Nanseikan Kendo Club 南西館剣道クラブ

front entrance of the Kenshikan in West Melbourne It's grading time again. Below is the relevant info. Kendo 6 Kyu - 2 Kyu  Grading When: Sunday 6 March 12:30pm registrations, 1pm start Where: Kenshikan Dojo, 91 Rosslyn Street, West Melbourne Kendo 1 Kyu - 3 Dan  Grading When: Sunday 20 March 12:30pm registrations, 1pm start Where: Kenshikan Dojo, 91 Rosslyn Street, West Melbourne For Nanseikan's approach to gradings (and competition), please read this. To apply for grading, just speak to me at training and I submit your application. Fees are paid after the grading is completed and the VKR sends an invoice. Dan grading questions, and the form on which they need to be submitted can be downloaded by clicking this link to Google drive . For a description of what it feels like to go for the different grades, see this older article from Shugo-Nanseikan. For the actual technical descriptions of requirements of 6th kyu to 2nd kyu, see

not the actual cover! I have just spent a little time updating the Beginners' Handbook. If you have just started the beginners' course, please take a moment to print yourself a copy. https://docs.google.com/document/d/18z5KYMuwsLMvyCd2GNWboSMw-iv-bTnZSmzK4Y2IcLk/edit?usp=sharing The purpose of the book is to cover just the basic procedures so that you can more quickly remember what you need to do and how you need to do it when you are in the dojo. It's not a handbook of techniques per se. The things it covers are: Pronunciation of Japanese words The Dojo correct attire and safety how to kneel down into seiza and stand up again correctly etiquette procedures how to hold the sword basic stances basic footwork patterns basic Japanese terms used in Kendo and their meanings what constitutes a valid strike in Kendo ( yuko datotsu )

From last week's visit by Ozawa sensei and Okada sensei. This was the Tuesday night training at Fudoshin Kendo Club. As I mentioned at training, we have more opportunities to train with high level sensei in Australia than most people do in Japan. The majority of Japanese kenshi rarely get to train with 8th dan sensei. So please consider making time to join in next time someone like Ozawa sensei comes to visit. And remember as Okada-s. said, if you want to improve your basics, just spend an hour a day doing hayasuburi !