Eastern Kendo

Congratulations to Travis Hill!

2011-05-31T08:48:00.002-04:00

What an announcement. Travis Hill from Grand Rapids Kendo Club has just been named to the United States Team for the World Championships. This is by far the highest achievements to be had in US kendo. Competing and trying out amongst all of the kenshi in the US and then gaining a spot on the team is something to think about for all of us. It can happen with the proper training and guidance. Please congratulate him and Matsuura sensei for this remarkable accomplishment. Cheers!

8th Annual Michigan Family Tournament Results

2011-05-16T08:40:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone,

Below please find the results to the Michigan Family Tournament. It was a great success and Eastern Kendo thanks everyone for coming.

Youth:

1. Hasegawa
2. Phillips
3. Kohsuke
3. Sherrod

Women:

1. Fujisaki
2. Mishina
3. Kong
3. M. Sherrod

Mudansha:

1. Han
2. Le
3. Ryal
3. Kern

Sho/ Ni dan:

1. Ha
2. Van Osch
3. Minowa
3. Fujisaki

San dan and up:

1. Hill
2. Matsuura
3. Kim
3. Chaffin

Congratulations to all of the competitors. See you at the dojo.

Congratulations!!

2011-04-05T13:46:00.001-04:00

This post is way past due but in February of this year, Charlie Kondek passed his shinsa for the rank of Yon Dan!. The entire Eastern Kendo Club is honored to have him as a founding member and as a lead instructor and sensei. Congratulations Kondek sensei.

Red/White Tournament 2011

2011-01-05T22:31:00.002-05:00

So the year got off to a great start with our annual Red/White tournament. The first practice of the year saw a good deal of kenshi from around Michigan visiting and participating. Thansk to everyone for the hard practice and the good fights. The White team walked away victorious for the first time in a long time. Congratulations to everyone. A couple of points to remeber; be sure to create a goal for yourselves for the year. The club goal is that of tenouchi, or the actual cut. This si the focus for this year, cutting the aite not just hitting. Figure something out for yourselves as well. Also, dues are due to Charlie for the Midwest and All United States Kendo Federations. These are extremely minimal ammounts if you consider what other martial arts cost. The Detroit taikai is Feburary 13th witht he test on Feb. 12. Deadline for teststing if Jan 31st to me so please be sure I know if you are planning on testing or not. The videos of the Red White matches will be up shortly ont he you tube site. Haven't been there yet? Go to youtube.com/easternkendoclub See you on the floor.

Congratulations to Travis Hill!

2010-12-07T11:39:00.002-05:00

I received this this morning from Matsuura Sensei in Battle Creek and would like to share it with everyone. A great example of Midwest Kendo. Please be sure to congratulate Travis.

"Good morning,

I would like to report to the president of the MWKF as well as the rest of the member Dojos that Travis Hill of the Battle Creek Kendo Kai has made the first cut for a spot on Team USA which will compete at the World Championships in 2012.

Travis won his preliminary round robin to advance to the winners' round. In this round, he had to finish first to qualify automatically, but was defeated by Jason Brown. This placed him in the final consolation round. Only the first place finisher would become a Team USA prospect. Travis pulled this off and was amongst the top 7 finishers and did not have to depend on being a coaches' pick. 8 others were made coaches' picks for a total of 15 prospects.

These 15 prospects will now travel to monthly camps in California (flight paid for). The final roster for Team USA shall be announced in May.

Please wish Travis luck. He can be found on Facebook or his E-mail is:

travismichaelhill at gmail dot com

I hope that he will receive support from the federation and many of you will help him in his training. Thank you.

Yutaro Matsuura"

Tagawa sensei's Kanreki

2010-11-24T16:50:00.002-05:00

So, last saturday everyone celebrated Tagawa sensei's Kanreki, or 60th birthday. What a great time to do kendo in Michigan. There were people there from Florida, Toronto, Boston and all around Michigan. It was a great chance to practice and party with everyone. I was very happy to see so many Eastern people there as well. I hope you all had a great time. There should be some video coming in soon. It will go up on our youtube site as soon as I get it. See you all at practice.

MWKF 2010 Taikai Results

2010-10-18T09:38:00.005-04:00

Since the Midwest website is slow to update, here are the results from the taikai.

Youth:
1. Umakoshi
2. Liang
3. Ponchart
3. Seo

Women:
1. Saathoff
2. Mishina
3. Shih
3. Tanzer

Mudansha:
1. Antai
2. Walther
3.Robertson
3. Ahn

Sho/Ni dan:
1. Goto
2. Kim
3. Thompson
3. Tamura

San dan and up:
1. Yoshida
2. Hill
3. Hori
3. Fukuma

Teams:
1. Battle Creek A
2. Eastern A
3. University of Wisconsin A
3. Detroit A

MWKF 2010 Recap

2010-10-11T12:32:00.006-04:00

Well, what can I say, except what a phenomenal weekend. The Eastern Kendo Club Hosted the event and it went without a hiccup at all! I can not even believe that I am saying that. Talk about a smoothly ran event, wow. We should all pat ourselves on the back and realize how much work we all did to make this happen. Jack took home second place in the youth division and Fukuma sensei took home third in the san dan and up division. On top of that Eastern A took home Second Place in the teams. This has never happened before and was a great showing. Personally, this is the best I have ever done as a team and it is because the tournament went so well that it was easy to compete withuot stess. Thank you to everyone who was a part of it. So, I will try to recount all of the matches, if you want to add please feel free. Anyone can comment on any part of the day. That is what this is for.

