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Breakfast, Teamwork and the art of Kendo by Mark V.





This morning along with Sensei Marlene and Sempai’s Robin, Leo, Clem & Joyce, I had the privilege of attending and enjoying the Sport Waikato Volunteers Breakfast which was hosted by the venerable Dave Curry who is the New Zealand Olympic Team Chef de Mission.

What’s a Chef de Mission I hear you ask? (No, he’s not the team cook….) Basically, when you bring over 200 elite athletes together you need leadership from someone they trust and respect. Dave Curry has earned that position.

Each time the New Zealand team competes Dave and his team ensures that every athlete is in the best environment to achieve their personal best. One of the core messages Dave Curry imparted upon us, was just how important team work is.

Everybody’s contribution of 150% towards their common goal, plays a huge part in not only attaining your team’s goals but surpassing your personal goals. It does not matter how big a part or how small a part you play, as long as you DO play a part and you give your 150%. That is the important thing.

Alone, you may be very good at what you do but once you combine your skills with those of your fellow team mates you will attain excellence and as our Olympic team has shown us, it does not matter who you are or where you come from, when a group of people from a little country called New Zealand set their minds together, nothing is impossible!

Since the beginning of my Kendo journey earlier this year, I have had the pleasure of meeting and training with many new people who are all different ages and at different stages in their lives and all from very, very diverse backgrounds.

Training with you all, under our Sensei (& Sempai’s…) watchful eye has also taught me four very important things. By coming together, sharing together and working together we are succeeding together. This is something very special & something you and your fellow club members should be very proud of.

I feel I have forged many new friendships and I am thankful to you all for sharing your Kendo journey with me. I look forward to training hard and working harder together as a team in 2009 to make our club even greater than it is.

To quote an old Kaizan acronym:

TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More! Wishing you all a very safe and a very Merry Xmas.

Kanpai & FIGHTO!!!! J Mark. V

Comments

MrWoody said…
Great writing Mark and brilliant sentiments, which I echo. The club is great!
Nice picture too :-)
Sherwood said…
What came across for me was that teamwork and how you perform was the most important ... not whether you win or lose.

I'm sure many will have heard me use the phrase "its not whether you win or lose but how you play the game" ... Well I reckon Mr Curry was saying the same thing.

He spoke of Moss Burmester in the 200 butterfly and how he went all out to win only to be beaten into 4th spot in the last few yards. He didn't try for 2nd or 3rd place he gave everything he could to win and missed out on a medal.

He spoke of the Evers-Swindell sisters and how they were smiling at the end of the race ... Not because they knew they had won(they didn't know) but because they knew that they had rowed their perfect race ... their timing was perfect and every stroke was as it should be, they too gave their all and they won, by 1/100 of a second.


To put it in a nutshell ... If we give our very best effort then we cannot lose, we may not get the result we would like but we will be a winner.

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