Waikato Kendo Club

Things I learned from the National Seminar. From Morioka Sensei: One of the most important thing I learned from Morioka Sensei is the idea of “holding the pressure”. Kendo beginners are often encouraged to “attack first” and “be more active/aggressive”, which is not wrong. However once they gained experience and knowledge, they often became too active and aggressive, striking mindlessly. Morioka Sensei's said that we need to try to “hold down” our feeling of attack, this does not mean we should “wait” or “don't attack”, this means we still need to have the intension of attack, but do not “release” it until the timing we want comes. This reminded me what Yamaji Sensei was talking about few years ago; tame . Yamaji Sensei's original description was “the feeling of like you have pulled the arrow back on the bow and are about to shoot at anytime”. Sometimes we attack first because we are scared, it is hard to take the tension/pressure so often tries to avoid it by striking firs

Dabao in Camp day 2 (19th July 09) Many people have presented their thoughts for the National Camp two weeks ago, and I would like to share my thoughts with you guys here. I have been studying Kendo over two years, and this was my first time to attend a National Camp. I felt it was helpful, just like Andrew said we have done many practices with other kendoka and watched Sensais’ excellent presentation. However, I also have kendo blues as Debbie does, and those blues still fazes me, such as why I can’t get the 1pond? Why my Men cut always looks ugly? When I can get my first dan? I know all I can do right now is keeping training, one day I will find out the answers. Additionally, thanks for Annie’s thoughts, I love her ideas about “ If MIND changes ATTITUDE will change; ANTTITUDE changes ACTION; ACTION changes HABBIT; HABBIT changes PERSONALITY; PERSONALITY changes FATES; FATES changes LIFE .” I always ask myself a question ‘why I am still studying kendo’? Marlene and Sam

Andrew accepts Shoden certificate from Morioka sensei This year's camp was a constant learning experience and the atmosphere created in our dojo was something really special. There were many great moments, including some BFO 's (blinding flash of the obvious) and also some BFI's (blinding flash of inspiration). Some highlights for me were : -- Doing practice with so many great kendoka. -- Watching so many great kendoka practicing. -- Doing ji- keiko practice with Morioka sensei as part of a group of five fighting him at the same time, each time someone scored ippon (rare) or was ipponed by sensei (not rare) they sat down and the group reduced by one. During one of these rounds he led the group into a corner then picked them off, one by one. -- Morioka sensei demonstrating a kata with only one breath. -- When we went for grading Morioka sensei sent each one of us out the door with a "fight-to" and a "hara adjustment". I was very nervous before the grading

Annie accepts her Nikyu certificate from Alex Bennett sensei Last week was the first kendo camp since i start doing kendo~(haha~ plez forgive my bad english ~hopfully its not too bad to understand....) that was really lots fun, i met and train with lots of kendo people around the whole New Zealand, and of course there were really some cool people inside. well...actually that was my third times to join the kendo events, but the first time i havent even wore hakama yet, and the second time is the National Champ in AKL last year, due to it was a comptition, so i didnt train and play with people much. But this time i really learn lots of things and realise more about kendo. we r very lucky to invite a 7th dan Sensai, Morioka Sensai, to flight from janpan to teach us this time. Although he cant speak english to us, but i can still feel the enthusiasm that he has to kendo is really higher than any of us in the dojo. For me, before the camp, kendo is kind of exercise for me, maybe because i

Congratulations to Marleen for winning the 2009 WSU Club Awards Service to the Club - Club tutor/coach * Detailed information sheet Please provide as much CONCISE information and evidence as possible. If there is insufficient space to write your comments, please use additional paper and attach to this nomination form. ***** Marleen Charng is one of the co-founders of Waikato Kendo Club. She has dedicated her passionate, time and energy to the Club’s development in every aspect since 1999. * As the President of the Club, she successfully connects the Club with the national body, New Zealand Kendo Federation (NZKF). - The Club hosts the 2009 NZ National Seminar on 17-19 July. The event has been very successful. All the participants feel fulfilled from the weekend’s learning and training. It was also reported by the Waikato Times on 20 July as a big event in Hamilton. - The Club also hosted the National Seminar in 2003 and 2007 , NZ Team Squad Training in 2007, and the 2nd NZ Kendo Open

Mumeishi 3’s International Kendo Clubs Championship 21st November 2009 Dear Friends We are pleased to announce the date for this year’s Mumeishi 3’s International Kendo Clubs Championship that we are holding on the 21st November 2009, this will be the 37th year we have be holding this big and friendly championship and we hope to see many of you again also other that have not been before you are very welcome. It will be held in Cranford Community College. High Street , Cranford, Hounslow. TW 59PD. That is in West London near to Heathrow Airport. There will be Kendo bogu shops and Japanese food etc, at the event. So come and join us for a good weekend with a great open practice on Sunday morning from 930 am to 12noon come and leave when you want just come. Find attached poster and entry form and rules. Mumeishi Kendo Club http://www.mumeishi.co.uk/