The team consisted of, in order: Engling, Ponchart (younger), Abbey, Kondek, Fukuma

The first team we faced was MSU B. We started with a hikiwake and then followed up with one point from Ponchart for the win. It was then that I faced Dawson from MSU. Many of you already know that she started at Eastern and it sucks to fight your student. I took two points for the win as well. Then Charlie was up and hikiwake again. We were up 2-0 and Fukuma sensei was on. He got one point and we were through to the next round. The next round, as the brackets told me, would probably be our hardest team. We faced Choyokan from Chicago. Now, this was momentus for me because, along with MSU, Choyokan and Sakamoto sensei were the first dojo's that I practiced with. So, we were up against some tough competition. I was facing Okada san, who I have fought at last year's midwest tournament. We went down one match and then Ponchart got two points so we were 1-1 but one point up. The match with Okada was great and I managed to get one point on him for the win. Then Kondek was up and he managed to hikiwake with Hori sensei (rokudan). That's right Charlie came through with the match of the day. Hikiwake with a rokudan. Fukuma sensei was up next and we were through to the court finals against UW/Minnehaha. What a match. So we are now up against a team that I think that we can beat. The first match we go down and then Ponchart comes through again to tie it up. Next, I face Stronarch and scored my favorite waza men, morote kote right off the bat. We needed a point so now we are up. Then I managed to oshiotoshi his shinai out of his hands out of tsubazareai and hit men. I thought that this would score since the timing was part of my waza but it was fine. I managed then to socre another men morote kote and we were up 2-1 then. Kondek gets up and gets another point for us and then Fukuma sensei scores as well. We were through to the finals. Man what a feeling. Can't describe it. Individually I have been there, but as a team meant so much. Damn. Anyway, first up Engling goes down to Hill by two points. So it is up to Ponchart again to make it up. Now, I see that we probably could make one loss up but it would be tough. Jack takes Chaffin down to the wire and then loses one point at the end. We are down 2-0 and I am up against Matsuura sensei. Now, I think right away, do not let him score do. The match is tight but I know he is keeping me inside because that is his strategy against me so I finally get him outside and as he is coming in I hit morote men and score. This is the first ippon I have got on him. It felt great. So now I just have to hold. Well, I start thinking and what do you know, hiki gyaku do. Ippon. We end up at hikiwake and it is now up to Charlie and Fukuma to save the day. Charlie is up against Mack and he gets two points right away, hell yes. So we are 2-1 and they are up on points. Fukuma needs two for us to tie. He is against Yoshida sensei and manages to lose one point. We take home the silver but what a match and what a day. Thanks to everyone that was a part of it. First timers, add your stories as comments. I want to hear about all of your matches. See you on the floor.

2010 Midwest Kendo Championship

2010-09-01T20:53:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone,

The tournament packet can be found here http://easternkendo.org/news.html , if you need anything please email. All forms are due October 1, 2010. See you at the tournament.

22nd Midwest Championship

2010-08-02T22:00:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone, Below is the first information on this year's taikai. More will follow.

Hello and Greetings to everyone,

This is Eric Abbey from the Eastern Kendo Club at Eastern Michigan University. On behalf of the club and the Midwest Kendo Federation we are happy to announce the dates for this year's annual tournament. The full information packet will be sent shortly and any updates can be found at the below website. All emails were gathered from the Midwest Kendo Dojo Contact list so if this is not the right person to have this information please respond with the correct address. We look forward to seeing everyone this year and hope that summer camp goes extremely well. Have a great day.

Midwest Board Meeting- October 8, 2010

Midwest Tournament - October 9, 2010

Midwest Testing - October 10, 2010

The location for the Board Meeting is to be determined.

The Tournament and Test will take place on the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI

More information will follow.

Sincerely,

Eric Abbey

Eastern Kendo Club

Demo: Colors in Harmony

2010-05-24T13:05:00.002-04:00

Video from our demo at the 2010 Colors in Harmony get-together! Which was a great time featuring a lot of demos by a lot of cultural groups, including Indian song and dance, Mongolian dance, Korean drumming, African dancing.

This turned out pretty well. If we were short on explanation, I have to shoulder that - we had very little time (supposed to be 5 minutes) so I thought we make the main points - rei, kendo is sword fighting - and let the waza speak for themselves. Also, did something a bit different with how everyone attacked and went back to the end of the line.

We take demoing very seriously, of course, but we're still getting better at it. Thanks so much to the participants: Mike, Jonathan, Stijn and Brian. You guys look great!

