Waikato Kendo Club

Text forwarded from Marleen's Facebook: Sato Sensei, Kitamoto 2014  Utsunomiya sensei & Sakimoto San, Tokyo 2014  ＊ I asked Sato sensei after Farewell Party @ Kitamoto Camp a question about Seme. I said, "Sensei, is there anyway we could train to make stronger Seme?" Sato snesei gently held my hand and told me,  "NO. strong Seme comes from good Suri-ashi". One day later, I had the honor to obtain Mutsumi Utsunomiya sensei's instruction. He showed me how it works. Since then, footwork means more to me. 我在北本外國劍道指導者夏令營最後一個晚上，問了佐藤老師一個盤據在我心裡很久的問題。我問：「老師，有什麼方法可以訓練出很強的『攻』？」老師溫和地拉起我的右手拍一拍並說： 「沒有這樣的方法。在劍道裡有效的『攻』來自於腳步...  放鬆妳的手跟肩膀，練習腳步是唯一的方法」 二天之後，我有幸可以得到宇都宮老師的指導練習。他充分展示了如何運用腳步進的攻法。 從此，「腳步」對於我有了全新的意義。 Some following conversation on Facebook ... Utsunomiya  Important point is not breaking down kamae, any time. But in fact, it is very difficult.  · 5 October at 22:14 Marleen Dear sensei, I couldn...

Welcome to our 2014 Beginners  Grading result on 2014-August-09 1st Kyu Gavin Cheng Claire van der Goes 4th Kyu Yizhou Dai 5th Kyu Irfa n Sazali Gunn Kim Teng Lu 6th Kyu Yang Xue Wen Huating Zhu Simon Young 7th Kyu Antony Cheng Fae Ferguson 8th Kyu Spyke Lawrey Suki Dai Yuuki Li Shawn Xu Congratulations to all of you and remember to keep training hard,  the next grading has just started! 

Saturday 18 January 2014 * On behalf of Waikato Dojo, I would like to welcome you back from Xmas and New Year holidays! Here are some general guidelines and plans from me for our members: For Kyu-grade  members, executing strikes with  ki-ken-tai-itchi  is the main focus at this stage. Perform the  kihon-datotsu  (basic strikes) correctly. We will have a lot of training on kiai-seme-Men, Kote-Men, and kiri-kaeshi. It is important to focus on your own techniques rather than whether you can hit on your opponents.  Be patient on this stage and there is no need to rush to move on to next stage. This stage is to build your foundation and you will find the long term benefit yourself! Another important issues for kyu-grade members is about purchasing your own  Kendo-gu  (the kendo-armour, or  Bogu ). Once you decide you want to pick up Kendo, you are encouraged to prepare your own Kendo-gu. Renting  bogu  from club is jus...

Thanks to our young Japanese guest, Mark, for his calligraphy (Shodo 書道) gifts to Waikato members!   15 August 2013 Post by Waikato Kendo Association .

Welcome to our newest beginners who just joined us today! 21 September 2013 Getting ready ... Getting organised. Organising the name list. Group 1 - Kamae Group 1 - Footwork Grading Panel Group 1 - Kote Group 2 - Kamae Group 2 - Men Group 2 - Kote * Congratulations to our 2013B Beginners who have achieved 8th Kyu Kauri Tepana Ben Smith Jerry Jie Yang Xue Wen Joseph Maea Liam Mauch Sophie Laing Alicia Laing 7th Kyu Billy Maea Leon Lu Ko Phyo Santisha Clement Tangiwai Amopiu * Also, thanks to our senior members who came to help for serving the grading panel and giving feedback to the beginners.

 Updates from Ben, Tübingen Kendo 2013 - 13 July 2013 - Hello Sam and Marleen, another semester's beginners course has come to an end, and I want to write to you and let you know how it went. Up until now our beginners course has been done in an 'everyone for themselves' style: you needed to buy your things yourself (and people often bought the wrong things), no one really talked to you, there were no emails or get-togethers. Normally only 2 to 3 people stayed, and sometimes none. This semester (my second time as trainer, this time alone) I tried to do things like how I remember them from my time at Waikato: I made lists, wrote emails, provided lots of information, organised and ordered all the materials (shinai, gi+hakama etc.), and generally tried to be very professional. I also concentrated more on doing the training with kindness and humour, instead of only concentrating on the kendo, keeping in mind that kendo is hard at the beginning (and mi...

It's always nice and warm to know your updates. Please keep in touch, All Waikato members, no matter where you are!   - 8 November 2012 - Hello Sam and Marleen  Do you remember me, a tall guy who started Kendo in your dojo? I've been training in Tübingen the last year, and now I am teaching the beginners course.  I try to remember everything you taught me, and I try to be as nice to the beginners as you were to us.  Here is a little video from the 3rd training we have had.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q82rQT7bDOI Lots of love Ben