by Sabrina Semiao
While many of you are still reeling from the excitement of the World Championships and the INF seminar in Boulder, I’m thinking back and nostalgia for the weekend of June 14 and 15 in Braga (Portugal), where I was lucky enough, along with two of my dojo buddies, to take part in the seminar organized by the Portuguese federation and supervised by Charlotte Vandersleyen, the Portuguese National Championships and the Open that rounded off the weekend.
Before going into the details of the whole event, I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to Charlotte sensei and Eduardo Brito for their warm hospitality and kindness. The Portuguese federation is still young (compared with other historic European federations), but its members are making immense efforts to develop it, thanks in particular to the tenacity and perseverance of Eduardo Brito, with the unfailing help and support of his sensei Charlotte. Their generosity, kindness and attention are truly comforting and motivating. It was therefore (as always) a pleasure to spend time with them and strengthen our friendship during this event. It’s moments like these that have always made the Naginata community so unique to me.
So, without making you wait any longer, here’s the schedule for the weekend and the little treats Charlotte had planned for us:
- the evening of Friday 14th was reserved for zen nihon kata practice for experienced practitioners,
- Saturday the 15th was devoted to revision and practice in preparation for the next day’s grading and competitions,
- and finally, on Sunday 16th, engi, shiai and more shiai, fighting spirit and good mood were the order of the day.
We arrived from Bordeaux in the early evening on Friday, unfortunately too late to join in the Zen Nihon Kata training, but the naginatakas present greatly appreciated this privileged moment in a small group before the weekend’s “hostilities”. Admittedly, opportunities to practice Zen Nihon Kata are rare in our small provincial clubs, and Charlotte’s approach was greatly valued.
Even so, our late arrival didn’t prevent us from joining our little group of friends at the end of the evening and sharing a convivial first moment to get to know everyone and begin to tame each other for the rest of the stay.
Saturday morning was studious, and the serious business finally began! As some of the students had to present a grade, Charlotte focused the morning’s exercises on reviewing the points essential for their exam: kihon, gorei, tai sabaki, happo buri, furi kata, uchi kata, uke kata, shikake-oji waza…
As for the higher ranks, they were able to practise the dreaded command exercise, while beginner kyushas memorized the gesture associated with the word. Charlotte took the opportunity to mingle with the group and correct both the instructor on how to lead the group and the students on how to execute the movements. At first glance, this may seem a naive and basic exercise, but I found this part of the morning extremely instructive for novice yudanshas who don’t have the opportunity to lead such a disparate/heterogeneous group on a regular basis. Charlotte’s advice focused mainly on synchronizing the gesture with the order of execution, on linking certain commands logically and fluidly to enable practitioners to anticipate the next movement, and on demonstrating perfect execution of the movement to enable “mirror” practitioners to avoid all parasitic and superfluous movements.
After a thorough analysis of each attack and defense movement, we moved on to the shikake-oji waza in level groups. Here again, Charlotte took the time to show each shikake-oji in its entirety, then to explain and execute all the more complex movements in slow motion – a seemingly simple sequence can present an unsuspected complexity of execution. Personally, and much to the chagrin of my dojo colleagues, I could spend hours performing the shikake-oji, analyzing and executing every movement ad infinitum, to understand the secret and the reason for the “hum, that’s where it all jams”! ????
After this studious morning full of explanations (and the first blisters on the feet for some), it was time for lunch for the lucky ones, and the passing of grade for the young kyushas. Time to put into practice what they had just studied and to overcome their stress.
The theme of the afternoon? Ippon criteria. A vast subject, and one that obviously involved…. bogu for all! At this point, it was hard not to spot the naginatakas/kendokas in the group ???? A perfect opportunity for Charlotte to explain the notions of seme, ki-ken-tai-ichi and zanshin in naginata. We then moved on to a series of targeted workshops: thinking nidan waza or sandan waza, how to achieve a beautiful ippon sune or ippon men, not letting your back foot drag if you want to score, working on harai waza, moving your hips and upper body so that the naginata just has to follow the movement to plant the ippon!
Uchi kaeshi, of course, to finish off the sweat, followed by what seemed like 1 hour of ji geiko, so motivated was the group.
The aim of all these exercises was to prepare everyone for the next day’s competitions: national championships (engi and shiai) and Open Cup.
It was also an opportunity to try their hand at setting up shiai-jo for technical and shiai tournaments.
A sayonara party later, and it was already
time for a final practice of shikake-oji and the protocol entrance for each
type of competition.
Some of the couples formed over the weekend (thanks to the draw for
binationals) got to know each other and practiced in perfect harmony in just a
few minutes. Once again, an extremely interesting exercise, as it forces us to
listen to each other and adapt our movements, speed and style to our new partner.
Engi time clearly raised the level of stress for the logistics team, the
shinpans and the pairs, but in the end no one failed. On the contrary, this
engi competition was indeed a pleasant surprise.
Shiai time, the stress rises yet another notch as everyone silently puts on
their bogu for the national championship and then the Open Cup.
I had the opportunity to try my hand at the difficult task of refereeing. A very special thank you to Charlotte and Yolanda for their advice and kindness during this baptism of fire, because it’s one thing to fight and quite another to referee fights. It’s hard to imagine how much concentration is required. A quick aside, then, to say Bravo and thank you to the weekend shinpans who made the trip to lend a helping hand to their Portuguese friends! Charlotte of course, Yolanda Vaneste (Belgium) and Joren Zanstra (Netherlands).
All in all, it was a day rich in emotions and advice, as at the end of each competition and workshop, Charlotte made time to have a word and a personalized technical tip for each naginataka present.
The conclusion and the mood of this weekend: a simply exceptional weekend of fun and rare conviviality, organized and supervised with the utmost benevolence and in a spirit of sharing without frontiers. A must do again! The Portuguese federation will no doubt be delighted to welcome you next year, so don’t hesitate!
Once again, a huge thank you to Charlotte Vandersleyen for sharing her undeniable experience and love of naginata with us at all levels. And a big thank you to Eduardo Brito and his team of volunteers for the warm welcome and organization of these championships.