Jodan at the Family tournament

2010-05-23T21:54:00.005-04:00

So this year's tournament was great and I felt that my jodan was ok. I was up against Takashima sensei first and have never fought him before. The match was tight and the balance was also pretty well towards the center. At one point he tried to strike men and missed and I stepped in and he fell to the ground. This then caused him to be a bit rattled. After that I thought that I could easily hit men, but he stood firm and finally, I saw an opening, but he threw tsuki and I hit men. Well, my men landed and the tsuki missed. I was through to the next roudn. The next round was against Murakami sensei, who is a dear frined of mine and someone that I would loev to land just one point on. The match was tight and I did not fall for how I had lost in the past by him freezing me. He finally landed kote on me but it was a great fight. Afterward, we had a great conversation about jodan and the godo keiko was great. Till next year. See you on the floor.

Family Tournament

2010-05-23T21:43:00.005-04:00

This year's tournament was great. We had 60 people competing. From the first tournament that is double. This was the seventh year and it was a great success. I think I may be finally getting the hang of this. Anyway, eastern did great and I was proud of everyone who participated. The theme of the day was to focus on shimpan and boy did we focus on it. Tagawa sensei was on it and helped many people. The matches were great and the banquet was alsio a great succes. Eastern is hosting the Midwest Championships this year in October and we look forward to another great event. Picture and video to follow here and on the youtube site. Keep watching. See you in the dojo.

Michigan Family Taikai Results

2010-05-16T21:32:00.002-04:00

Non Bogu

Han 1st
Sakuma D. 2nd

Youth

Umakoshi 1st
Inoe 2nd
Niwa 3rd
Yoshida K. 3rd

Women

Mishina 1st
Wolfe 2nd
Tabia 3rd
Inoe 3rd

Mudansha

Xie 1st
Dunham 2nd
Yoshida K. 3rd
DenBesten 3rd

Shodan/Nidan

Chaffin 1st
Thompson 2nd
Holmgren 3rd
VanOsch 3rd

Sandan and Up

Yoshida 1st
Murakami 2nd
Matsuura 3rd
Morita 3rd

Some movies we may wish to see!

2010-03-31T14:11:00.003-04:00

First one is an online film from Hungary (Barany-sensei is involved!):

This one looks to be Japanese (wonder if/when it will make its way to U.S. with subtitles):

I don't speak French but...

2010-03-30T13:21:00.002-04:00

...this looks like a cool series of vids! Love the shaven-head sensei.

Team USA working out.

2010-03-17T15:04:00.001-04:00

Oji waza: video geiko

2010-03-10T11:30:00.003-05:00

Guys, this week we started to work on some of the advanced waza, in particular oji waza. The waza in this group include nuki waza, suriage waza and kaeshi waza. Last night, Sakuma-sensei worked with us on men-kaeshi men and men-suriage-men.

Here's a good resource to watch as we learn or practice these waza, a series of videos called Kendo Perfect Master hosted by a cool kenshi on YouTube. Do have a look. Here is one on men-suriage-men.

Demo at EMU JSA Dinner

2010-03-10T10:44:00.002-05:00

Guys, someone at the JSA demo captured video. Looks pretty good! The stage was quite small and very shaky but you can't tell.

Part three (part one was history, rei, kata) is here - jigeiko with me and Mishina. Watch it so you can see how bad ass Mishina-san is, especially with the doh that made everybody clap!

Wer'e going to be doing a lot more demos and I think we will tighten the demo - rei, history, kata, waza, jigeiko. Great job by everyone and thanks for stepping up: Mike and Jonathan Helmstadter, Brian Betts, Stijn Van Osch and Mikuni Mishina!

RIP: Dr. Gordon Warner

2010-03-08T13:29:00.002-05:00

Gordon Warner, co-author of This is Kendo, died March 5, 2010 at the age of 97.

An excellent write up of him here at Kenshi 24/7.

Jodan in Detroit

2010-02-19T10:27:00.004-05:00

So, another Detroit tournament has passed and with it more improvement and need to improve. To begin, the seminar with Funatsu sensei and Migita sensei was great. More stress on the basics with some new drills from the police department. Then it was on to the practice. I found myself in front of Migita sensei, and knowing that both senseis are jodan players I decided to take jodan after some chudan. Migita sensei just smiled that smile and then we fought. It was a lot of fun and he let me cut men on him once, my taiatari sent him to the ground. I was a bit concerned here but he got up smiling and said good cut. Now, that was a huge lift to my jodan. The next day it was on to the tournament. at the smeinar I found out I was up first against my old friend Condon. Ai jodan again. We decided to fight for a shot and a beer and it was on. The smack talk began. After shimpanning all morning we were the second match after lunch. I decided that I was going to focus on pushing in, because I had a feeling I could overtake his maai. Well, it worked and I felt that I had the upper hand from the beginning. Jon and I have known each other since we started doing kendo and are great friends so this match was a lot of fun. We were pretty even until I saw his kote open with a big target on it. I stepped in and took it for the ippon. Now the time was about half over and I knew that I could not just delay. He hit men but was too close to me and at that point I knew I had the maai and proceeded to take the match with the one ippon. Talisker and guiness for me. It was a great match. Next up was S. Asa sensei from Canada. Another person that I have seen and known for a long time. His kendo is great and I was determined to not be intimidated by him. The match began and I felt that I had a bit more control of the match then him so I hit men, the pop was there but no flags. At that point he smiled, that smile, and started to take it up a bit. Well he hit my kote as I was hitting men, the pop was there but no flags. As we collided and were in tusbzereai we both smiled at each other knowing that that was ippon. The next hit he took my kote again and no flags. At this point I knew that the match would be won by men or nothing. So we played with the maai a bit I forced him back with my seme and took his men. The flags went up but for him and they called a kote. Both of us were pretty confused at this, because I had not felt a cut and he too thought that it was not in. The time ran out and I lost to a kote call that did not hit. I was upset but determined not to show it. After the match Condon and many opther people were as shocked as I was with the call. It is importnat for shimpan at the yondan and up level to know what ippon is. So it goes. Ont o the teams, where we faced Battle Creek. I was up against Yoshida sensei, my friend and mentor. We fought a good clean match and he got my kote. The day had already been lost. Overall it was a great tournament and one that I was very happy with. Basics will always prevail and it is on to more practice. A small anecdote that is a great start. My wife and two boys came up to visit in the morning. as they were there Funatsu sensei waled by and said hi to my boys. Owen was great and stood up tall and said hello. After that they had a box of Girl scout cookies that we were going to give away. At lunch, I gave the cookines to Funatsu sensei from my boys. He returend the favor, which I told him was not neccessary, by giving Owen his first tenugui and Brendan a small kendo toy. I love kendo. See you on the floor.

