Know your seniors! Part 4.

Once again, hello everybody! Pardon me if I make any silly mistakes for this week's blog post, not in my best state. ^^ Any announcements would be made in a separate blog post from now on. Also, I would like to emphasise that the stats here are a ROUGH guide.

I shall start with...
Name: Du Yun teng
Description: He's our dearest ex-president. Humble, flexible and calm. Beware of his attacks during sparring, he's good at faking his strikes. Observant and well-paced in sparring. He's the only one from his batch, which might explain why he's pretty good.
Stats:
Offense: 8.0
Defense: 8.4
Overall: 8.2

Next would be....
Name: Au Yun Sheng
Description: The other Project Coordinator of the club (the first one was mentioned in Part 2). Some of us like to call him Po, the Dragon Warrior (Kung Fu Panda). When you put him and Ezan (refer to part 1) together, they will do childish things to/with each other. His offense and defense is pretty much balanced and he's good at blocking.
Stats:
Offense: 7.1
Defense: 7.0
Overall: 7.1

Coming up....
Name: Andy Yeo Chia Guan
Description: Known as the Son of Poseidon (water heals his wounds). Probably the most innocent guy I ever met (I will not elaborate further on that). He likes to come up with new moves for sparring, making it hard to predict what moves he will use on you next. Very observant. Tends to have a blur/surprised look on his face.
Stats:
Offense: 7.3
Defense: 7.1
Overall: 7.2

Next up...
Name: Tan Jun Liang
Description: Another quiet and unassuming guy, he rarely gives his opinions on issues. Should interact more with the rest of the club. He's calm and not very naturally aggresive. Part of the design team.
Stats:
Offense: 6.5
Defense: 6.9
Overall: 6.7

Lastly we have....
Name: Tan Yu Fang (that would be me ^^/)
Description(this part is written by someone else ok!): Her nickname is Fishcube. She's 1 of the 2 holding the position Social & Welfare. She's incharge of taking the attendance and spamming emails regarding announcements from the club. One of the most friendly seniors, but tends to get bullied easily by others. Likes to talk to people and socialise, even to strangers. One of her weak points in sparring is her reaction speed.
Stats:
Offense: 6.8
Denfense: 7.1
Overall: 6.9

That's all for this week. All the best for your MST everyone! ^^

Sincerely
Tan Yu Fang
Social & Welfare

Know your seniors! Part 3.

Soory about the late update. >_< First of all, I would like to thank Kith, Fei Fan and Yun Sheng for organising the camp. Hope those of you who attended the camp enjoyed yourself. There will be some changes made to the weekly posts of "Know you seniors!" (starting from this week's post). Only the scores for offense, defense and the overall would be listed out from now on.

Let's start with....

Name: Brad Yong Chao Qin
Description: He's the club's tresurer. Another quiet guy that's able to totally fade into the background. His defense is the best among all of us so landing a strike on him is hard. His accuracy is also the highest, probably due to the precise cuts.
Stats:
Offense: 8.2
Defense: 8.7
Overall: 8.5

Next up....
Name: Hshieh Yih Yang
Description: He is part of the design team. I realize he's pretty good with weapons like yari (spear) and naginata (pole arm). He likes to 'twirl' the tip of his choken during sparring to either distract or annoy his opponent so that his opponent would make the first move. And psst....there's a blackmail photo of him on facebook, it is on the club's group. (You did not just see that.)
Stats:
Offense: 7.4
Defense: 7.3
Overall: 7.3

Coming up...

Name: Tan Ying Zhi
Description: Our dear secretary. Her nickname is Shadow and she has shadow army. Ranked 1st among the females. She's also learning Aikido at the moment. She gives off a scary aura during sparring if you agitate her.
Stats:
Offense: 7.0
Defense: 7.6
Overall: 7.3

Following behind is....
Name: Sato Kenji
Description: He's always late for training (do NOT learn from him). One of the giants in the club so beware of his long limbs. His strength is the highest in the club, getting hit by him is not pleasant at all. I usually stay away from him during sparring and ashi warm up. :X Even though he has strength, his moves are more or less predictable.

