Progress in 2014

[the milky oolong]

Getting back from Manchester where I'd been for Christmas (without kendama: way too busy to treat myself to a bit of click clack) I just picked up a relatively new green Ozora and started playing, and tried to think about the way I am playing now compared to this time a year ago.

I'm really happy this year about the following things:

Seeing my persistence pay off: in my tiny kendama circle I've developed a bit of a reputation as the one who will still be trying the same line an hour later when everyone looks around to see what people are doing. This has really helped me lengthen my lines and to have the confidence to throw something new in at an unplanned stage.

Getting certain tricks clean. I'm concentrating more and more on having x-Turn Lighthouses land 'dead stop', UFOs rising spirit-level straight (I wish), and keeping the old fingers out of the way. It's a lot of extra work but is hugely satisfying. Especially when Thorkild May says he loves how smooth your Gunslinger Earth Turns are.

Feeling myself develop my own style. This was something I was really aware of lacking during my kendama progression; this year I have begun to find my own combination of tricks and variations on tricks, stances, flourishes, that reflect what I love about kendama. Check out Donald Grant - he's not doing 3x Insta Lighthouse to Trade Spike stuff, but his stuff oozes style and when he plays kendama, he looks like a very happy boy indeed, which makes him so appealing. Today's mini-sesh I found myself finishing lines and tweaking this and that in the way only I would probably do it, and I'm happy about that.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what your 2014 kendama year has meant to you in terms of progress.

[shalafi]

To me 2014 had some great moments.

I met Jake Weins at SF, after 10 minutes exchanging tricks and jamming he said "I like your style"

This was very satisfying because I was not even aware of having a personal style, and because it came from a player that had a style I also like myself.

Later that year I scored one point on the 7 to spike at EKO. Properly scored. It made me very happy.

And finally Void nominated me as one of the 10 players of the year. Mostly for enthusiasm, but it still made me very happy.

All in all, I don't feel like I've progressed much over the past year, but I guess my freestyle and flow is better, and apparently I've also developed an style. I'll take that as a good clicking year.

Only disappointing moment was not being able to improve my grading :-(

[The Void]

Would love to hear your thoughts on what your 2014 kendama year has meant to you in terms of progress.

Good thread.

This year's BKO felt like progress. It was good to get that moving, as well as the EKO being bigger than ever (albeit with some stress). Hoping for progress with events again this year.

In terms of play, my main goal was not reached, but perhaps it was not truly within sight for me this year. I got more solid towards the end of the year, but illness in December has stalled me. Back on the horse soon. In terms of trying new stuff... well, I haven't very much. Aside from inventing stuff for Outlink and the like. But I did feel that my 'Dan-work' enabled me to be able to face up to the challenge of new, harder tricks (or at least get close), when encountering strong players.

Onwards!

[donald grant]

Cheers for the kind words there, Milky; the main point of the edits is to share new ideas and have some fun, so I'm glad that comes across!

Didn't really have any specific goals, except to find new stuff and improve, so I guess I've managed to tick those boxes:)  Did ok at the BKO, didn't improve my Dan grade, so that's something for next year....

[Paul_S]

well, 2014 will go down as the year I got hooked on this ridiculous toy..

I hadn't had much direct exposure to dama before but that kinda changed at EYYC in budapest,
Mainly thanks to the Krom guys being super friendly and generally great reps I had a little go here and there.
The level of skill, balance and fine motor control put me off at first, coupled with the fact that unless you've had a go you have no concept of how impressive some tricks are.
But then I kinda realised that was I had been looking for for a long time was a REAL challenge (last thing that I had to put real effort into was 3 club mills mess like 2 years ago...still smoothing that one out)

Bought my first (natty sunrise from oddballs in brighton) kinda mid-april and havn't stopped since, although its been alongside alot of yoyo, 3club manipulation and artwork.

wasn't too long before I was getting pull-up aeroplanes, fairly fast tapping cup combos and had earth turns within a month.
Now its january and even though lighthouses can elude me at times my J-sticks are fairly solid, so are downspikes, I've got a good sense of flow linking tricks now and I've landed a few lunars, whirlwinds & bird-over-valleys
Currently loving centrifuges to add more flow to my lines.