Detroit Taikai and Shinsa

2010-02-16T15:29:00.004-05:00

Thank you to everyone from Detroit. Tagawa sensei and crew through another great tournament, test and seminar. The senseis from Japan, Funatsu sensei and Migita Sensei were amazing to watch. I would like to congratulate everyone that passed their shinsa exam this year!! Way to go Jack Ponchart and Stein who each passed Ni-Dan. Also, to everyone from U of M that passed, there are way too many of you. Congrats!! It was awesome to see this year. As for the tournament. Joe Ponchart from U of M kicked the hell out of the san dan division and took third place. Congrats on the nito. Thank you to everyone that helped out and came to the tournament. See you at practice soon. The Family Tournament is slated for May 16 so get ready.

New videos are up from last night's practice!

2010-01-13T09:05:00.002-05:00

Guys, got some new videos up at EMU's YouTube channel. These are from last night's Red-White practice. Got the final match and several of the godo keiko. See if you can spot yourself! I think in future instead of wandering the floor filming everybody I should just find a few matches to film and concentrate on those. Well, hope you like 'em. Here's Engling vs. Abbey and the rest are here.

Preview of this week's New Year Practice at EMU

2010-01-04T13:58:00.002-05:00

Don't show if you think you can't hack this!

Why we should reconsider the Emu for our club mascot.

2009-12-23T10:15:00.001-05:00

EMU Emus, IMO!!

Happy Holidays all!

2009-12-14T14:08:00.001-05:00

From Eastern Kendo to whomever reads this thing. Cheers! Our last practice for the year is this tuesday. Have a great New Year's eve and we will see you in 2010. Cheers!

Jodan at the 2009 Midwest Taikai

2009-11-16T12:55:00.005-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzNrd2mTiC0

This year was by far the most interesting year for me as a kenshi. With my foot injured, I had to rethink how to do Jodan with less fumikomi and more suri ashi. This tournament was the first attempt at fighting like this. Well, the practice paid off and the success was great. I was able to control my aite much more effectively to the point that I beat people that have destroyed me before. I strongly believe that going back to the basics again helped. Comments at the baquent later were more then I could handle as this was the first time that my jodan was complemented and actually critized by Tagawa sensei in a good light. Damn, I must have done something right. Well, let me try to tell you all what happened...

Sandan and up went first in the whole tournament so we could shimpan. That is no big deal and I was aware of it from the beginning, the big deal was that, when I looked at the brackets, I was the first match. Always fun to be the first match of the day after sleeping on a couch. Anyway, I was first up against Okada from Chicago Kendo Dojo. His seme was very good but his defensive kamai left his kote open and I was able to score men morote kote twice. I was able to get through that round and had a small rest while the rest of the round completed. The next match saw me facing my favorite sensei in Detroit Tani sensei. Now when Tani sensei came over here I was always impressed by the cleanliness and strength of his kendo. If you have read previous posts you can see that he has beaten me in the past as well. This time, with the new stance I beat him and it was one of the highlights of my kendo career. The match was very intense, but I was able to control some of the flow of the match and managed to make him miss a couple of times. I was throwing all of my ki and seme at him knowing that I had to beat him this time. As the match progressed I was not getting tired, which is odd for me, and realized that I could control a bit more. I pushed forard and he threw tsuki. Because I had control of the maai I was able to rock back out of the distance from the tsuki and land a powerful and resonating men. The match then ran out of time and I was onto the court semis. After some time, I was up against Inoue sensei from Chicago Kendo Dojo, most known for his purple do and his shiai kendo. It was the first time I have fought him since we were kids coming up in kendo. I knew it would be a tough match and it was. I decided to play a bit more with the seme and maai that had served me well against Tani sensei. The only issue this time was that he landed three hiki do that were not scored. I felt that I had two kote and a men but to no avail. He was off balance at a point and I hit men and "threw" him into the bleachers for hansoku against him. This was a continuation of my waza so no fault was given to me. After 4 minutes we were both even with nothing socred and went to encho. Now I knew he was tired and thought that I had the match won. I went for a kote morote men and I let the shinai go at the kote, as I tried to pull it back he tapped my men. This was called ippon. I, as well as Inoue sensei, were shocked that they called that and none of the dos earlier. I lost but was extremley happy about the matches.

