Montreal Taikai 2016 + Grading weekend (Part 4 = interlude)
Aaaand I'm literally 2 months late to this post. :P Wow. And I only finished off this post today too. Geez.
Anyhows, as follows:
Aaaand I'm starting the grading post, cos inertia is real. :P
So we had quite a delegation from McGill this summer for grading. More than 10 of us I think, mostly the children going for 1kyu, but also us for 2dan and 3dan. We also had of course, Sensei as a judge, and also TN and Alex, and Ariyama-sensei as judges.
Grading started early with the opening at 9 and all, and I wasn't as early as I wanted to reach the dojo, but that's ok. Made sure the children were all right and all dressed and well and all. Wanted to give all of us a pep talk, or at least the children, but after the opening, there was just so little time to prep, that the first batch of children was shipped off to go line up and go to prep for their grading.
So in the end, what happened was that I went to each of the children to give them a peptalk individually, and a funny story was that, when I went to give Minju her peptalk, the guy in front of her turned around, and I realized that it was the kid that I beat (*coughtrashedcough*) during the team matches. (Which, made sense I guess. Lols.) So, I was like, what the heck, and gave them BOTH pep talks lols. *shrugs* No harm right? XD Just, so funny. :P
The kids did well in general. Some better than others, and poor Minju's men actually came off. Sensei came to ream us (Thomas) out about it, but Thomas actually stood up for himself I think, and we all agreed that we checked, as sempais should, that the children's stuffs were all tied on properly, so. :/ Ah wells!
So, onto my own grading...
As you know, grading prep for me was slightly different this time than ever before. It means... a lot more for me, I guess. Through my visit to Singapore, and my own sudden growth (in mentality) since September last year when Marija joined us...it meant a lot to me, to reach a certain standard for myself. Hmm, how to put? To feel like I deserve it. Lols. And yes, my sempai's/sensei's have ALL been telling me that I'll pass for sure, but even so, I needed to believe that I'm there, you know? And I really wanted to (be there), you know
So I trained hard for it (and you know how much I hate grading kendo lols), with help from my sempais of course. But I'll talk more about that later ;)
For the 2dans... Eli did well, of course, though more shiai-style than grading style, but seriously. Who would fail that guy? Lols. Marija, of course, did amazingly. (Here-in I should put in one of the many jokes where other sempais/senseis ask about Marija grading, then burst out laughing when they realize she's grading for NIdan. XD <3 her). Then it was down to us 3dan. Interestingly, I didn't get to play Evelyn, who was the one closest in age to me. Instead, I got to play uh, Awaga (sorry, I didn't get your first name), and also the guy from Isshin, whom I've played before too last grading.
So my first grading went well, even objectively, in my opinion. I was able to focus, and did seme, like, crystal-clear focus, like how I played TN, and the other guy was also negotiating, not rushing, and clearly thinking about his moves. I got a couple of my patented(?!) kaeshi-do's in, so that was good, and a couple of nice men's even. Generally, it was a very nice, controlled match, and I thought it went pretty all right, and I should be ok. :) I was pretty relieved, actually, cos remember, the last few matches (before TN) was getting pretty shitty. :P
Anyhows! Onto my 2nd match! Now this one... :/ Well, it was mostly the other dude (I'm sorry man). But he was rushing, doing a lot of tsubazariai, and pushing even. It was MESSY. And I don't think I managed to get a single good hit in. Maybe one men, but he kept cutting off my kaeshi-do's, and at one point in time I got frustrated enough that I actually did a hiki-waza.Which failed, and it was a great "oh-shit" moment. Sighs... It was a terrible feeling walking out of that one, and actually I felt really discouraged from the 2nd match.
Ruby did well, as always, and truth be told, I thought she and Evelyn both did fantastic, so I thought that was great!
But anyhows, went back after we were done and talking with the folks, and it turned out that everyone thought I did pretty well! Ruby was like, "Yeah was watching the judges, during your match and they were going '-nodding their heads impressed- oooh'. Wish MY grading was like that." And Nat also assured me that I did pretty good too, so I kinda believed them I guess.
After, it was really just the kata part of things, so that went ok. No major miss-ups. Then after, it's the Closing Ceremony and sensei said some words that we couldn't really hear cos he speaks so soft, and also cos it was in French hahaha. Anyways, the results were already up by that time, and we were told we could go look after the ceremony ends. So when sensei let us go, I was about to head out with the other folks, when Alex (who was at the judges' table) called me over, flanked by TN and Ariyama-sensei, saying, "You don't even need to look at the results anyways." and I was like "eh?" But then, Alex was saying, "I wanted to tell you that you had easily the best shinsa I've seen for 3dan. You had everything that was needed, control, seme, good ojiwaza. All of it. And I'm saying this also for TN and Junko as well." Cue Ariyama-sensei who looked slightly surprised at being roped into this, but also smiling and nodding and agreeing that it was good. And TN. Omg. TN just looked sooo prooooud. Aaaargh. TT____TT Alex continued, "That was a really good job. You worked hard for it. Good job!" Or something to that effect, cos this was more than a month ago lols. Wow. Almost 2 months ago now. Wow. And because I put it off for 2 months, I don't remember all that happened already, but with what I do, the next part goes this way.
