Nanseikan Kendo Club 剣道クラブ南西館

As usual, St Pius X Hall with be a polling booth on election day. Although it might be fun to try and run training at the same time, I have a country wedding to go to that day. So I think the easiest thing will be to cancel training rather than relocate for the day. To make up for it, term fees will cover the whole day of shochugeiko. In the meantime, we were doing suriage waza last night and I showed everyone this video again. Chiba sensei is a great example to have in mind, and you can never share this video too much!

This year's end-of-year summer training, or shochugeiko , will be held at Blairgowrie Community Hall, 8 William Rd.  View Map We will meet at the dojo at 6.30am and set out at 7.00, aiming to arrive at Blairgowrie by 8.30. We will train until around 3.30-4pm, then head to the beach which as you can see from the map is about 100m away! St John's Wood Rd shops are also walking distance, which means fish and chips and/or pizza for tea I reckon. It looks like we will have access to a 12-seater bus, but even so we will probably need to do some car-pooling as well. The hall is about the same size as our dojo, perhaps a tiny bit smaller. The date for shochugeiko is Saturday 15 December.

An ongoing issue for me is how to best reach everyone with information about the club and Kendo-related events, particularly at short notice. I was hoping that the email subscribe feature here on Blogger would work but it seems people aren't always getting notification of new posts in their email. If you've a notification about this post in your email, could you leave a brief comment below? I suspect that some are not receiving them because the notification is going straight to their junk mailbox. I'm hoping this is the problem, not some more fundamental issue with cnames and anames and DNSs and stuff I generally don't understand. Blogger's online help community is not super up-to-date. Also, if anyone knows of another platform that might work, and that's not too 'needy', could they let me know? I've tried Twitter and TeamApp, but Twitter especially is way too intrusive and very hard to delete. 

The remaining junior trainings with Matsumoto sensei at the Kenshikan are: Sunday October 28: 12:30 – 2pm Sunday November 18: 12 – 2pm

It's a 10 week term (my mistake earlier, apologies). Much appreciated!  :)

Congratulations to Sean on passing his 3rd dan grading last Sunday at the Kenshikan! It is a great achievement and testament to Sean's commitment to regular training. His Kendo is informed by the depth of his experience in other martial arts. From 3rd dan, in Australia at least, the expectation is that you will start to move into a mentoring role. Sean is already doing that through his teaching at Parade College. From now he will also be expected to attend shinpan seminars and experience life on the other side of the red and white flags. In Kendo, the gap between each grade gets bigger the higher you go, so it's no shame to fail. Whether you pass or fail, each grading offers a unique chance to learn more about your Kendo. Congratulations also to Eric, who passed his 2 kyu. While not a Nanseikan member per se, Eric has become a familiar face at Nanseikan through his consistent attendance on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Well done Eric! Komeda sensei seminar Th...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqtbbMnZjE

As well as the links in the previous post , this Youtube channel will be televising the WKC. Above is from the Korean National 8 dan final. And for a complete schedule of which members of the Australian squad will be competing when, go to the Australian Team Support page:  http://www.kendoaustralia.asn.au/content/?page_id=4122

Namdong Stadium, Incheon Here are some links to get you in the WKC mood. Australian team facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/akrteam/ Australian team Instagram: @australian_kendo 17 WKC schedule:  http://17wkc.kr/sub/Schedule.php video stream (available when competition starts):  http://17wkc.kr/sub/Video.php There may also be a live Youtube channel, IG-TV channel or Facebook Live. Will keep you posted. Other places to watch out for highlights packages: Kendo World's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuEFJrxMVIzIix3QVD5mkUA AJKF's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZennipponKendoRenmei Let'sKendo's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/letsKENDO

Well done to everyone who passed their grading last Sunday, especially those whose first grading it was. Commiserations to those who didn't pass but as they say in Japanese 七転び八起き "Knocked down seven times, get up eight." (Thanks to Anna for the great pic!) Also, for Jordan in particular but everyone in general, this: https://shugo-nanseikan.blogspot.com/2017/02/lessons-from-hokkaido-police.html

These guys are not amateurs. This is the 2015 national comp of the All Japan Battodo Renmei, a branch of iaido that does tameshigiri regularly. Admittedly they're pretty good with the single mat, it's the multiples that seem to defeat most comers. I think I noticed some of the successful ones using extra large blades. Enjoy!

