Perhaps more memorably, the guy who accidently bleached his belt.)

So yeah, I'll be updating the blogs with info on our club activities from now on, so I hope we can get along well for future training sessions! ^^

(insert ki-ai here)

Sincerely,
Afiq Danial Sham
Webmaster/Designer

Open House Performance!

Firstly, I wanna say thanks to those who helped out with the performance!
And also to those who were there to support us! Intentionally or not.
Also thank you Master Dav for coming down to support us even though you do not have to.
Also thanks to the seniors (those in blue gi) for making your time to help us out in the demo.
The performance would not have been as good without you guys there!
Thank you Senior Ain also for coming down just to help us out, giving us feedback and instructing us on what to do to make the performance better. We would not know as much as you do as we do not have much experience about this. Also thank you for helping out with the whistle! We definitely needed that one.
Now for the pictures! And maybe some comments.
Oh almost forgot to mention Naif who came down to take photos for us! Thanks a lot!


Matthew is beside Jian Hong. Sorry Matt could not find a pic with all four of ya.




That is Sensei Jim and Senior Bryan if you can't tell.
Check out the the blog on cca.sg! I posted all the other cool shots there! Be sure to check it out! They are really nice. Really.

Happy New Year!

Have a great new year guys!
We shall have another year full of more fun trainings!
Try not to miss it as you will miss on a lot of stuff.
I guess some of us are planning ahead for the year while others make new resolutions.
I myself is just happy to be in this club.
Some of us will be practicing even harder, others will think of ways to bypass a certain level of skill.
All of us will try to improve and we will.
Practice hard guys!
Remember what your seniors tell you.
Gambatte!