I was looking at the results anyways, with the other folks and chatting with the peeps whom I know there, and taking photos, so many fotos zomg lols. Then Ruby was there, and after chatting with her, she snagged Alex to ask him about her grading. I was chatting with someone else, but was the general vicinity, and so I heard her ask, "How was my grading?" and Alex went, "Well not as good as Melissa''s." And I laughed/giggled a bit at that, but went back to chatting with whoever else it was I was chatting with. And then after about 2-3 minutes or so, after I finished my chat, I tuned back in to see Ruby nodding at what Alex was saying, and then she said, "Ok, great! Yeah, she did amazing, now can we talk about my grading?" And I was just like :o Cos that just meant that Alex had been going on about my grading for the solid how-many-minutes or so. :O He was soooo proooooud tooooo TT____TT -warm fuzzy feelings- And another instance of this was when some volunteers/children were asking to see Alex's scoresheet, and he was all like "Yeah, see, this is Melissa's. And it's all 'good seme, good control --" TT____TT Aaaaaaah. <3
Ayeeee, tears even after 2 months. Sighs. And TN too. Hahaha, TN is like, totally different from Alex, but omg, I have never seen such a proud smile before from him. TT___TT Went up to him after and just told him, "You know that I couldn't have done this without you right? Thank you." TT____TT Even got to take a lovely foto with both Daddy and Mummy-san sighs.
Sensei was very satisfied too hahaa. He came up to me after and told me, "Tsumura-sensei asked, 'Who is this girl.' And I told him, 'This is Melissa. If I was 20/30 years younger, I will marry her.' " XD Hahahaha, which is hilarious, am sorry, Sensei. :3
It was, a beautiful experience, and really, for all said and done, couldn't have done it without my sempais/sensei, and especially without TN. I think I talked about it in another post, but even from the beginning of this year, he had been looking out for me, and really really grounded me for this grading, methinks, all the way to the very end. Of course, all the other sempais/senseis who were just so sure that I would pass. Lols. I mean. #nopressure but. :P Seriously though. :)
Lovely lovely final grading at McGill. Lovely end to this weekend.
But as TN told me after, this is really just the beginning. It doesn't end here, no matter where I go. The next goal is 4dan now. ;)
Let's go eh? :D Tanoshiku ikou ze~ XD
Anyhows, as follows:
Aaaand I'm starting the grading post, cos inertia is real. :P
So we had quite a delegation from McGill this summer for grading. More than 10 of us I think, mostly the children going for 1kyu, but also us for 2dan and 3dan. We also had of course, Sensei as a judge, and also TN and Alex, and Ariyama-sensei as judges.
Grading started early with the opening at 9 and all, and I wasn't as early as I wanted to reach the dojo, but that's ok. Made sure the children were all right and all dressed and well and all. Wanted to give all of us a pep talk, or at least the children, but after the opening, there was just so little time to prep, that the first batch of children was shipped off to go line up and go to prep for their grading.
So in the end, what happened was that I went to each of the children to give them a peptalk individually, and a funny story was that, when I went to give Minju her peptalk, the guy in front of her turned around, and I realized that it was the kid that I beat (*coughtrashedcough*) during the team matches. (Which, made sense I guess. Lols.) So, I was like, what the heck, and gave them BOTH pep talks lols. *shrugs* No harm right? XD Just, so funny. :P
The kids did well in general. Some better than others, and poor Minju's men actually came off. Sensei came to ream us (Thomas) out about it, but Thomas actually stood up for himself I think, and we all agreed that we checked, as sempais should, that the children's stuffs were all tied on properly, so. :/ Ah wells!
So, onto my own grading...
As you know, grading prep for me was slightly different this time than ever before. It means... a lot more for me, I guess. Through my visit to Singapore, and my own sudden growth (in mentality) since September last year when Marija joined us...it meant a lot to me, to reach a certain standard for myself. Hmm, how to put? To feel like I deserve it. Lols. And yes, my sempai's/sensei's have ALL been telling me that I'll pass for sure, but even so, I needed to believe that I'm there, you know? And I really wanted to (be there), you know
So I trained hard for it (and you know how much I hate grading kendo lols), with help from my sempais of course. But I'll talk more about that later ;)
For the 2dans... Eli did well, of course, though more shiai-style than grading style, but seriously. Who would fail that guy? Lols. Marija, of course, did amazingly. (Here-in I should put in one of the many jokes where other sempais/senseis ask about Marija grading, then burst out laughing when they realize she's grading for NIdan. XD <3 her). Then it was down to us 3dan. Interestingly, I didn't get to play Evelyn, who was the one closest in age to me. Instead, I got to play uh, Awaga (sorry, I didn't get your first name), and also the guy from Isshin, whom I've played before too last grading.