Stats:
Offense: 7.8
Defense: 7.4
Overall: 7.6

Last one up is...
Name: Tan Hiok Ann
Description: Part of the design team. He is the one who designed our club tee. His helmet is half black and half white (used to be red) so it is not difficult to tell him apart from others during sparring or war game. Have lots of witty comments. God of Fire, Apollo.

Stats:
Offense: 7.0
Defense: 7.5
Overall: 7.3

That's all for this week. Seniors remember to pay your Grading and monthly training fees.

P.S. Do join our group Singapore Polytechnic Kenjutsu Club on facebook.

Sincerely
Tan Yu Fang
SP Kenjutsu
Social & Welfare

Know your seniors! Part 2 (5 Musketeers Special)

This week we'll be having the 5 Musketeers. Don't ask me how we came up with that name, we just do. :D The 5 of them know each other since Secondary school so they are a pretty close bunch (which is why I find it weird if I split them up for this section). At the very beginning it was 7 musketeers but 2 left. The picture above was taken during the competition last year. They are an interesting lot to hang out with once you get to know them better. ^^

Let's see, we shall start with....
Name: Tan Fei Fan
Description: He's 1 of the 2 Project Coordinators of the club. Has good event planning and camp organizing skills. He has a serious and yet not fierce look. He gives me the impression that he always calculates his moves and strikes during sparring.
Stats:
Speed - 7.0
Strength - 6.9
Accuracy - 7.0
>1 strike - 8.0
Fake - 7.0
----------------
Offense - 7.2

Counter - 7.6
Moving back - 7.7
Patience - 7.8
Block - 7.4
Ki-ai - 6.9
-------------------
Defense - 7.5

Overall - 7.3

Next in line is....
Name: Benjamin Tan Ceyang
Description: Somewhat quiet guy. His gang calls him Laoben. He's always very calm during sparring and has good counters. Tends to wait for opponent to attack first and is quite patient.
Stats:
Speed - 7.4
Strength - 7.5
Accuracy - 7.4
>1 strike - 7.4
Fake - 6.4
----------------
Offense - 7.2

Counter - 7.9
Moving back - 7.0
Patience - 8.4
Block - 7.5
Ki-ai - 7.0
-------------------
Defense - 7.6

Overall - 7.4

Coming up next is....
Name: Marcus Sim Xin Wei
Description: He has the habit of stomping the ground during sparring. Not recommended if you want to try it out during sparring like him as you'll be using up extra energy (unless you are like him). His ki-ai is one of the louder ones among the green belts. His strikes are swift and precise. In my opinion he has a deep deep voice lol.
Stats:
Speed - 8.6
Strength - 8.6
Accuracy - 8.0
>1 strike - 9.0
Fake - 7.0
----------------
Offense - 8.2

Counter - 7.8
Moving back - 6.6
Patience - 8.4
Block - 8.8
Ki-ai - 9.1
-------------------
Defense - 8.1

Overall - 8.2

Following that is....
Name: David Lee Zheng Yi
Description: He is a really really quiet guy. Even I don't talk much to him. From what I see, he does but rarely interacts with the rest of the club. He tends to tap using the choken instead of slash during sparring.
Stats:
Speed - 6.3
Strength - 7.4
Accuracy - 6.6
>1 strike - 6.8
Fake - 6.6
----------------
Offense - 6.7

Counter - 6.8
Moving back - 7.6
Patience - 7.0
Block - 6.4
Ki-ai - 5.0
-------------------
Defense - 6.6

Overall - 6.6

The last musketeer is....
Name: Yap Jun Liang
Description: The most bhb (aka thick skin) musketeer among the 5. A perfectionist. He has the tendency to hit your hands during sparring. He doesn't really move back when he's on a "hands-hitting mode" so the table could be turned against him if you spar long enough. Practises Ninjutsu and likes to 'backstab' the opponents during war games. Likes to like facebook statuses and comments, just expanded to blog tagboard.
Stats:
Speed - 8.9
Strength - 8.1
Accuracy - 8.4
>1 strike - 9.5
Fake - 9.0
----------------
Offense - 8.8