It was then onto the teams.

We were a mixed bunch from Eastern, Detroit and Cleveland but happy to fight. We drew Cleveland first and managed to get through. The most interesting thing was my match against a nito kenshi as taisho. Agian, jodan verse nito. The only difference this time was that it ended in hikiwake because he knew what he was doing and we had the match won already so I was pushing but also pushing for the hikiwake. This was the first nito kenshi that actullay had an idea of seme that I had fought since nationals. The next team match was against Detroit A who won the whole thing. I was up against my old friend Morita sensei, the elder, and was excited to face him again. If you do not know Morita sensei he is 6' 2" and large like I am so the match was very strong. We had lost by then so the match was just a grudge math between him and I. It was a great match and I managed to get men on him. At one point we both hit men and collided. Well, when you have two people of that size colliding, well think about it, he wound up on the floor and I wound up standing against the other side of the court. What a match.

Overall my jodan felt completely different this time and it all has to do with going back to the basics. At the banquet Tagawa sensei pulled me aside and suggested that I work on more katate attacks. A great suggestion as long as I can force people to stay in my maai and not theirs. Tani sensei, Yoshida sensei, Murakami sensei and others all made comment that my jodan was strong which left me utterly speechless and the night ended on a high. Thanks to eveyrone in Chicago, particularly Andy for giving me a couch. See you next year at our place.

A terrific kakarigeiko vid.

2009-11-04T15:35:00.002-05:00

Guys, I found this inspiring. We don't do kakarigeiko often for various reasons, but it's a training technique we should all be familiar with and this video shows a great example of it in practice.

Club Update, September 2009

2009-09-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

Hello, everybody! This is from a club email, cross posted here at the EMU blog and I'll reference it verbally at practice. If I do not have the correct email for you, let me know.

So next week, September 15, marks the official beginning of Fall Semester classes at EMU. Abbey-sensei and I hope you've had a great summer. Some of you we've seen and practiced with, some of you we haven't seen so much for the usual reasons - work, family, school, the crap economy that has you either hunting for a job or working in remote locatons. Some of you are aware that I've been traveling for work a lot more and that Abbey-sensei has been injured, so it's been a crazy summer!

I want to let you know that we will be doing a lot more to attract students to the club, keep them, and get them involved. This has always been our intention at EMU Kendo but something we need to recommit ourselves to as best as possible. Having stated that I have a few policy items that I will address below. The short of it is, please help us meet our goal of making EMU Kendo the great place it's been and refresh it's goal to grow its membership. I've always been proud of the fact that EMU is very commuter friendly, a dojo that you can always come back to even if work or school or other things take you away for a while. I just want to up our game in terms of making it more involved in the campus that has been so good to us. Plus, I think I got this parenting thing down, so I have a bit more energy for this project. heh!

Next item: the annual Midwest Kendo Tournament will be in Chicago on November 13-15. If you're interested in competing, testing or both, please let Abbey-sensei and I know as soon as you can.

Next item: this weekend, 8/12 is U of M's first official practice of the new semester. I'll be there! Who's with me? Don't forget we can also be visiting the kendo clubs at Detroit, MSU, Battle Creek etc.

Right, some policy notes.

-Going forward, EMU kenshi must be responsible for running the practice. If Abbey or Kondek are not there, the ranking EMU kenshi must start and stop the practice and must be the principle instructor for beginners. Training in instructing beginners will be provided although a certain freedom (and responsibility) in instruction will also be assumed. If Abbey or Kondek are not there and the ranking EMU person is busy instructing beginners, leadership of the mawari-geiko, the rotation practice, should be extended to visiting sensei (usually Ponchart and Ken though this will not always be the case; could be visitors from Detroit or whomever). One reason for this is that U of M kenshi - and others, but especially U of M - are part of our family and such frequent visitors that we don't even think of them as guests - but they are guests, and as such should not have to address running practice. That goes for everybody. Moving forward, Kondek will be much more long-view in planning practices and will make use of a monthly calendar to help recognize when EMU kenshi will be in attendance.

-Any new beginner must first watch a practice before deciding whether to join EMU kendo. This has been our policy in the past and we've bent on this one quite a bit but I think we should stick to it. You come, you watch your first practice, you decide if it's what you really want. Then, if you come back - and we hope you do - you get on the floor with shinai.

-No beginner can start without Abbey or Kondek in attendance. Abbey or Kondek should be the one to give them their first lesson and start their expectations. Other EMU kenshi should be prepared to do this as well but we'll visit it over time. We will also put together a one pager of what to expect at EMU kendo, as well as some terms and resources online.

Guys, that's it for now. Hope this finds you well and we'll see you soon!

