Some thoughts on the special gekken seminar!

2015 Gekken Seminar with the Japanese contingent: Some thoughts! At this Tai Kai, we were very fortunate that some of the Japanese members who practice gekken was in town. I convinced them to come and participate in the Gekken tai kai to help people in the US get a taste of different perspectives and styles. Here are some thoughts from Matt Odell and Moto Kurihara! Having signed up and registered for seminars and competitions at the recent East Coast Tai Kai months in advance, it was to my chagrin to find out Day One would begin with a Gekken class taught/lead by Kim sensei. As much as I enjoy swinging a Gekken sword, 9:00am seemed a little rough for such horseplay. Being in a bit of a (physically) fragile state, I hemmed and hawed as to whether or not I’d even show up. I just didn’t see the point of subjecting myself to a thorough beating and risk injury prior to myscheduled competitions. Well, I trusted sensei to keep things under control and made my way to the event. Upon arrival Kim sensei pulled me aside and mentioned the Japanese contingent was not going to be in that particular class (sightseeing I believe). Now I’ve sparred with Kim sensei a hundred times and I’m not so sure I’ve ever recorded a clean hit. So when he suggested I alter my schedule (if possible) so that I would be sure to experience the styles of the Japanese students I couldn’t imagine there were that many new ways to die. I spoke with the powers that be and was able to alter my class schedule and moved my Gekken class to day two. Out of sight out of mind. I had a blast day one! I had a full schedule and took classes from some of the best our community has to offer. Oh boy, day two arrived….. “Here we go” I thought. “Time to ruin my trip with some frailty or another, rearing its whining little head”.The Japanese contingent was 7 strong, none of them smiling. We started with taiso, so far so good I thought. Once taiso was over I was expecting to line up for bokken drills, then to move on to sparring. In my opinion, what happened next was the sign of a very mature teacher. Rather than immediately breaking us up into the predictable “adversarial” groupings, Kim sensei introduced each of the Japanese senseis. Once introduced, he started them in a rotation of attacker/defender to show each of their slight variations in technique. As they rotated through various attacks and common defenses Kim sensei pointed out these variations. After each round we paired off to practice what we’d just seen. The revelation here, is that Kim sensei helped to show the all-conquering students from Japan to be skilled sensei’s in their own right, with the ability and desire to share their knowledge with the rest of us. No longer viewed as adversaries, but a compassionate teacher that just happened to speak a different language. (I even saw a smile or two, but I promised not to expose the person that slipped up). This (IMO) was the mastery of this class. I’m still not so sure I’ve learned all there is to learn regarding the subtleties (often times minutia) of getting my ass kicked, but at least now I can say a number of very cool instructors from Japan enjoyed showing me a few new tricks. Matt Odell

Next is from Marky Kurihara's son

Here is Moto's note. He was really happy with the gekken class and the gekken match at taikai.

The classes at tai kai were intimidating at first, but by the time the classes had begun I was already having a good time. My favorite class was gekken, and I was lucky enough to meet and fight very strong people. Even though I was the weakest one there I had alot of fun, and got alot of good advice from Hataya sensei. 

On Friday, Kim sensei had the Japanese group join our class and show us their different fighting styles. When I met Hasegawa sensei, Muraki san, Goto san, Ito san, and Suzuki san they seemed like a very nice group of people, and I was very surprised to hear Kim sensei say there was someone just as good as him.  I also remember some techniques to be very different and similar to what our dojo practices. 

For instance Ito san used the mune to block the opponent's sword, and Muraki san went into close range to push his opponent's elbows up leaving them off balanced, then striking them. By the end of class we got to spar with each other which was very exciting. Although all of them were insanely hard to beat, Suzuki san who just started was a good match for me. I don't know how long I had practiced with him, but it was enough to make me sore for two days. I hope by the next tai kai I can Improve enough to incorporate Hataya sensei’s advice into my sparring. By the end of Tai kai I was inspired to practice much harder and to start studying kendo.