by Emoke Soproni
This Sunday morning was definitely not as easy as the one in a song from The Commodores because our dojo – Aspire Naginata – organised its very first Aspire Naginata Taikai on 18 August. We got up early to have a large breakfast (and coffee), pick up our gear and head down to the Donyngs Leisure Centre in Redhill, Surrey where the event took place.
As the Taikai was open to every naginataka – not only from the UK but also from abroad -, the location was chosen to provide easy access to anyone, with just a short train-ride from central London and close to Gatwick Airport.
The Taikai was an exciting opportunity for all of us to test our skills in a competitive environment but also to learn how a competition is conducted. In real Aspire fashion we made sure everyone is well cared for so we provided extra bottled water with straws (the best invention in case you are parched while wearing your bogu) and healthy snacks to all participants, and luckily we not only had our first aiders handy but one of our new member is an actual medical professional, so we were covered on that aspect as well.
Sensei Charlotte started it with a very thorough naginata check, where we had a chance to reassemble our naginatas (for some of us again and again), to make sure the sendanmaki is the right length etc, and to remove all the splinters. This latter caused a funny traffic jam around the bins outside of the sports hall where everybody frantically worked with the sandpapers to make sure there are no stray splinters around to cause potential injuries.
After practising the right steps and etiquette, the Engi competition started. New naginata practitioners were paired up with more senior students to perform Shikake-Ooji One and Two. The first place was awarded, the next two pairs ended up with a draw, and they had to perform Shikake-Ooji Four for the second and third place.
The next was the very lengthy and exciting individual competition. I have to say this part of the competition was surprisingly educational. Within the dojo everyone follows the instructions and performs training in the standard way but here, outside of the normal practice, and in a competitive environment you could see clearly the individual differences, how we can bring our personalities into the fighting scene. Also provided a great opportunity to learn our opponents’ favourite moves before facing to each other on the shiai-jo.
After a lunchbreak a team competition time came, which required careful planning and we had to work out strategies for competing. The team leaders had a chance to learn and observe the others during the round robin competition, and this is how they set up the order of the fights between team members.
At the end of the day, we had a lovely gathering where we celebrated our sensei’s Charlotte Vandersleyen’s 30th anniversary in practicing naginata, which was an emotional moment for us all. It gave us opportunity to express our gratitude towards her for setting up the dojo and leading us as a good parent, with strictness (especially around etiquette), care and passion.
It was a very fruitful day which not only
gave us invaluable experiences but helped us to build our naginata community
stronger. Although this was Aspire’s first Taikai, we are already
preparing for the next one and hoping that more naginata practitioners will
join us all around the UK and from Europe too.
(Aspire Naginata, UK)