14th World Kendo Championships Results

2009-09-06T20:07:00.003-04:00

By Charlie

Guys, the results of the 14th WKC have been known for a few days but details on them are still emerging. You can see a snapshot of them here. Thanks Neil Gendzwil-sensei! All these matches are important but I'll just paste the men's team results here because this was such a story at the last WKC.

1st Place: JAPAN

(JPN 1 - Ryoichi Uchimura; JPN 2 - Daiki Kiwada; JPN 3 - Kenji Shodai; JPN 4 - Sussumu Takanabe; JPN 5 - Shoji Teramoto; JPN 8 - Tadaomi Hojo; JPN 9 - Shinsuke Matsuwaki)

2nd Place: USA

(USA 1 - Christopher Yang; USA 2 - Daniel Yang; USA 3 - Marvin Kawabata; USA 4 - Brandon Harada; USA 5 - Sandy Maruyama; USA 6 - Kevin Huh; USA 7 - Simon Yoo)

3rd Place: BRAZIL

(BRA 1 - Jogi Sato; BRA 2 - Julio Kenji Toida; BRA 3 - Ernesto Eisaku Onaka; BRA 4 - Vitor Zen Moreno Tachibana; BRA 5 - Coichi Urano; BRA 6 - Heiji Kariya; BRA 7 - Alberto Massumi Takayama)

3rd Place: Korea

(KOR 1 - Sung-Hong Jang; KOR 2 - Kang-Ho Lee; KOR 4 - Du-Hwan Baek; KOR 5 - Wan-Soo Kim; KOR 7 - Yong-Chul Kim; KOR 9 - Chul-Kyu Choi; KOR 10 - Jin-Yong Jo)

So it was Japan and Korea for one side of the final and USA vs. Brazil for the other. According to the news coming in at Kendo World, this is how it went down:

Mens-

Semi-Finals:

Japan beats Korea 2-1-2

USA beats Brazil 4-1-0

Finals:

Japan beats USA 4-1.

KW's Michael Komoto said the nail biter match of the day was Japan and Korea for the tie-breaker. Videos starting to appear at Kendo World's YouTube channel here.

2009, The Summer of Aggression

2009-06-10T14:00:00.002-04:00

By Charlie

Well, we've all been busy, and I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog as frequently as I should. Gonna be a nice hot summer of good training, we hope. And we have a theme.

Coach Abbey said a couple weeks ago that he wants us all pissed off in our training, asserting aggression, going after ippon with everything we've got, with a feeling of "I'm gonna put this damn shinai through your skull." When sensei lays down a theme like that, you've got to pick it up and run with it, I feel, so I've been calling this The Summer of Aggression. By that I mean this summer, our training focus is going to be on fighting aggressively, on taking ippon.

I think the drills that will best help us train toward that goal - and I articulated this on a couple of occasions - are:

-footwork
-kihon
-uchikomigeiko and kakarigeiko

And of course spirited jigeiko. Fundamentals, basically, but with this particular emphasis and goal in mind. I'm sure Abbey-sensei's words will be interpreted by everyone individually, but I wanted to articulate this here so you could keep in mind during the summer.

As always, don't forget to hydrate properly! See you on the floor.

Family Tournament

2009-05-19T08:45:00.003-04:00

Thank you to everyone that came to the annual Family Tournament. It was our sith one and iit was a great turn out and event. Here is just one pic from the banquet. See anyone you know? More are available online at http://picasaweb.google.com/ktwakaba/MichiganFamilyTournament2009#

Thanks to Ken and Matt for taking the pics. A full recap will follow shortly. Results are below.

Family Tournment Results

2009-05-18T09:59:00.002-04:00

Non-bogu

1. Chen
2. Tasahiro
3. Niwa
3. Ito

Youth

1. Morita
2. Umakoshi
3. Ponchart
3. Watanabe

Womens

1. Mishina
2. Hadano
3. Kong
3. Naomi

Mudansha

1. Trusevich
2. Hoang
3. Motta
3. Kozai

Sho dan/ Ni dan

1. Holmgren
2. Hill
3. Tamura
3. Chaffin

Sandan and up

1. Murakami
2. Ryota
3. Abbey
3. Tani

Cleveland Tournament

2009-02-23T09:24:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone. It will be a bit before I can get back to practice but I am working hard at home warming up for the Cleveland tournament. The dates are April 17, 18 and 19 and all of the forms and info are available at the link below. Please let us know if you are planning on attending.

