Nanseikan Kendo Club 剣道クラブ南西館

Last weekend saw the running of the 34th (!) Victorian Kendo Championships. Over the two days there were 10 separate competitions held, a massive organisational undertaking and superbly well run by Ballarat and Apollo Bay Kendo Clubs, and their volunteers. In my mind, these guys are the most important people of all those who attend. Our club had its best ever attendance. On Saturday, Quinn and Andrew competed in the Kyu individual event, a very difficult division because it contains such a wide range of skill levels. Well done to you both. Each shiai is like months of jigeiko disstilled into a few short minutes. There's lots to reflect on afterwards, but also lots of momentum and passion that can carry through into training as well. On the Sunday it was the teams' events: kyu and open. For the first time we had a team in each. Sadly I couldn't watch the kyu team in action because I had shinpan duties on the other court (note to self below!). But a look at th...

Another great Victorian Junior Kendo Championships today. The standard gets better every year. This year we had two divisions, 14 & under and 16 & under. Unfortunately only three Victorian dojo were represented, Nanseikan (of course!), Fudoshin and Ballarat. Firstly thanks to the shinpan who came along today: Gary Oliver, Khay-Lin Teoh sensei, Richard Ward, Jason Widdy and Andrew Lam. Thanks also to all the parents for bringing their boys (and they were all boys this year, more girl-kendoka needed!) as well as supporting their kendo throughout the year. Last but not least, thanks to Tony of UMKC, who took all the fantastic photos below. All pics are (c) Tony Shearer. Straight off the 14 & under matches were high quality. Newcomer Yuichiro Sato of Fudoshin won his first match in his first ever taikai against Thomas Goh, also of Fudoshin. Sato (red) scoring men against Thomas Goh. Poor Thomas didn't fare any better in his next match against our own Mr Weber. Geoffrey won ...

Our team did well at this year's Melbourne Mumeishi 3s taikai. Jimmy was senpo (position 1) Natsu was chuken (position 2) and Richard was taisho (position 3) . Here's Natsu's report: Well the result was: Ballarat A; Jimmy, me, Richard lost with two points each to Fudoshin B; Jimmy draw, me and Richard won by tow points each UMKC A; jimmy got a dou, but lost by two points, and we lost too... it wasn't the best match if you say from the results, but both jimmy and Richard did extremely well, plenty of kiai, a lot of good techniques with really good timing. kaeshi dou etc i think they need more kihon so the uchi is stronger and also learn good 'kime' and they'll become excellent kendoka. The winning team was Kenshikan 'A', second was Ballarat 'A', they also got the fighting spirit award, and third UMKC 'A'. Well done guys and thanks to Geoffrey's dad and Jimmy's dad for transport on the day. b

g'day! this is Natsu i'm gonna make a report on the VKC, which was held on Aug 24th Sunday at Ballarat. Me, Eli, Kurt and Jimmy entered VKC which started at an unhuman time(7:30am!! gosh!) and went though all day till well past 7pm. KYU INDIVIDUAL Jimmy was the first match of the day, fought against Son.N(UMKC) and Ryo.S(MBK), both really good matches, but unfortunately lost. Kurt won against Nicole.S(UMKC)(^o^), but lost to Rachel.L(MBK). Eli got through the first stage, beat Viet.H(UMKC), but lost to Andy.M(UMKC) at the next stage. Every ones matches were really great WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL I got through the first league, but lost to Chiaki.K(Fudoshin) at the next stage. DAN INDIVIDUAL I lost to Tom.M(UMKC), and Ruben.B(MBK) ...(ToT)\meh KYU TEAM Nanseikan was against MBK. The team order was senpou-Jimmy, chuken-Kurt, and taishou-Eli. Good match but lost...Still, good fight everyone!!!! OPEN TEAM We were against Fudoushin (like last year). Senpou was me, chuken Kurt and tais...

Sunday 1 May saw the first Nagae Taikai, a day of shiai in kata only: both kendo kata and seitei iaido kata. It was a great event with a large number of teams from all around Victoria competing. Nanseikan had two kendo kata teams: Stephanie and Natsu were team 1. Robert and Luke were team 2. Both teams did really well in displaying the first five kendo no kata under great pressure. Rob and Luke even got a round of applause at the close of their kata. They were the only team that got such a response. So well done guys! The eventual winners on the day were Chikushinkai for iaido, and Ballarat for kendo. b

(poster pic (c) 2007 Jess Edwards) Well the 2007 VKC was a hectic day for some, a lot of waiting around for others! I was one of the hectic ones, hence no pics: sorry! :( Nanseikan was represented by me, Eli and Jordan. All of us had only so-so showings in the individual comp. But in the team comp we did really well. We fought Fudoshin, one of the strongest clubs in Australia (their five person team had, I think, three national team members on it!). As the rules state, we were allowed to enter as the smallest team of only three people, which meant that we had to win all our matches in order to beat Fudoshin and progress to the next round. We thought that was a pretty tall order, so we had fun with our draw. Often the best kendoka fight in first and last position, with the number three spot going to the next best fighter. I volunteered for first spot, Eli for number three and Jordan for number five. I fought first, against Alvin Chen who is a very good 3 dan and fights in jodan kamae (...