Waikato Kendo Club

  “none of us ever really outgrow being a beginner” Stay the Course: “Neisha san, you not do Judo, you do Kendo! Kendo is sport of Kings, Judo, street fight!” These are the words I remember from a conversation when I was around 10 or 11 years old. I had just started Judo after seeing my cousins Judogi and yellow belt hanging on his bedroom door. Judo was very much a niche sport in New Zealand back then. Kendo, even more so. Kendo looked cool, but it simply wasn’t accessible to a family with no connection to Japanese Budo or martial arts. Our only real source of information was the Encyclopedia Britannica at my aunt’s house - which wasn’t exactly the same as walking into a dojo. That was about 43 years ago. A lady never her true age, so you can do the maths. My Mum never really liked the idea of Judo, but the choice at the time was Judo or ice hockey. Ice hockey didn’t take “girls” back then, so off to Judo we went. Sadly, my first encounter with Judo was short-lived. A ...

If an employer tells you, "We're like a family here," you'd probably think, "Yeah... no thanks." Family isn't something people declare, it is something you feel. Why do I mention this? I will explain below. Backward to my very first day at Waikato Kendo Club happened to be a grading day. One senpai came over to introduce themselves, explained how grading worked, and patiently taught me a few kendo terms. During our conversation, they mentioned that kendo had changed their life, that they no longer felt as anxious or stressed as they used to. At the time, I remember wondering, How can swinging a bamboo sword around possibly do that? Four months later, I think I finally understand. My love for martial arts actually started with my love for Japanese culture. As a teenager, I practised Aikido and absolutely loved it. When I moved to New Zealand, though, I couldn't find a dojo that felt like the right fit. Aikido relies heavily on working with your par...

2025 Eiga and Morioka Sensei Seminar Dear Kenshi and Friends, On behalf of Waikato Kendo Club, I want to sincerely thank you for joining us at the August seminar and for celebrating our dojo’s 26th Anniversary together. Your participation—whether travelling from near or far, adjusting your schedules, or simply bringing your spirit and energy—made this gathering truly meaningful.  It was wonderful to see old friends reconnect, new friendships formed, and everyone learning together under the guidance of Eiga sensei and Morioka sensei. Organising this seminar was not an easy journey, but your enthusiasm and dedication made every effort worthwhile.  We hope that the teachings and memories from this weekend will continue to inspire your kendo journey. Acknowledging Our Unsung Heroes While everyone’s presence made this seminar special, I would like to especially acknowledge the “unsung heroes” whose efforts behind the scenes made it all possible: Ben Kennedy , Head of Sport Departme...

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, s...

29th October 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Today’s Dōjo atmosphere was one of excitement as we welcomed many Kohais joining in the intermediate to advanced class. We are all travelling on this kendo journey together, to climb up this mountain, so the more people the merrier as we can all help to lift up each other along the way😊 Marleen Sensei introduced the long history of Waikato Kendo Club since 1999 & the legacy that was left by the many hard working awesome Senpais before us. Therefore, we’re encouraged to look up to them, to uphold the same fighting spirit that were passed down to us; dare to try & never give up on this journey of self-improvement & be humble of achievements; be proactive to learn from Senpais & Senseis; show appreciation for each other by always give our best effort to maximise our training during Keiko.  Marleen Sensei kindly shared with us her journey through illness, which really puts life into perspective. We all have our own struggles i...

  Saturday 3rd September 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Today we had another fruitful keiko led by Marleen Sensei. Again started off with double Shinai warm up & Suburi which not only helped to condition our body & muscles to adapt to the increased weight but also made us more aware of using our left hand, arm & shoulder more dominantly & more aware of using our finger grips more precisely to achieve proper Tenouchi. We increased double Shinai Haya-Suburi to x30. For some Kyu grades like myself it’s still a tough challenge to keep up with everyone else & made our arms feel very heavy.  Sam Sensei reminded us that in order to perform effective & efficient Haya-Suburi, it’s extremely important for the body & arm to not be too tense for the entire time but rather we need to semi-relax some muscles during the Shinai swinging motion to allow the natural weight of the Shinai to help us to swing downwards & forwards then only tense up the muscles when n...

Wednesday 31st August 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Tonight’s keiko was once again led by our wonderful Marleen Sensei.  We began with double Shinai warm up drills, suburis & 30 Haya-Suburis followed by single Shinai 30 Haya-Suburis. Tonight’s Kihon & Uchikomi-geiko menu: Kirikaeshi x3 Big Men x3 Big Men 10 times rensoku continuous x3 Big Kote x3 Big Kote 10 times rensoku continuous x3 Big Dō x3 Big/ Small (for higher grades) Kote-Men x3 Followed by Ji-geiko then Kakari-geiko with Sam sensei.         Tonight’s focus was: 1. To better feel & use our fingers underneath the Kote correctly to continue working on getting proper Tenouchi during each strikes.  2. Concentrate on using our Shoulders more to raise the Shinai overhead & take care not to use too much right hand to manipulate the Shinai movements as this would produce unintended & unwanted forces & reduce accuracy. 3. In order to reduce time lag & to speed up strikes, try to ...