http://www.clevelandkendo.com/2009taikai/index.htm

Jodan At Detroit 2009

2009-02-16T11:41:00.006-05:00

What a great year for the Detroit tournament. After being out of practice (out of shape) because of Brendan coming into the world I was very concerned about my Jodan showing up this year. The individual matches saw me matched up against Matsushita sensei (7 dan) and, if I made it Tani sensei from Detroit. If you have never fought against Tani sensei, I can just say one word, damn. The man has good kendo. Anyway, My first match I intended to dominate from the start because what else can you do from Jodan. It worked and I controlled the match from the beginning. Matsushita sensei's attack was even controlled a little by my seme but I could not find a way to score. Until, I pulled my, now go to waza, men morote kote and scored ippon. It was a great feeling and Matsushita sensei just smiled and shook his hand. I continued on to win the match and was immediately, with no break, up against Tani sensei. Now the no break thing is usually no big deal for me, but I have been out of practice (shape) and it showed. I held my own against Tani sensei and I thought I had at least one men on him, but it was not called. I was told later that my hasugi was a bit off on the strike, again out of practice. He got a hiki men on me when I let my guard down and the match was over. I hate losing out to hiki waza but what can you say. As for the team matches, my stamina was drained. The first match had me up against my old student Amy Dawson. Sugawara sensei was training her how to fight up to the moment before the match and she was a great opponent. Then we were up against Battle Creek. I was up against someone new that I should have wiped the floor with but my mental stamina was down and he got my kote at a lapse. It was not one of my finer fights but the overall day was great. Another Detroit tournament down, this is now there 11th and I have been to every one of them. It is great to see how many people turn out and to really test my jodan at the 4 dan and above level. I am always honored to be at that level and fight with so may great kenshi. Ippon is always the goal and now it is on from there. More practice. Cheers!

Detroit Kendo Tournament 2009

2009-02-16T11:33:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at Detroit Kendo for hosting another great event. Eastern was again very successful at the tournament. Our individual matches all saw points being gained and wins, including Ichiki san who made it to the final in the nidan division and lost out to our good friend Travis Hill from Battle Creek. The team matches were agian awesome and we should have made it to the court final but lost out to Battle Creek. The first match had us up against a mixed up team consisting of Sugawara sensei and our former member Amy Dawson. The matches were very good and we squeaked through to face Battle Creek. It was another great year that saw Narumoto sensei take the championship again. Thanks to everyone that came out and to our newest member Arif for volunteering. See you all at practice soon. Cheers!

1/27 Practice and the Next Couple Weeks to Taikai

2009-01-28T09:42:00.003-05:00

Great practice last night, you guys, with visitors from Detroit Kendo Dojo. These visitors will visit again and as often as they can so stay on your toes and be ready for them!

You'll be getting an email from me, too, with these same updates. I want to let you know that for the next couple of weeks there will be opportunities to practice specifically for shiai. We will run some shiai matches at Eastern and our friends at U of M will be running shiai practice on Saturday mornings. Please also find opportunities in jigeiko or by asking the people you train with to help you prepare for your shinsa, too.

Also, we need volunteers to help at the Detroit taikai on 2/15! If you are planning to attend the tournament but not compete, please consider being a volunteer! It's an excellent way to get close to the action, helping run the courts and get the fighters ready for their matches, etc. You may even get fed with the extra bento boxes that sometimes are available! Let me know ASAP if you can commit to being a volunteer so I can get a head count. You can carpool with me, too.

Talk to you soon!

The Annual Detroit Tournament, or, "Valentine's Day Massacre"

2009-01-12T20:22:00.003-05:00

By Charlie

Guys, sorry it's been so long since we (I) updated the blog. I wanted to let you know that despite the awful weather and roads, practice is still happening every Tuesday from 7-9:00 at Warner Hall. Last week's Above and Beyond Award goes to Mike Hemstadter, whose 20 minute commute after practice was.... two hours. Ya gotta love 23 sometimes. Thank you, Mike.

All right, the big news is that the annual Detroit Tournament is February 14. Testing is that weekend also. If you are interested in participating in the tournament and testing, and I hope you are, you need to:

1) See me and get your dues in by end of January. We're getting the proper dues forms still but I will have all info.

2) Download or obtain from me or Eric or representative of Detroit kendo the tournament entry form. Fill it out and send it in with entry money ASAP.

3) If you want to test, you must see Eric,-sensei, get his permission and have him sign your form. You have to mail this in with entry money ASAP also.

The forms for items 2 and 3 are downloadable here.

Hope to see you all soon, hope you are well in all your endeavors. Practice is still happening at our sister club at U of M. We'll also be visiting Detroit on Thursdays and Saturdays so stay in touch with me or Eric about those opportunities.

Oh, yeah, and I haven't even mentioned that BRENDAN ERIC ABBEY came into the world last week. At this rate, EMU Kendo may have enough for TWO kids teams!!

It's been a while

2008-12-08T12:12:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay and all. It is the end of the year and it gets hectic as all get out. Anyway, we have been preparing for the tournament in Detroit and I wanted to just reflect on some comments that have been made. We really need to become more aggressive in our kendo at Eastern. It is extremely important to develop this through becoming confident in "your own" waza whatever that may be. We have been working on a couple of different waza that are importnat as we continue to focus on the taikai. While doing so the concept of sutemi and tanden are extremely important. If we do not conduct these waza with sutemi they become null and void. Please make sure as you continue your practice to focus on the development of these two concepts. If you need help with them please do not hesitate to ask. I will hopefully be healed soon and back at practice. Have a great hoiliday season and remember how important kendo is to getting through the pressure and stress of the holidays. Cheers!

Midwest Championship

2008-09-04T08:32:00.001-04:00

This year's Midwest tournament is on the weekend of October 18th and 19th in Apple Falls, Minnesota. From the Detroit area this is a 12 hour drive. I will be attending and hope we can get a good turnout. Cheers!