Counter - 9.4
Moving back - 7.8
Patience - 8.1
Block - 8.3
Ki-ai - 8.3
-------------------
Defense - 8.4

Overall - 8.6

Grading matters
All juniors are welcome to come and watch the Grading at Scape. Training is as per normal for the juniors. Green belt seniors do take note that Grading day is non-training day for you, however if you wish to come down for training in the morning feel free to do so as Sensei Zack will be there. Good luck for Grading seniors!

P.S. For those of you planning to go for the camp, you can pay me the $12 this Saturday or during the camp itself.

That's all for this week. Stay tune for more of such awesomeness next week! :D

Sincerely
Tan Yu Fang
Social & Welfare

Grading for the seniors! (green belt and above)

That's right! Grading is this coming Saturday! Which is the 4th of June! Feeling nervous?
I'm nervous too. Hahaha. But we need to relax more, calm our minds. I know our Sensei said that he do not see any reason for us to fail our grading but.....we should not let that get to our heads and become over confident or complacent. And of course you all know that we should have confidence in our skills. So be confident but not over confident.

Anyway, the grading will be at Scape. I believe it starts at 2 pm so please do not be late. Try to reach there by 1.30 pm latest. Let us hope we will not face any problems this time. Anyone looking forward to the war game there?

That is it for now. ><
Ganbatte!!!

Know your seniors! Part 1.

Hi there!

Starting from this week, we will be introducing around 5 green/brown belt seniors every week for those of you who want to know more about the seniors. Make use of the information here for sparring! ^^ Do take note that the seniors are not ranked accordingly (one of the contributing factors is whether I am able to find their individual shots without helmets on during training on facebook XD).

Let's start shall we?
First up we have.....

Name: Kith Chang
Description: He's our awesome club president, but don't bully him because of his bulliable face! We will come after you!
Stats:

Speed - 7.4

Strength - 7.5
Accuracy - 8.0
>1 strike - 7.6
Fake - 7.0
----------------
Offense - 7.5

Counter - 8.1
Moving back - 7.8
Patience - 7.8
Block - 7.8
Ki-ai - 7.6
-------------------
Defense - 7.8

Overall - 7.7

Moving on we have.....

Name: Ezan Ezamin
Description: His nickname must be censored. Beware of his long limbs, distancing is especially important when you spar with tall people like him. He's the webmaster of the club and he likes cats.....a lot.
Stats: Speed - 7.4
Strength - 8.3
Accuracy - 7.2
>1 strike - 6.8
Fake - 6.2
----------------
Offense - 7.2

Counter - 7.5
Moving back - 7.0
Patience - 7.0
Block - 7.0
Ki-ai - 6.6
-------------------
Defense - 7.0

Overall - 7.1

Next up is.....

Name: Goh Zher Ee
Description: He's literally invisible and I think he blends into the background. :x A very unnoticeable and quiet guy unless you specifically look out for him. He tends to go defensive during sparring and waits for you to make the first attack. His level of patience is the highest in the club. Calm and collected, at the same time you don't know what is he thinking about.
Stats: Speed - 6.7
Strength - 7.1
Accuracy - 6.7
>1 strike - 6.8
Fake - 6.3
----------------
Offense - 6.7

Counter - 6.5
Moving back - 6.8
Patience - 9.3
Block - 6.9
Ki-ai - 6.1
-------------------
Defense - 7.1

Overall - 6.9

Next to go is...