Saturday 27th August 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet For the past few weeks as well as during todays Keiko, Marleen sensei’s plan was to help us develop better body strength (in the core, arm & shoulder muscles) through double Shinai warm up drills & Suburis, in particular, by gradually increasing the amount of Haya-Suburis to challenge & condition our bodies to become stronger. Even though it’s still rather difficult for me to keep up with everyone else’s pace, as my upper body strength is still weak, but I can definitely feel myself improving little-by-little each week, with my body feeling less sore afterwards, so that’s definitely something to be happy about❤️ Main focus for todays Keiko was Kihon (basics), which is the basics or foundation of kendo. It includes sets of kendo technique drills such as Men, Kote, Dō, and Kirikaeshi which gets repeated during almost every keiko. While it may sounds repetitive, but it’s way more complicated with many things to consider espe...

2022-05-28 Saturday  Confidence comes from discipline and training. Saturday Keiko reflection for beginners & Kyu grades - Janet During Saturdays keiko, sensei emphasised the importance of learning Kihon basics for strikes in the following order : 1. To go Big (such as big Men & Kote, to ensure we rotate our shoulders fully and correctly during each strike) 2. To go Strong (using predominantly the left arm to generate enough power) 3. To go Fast (connect all the movements from shoulder rotation to extending elbow and wrist into one: Ichibyoshi ) 4. To go Light & small (such as small Men & Kote, & have more control of the strikes using correct Tenouchi to retain power while making it crispy & not heavy) Another emphasis today was on making the correct Kote strikes in particular the Harai Kote waza. In Harai & Suriage waza, we sweep or deflect the opponents Shinai off the centre with our Shinai to make an opening before striking. But remember we must k...

  2022-05-25 Wednesday Focusing on Tenouchi tonight both Suburi and Uchikomi. 大強速軽 - Dai_kyō_soku_kei - Large_Strong_Fast_Light Wednesday keiko reflection for beginners & Kyu grades - by Janet Tonight’s keiko emphasis was about getting the correct grip on completing a strike called “ Tenouchi ” or literally “inside of the hand” in order to achieve a good & crispy strike. During Kamae, we need to semi-relax our hands around the Shinai handle almost feel like we are holding a baby bird or an egg within palm of hands without squeezing it too hard to break it.  Then concentrate mostly on the left side we raise the Shinai by raising the shoulders until the Shinai tip is at 45 degrees over head & we can just see the opponent from beneath the handle.  Execute the strike by concentrating on the left, rotate & drop down the shoulder swiftly using gravity & the natural weight of the whole left arm & Shinai combined until our elbow is just below the level of ...

The ultimate goal is Ki-ken-tai Ichi 💪 Don't skimp on your basics. They will carry you through everything in life. https://www.tofugu.com/japan/kendo/ * * * Wednesday Keiko reflection for beginners & Kyu grades by Janet During Kihon- or Uchikomi-geiko such as kirikaeshi, it’s important to “TAKE IT SLOW” to start with to ensure each strike is done correctly.  First get ready as soon as we can with good kamae (especially after performing zanshin following each strike) then concentrate on making every single strike in the timing of one (ichibyoshi) with correct kiai, tenouchi & footwork to achieve Ki-Ken-Tai-Itchi.  As tempting as it may be to try imitate sensei & senpais’ swift, clean & elegant strikes, it’s easy to forget each one of their moves are the results of years of hard training which have conditioned their body & mind to do it naturally & made it look so effortless when it’s in fact not. There are no short cuts on our kendo journey, but by comi...

Koken-Chiai 2021 交剣知愛 Having started training in Feb 2021 and making it to the end of my first calendar year having spent portions of the year locked down and away from the dojo was pleasing. I found the first half of the year training with the Waikato Kendo Club to be a whirlwind of learning, fitness and focus. The focus in particular became very useful for my work and personal life when the dreaded lockdowns hit. Because I had Kendo I also had a way to focus on my suburi and reduce stress levels dramatically. Kendo flowed into all aspects of my life; I made some big decisions such as changing my job of ten years. One of the deciding factors in changing jobs was the job is in Hamilton, it just so happens that the dojo is too - what a coincidence.  Grading days came and went twice, I managed to progress through to 6th Kyu and gain more understanding of body positioning, kiai and timing but the best thing I discovered was some good friendships. I became the rose between two great ...

  Ben Albany – Kendo reflections Grading Day 10 July 2021 Well, my second grading day has come and gone, and I now think back on the things I have learned and at the same time I think forward to my next steps in my kendo journey. Since the last grading day around three months ago many suburi have been cut , footwork has been worked on, and a balance in my life has been sought out. As usual the hectic pace of work-related life and study have meant stress levels increase. I find that kendo is continuing to help restore balance to my spirit, I have not been simply looking at YouTube videos as much these days (although there are lots of good ones to watch) I have been focusing on the physical aspects of training. I have still been watching what I eat, increasing my exercise and trying the best I can to sleep (not much success there yet) I also seek advice from sensei and senpai at the dojo so that I may improve myself. I have started to explore forms of mediation and relaxation, it doe...