not really interested in competition & gradings (has taken the fun out of yoyoing for me before) But I havnt been to a contest yet so we'll see

[BKA]

not really interested in competition & gradings (has taken the fun out of yoyoing for me before) But I havnt been to a contest yet so we'll see

It's a fair enough viewpoint, but we've always taken the view that although we organise 'proper, serious' competitions, those competitions are really just an excuse to have a social kendama meet-up. Do come to an event if you can! :-)

[the milky oolong]

]It's a fair enough viewpoint, but we've always taken the view that although we organise 'proper, serious' competitions, those competitions are really just an excuse to have a social kendama meet-up. Do come to an event if you can! :-)

I'll second that. Nerves pretty much ruin any chances I ever have of ranking in a Kendama event (don't mind giving tours to groups of up to 50 onlookers but ask me to perform Around the World in front of 10 Kendama players and I'm jelly). Still, every Kendama event I have been to has had such an amazing atmosphere that I would now confidently turn up at any one of them and expect to have as much fun as an attired man could have. I also realized that there are a shed-load of other Kendama players who feel the same - my absolute favourite sessions this year were jamming with Kendama guys who didn't even enter the EKO competition itself with any intention of winning anything.

Still, from my experience of one European event, I think the [user]BKA[/user] did a spiffing job of keeping order at the EKO; It's probably easy to run away with the vibe but it takes the dedication of someone like [user]Void[/user] to be stringent on the particulars, especially when you've got maverick Kendama ninjas like David Gault ([user]Dadooh[/user]) standing on stage, saying after every balance trick "Look, I know I've got it, I'm not waiting three seconds for you!" It made the whole thing internationally viable - we could play against the friggin Japanese players at their own game, and... well... lose! But we could play up to scratch, competition standard, even those of us with the mega-shakes. At the moment I'm flinted but I'll find a way to get to either the BKO or the EKO, if not to both; it's just too damn fun to miss out on being with so many great Kendama players (great being here irrespective of skill-level, which tends to be generally damn high anyway

[LarsVegas]

I had several points of progress this year:

The most important experience surely was to get to know many of the Osaka/Kobe players and to play and hang out with them. On three occasions I could spent a day or two with them and I have learned a lot (see below). But most of all, I very much enjoyed to be with these nice, friendly, and open people. Many of them have only limited knowledge of English and we only talk about simple things (or try to talk via Google translate - which I deeply mistrust ... as I do with any automated English-Japanese translation). But I was always so nicely integrated into their group, whether it was for playing, sightseeing, dining out or just hanging about a railway station. To enjoy this inter-cultural friendships in real life is a great thing. And funny enough, I had to go to Japan to meet some Dutch and Danish players for the first time.

And from these Japanese players (especially from Go Nakao), I learned the fine details of many tricks. I'm someone who likes to strive for (but unfortunately never to achieve) perfection, to do things properly, with minimal effort, and style (aka "reduce to the max" or "elegant simplicity"). These - sometimes tiny - corrections and clues helped to to play more consistently and with more finesse. It gives you more space and freedom to explore further. I could never have learned that where I live (at least not in 2014). Don't get me wrong, there are now some fantastic players, but they mostly have a different, more "shredding" or "wild" style. I wish I could do half of the tricks they can, but I guess I could not learn these details from them. And besides, these details helped me to pass my 1st Dan exam.

I learned a lot of new tricks: From Outlink, from Japanese players, from the KCC and so on. To extend your repertoire is fun. As much as I like to refine one trick, if you're together with others, it pays of to know a trick or two. Exchanging knowledge is a big part of the culture of Kendama for me.

And finally, I gave Kendama Workshops and held examinations. I'm a long-time juggling teacher in a youth circus and I always enjoyed teaching others the art I love so much. To do the same with Kendama is very fulfilling.

[joeO]

I havent' been playing for an entire year yet but have been playing since September of 2014. I feel like i've come a long way with landing Birdie, ken flips, and more consistent around the worlds. Also I noticed my j spikes coming more naturally instead of 20 attempts and failing. I can't wait for more meetups and time to play!