Waikato Kendo Club

Rototuna High School Kendo Club 2025 Our 2025 Kendo program at Rototuna High School has now come to an end, and I want to say how proud I am of all the students for their effort and commitment this year. Every Friday afternoon has been something I’ve looked forward to — not just for the practice, but for the energy, enthusiasm, and fun you all bring. It has been wonderful to see you challenge yourselves, support each other, and grow through Kendo. I’ve really enjoyed spending this time with you, and I wish each of you all the very best in whatever comes next — whether that’s continuing with Kendo or simply carrying the lessons you’ve learned into your everyday life. A special thank-you also goes to Rototuna High Schools for supporting this program and giving us the chance to share Kendo together. Sam Tsai Renshi 6 Dan Waikato Kendo Club 

2022-05-14 Saturday keiko reflection by Janet Kendo’s purpose in a nutshell is to train your body & mind, & to keep improving oneself to become a better person. So always come to keiko (training) with a purpose in mind by setting a goal or a specific area you would like to work & improve on. This will make each keiko more effective and you will find it more fulfilling. For Kyu grades, we need to focus on kihon (basics) particularly set practices like Kirikaeshi & Go-hon waza (men, kote, do, kote-men, kote-do) by doing it correctly to achieve Ki-Ken-Tai-Itchi. During Shido- (teaching) or Uchikomi-geiko with sensei or senpai, try focus on delivering each strike with Ki-Ken-Tai-Itchi . Even if you missed or didn’t successfully land a valid strike, continue your momentum by keep going forward & keep your Zanshin to show your determination & quickly get back into kamae to try again. We need to learn to feel the correct distance, Issoku Itto no maai for ourselves to ...

My Kendo Reflection When I started Kendo in 2020, I felt a little nervous. But I know that it is the best martial art for people like me to become a Samurai and learn the way of the Samurai and the way of the sword.  When I first heard about the kiai , I was very worried. But then manage to get over it after doing a few kiais myself.  Every time I head to training, I feel more powerful and stronger. Makes me feel like an actual Samurai every time I do Kendo. Around the end of 2020, I manage to get into the intermediate class to join with the other hardworking Samurais and I was excited. I was more eager to do Kendo after joining the intermediate class.  Now part of the intermediate class, I have improved a lot more and am still learning my way through Kendo. After some months of training I started renting Kendo armour and I was even more excited. Then after another few months, the day of the Autumn Grading & Championship came in. I was nervous because I didn’t know t...

Jennifer - Kendo and Me * During this year,  I learnt about the importance of kata, while I thought Kata was just something not important but annoying. In my mind, Kata is something very hard to memorize, but quite useless at the same time, because you can’t really use kata at any time, since it’s not a technique that you can learn from. But throughout this year, I noticed the importance of kata, that you can put it into practice and shiai . As well as kata is very important in mindset and grading. Other than kata, I improved my kendo skill. I focus on more and more detail when I am practicing, like when I am hitting people now, I hit them slow but correctly.  Kendo wasn’t really my thing before, but after shiai and fighting ( keiko ) with other people, I started to feel the fun in kendo. I want to improve myself to become better and better, I want to win battles, I want to get higher grades. Every time I fight with someone, I am afraid that they might beat me, but when I am ...

2019 Little Samurai Class Beginners' reflection on "how Kendo has influenced my everyday life?" * Kendo makes me stronger and healthier. ~ David  Kendo makes me happy. It is fun to learn and hit with my shinai. I love to make friends at the dojo and learn from everyone. ~ Ava Kendo gives me better balance and focus. ~ Seb  I have new friend. I am happy. I like play Kendo. ~ Monica  Kendo has influenced me in my life by making me more focused in my learning at school and out of school by having goals and life lessons. Kendo has given me confidence in myself to do tasks, and ask for help in needed. ~ Frankie. I started Kendo because I would normally have a arched back. Now, I have learned discipline. Kendo also teaches me to work hard. ~ Elliot  Kendo has influenced me by making me into a better person. I can  be more focused on thing I need to focus on, be ready to learn and improve on who I am, and be able to think about more stuff. ~ Randika   Kendo h...

Autumn Grading - 17 April 2021 Waikato Kendo Association would like to congratulate the following members for their achievement in the Autumn Grading 2021 held in Hamilton. “Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal.” Earl Nightingale Little Samurai Class 10th Kyu Oliver Ke Soichiro Yamaguchi  9th Kyu  Dominic Liu Xialun Yang Xenia Liu 8th Kyu Eunice Liu Adult Class 10th Kyu Li Lian Min Ki Hong ( SJC ) Yeonjoon Kim Hayden Cook ( SJC ) Fiona Dunton Laine Baldwin Tristan Stowell ( RHS ) 9th Kyu Yeonsoo Kim 8th Kyu Celene Cai Jang Ho Kim Kyle Baxter Ben Albany 6th Kyu Wilkie Larke 3rd Kyu Elliot Payne ( RHS ) 2nd Kyu Jennifer Kan ( RHS ) Shodan Valintine Thompson Panel Joyce T, Kevin P, Awa W, Leo L, Kai Y, Clark L, Sam T. Assistants Nicole R, Yana T, Jason N . Photo Credit Lance McCaughan Photography Relevant reading: Kendo Journey: A "Travel Guide" from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half

The 12th New Zealand Kendo Novice Championship 9-10 November 2019 Acknowledgment  We thank Jason Oh Sensei (6th Dan) from North Shore Kendo Club for his service as the  Shinpan-cho  (chief judge) and running the shinpan workshop in the Novice Champ. Huge thanks also go to Ben Chin, Makoto Kuroda,  Naoko Stephenson,  Walt Kim,  Thomas Hong , Leo Lin, Luo Wen, Eric Viola, Ren Sayer, and Yoko Maruyama for their service as a shinpan.  Shinpan workshop led by the Yondan Senpai  This is the third time of  Yon-Dan Division Shiai as a shiai demonstration for the novice Kendoka to learn from their high grade senpai but also providing an opportunity for these junior Kendo instructors to learn from each other in a shiai situation. We appreciate the efforts from all the participants:  Naoko Stephenson  (AKC) ,  Wlat Kim  (NSKC),  Thomas Hong  (NSKC), Luo Wen  (WKC) , Ben Chin (AKC), Ren Sa...

2019-09-24 RHS Kendo Club The last lesson of Term 3 - Congratulations to all the members who joined the grading today and achieved their new grades! - Thanks to all the senior members in the Club who helped the kohai (juniors) preparing their grading and demonstrated good leadership!  - Thanks to Marleen Sensei for helping out the grading exams. - Thanks to all the parents coming to support the kids and helping out the event. - Thanks to all the members, Rex and Joyce for a great success of Term 3 Kendo lessons. Congratulations to Jacob, Levi, Tim, Felicity and Cassidy for achieving 10th Kyu in Kendo Congratulations to Lucas, Cody, T J, and Lovejot for achieving 10th Kyu in Kendo Congratulations for Annya and Lucas  for achieving 9th kyu in Kendo Congratulations to Isaac for achieving 8th Kyu in Kendo