Waikato Kendo Club

After Tatsuya's visit, Marleen has asked me write someting about Kirikaeshi (切り返し). Instead of starting from scratch, I used the article in Wikipedia (only add some colours or break sections to emphasis some points) and we can discuss it from here: Kirikaeshi From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kirikaeshi (切り返し) is a kendo exercise, combining the practice of attacking and receiving strikes and is meant to develop physical strength, spirit, and vigor. It is a drill done with a partner that involves a succession of strikes to the head (men, in Japanese). Kirikaeshi was established as a basic exercise around the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912). The exercise typically begins with a strike to the center of the head, followed by a series of alternating strikes to the left and right sides of the head (yokomen). Though the exact method of kirikaeshi can vary among dojo , the most common scheme involves a single strike to the center of the head, followed by four lateral stri

Thursday 24 August will be our Iaido session - 7.30~9.30pm Venue: Fairfield Intermediate School Gym - via the rear gate at Kensington Place. View Google Map:Kensington Place near the cross of Clarkin Rd and Peachgroved Rd . Hope to see you all there!

I found that Forum is still a better and easier way to share our Kendo talks. I am thinking to keep this blog as a news page and hope that you will move back to our forum to have our Kendo talks. All of our members are welcome to post messages at our forum. Regards, Sam

Dear All, First of all, our August Kata session will be moved to Saturday 05 August . First hour will still be the beginner session. Amigo will take the training and its mainly doing what you have learned for suburi but using Bokken (wooden sword). After 4pm, it is for the senior members for learning 1st to 3rd Kata. Beginners are also welcome to participate. Secondly, from Thursday 03 August to Sunday 06 August is New Zealand Kendo Federation's annual seminar, Championship, grading and also the NZ Team for 13th World Kendo Championship. This year is held at Invercargill Kendo Club (we had this event in 2002). Many of our senior members will need to particiapte the event. I am hoping we can have more members to participate this great event. Next year will be back to North Island. Thirdly, please note that sharing the training reflection is not limited to senior members. All beginners are also welcome to share thoughts or asking questions. I believe that Kendo is a starnge thing

First of all, welcome to the new beginners just joined us this term. I sincerely hope that you will find Kendo is enjoyable and make it your life companion. All WKC members are welcome to post comment on this blog. If you are interested to be a co-author of this blog, please let me know. Also, please let me know if you already have a blog . Regarding the training yesterday, fews points come to my mind: 1. I found the the new training programme organised by Marleen is beneficial and enjoyable. Having Kakari-geigo between ji-geiko is helpful to remain our focus and physical flexibility. This is specially good for senior members. However, it is also beneficial for those who just put on bogu. Although you might feel it is tough, it will definately speed up your Kendo growth. 2. For those who have passed 7th Kyu, I think it is important that you can have your own bogu as soon as possible. Bogu is essential to your next level of Kendo learning and training. There is also an important issu

The idea of sharing the training reflection via our club's blog came to my mind after training yesterday at Fairfield Intermediate school. Hope the members attended the training will support the idea. There are at least three ways to share our ideas. One is to set set up your own Kendo training blog and let me know the URL. I will add it to here. The second one is that you can just post a comment here. This should be the easiest way to do. Or, you can apply an account here and I will make as a co-auther for this blog. OK. Starts from me .... 1. I felt very good that many new faces turned up for the training. It makes the training more enjoyable. It also reminds that I should encourage members who has put on bogu to participate the Thursday training and learn to be our club's "senior" members. 2. I was encouraged by Leo's spirit at the end of the training. I was tired already. But Leo's spirit encourages me to try harder and use my last breath. This really made

Dear All,   Our Term 3 beginner class will start from next Tuesday 18 July .   I hope to remind you that you are welcom to attend the beginner class again to review your knowledge about Kendo kihon. The current members do NOT need to pay any extra fee.   If you have missed out some lessons from the previous beginner class, now is a good time to come back for training and refine your skills.   The training time for "seniors" (for most of you) will be back to 7 ~ 9pm from next week.   If you know anyone might be interested to start Kendo or pick up shinai, please pass our beginner class information to them or ask them contact me.   Kind regards, Sam     Sam Tsai Waikato Kendo Club  

Dear All, Remember I wrote an article about Walter's 2nd Dan is our club's 17th Dan? Now I would like to share one more Dan with you. Xu Hua is one of our members who gratuated and went back to his hometown in China in last year. There was no dojo in his hometown at that time. However, it is so good to know that he could finally continue his Kendo training the beginning this year and pass his Sho-Dan grading in the 1st International Kendo Federation (IKF) Dan Examination in Shanghai few days ago. Here are some of his photos taken at that day: http://picasaweb.google.com/waikatokendo/XuHua Join Xu Hua's Kendo talk at our forum: http://waikatokendo.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=115 Kind regards, Sam

Photo taken at the 13th WKC, Taipei, December 2006 Dear All, I would like congratulate our members: Ruby Huang, Walter McCahon, Marleen Charng, and Sam Tsai who are selected to be a part of the NZ Team for the 13th World Kendo Championship in Taiwan the end of this year. It is a great honour to be part of the team and we will try our best to train hard and get ourselves prepared before the great event. I sincerely hope that we can have more people from Waikato in the future. So, train hard and commit yourself from now one! For further information, please visit NZKF News page: http://www.kendo.org.nz/resources/13WKC/NZTeamAnnounced.html Kind regards, Sam Ps. I feel strange that I just congratulated myslef. However, I don't have choice. I am the one received the mail. :)