Waikato Kendo Club

The New Zealand National Team training in Christchurch's brand new dojo.  Team NZ is hard in training for the WKC in Novara. Photo taken and shared by：   Kendo World * * * Hi all, so some recap from the lessons Awa and I learned at the NZ team training. Keep in mind that this is mainly for winning in shiai and that there is a difference between that and "grading" kendo. - Dramatise your cuts - Regardless if you really hit or not, got to convince judge that you scored the ippon. If judge gives you ippon, take it.   - Change the rhythm of your cuts - Don't always stick  to your same fighting style, change it up if it doesn't work. - Keep the winning attitude, take what you get - It's war, you fight to win. If you hold ippon, keep it. One ippon is enough to win the match. - Shiai line should be your friend - fight from centre out and don't have your back to the line. When opponent near line, taiatari + cut to ensure no hansoku. - For sem...

"Please do the kirikaeshi with Dai-Kyo-Soku-Kei (dynamic-strong-fast-light)". ~ Eiga sensei. #1 [After the kirikaeshi demonstration by Teramoto-sensei] (Eiga-sensei:) That was wonderful kirikaeshi, wasn't it? First of all, what was wonderful about that was the stance. As Teramoto-sensei told at the suburi practice that you don't move the axis of your body. Although the opponent comes straight forward, the stance is that you can move any directions. #2 Next, that was kiai! You still say, "ya… ," and "men… ." (He shows,) "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Meeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!" Show your feelings with this first strike of men. Then, because the breath should be one time, it's not that you were doing like, "men, men, men…, " but "MeeeeeenMeeeeenMeeeeeen!!!" The breath connects. #3 And finally, that was the point of the strike . There are some people still hitting the upper side of the sinai, ye...

Murakami sensei explained the correct tsuba-seiriai  at the 2008 Asia Area Sinpan Seminar, Seoul, South Korea . Some notes about our training on week 11-17 Sep 2011: I think we all had a good time on Thursday's ji-geiko evening. Thanks to the members who came at the evening. As discussed, we won't have group warm-up on Thursdays. Please come earlier and get yourself ready. Hope we can start at 6.30pm sharply. After the shiai-geigo last Saturday (10 Sep), we talked about the tsuba-zeriai situations and have some practice of hiki-men waza. I can see your tsuba-zeriai has much improved today. Of course, we still need more training and practice on hiki-men. My plan for next week training will be: continue the small-men and small-kote-men practice, continue the hiki-men practice, introduce one exercise to enhance leg muscle strength, more kakari-geiko to enhance fitness and reaction. * * * As for beginners, I am pleased to see that you can well perform ...

Our new training schedule will start from Tuesday 13 September 2011: Intermediate & Advanced Classes  - Tuesdays: 6.30pm to 8.30pm @ SOE Gym  - Thursdays: 6.30pm to 7.30pm @ SOE Gym  - Satursdays: 3.10pm to 6.00pm @ SOE Gym Please note that the Thursday evening is for ji-keiko and shiai-geijo only. Beginner Class remains the same:  - Satursdays: 1.30pm to 3.00pm @ SOE Gym See you at the new times! By the way, the new club's website is currently underconstruction. Please wait!  :-)   

Joyce's first time led the warm-up, Saturday 10 Sep 2011. Time flies! I have been back to NZ and led the training for more than one month. While the spring is coming, I still remember how cold the NZ temperature was few weeks ago! First of all, I am glad to see we have few more members achieved the Dan grades in the National Seminar and Grading held at Auckland Kendo Club on 20, 21 August. It shows the great  commitment and efforts from  themselves and the Dojos during the Kendo journey! Personally, I am proud of them and would like to invite them keep the enthusiasm of training hard and learning more! Secondly, In the past few training sessions, the  " small men " technique has been our central theme. I would like to drop few notes here for the purposes of review and reflection: 1.   Striking Power : The power of small techniques should not be smaller than the big techniques. While the big techniques (kihon)  build the proper body movement...

2011 Beginner Class B - September Due to my delay of returning to NZ, Clement had his contribution for the first few lessons. He makes my job of taking over this new class much easier.  It has been a great pleasure for me to work with a  group of enthusiasm beginners   The 2011-B Beginner Class has already run 6-7 lessons. We have covered basic footwork, Kamae ( Chudan ) and basic strikings (Men, Kote, Do). Today, it's a review of all these three basic strikes. Hope the beginners felt the training was enjoyable. From next week, we are going to learn another basic footwork: Fumikomi - a milestone for Ki-Ken-Tai-Ichi . By Sam Tsai

2011 NZKF Seminar and Grading @ Auckland Congratulations to whom achieved a new milesone in their Kendo journey in the 2011 NZKF National Seminar and Grading: Ni-Dan - George Liu Sho-Dan - James Huang - Gaelle Guyader Ikkyu - Marilyn Kho - Jordan Te Wharau Ni-Kyu Chui Suan Low We are proud of your energy and persistence you have put into your Kendo!