Here are my thoughts and experiences. I shall put them up on the new forum as well. Pity we don't have many members there =( Thoughts about the Kendo seminar In my opinion, the decision to host the 2009 NZKF Kendo Seminar here at the Waikato Kendo Club (WKC) dojo was undoubtedly the best decision ever made by our sensei. I’ll like to begin by sending my sincere thanks to both Sam and Marleen Sensei for their commitment and passion to furthering the kendo of each and every member of WKC. Let’s not forget that had our sensei not opt for the seminar to be hosted in Waikato that many of us would probably have missed out on this wonderful experience. After reading and hearing our fellow member’s thoughts (including Debbie’s fantastic self reflection), I’m certain that all of us, in one way or another, walked away from this seminar with a renewed appreciation for kendo and ourselves. Personally, I found this seminar to be an eye opening experience. I had a great time getting to know all

The Kendo Blues After attending the national seminar this weekend and spending some reflection time with senpai Douglas on Saturday, I was inspired to finish off some writing I started a little while ago. The topic of our conversation was the blues; specifically the kendo blues. A place in time when your kendo hits a plateau and you consider giving it all up. Here’s a recent experience of mine… I turned up for training a few Saturdays ago feeling discouraged and disheartened about my kendo. In the back of my mind I was thinking; Was Kendo really the right place for me to be or was I just wasting my time? Thankfully training went well and it was an enjoyable session. Enjoyable because I was encouraged by the advice delivered by Sam Sensei. It was as though he had read my mind and like a checklist, ticked off and addressed all of the concerns I had had swirling around in my head. It was indeed the catalyst for change that I needed and has since allowed me to move on in my Kendo jo

Dear Teams, Hope you had a good rest after the 3 days NZKF annual seminar . If you do remember, I grabed the most gifts from Morioka sensei's offer in the Closing ceremony. I would like to use sensei's kindness to run a Morioka Tournament tomorrow evening. We will have 4 divisions-- juniors' (2009a mainly), kyu and dan, women's. NO ENTRY FEE needed ^^ The main criteria of judgement is how good you apply Morioka sensei's teaching in your shiai. GOOD luck ^^ Marleen & Sam

Here is the timetable information regarding the coming NZKF seminar: Friday 17th July 6.00pm – 7.30pm Gym - Free Geiko Saturday 18th July 9am – 6pm Gym/ Mirror Rm - Seminar Day 1 5pm – 6pm Mirror Rm - AGM Sunday 19th July 6.30am – 7.30am in Gym - Morning Geiko 9 am – 6pm in Gym/ Mirror Rm - Seminar Day 2 9 am – 6pm in Mirror Room - Grading

Debbie's semei M strike Kia Ora everyone I thought I would take up Sam Sensei's challenge of sending an update out for those of you who were unable to attend training yesterday. Hopefully this will serve as a refresher for you and give you some idea of what we got up to. Sam did suggest that we all might like to maintain a training blog for the benefit of our peers. A good way to keep in touch. Sam thought we could write in our 1st language e.g. english, chinese, mandarin etc however I thought it would be a bit cruel to write in Maori. Specially since there's only a couple of us, aye bro?... Hehehe. Ok, moving right along... This is my account of how training went yesterday Sat 04/07/09. My peers and senpai may like to add to or correct my comments, which is absolutely fine. Presentation: Sam presented certificates to those who graded last Sat 27/06/09. Well done and thank you to everyone who attended (to grade, train and support). Updates: Reduced numbers at Kendo due to

作道正夫 範士八段, Osaka Physical Education University, Kyuto Taikai * * * Regarding our training Goal, having the correct posture is the first step! Photo scanned from Kendo Nippon Magazine

Panel: Jason Oh, Sam Tsai & Thomas Hong first group: Peter, Joyce, Eric, Jason & Henry Third group: Kata exam Jason gave comment Jason gave comment Dear Waikato teams, Thanks to your passionate and support so that we can have a successful grading on 27th June. However, please do not forget Mr. Jason Oh and Thomas Hong from Auckland. Without their contribution, we won’t make such a fruitful grading. Here is our team who has successfully made the challenge on the Kyu grade. Congratulations to all!!! Boys under 20th who has achieved 6th Kyu from nil – Henry Tang Jason Hunag Eric Tang (9 years old with very good vigor) Peter Ho Girls who has achieved 5th Kyu from nil or previous kyu Joyce Tsai (7 years old performed outstanding ki-ken-tai itchi) Debbie Price (with great cool mind set) Alba Crisan (performed very calm hardly to show her shyness) People who has achieved 4th Kyu Adam Ward (believes ‘Kendo is a BIG mind game’) David Woodcock (who study Kendo with a very sharp