Nicole's Kendo diary on 2 March 2016

Waikato University starts this week,

welcome many of you coming back to NZ to continue your study and Kendo journey.

Let's have another great year together!

* * *

I think I'm gonna call this Kendo diary now... (by Nicole)

Wednesday 2/03/2016:

Firstly, we need to welcome our returning students back to training.

Looking forward to train with you boys and girls throughout this year. This also means we will be having new blood coming into our club as the new beginner's class is going to start this weekend. You'll be Senpai from now on, fighto!

There's a change of training menu for our regulars for this year. While we are still doing the Kihon, Waza and Shiai training, we are also shifting our focus on stretching exercise to strengthen our muscle and footwork exercise to improve our agility so that we can perform better when we are doing Kendo. For example we were doing zigzag tsuri-ashi through uneven spaces to train us for being able to move rapidly and change direction quickly with our waist. The hardest part was to keep your upper body straight and steady as you are moving in a zigzag manner. We were training with different types exercise every week with the same principles. Thanks to our Captain Kai Yoshitani, we were having so much fun doing them.

Since we have returning students, us beginners were focusing on the Kihon training on one side of the dojo to refresh our memory and strengthening our foundation so we can look "handsome and beautiful" when the new beginner's class start.

On the other side of the dojo, Senpais were practicing waza and how to execute them in practice shiai. Thanks to our guest - Erina San, our senpais were able to training with someone really skillful and gained some good shiai experience. Beginners were able to witness some amazing shiai and see how cool we can be in the future if we keep training!

P.S. After training, another one of our guest - Moena San mentioned she was impressed by our Kendo club, mainly by the friendly atmosphere of our club. She also felt the Kendo we were doing was beautiful Kendo. To received compliment from someone who have done Kendo since primary school, I felt very honoured!

Comments

How do you practice seme?

Kobayashi Hideo Sensei – How to Seme (w/English CC) 小林英雄先生 - 攻め方 How do you practice S eme ? Very early on, I have heard of the “Three Opportunities to Strike”: strike when your opponent’s technique is about to start, strike when your opponent’s technique ends, and when the opponent is mentally and physically depleted. Since then, this line of thinking has given me a direction in how to train. In 2017, Utsunomiya sensei, 7-dan kyoshi, came to visit us and taught me the concept of “okori”. That reminds me of the conversation that happened 8 years before that in 2009 with Morioka sensei, also 7-dan kyoshi, who asked me: “What is the timing or reason of your strike?” I think most people are familiar with the idea that you should “ seme then strike ”. However, when do you strike after seme has been a source of struggle for most kenyu. That’s why when I saw the video from Kobayashi Hanshi where you seme for the purposes of creating “okori” , I felt this added a whole other d

Ji-ri-ichi - practice & theory combined into one 事理一致

Wednesday 19th April 2023 Keiko Reflection by Janet Tonight’s Keiko is a timely reminder of the importance of training in Ji-ri-ichi (事理一致, practice & theory combined into one). While we are constantly receiving knowledge & theory passively from Senseis, one must also be actively applying the theories learnt into action to make it their own through repeated practice. We must also be proactive in our own learning by actively seeking more knowledge such as observing other kendokas keiko ( mitori-geiko ), reading books, asking questions when in doubt, & constantly reflect & ask ourselves why do we do this? what are we doing wrongly or correctly? This way we can better understand our bodies, the mechanics of each movements & the purpose behind each individual action, therefore maximise our learning outcome by improving productivity & quality of our practice or Keiko. Remember Kendo is a martial art that descended from Japanese swordsmanship or Kenjutsu, so it’s no

Kendo Journey: A "Travel Guide" from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half

Waikato Kendo Association Grading (2009) Kendo Journey: A Travel Guide from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half （中文） by Sam Tsai December 27, 2017 Those that know me should know that back in 1998, Marleen and I moved to Hamilton, New Zealand and ended up being the only two people that practiced kendo within the 100 kilometers radius. In the following year, the stars were aligned as we formed the Waikato Kendo Association and I found myself shouldering the responsibility of being a kendo instructor. Practicing kendo myself and teaching others how to do kendo are totally different things! About half a year after we established the dojo, Hsu Heng-Hsiung sensei , coach of Team Taiwan, led a delegation of more than 20 kenshi to come visit us in New Zealand. About a year after their visit, I was in Taiwan visiting sensei. The first thing he said to me was, “Tell me, what are you having trouble teaching?” I could not help myself but laugh out loud as I replied, “Coach you are wise

Waikato Kendo Club

Search This Blog