OnlineKendo.com - a kendo equipment retailer to check out!

I know most of us have had good experiences buying kendo equipment from e-Bogu, Eguchi, Mugendo, Kendoshop and others, but I want to introduce you to a kendo supplier that's not new but new to me, OnlineKendo.com.

We are becoming an affiliate marketer with OnlineKendo.com, which means if you click the link above and buy something, we'll get a percentage of the sale above a certain amount. We'll add this link to the blog and to our main page as well.

Truthfully, I would encourage you to click over and check out the company's inventory anyway, since I feel it is important to support all of these suppliers, which are a valuable part of the national and international kendo community as well as businesses. Here, for example, is a standard beginner's shinai I'd like to try.

We'll be getting some samples of OnlineKendo's stuff and we'll let you know our experiences with them. For now, we just say, Welcome, OnlineKendo.com!

2008 Family Tournament

Thank you to all of the competitors and volunteers that made this year's tournament the most successful yet. It was a great turnout with a great practice afterward as well. The banquet was not bad either. Eastern did extremely well by placing in Sandan and up and Shodan/Nidan. Congratulations to Fukuma sesnei for placing 2nd in the Sandan and up division, Jack Ponchart for placing third in the Shodan/Nidan divison, and myself, I was lucky enough to place third in the Sandan and up divison. Hopefully everyone had a great time and learned something about their kendo. The Michigan family gets better and better every year. See you soon. Results are below.

Non Bogu:

1st- Mangus
2nd- Tamai
3rd- Terasawa
3rd- S. Suzuki

Mudansha:

1st- Motta
2nd- Trusevich
3rd- Noonan
3rd- Hsu

Women:

1st- Mishina
2nd- Arai
3rd- Dawson
3rd- Hadano

Shodan/Nidan:

1st- Hill
2nd- Chaffin
3rd- Holmgren
3rd- Ponchart

Sandan and up:

1st- Murakami
2nd- Fukuma
3rd- Abbey
3rd- Yoshida

Jodan at the Family Tournament

This year's Family Tournament was a great time and it was the first time that I have had good success with jodan. I wound up taking third place at this year's tournament by beating two very strong Detroit senseis. I was one match away from making it to the finals and lost to the eventual champion Murakami sensei. My first match was against Morita sensei and if you know him he is a firece competitor. The match was very tight and I could not seem to get an opening until I found one and scored hiki men. This has become a very good waza for me because of the thought that jodan competitiors are not very good at hiki waza. Anyway, he then got a kote on me and the match was all tied up. We went into encho and were both pretty tired but my jodan overcame his seme and I scored a katate men for the win. I was then up, immedieately against Takahashi sensei, the older one. I have always enjoyed practicing with him but had never fought with him before. This was another tight match and I wound up scoring a katate men and holding him off for the win. Then I had a break until the bottom round finished. The winner of that bracket was Murakami sensei, so it was him and I in the court final. I was prepared and ready for the match. The first point he got was a basic kote on me which was very frustrating. Then, for what has now become my focal point, he forze me with a kote, kote and scored the second point. I had lost, fairly quickly, because I let him into my maai. I have got to work on maintianing pressure on smaller kenshi in order to dominate them. The other thing that I have gained from this shiai is the fact that my waza has improved, but my seme now needs more work. That's the beauty of kendo, when you think you have something down and go onto the next thing, you usually realize that you didn't really have the previous down. Always learning, that's kendo for ya. I am very happy to have placed in this tournament and have not done so since I started kendo. Hopefully this is the start of some more medals. Cheers!