Last day.. the big one Mens Team Taikai.

As you probably know by now Korea are the new world champions, but I’m here to tell you how the real champions went on yesterday.

The GB team had USA and Portugal in the pool, 3 or 4 of the pools were seeded so that 2 teams went through. We were in dreawn in one of these.

Our first match was with the USA.

1  Andy     0-KK

2 Brian      0-DK

3 Will         0-MM

4 Scotty     Retired hurt. Unfortunately Scotty tore his calf muscle in this match and could not continue. So we conceded this one. This was a real shame as he had not competed in the indviduals and it is his last appearance in the worlds.

5 Gibbo  K-MM

The USA are a very strong side , big lads and very powerful. Thats not to say any of our guys rolled over. They gave it 110% as always.

Next was Portugal. We needed to win to stand a chance of progressing.

1  Andy   KK-0

2  Brian  MM-0

3 Will      M-KK

4  Mark   MD-0

5  Gibbo MM-0

So we are in with a very good chance as Portugal had the USA next. USA had no problem and we were out of the pool.

2nd Round  v Thailand

1  Andy  MK-0

2  Brian  0-MK

3  Will      D-0

4  Mark    X

5  Gibbo   MM-0

This is great.

Quarter-Final    YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS   KOREA

1  Andy     0-MM

2  Brian    0-KD

3  Will       0-KK

4  Mark     0-KK

5  Gibbo    X

Ok so it looks like we got hammered but the score is only half the story. Korea are the top guns and our boys put up hell of a fight especially Gibbo who held the Korean Taisho to a draw.

The entire squad were really buzzing during the day, with Alex and Frankie doing their buddy bit keeping the boys supplied with water and generally fetching and carrying.

The other girls, myself and Mike were up on the balconey overlooking the court below , waving the flag and cheeing them on. 

All of them this week have done us proud.

Semi Final s

Japan  v   USA

Korea   v   Taipei

Everyone in the stadium was expecting the usual Jap v Kor final. The USA had other ideas. I cant describe the noise or atmosphere when it seemed that there might be a bit of an upset here. It went wild the USA understandably ecstatic and the Japanese stunned.

So for the first time ever Japan were not in the mens team final.

Korea  v   USA.

This too was 5 good matches with Korea declared the new champions.

But as I said at the beginning the real champions for me were the GB squad.

Gibbo won a fighting spirit award as well which obviously made his day more complete.

Sorry no pics today as I’m off to the pub. I will post some up when I return to the Uk

Korea Wins!

Until the guys in Taiwan can give us the meaty details:

USA defeated Japan in the semi-final 3-2.
Korea defeated Taiwan in the other semi-final and then proceeded to beat the USA 2-0 in the final.

GB got through the pools, but how, who and why, I don’t know yet.

Jakob

Mens Individuals

Steve Plimbley

Ok so day 2 Mens Indvidual Taikai.

Looking at the pools it seemed as if both Andy & Brian would struggle to get out the pools as they had a Korean each.

The first on in fact was Mark Halls. Stunning start, youngest in the squad , 1st of the guys to fight, & his fist WKC. Bang , Bang, Kote,Kote great start.

Next i saw Andy Fisher v HW17. he also started with a win by a single Kote.

Then its was Gibbo’s turn againt the Russain No8. He carried on the good work by winning by Men, Men.

Brian was next. Unfortunately his Argentian oppenent was a no show , so victory it was but no chance of a fight.

A good start the the guys are looking good.

2nd matches in the pools wnt as follows.

Andy lost to S Kang of Korea  by KM

Mark lost to the Russian No6  K-MM

Brian lost to the Korean G Oh by KK

Gibbo beat the Czech No2 by K in encho.

So he was the only one to progress out of the pools.

He fought and lost to the Sinagapore No1 S Krishnasamy by KK

Semi Finals

Kor7 S Kang      V    Jap9  M Hojo

Jap5 T Tanaka    V  Kor8  G Oh

An all Japan Final then.

Hojo won by D.

All our boys had a good day,you can see th at Brian & Andy were unlucky to come up against Two of the semi-finalists in their pools.

Lets see what happens tommorrow in the team event.

Women at WKC13

 Words and Pictures by Steve Plimbley.

So Friday Ladies Taikai.
Looking at the draw for the individuals , it was clear that the girls would have a hard task to win through the pools to the next round.

Alice and Alex were on first as the opening matches.
Alice lost the first point but recovered quickly to score and eventually lost in encho to kote.
Unfortunately this was her only match as the pool only had 2 people.
Alex also lost in encho to Men in her first match.
Sorry to say i missed her 2nd match
Kim won her 1st match DM-K , lost the 2nd 0-K in encho after tying the match M-K.
She won her pool though and progressed to the next round.
Frankie lost 1st match 0-M and the 2nd 0-KM but she put up a good fight and got stuck in.
Kim was the only one to progress out of the pools.
Kim lost her 2nd round match to the Korean No3 0-DK.

The semi finals were an all Japan afair.
Jap8 v Jap 2 0-M in encho
Jap6 v Jap7 KM-T nice jodan from Jap6

Jap6 v Jap8 0-M in encho.

