Waikato Kendo Club

Hello. Today we went to a competition/meeting for all the kendo dojos around Nodashi. It was really impressive. First to fight were young children, I'm not sure how old they were but some of them looked like 5 or so. Then there were highschool students, and last were older people from university and so on. Everyone fought really well, especially when they were in the finals haha, they really went at it. I also saw a lot of people do jodan, which was interesting to watch. It was also quite funny because I knew a lot of people who were there, and people came to talk to me (I suspect because I am somewhat of a novelty, being the only foreigner there, or at the dojos). I've uploaded a short video of the warm-up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuUYg5hcOCQ My camera is really bad :( I myself have been feeling great. The sensei who runs the old dojo is generally really grumpy and criticises me a lot: I hold my shinai wrong, I fold my hakama wrong, I bow wrong and so on. He is 7

Dear all, the NZKF executive, in consultation with the Rembuden leaders, has decided to make a significant change to this year's calendar. The National Camp will be moved to 12/13 JULY and will be held in AUCKLAND . This will also mean that the AGM will be on the same weekend. Please see the message below from Graham for an explanation: I have been speaking to Inouye Sensei on and off for the last 5 months , including two face to face meetings with him . I was , along with many other NZKF members, sad to think that 2007 might have been the Sensei's last trip to NZ. In the last few weeks the Sensei has agreed to making another trip , part of the deal is Auckland-based, as we would like him (as our Patron/ shihan) to officially open the new super duper whizz bang dojo for us. The Sensei has asked that the event be in Mid July so that he can bring with him a "good" group of other Sensei . The costs of airfares out of Japan are about half in July compared with August . In

Dear All, You may be aware that it is Balloons over Waikato this Saturday and parking around the gym will not be available. Parking will be available in gate 10 but in general parking will be difficult around the Uni from midday until 8.30pm. So, the training is cancelled on the day. Enjoy the Balloons and see you next Tuesday...

A little more, I'll keep it short this time: I feel that perhaps this opportunity is a little wasted on me. When I goto practice I end up constantly hitting teachers until I almost fallover from exhaustion, take a short breathing break and do it again. Theytell me to change little things here and there, but I could do thispractice with someone else without wasting the time of these very goodkendo teachers. That's why I feel someone who is far better than meshould be here in my place. I would love to see Jeffrey practice with them. I went to the second dojo I mentioned. There were fewer people there,and there was also a lot more room for practice. The head teacher is farmore practical, and gauged my skill by having me practice with anotherperson going through all the cuts for what seemed like half an hour.Then he started to practice with me and we did kakari-geiko for 1 min, ashort rest, and again, every time saying "faster faster". One guy showed up who was also at th