Detroit 2007 after glow

Congratulations to Team Eastern! What a great day for everyone involved with Eastern kendo. First, congratulations to everyone that passed their shinsa. Jack Ponchart is our newest shodan at the age of 14, watch out everyone and Nathan Haley is our newest ikkyu. It was a great way to start the tournament off. After the shinsa, we had a wonderful seminar and practice with Satoru Harada Sensei the All Japan Kendo Tournament Champion of 2005. It was great to be instructed by such a force in kendo. He is truly inspiring. My favorite moments were when he kept stating "back when I was competitive." After the practice it was off to the pub with the folks from Pittsburgh. It was great to meet everyone and the Oatmeal stout wasn't bad either. The tournament was great and as I was shimpan, I was unable to see everyone's matches. Please comment on how you felt during each match if you would like. The team did great again and it was great to hear everyone cheering for us. Our first match was a tough one but we managed to get through to face our down the street rivals, UofM B. Ypsi pride won out on this day and we were then to face Louisville A. The team consisted of great kenshi and we were soon down two points. The we gave up another two and were down by four. In a great comeback, Charlie gained two points for us and it was up to me to tie it. The pressure was on but I felt very confident in my jodan. The first men was solid and now we only needed one point to force the tiebreak. Hajime was called and I went for a men morote kote and scored the ippon. It was a great feeling to come back with that ippon. The tiebreak was ippon shobu and I was up against Sakagawa sensei. His hiki do strike rang out throughout the shiajo and we had lost. It was a great tournament and it was very nice to see all of the people that came in support. Thanks to everyone for participating and making Eastern Kendo shine in the eyes of our fellow kenshi. Kampai!

Jodan in Detroit

This year at the Detroit tournament I was very happy with my jodan work. While I lost to my first opponent I did manage to score men which had the crowd in awe due to the fact that I was fighting Sandy Maruyama from team USA. I will never forget that ippon. It was a great feeling to even be in the same shiajo with him. On to the team matches, we did extremely well again this year and advanced to one spot before the court final. My jodan was very helpful again in accomplishing this. The highlight for me this year was scoring a men morote kote to bring the match back to a tie. I then proceeded to compete in the tie break Ippon shobu and lost to a hiki do. Man, that was upsetting but it was a great point and a deserving win. I would like to strongly thank Sugawara sensei for continually teaching me jodan in everything that he does. Argia sensei, from Ohio, also complimented my strength in jodan which left me with an extremely great feeling. all in all it was a great tournament. Cheers!

Detroit, Detroit, Detroit

Get ready. Detroit is just around the corner. The fight is near and all of our kendo is ready. Be sure to start thinking about what you want to accomplish at this tournament and test. If you do your kendo and leave it all on the floor you will have won regardless of the outcome. Fight to the finish and expend all of your energy throughout the fight. Kendo begins and ends with Rei. Always remember that you are a part of Eastern Kendo and your kendo should reflect that. See you all at practice. Cheers!