Name: Noor Muhamad Bin Noor Khalid
Description: An occasional cameraman of our club. He's one of the club's quater masters and likes to imitate Hilter (from a widely circulated video on youtube). His offensive and defensive skills are quite balanced. Tends to get agitated over certain matters (e.g. results and games and maybe when you piss him off). Has a somewhat loud ki ai.
Stats: Speed - 7.5
Strength - 8.4
Accuracy - 7.5
>1 strike - 7.5
Fake - 7.6
----------------
Offense - 7.7

Counter - 7.8
Moving back - 7.4
Patience - 6.6
Block - 7.6
Ki-ai - 8.8
-------------------
Defense - 7.6

Overall - 7.7


For calculations, offense is the average of the 5 components (speed, strength, accuracy, >1 strike and faking of attacks) whereas for defense it is the average of counter, moving back, patience, block and ki ai. The ratings are from the range of 0 to 10. The statistics are collected from 5 seniors and then averaged out to ensure fairness.

DISCLAIMER: The description section is based on what I know about the seniors on a personal level. Do NOT blame me if you think I picked an unglam photo of you.

Proudly presented to you by
Tan Yu Fang
Social & Welfare

First training for the freshmen!

Hey all! Yes we now have photos! Sorry it is kinda small though. Our cameraman have some difficulties with the camera i think. Moving on, the guy with blue gi pants is our beloved Sensei! One of them actually. He is not in full gi as we have not properly started class and he is briefing the new members in that picture. I cannot be sure what he is saying though. Safety is most probably included in that briefing. Since it is the first lesson, it could be about movement and balance and proper stance.


In the next photo, that is our usual Ashii warm up. We try to hit each others legs and try to avoid getting hit. The purpose is to actually get our blood running. We then move on to the normal warm up or stretching of our muscles. There are two types, static warm up and sword warm up. We either do one of them or both depending on what our Sensei wants us to do.

We then proceed to our usual training, both the seniors and juniors train seperately as we are on different levels. The juniors are guided by our Sensei and some of the green belt seniors while us green belt seniors are guided by the higher ranking seniors. As it is the first lesson for the juniors, they are learning the basics which is mainly stance, movement and how to keep their balance as well as the placement of their feet.


After that is of course the usual sparring!!! The juniors were asked to spar with the seniors. No the juniors are not getting bullied or anything like that. We were just letting them test out their newly learned skills! We can also learn something else during sparring. Like how the saying go, much more is learned during the heat of a battle. This is also how we are going to spot our mistakes. After that we ended class I believe, if my memory serves me right. We had free-form sparring or whatever it is called after ending class. The juniors then tried sparring with each other and some of the seniors too. Trying all kinds of moves and tricks they can think of. ^^

That is it for last training! Oh and we have a notice from our Sensei.

Training as usual on Saturday. I will consider this the third and also last trial session. =)
So if you're joining please make your decision this Saturday. Thank you. ^_^

See you on the next post!
Remember the order of the warm ups!

Always remember to do Warmup before training

Hello! ^^


Here's the sequence of warmups we do before training every week. Do check out this link if you want to watch the video and a more detailed explanation on how the warmup is done. (http://samuraisports.com.sg/members/resources/warmups/) Try not to rush through all the actions and don't overstretch.


Static warmup:
1. Head rotation
2. Arm swing
3. Chest expansion
4. Hip rotation
5. Hip twist
6. Torso stretch
7. Knee rotation
8. Inner thigh stretch
9. Half-split with ankle rotation
10. Hand and fingers stretch


Sword warmup: (done using a kodachi or chokken)
1. Sword rows
2. Sword raise and squat
3. 3-direction body bend
4. Around the world
5. Back bends (4 counts instead of 8)
6. Lunges


Do take note that there will be renovations going on at the Polycentre clubroom till July 2011 so we have to put up with the noise and dust until the completion of the renovation. :/ The hall is not affected so there will not be any changes to the training venue unless there are unforeseen circumstances. From now on, remember to have your attendance taken after every training session (look for Yu Fang to take your attendance). Remember to hydrate yourself during the training and if you find it too tough or unwell, stop immediately eh. ^^



Sincerely
Tan Yu Fang
SP Kenjutsu
Social & Welfare