Waikato Kendo Club

You are warmly invited to join us and  start your New Year resolutions as a  Modern Samurai .  --- Information for Year 2025 Beginners --- Little Samurai Class (age under 14): 1.30 - 2.30pm, Saturdays  Beginners Class (age 14 and above): 2.30 - 3.30pm, Saturdays Intermediate and Advanced Class : 3.30 - 6.00pm, Saturdays Starting Dates: Term 1: Saturday 25 January Term 2: Saturday 10 May  We will be accepting new students all Saturdays of May, but the earlier you can start, the better. Term 3: Saturday 19 July   Term 4: Saturday 11 October Join our 2025 Beginners Facebook Group  now to get updates. Or, email us for more information.  Course Information: No previous experience required. Regardless of gender,  ages from 6 to 60  are all welcome. First lesson  is your Free trial. Membership Fees:  Kids and School students: 50.00 per month Tertiary students and adults: 80.00 per month Family discounts : the 2nd family member is 50...

Wednesday 31st May 2023 Keiko Reflection - Janet Tonight’s Keiko was planned by Marleen sensei & led by Senpais Leo & Joyce.  We had a rare opportunity to watch & learn some wazas/ techniques first hand from both senpais particularly on their specialties: Jōdan-no-Kamae & Gyaku-Dō. The upper-level posture or stance ( Jōdan-no-Kamae ) which Leo Senpai uses, is the Hidari (left) Jōdan , where the left foot is in front of the right foot, so essentially the foot positions are reversed from normal Chudan position.  Using the posterior right foot to push off when going forwards & the anterior left foot to push off when going backwards.  Otherwise all other elements of footwork remains the same, like heels off the ground using Suriashi sliding steps, maintain inner parallel & the distance between both feet, right foot not overtaking left foot, using the left foot for fumikomi & right foot quickly follow up after strike to run through with Zanshin…etc....

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...

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 ...

Wednesday 22nd June 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Kendo does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter who we are, once we put on bōgu facing our opponents our intentions are all the same, do our best to deliver our best Ippon or Yūkō-datotsu (valid strike). In order to achieve that goal, kendokas constantly return to train Kihon basics to refine & perfect their kendo. We need to work on developing good, smooth, swift Suri-ashi (sliding footwork) while maintaining good straight upper body posture with same height & a stable centre of gravity to keep balanced. Okuri-ashi , is a type of sliding footwork where you push off with your left foot & advance with the right then quickly follow up with the left foot again but the left toe is always in line with the heel of the right foot. It is crucial for the left foot not to pass more than half of the length of the right foot in order to be in a position to quickly get back into good kamae to be ready to defend or attack.  Having go...

  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...

Kendo is fascinating to me--new words and ideas. I appreciate so much how it teaches me to see things from a completely different perspective; there is a kind of Eastern poetry of movement in Kendo that is a wonder. I am fitter now than when I first started and my muscles ache less and I recover faster.  For now the best thing about Kendo, is that it is an adventure in learning and unconsciously it makes me healthier. In the past, I have tried to get fitter the other way round....focusing on physical fitness goals and becoming bored easily. Kendo feeds my joy of learning and I am blessed with an amazing teacher with a warm bunch of fellow Kendo learners. 2021 Beginner Classes - info You might be interested: A brief introduction of "what is Kendo" to Waikato Beginners  Kendo Journey: A "Travel Guide" from Shodan to Godan-and-a-Half How other Beginners feel about Kendo?

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 ...

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

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 whol...

Best wishes to your anticancer pharmaceutical research project! * Life is full of obstacles and challenges but they shouldn’t stop you from moving forward, meaning, do not give up just because something is not going your way. In fact, they should be the driving forces of your progress . I don’t know everything about Kendo, only what my sensei(s) and my mother have told me. There are some steps which I can’t do but I still train because that is how a person makes progress. You cannot improve if you don’t do anything. Being the person I was and still am (a total weirdo), I never really understood what giving up meant before. I had never so-called given up on anything I started because I didn’t know what it was. It sounded like a silly human sentiment to me. How can you stop doing something that you have not mastered? Doesn’t it feel incomplete? Shouldn’t it motivate you to try harder because it feels good to master something or it enriches your life ie. makes your life more mean...