Next week training will be at Kenshikan. Training will be normal time 9am to 11am. Beginners also will be training for the two hours. The Kenshikan is 91-99 Rosslyn St, West Melbourne. Our training will be overlapping with the first session of the annual Interhigh Gasshuku. Part of that will be a naginata demonstration and workshop. Depending on numbers and resources, Nanseikan members may be able to join in. This will be from about 10.30 or 11am. This is an important opportunity for those who haven't been to the Kenshikan before to become a little bit familiar with the place prior to their first grading on the Sunday. Below is an excellent video by Andy Fisher, CEO of Kendostar, showing how to correctly wear the kendogi and hakama (together they are called dogi ). Take note of everything he does EXCEPT wearing a black tshirt under the kendogi. This is a big NO-NO in my book. The only kind of undershirt that should be seen under the kendogi is a v-neck uwagi, and that...

Pick My Project is a Victorian Governnment initiative to distribute grants to projects in the community. If you live within 5km of the dojo then please go to  https://pickmyproject.vic.gov.au , create an account and vote! You must choose three projects and can only vote for each once, so make sure one of them is the St Pius X Hall upgrade: https://pickmyproject.vic.gov.au/rounds/pick-my-project/ideas/west-heidelberg-community-our-upgrade-for-our-future If you're not sure how close you live, the website will tell you once you register whether you can vote for the hall upgrade or not. Let's hope we get it across the line!

The next VKR Junior Kendo Keiko will be held on  August 26 from 1 to 3 pm at the Kenshikan, West Melbourne. Future keiko dates will be on: October 28  1-3pm November 18  12-2pm

Due to some administrative issues on both sides, the Nanseikan kyu team has had to be withdrawn from the competition. I'll speak to this more in person next Saturday. We will still be fielding Mick, Sean, Andrew, Chie and me in the Veterans' comp, Chie and Sean in the Kata and Ben, Sean, Andrew, Mick and me in the Open team. Even though no-one is now competing in the first event Sunday, it is necessary for everyone who is competing to be there to register between 8.00am and 8.45am . This is also the time for the shinai check. So thanks Mick for the offer to take everyone's shinai but you will all need to be there anyway! The running order for Sunday is: men's kyu team women's kyu team veteran's indiv. kata women's open team men's open team The day is scheduled to go from 9am to 5pm with 45 min for lunch, subject to change! Exact start times for each event or lunch are not yet finalised. At this stage the day will probably go longer, but ...

Firstly, don't forget your bokuto (as well as shinai and bogu). Secondly, the seminar will be on Netball courts 1 and 2 at MSAC. Registrations at 9am, seminar start at 9.30. The morning session will finish at 12.30. Lunch will be an hour, then arvo session from 1.30 to 4.30. There will be a mide-morning and mid-afternoon break as well. Sunday's schedule is identical. Yano sensei of MBK has let me know that they are happy to waive the seminar fee for anyone who can only attend the morning session. This is very kind of them. You may however still feel like making a donation of some kind to the running costs of the event. This is what I'll be doing. See you there!

This Saturday we will all be attending the morning session of the Okada sensei seminar at MSAC Albert Park. This is partly because there will be no electricity at our dojo while the electricity company does repairs. Please be there on time! Seminar will start 9.30am sharp. Also, you will need a bokuto as well as shinai. Okada sensei will look at the following areas across the weekend: bokuto kihon kendo kata kihon waza shiai technique jigeiko The cost for one day is $40, children 15 and under are free. There is no half day fee unfortunately, but think of it as a donation to the Melbourne Budokai. I assure you, as the organisers they won't be making money out of this weekend!

Next Saturday there will be no training at Nanseikan. Instead we will be at MSAC Albert Park to take part in the Okada sensei seminar . In recognition of this, this term will be reduced to eight weeks instead of nine, for the purposes of our dojo fees. This change our schedule is to make use of a great opportunity to learn from an excellent Japanese 8th dan sensei. For those of you who haven't seen really high level Kendo before, it will be quite amazing. This is something that not a lot of martial arts practitioners have access to. The seminar is $40 for one day, or $70 for both Saturday and Sunday. If you can only stay for the morning that's fine, just note that there is no half day fee. Considering that the Melbourne Budokai is bringing out Okada sensei and three assistant instructors I think it's reasonable price to pay. The only other way to get this kind of instruction is to go to Japan. Kids under 15 and under are free. We need to be at MSAC by 9.00am, dres...

This term is a busy one! With the Victorian Kendo Championships on the 11-12 August and the gradings on 2 September (6-3 kyu) and 30 September (2 kyu- 4 dan), there will be lots of opportunity to demonstrate what you've learned in training. We will also have a new group of beginners starting on 11 August . Lastly there is the Interhigh Gasshuku on 1 and 2 September . Phew! Below are the details of the VKC. Entries need to be in by Friday 27th, so we will decide this weekend on what events we will enter as a club. So have a think about your availability and what you would like to enter this week! Lastly but not leastly, there WILL BE training on this Wednesday!