Waikato Kendo Club

Wisdom is never an instruction, but a guide for your journey. Wednesday 6th July 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Tonight’s training focus was on: 1. Kihon footwork : both forwards & backwards & swiftly follow up with left foot. 2. Small Men : Remember the striking force on contact with target should be exactly the same as when doing Big-Men, however, we do not need to rotate our shoulders fully over the head, but rather only need to rotate the shoulders to about shoulder height then extend the left arm & wrist & perform Tenouchi. 3. Hiki Waza ( Hiki-Men, Hiki-Dō ): these are techniques made while stepping backwards usually from Tsubazeriai position & are executed with smaller shoulder rotations like Small Men or Dō while the body’s centre of gravity is going backwards on to the left foot first before performing Fumikomi with the right foot at same time as the Shinai strikes the target. It is crucial for Kyu grades to start getting use to backwards foot work & pra...

Say “onegaishimasu” loudly from your heart to show your gratitude. 💕 It is more than just an etiquette. Saturday 2nd July 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet This winter, Sense's goal for us was to help us develop good fitness & physical resilience through repeated Kihon training: Warm up drills, Good Kamae, Footwork (Suriashi, Fumikomi), strong continuous Kiai, Kirikaeshi, Uchikomi-geiko (Big Men, Kote-Men, Dō, Rensoku Men) & Kakari-geiko. It is very important to develop good physical fitness overtime so that our body can be conditioned to perform more delicate & advanced manoeuvres with faster speed, accurate precision & correct power in due course. Remember, all good things takes time! Therefore, for beginners & Kyu grades, we must remember to not rush when doing our drill practices, as we must start by developing muscle memory with the correct Kihon movements in order to not develop bad habits. Make sure we take our time to execute each strike with precision, Ich...

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...

Saturday 18th June 2022 Keiko Reflection by Janet Kendo is a way to discipline human character which helps to mould our mind & body, & encourage lifelong personal growth & improvement. No one in the world can stop us from improving & become a better person apart from ourselves. Therefore, let’s continue to do our best to refine our kendo together. In Kendo, the ultimate goal for all kendokas is to strive for Ippon (or Yuko-Datotsu, a valid strike, at least). In order to achieve Ippon, we need to execute a strike with Ki-Ken-Tai-Itchi.  That is why we need to show our strong spirit through strong Kiai . Kiai helps to bring our mind & body together so that we can deliver a good meaningful strike with intent . Handle the Shinai to correctly land a strike with Tenouchi on the Datotsu-bui of the opponent (striking targets) using the correct Datotsu-bu (striking area) on our Shinai. Strike with correct foot work, good body posture from Issoku-Ittou-no-Maai, then main...

Wednesday 8th June 2022 Keiko Reflection Despite Senseis absence today the keiko tonight went well.  At the beginning & end of keiko it did felt a bit different to omit bowing 🙇🏻‍♀️ to sensei due to their absence. However it was a true testament to Sam & Marleen senseis’ hard work & dedication to WKC leaving an important legacy as throughout todays keiko, we could still feel their presence & the WKC spirit through the Senpais leading the keiko. To ensure a productive & injury-free keiko warm up drills are very important. It is also a good time to practise our breathing & Kiai while counting out loud “I chi, Ni, San, Shi, Go, Roku, Shichi, Hachi, Kyu, Ju ”. Make sure the Ki comes from the diaphragm by tightening the abdominal muscles, producing a strong Kiai. During Fumikomi drills, ensure we don’t lift the right knee up too much but rather the motion should be more forward when pushing off from the ball of the left foot making the left leg almost straight....

  Saturday 11 June 2022 Keiko Reflection - Janet Todays Keiko is a true reflection & fine example of “Shi-Tei-Dou-Gyou” (師弟同行) which literally means “teacher & student going together”. It encourages bilateral learning irrelevant of one’s status nor level of experience & is a learning philosophy or attitude derived from Zen Buddhism encouraging Sensei, Senpai & Kohai to work & train together, giving each other their 120% effort towards refining each others kendo. Sensei & senpai will provide guidance, feedback & constantly looking to challenge the Kohais to increase level of difficulty so we can think & learn from our mistakes as we make progress on our kendo journey. This is also an important part of the seniors kendo journey to be able to effectively pass on their knowledge of Kendo to the future generations. While the Kohais need to be constantly attentive & be proactive to learn from the seniors. Saturday 11 June 2022 For the beginners & K...

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...