So my first grading went well, even objectively, in my opinion. I was able to focus, and did seme, like, crystal-clear focus, like how I played TN, and the other guy was also negotiating, not rushing, and clearly thinking about his moves. I got a couple of my patented(?!) kaeshi-do's in, so that was good, and a couple of nice men's even. Generally, it was a very nice, controlled match, and I thought it went pretty all right, and I should be ok. :) I was pretty relieved, actually, cos remember, the last few matches (before TN) was getting pretty shitty. :P
Anyhows! Onto my 2nd match! Now this one... :/ Well, it was mostly the other dude (I'm sorry man). But he was rushing, doing a lot of tsubazariai, and pushing even. It was MESSY. And I don't think I managed to get a single good hit in. Maybe one men, but he kept cutting off my kaeshi-do's, and at one point in time I got frustrated enough that I actually did a hiki-waza.Which failed, and it was a great "oh-shit" moment. Sighs... It was a terrible feeling walking out of that one, and actually I felt really discouraged from the 2nd match.
Ruby did well, as always, and truth be told, I thought she and Evelyn both did fantastic, so I thought that was great!
But anyhows, went back after we were done and talking with the folks, and it turned out that everyone thought I did pretty well! Ruby was like, "Yeah was watching the judges, during your match and they were going '-nodding their heads impressed- oooh'. Wish MY grading was like that." And Nat also assured me that I did pretty good too, so I kinda believed them I guess.
After, it was really just the kata part of things, so that went ok. No major miss-ups. Then after, it's the Closing Ceremony and sensei said some words that we couldn't really hear cos he speaks so soft, and also cos it was in French hahaha. Anyways, the results were already up by that time, and we were told we could go look after the ceremony ends. So when sensei let us go, I was about to head out with the other folks, when Alex (who was at the judges' table) called me over, flanked by TN and Ariyama-sensei, saying, "You don't even need to look at the results anyways." and I was like "eh?" But then, Alex was saying, "I wanted to tell you that you had easily the best shinsa I've seen for 3dan. You had everything that was needed, control, seme, good ojiwaza. All of it. And I'm saying this also for TN and Junko as well." Cue Ariyama-sensei who looked slightly surprised at being roped into this, but also smiling and nodding and agreeing that it was good. And TN. Omg. TN just looked sooo prooooud. Aaaargh. TT____TT Alex continued, "That was a really good job. You worked hard for it. Good job!" Or something to that effect, cos this was more than a month ago lols. Wow. Almost 2 months ago now. Wow. And because I put it off for 2 months, I don't remember all that happened already, but with what I do, the next part goes this way.
I was looking at the results anyways, with the other folks and chatting with the peeps whom I know there, and taking photos, so many fotos zomg lols. Then Ruby was there, and after chatting with her, she snagged Alex to ask him about her grading. I was chatting with someone else, but was the general vicinity, and so I heard her ask, "How was my grading?" and Alex went, "Well not as good as Melissa''s." And I laughed/giggled a bit at that, but went back to chatting with whoever else it was I was chatting with. And then after about 2-3 minutes or so, after I finished my chat, I tuned back in to see Ruby nodding at what Alex was saying, and then she said, "Ok, great! Yeah, she did amazing, now can we talk about my grading?" And I was just like :o Cos that just meant that Alex had been going on about my grading for the solid how-many-minutes or so. :O He was soooo proooooud tooooo TT____TT -warm fuzzy feelings- And another instance of this was when some volunteers/children were asking to see Alex's scoresheet, and he was all like "Yeah, see, this is Melissa's. And it's all 'good seme, good control --" TT____TT Aaaaaaah. <3
Ayeeee, tears even after 2 months. Sighs. And TN too. Hahaha, TN is like, totally different from Alex, but omg, I have never seen such a proud smile before from him. TT___TT Went up to him after and just told him, "You know that I couldn't have done this without you right? Thank you." TT____TT Even got to take a lovely foto with both Daddy and Mummy-san sighs.
Sensei was very satisfied too hahaa. He came up to me after and told me, "Tsumura-sensei asked, 'Who is this girl.' And I told him, 'This is Melissa. If I was 20/30 years younger, I will marry her.' " XD Hahahaha, which is hilarious, am sorry, Sensei. :3
It was, a beautiful experience, and really, for all said and done, couldn't have done it without my sempais/sensei, and especially without TN. I think I talked about it in another post, but even from the beginning of this year, he had been looking out for me, and really really grounded me for this grading, methinks, all the way to the very end. Of course, all the other sempais/senseis who were just so sure that I would pass. Lols. I mean. #nopressure but. :P Seriously though. :)
Lovely lovely final grading at McGill. Lovely end to this weekend.
But as TN told me after, this is really just the beginning. It doesn't end here, no matter where I go. The next goal is 4dan now. ;)
Let's go eh? :D Tanoshiku ikou ze~ XD