……………….

Team event
BG v Chinese Taipei

1 Kim 0-KD
2 Karen 0-MM
3 Jayne 0-KM
4 Frankie 0-M
5 Alex X

The score disguises some very hard fought matches

GB v Singapore
1 Kim MM-0
2 Karen M-0
3 Jayne X
4 Frankie 0-M
5 Alex X

Thats better….

So we managed to get out of the pools.

2nd round GB v Canada
The Canadians are very strong yet this i thought was our best result even though we lost

1 Kim 0-M
2 Karen X
3 Jayne 0-M
4 Frankie X
5 Alex X

Semi finals were
Japan v Germany
Canada v Korea

Final
Japan v Korea

Japan won

Alex Burch got a fighting spirit prize.
I thought all of the girls did well, stood up and gave it 100%.

Pre-Training at IBU

I left for Taipei on Saturday 25th November and arrived on Sunday evening.  The next morning I flew to Japan for 10 days of training at IBU prior to WKC.  When I arrived they were having a rest day as the 1st year students (ichinensei) had been in a competition that weekend.  I didn`t mind as I was pretty exhausted from the trip and slept most of the afternoon and evening.

The next morning we had Asa geiko which was about an hours worth of practice of Kirikaeshi, Kihon, Jikeiko then Kakarigeiko from 7am.  It felt like an evening practice to my bodymind though – getting up for it was not a problem as I`d been wide awake since 3am.  Asa geiko here is voluntary – most of the international students were there as well as about 15 Japanese students.   No sensei were present.  Another temporary visitor with WKC preparation in mind is Chris Kroebl of the Swiss team.  He`s been here about a month and it was good to meet him again.

It was nice to be back at Budai with the early morning sun streaming through the large dojo windows that look out to the sea.  At this time of year, with its low humidity, the unvarnished wooden floor is very dry and slippery.  The students dot soaked floor cloths around the edges of the dojo so you can dab your feet on them and get some traction.  Posture and distance have to change to accommodate the nature of the floor, otherwise your legs disappear from beneath you everytime you make a cut and you end up burying your face in your opponent`s tare.  As a result, a lot of fighting is done at chika-maai and the left foot has to be planted directly underneath in order to get any push from it.  It`s a great way of fixing a stance that is too wide – it also makes okuri ashi fast and smooth.

The main daily practice here is the club practice in the afternoons from 4:30pm until about 6:30pm.  I was introduced to the 150 or so Kendo students by Iijima sensei and then had to say a few words in Japanese.  There was plenty of murmuring when, after prompting, I told them how old I was and general approval when I said I was yondan.  Most of the students are Sandan or Yondan - in my experience as a student here, I think they find it awkward/boring to fight international students of Shodan or Nidan level. 

At the moment we start with Shiai keiko.  The Sensei sit on chairs at Joseki while the 150 or so students sit on the floor around the permanently marked-out shiai jo.  The students do the time keeping, shimpanning, announcing and cheering.  The visitors and International students who will be competing at WKC make the main team and are pitted against International and exchange students who won`t be going to Taiwan.  Then the main team has a fight against Budaisei - Japanese Students from IBU.

I was made Taisho of the main team and had to fight a Korean exchange student.  This made me happy as I will have to beat a Korean to get out of my Individuals pool and the British team will be in the medals once they`ve beaten the Koreans in the quarter finals. 

As it happened he beat me but there is a saying about bad dress rehearsals.  Actually, I lasted quite a long time with him after initially burying my face in his tare (not quite used to the floor at that stage).  I found he couldn`t do anything to me if I didn`t do anything to him, but that isn`t quite playing the game and it`s also quite boring for the watching students.  After about 4 minutes he got me with debana kote as I chased him to a corner and launched a menuchi at him while he was compressed into a tiny space.  The dexterity of the students here is incredible – without any room to manouvre he managed to pop my kote beautifully – all tenouchi, and blindingly fast.  I cut a good men-uchi but it was after the event and the flags rightly sprang in his favour.

The team faired quite well against the other international team but we were all summarily slaughtered by the Budai team.  Local bias in the shimpanning wasn`t even needed!

Things have improved since I got here though – the jetlag is going and I`m used to the floor now.  The terrible stiffness I felt when I started here has gone with some improvement in tenouchi (its a question of survival!) and I`m less inclined to go backwards.  On Friday I managed to beat my Budaisei with 2 menuchi.  The poor guy looked pretty miserable – I don`t think his friends are ever going to let him forget it.

This morning (Monday) the entire Swiss team – Men and women – turned up for Asa Geiko – there are loads of them!  The Swiss are great as they`ve always been good company at Internationals and were very hospitable at the Zurich cup and Kasahara cup – both of which I highly recommend – just jump on a plane!  Tonight`s Shiai geiko should be interesting as some of the Swiss are so tall – I don`t know if I`ll be fighting with them or against them.  I`ll let you know how it goes.

Welcome to Team GB’s blog

As the team now departs for Taipei, I hope that they will find time to use this space and keep us back in the UK up-to-date with the progress of the World Kendo Championships. Meanwhile, feel free to leave comments and encouragements.