Jack is in Japan!!!

2008-08-05T12:48:00.003-04:00

This is just to let everyone know that our youngest kenshi is currently on a trip with members of the AUSKF to Japan. What a great experience and one that we are very jealous of. Can't wait to fight him when he gets back. Here is a pic from the airport in Japan. If you would like more pics visit samuraijoe at flickr.

(Jack is second from the right in the first row)

Birthday Keiko

2008-07-16T22:33:00.002-04:00

By Charlie

Guys, thank you again so much for a great practice. This week, on the day of practice, I turned 36. We celebrated with a pretty hard practice that culminated in a string of jigeiko rounds for me and then repaired to second dojo for some biiru. I had a great time, you guys. Thank you. It's always great to practice with you but it's also great to hang out and chat over some food, which we - and I - get to do far too seldom.

I got pictures at my Flickr account here, and will be putting the jigeiko vids on YouTube here (I only have one up so far; I'm going to try to get a friend to edit them all together for me). I'll also get these vids to each of you individually.

Hope you're all having a good summer!

2008 Nationals

2008-07-08T08:34:00.002-04:00

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! The Midwest Kendo Team has taken third place at this year's All United States Kendo Championship. Under Matsuura sensei's coaching the team rose to the highest level that it has ever reached. The midwest also shown through by taking second place in the men's individual competition. Narumoto sensei from Minnehaha kendo lost to Hatakeyama sensei in the finals. What an exciting weekend for everyone in the midwest. Congratulations to all that competed and keep working, only three year's to train for the next one. Full results are at the below link.

http://auskf.org/announcements/2008/championship/index.htm

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

2008-05-20T10:32:00.003-04:00

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

2008-05-19T11:20:00.006-04:00

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

2008-05-19T11:20:00.003-04:00

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!

Club Updates for Week of 4/28/08

2008-04-23T13:27:00.002-04:00

Hey, guys. Missed you at The Tower last night after practice but we'll get the chance to have some brews again soon. Just a quick couple of updates for the club.

-There is no practice on 4/29 due to spring semester break at EMU. I am going to try to go to Detroit that Thursday for their practice. If anyone can join me, let me know!

-UM's first practice of the Spring/Summer semester is Saturday morning, 5/3. I am going. Who will join me - maybe coffee and juice at Dom Bakery and then we'll all roll over to UM together? Lemme know!

As I have often said, UM is our sister club and we should all try to practice there as often as possible, especially at milestone practices - first and last practice of the semester or new year, someone from the club leaving to return to Japan (keep watching this space) etc.

Let's Have MORE FUN!!!

2008-04-17T13:45:00.002-04:00

As the summer starts, let's all remember that the harder we work the more fun we have. Kendo is about pushing ourselves to get to a higher level. Be it our physical body, endurance, mental ability, socialization or anything else. The warmer it gets the more we need to focus on this. Let's all have MORE FUN!!!! Be sure to watch your water intake but push yourselves and enjoy the road. Also, be aware that next tuesday is our last practice before we have a week off between semesters. See you all then. Cheers!

Practice 4/15/08 - Biiru Geiko!

2008-04-09T14:41:00.000-04:00

Hey, guys. Just a head's up to let you know that next practice, 4/15/08, we will end practice early and go for some beers. We don't get together to socialize nearly often enough, so plan on coming to practice, practicing hard, then ending early and going over to The Tower, or Brian's apartment in Brown hall, or both! Beer, pizzas, talk, samurai movies, the works. Call me if you get lost.

Anime: Bamboo Blade

2008-04-08T14:24:00.001-04:00

I just found out about an anime called Bamboo Blade. I'm rapidly falling in love with this show - silly, yes, but great characters and a great storyline. And, of course, it's all about kendo! You can watch the entire thing here, or read up on it at this thread on Kendo W0rld.

Family Tournament

2008-03-25T15:00:00.001-04:00

Come one, come all to the annual Michigan Family Tournament. Find out who is the best in the mitten. Sunday May 18th, 2008 at Eastern. See you all there.

National Team Tryouts

2008-03-17T20:23:00.003-04:00

This past weekend I went down to Chicago to tryout for the Midwest team that attends the National kendo tournament this summer. I was a part of the team in the goodwill division at the last Nationals and was excited to try out again. I did not make it this time but will try harder at th enext tryouts. The set up was a round robin with four groupings. My group contained 7 people so we had 6 matches each. It was a great opportunity to test out my level of kendo against many different opponenets. Each match was scored with two points max and the points were totalled along with the win loss record to get a place in the group. My group contained, Murakami sensei (Detroit), Hanaki sensei (Detroit), Lin sensei(not sure), Tagawa the younger (Detroit), Wilson(Minnehana), Nori (Chicago) and me. My first two matches I went into way too tense and was beaten pretty easily by going in too early. Lin sensei got two points on me and then Murakami sensei scored two as well. I was not very happy with the two fights but kept going and made sure to do better. The next match was against Nori and I got two points with men to end the match. I was very happy at this point and felt that I could at least get the points back. Then I was up against Hanaki sensei. He was very strong and would not let me in but I managed to attack, and thought I had at least one kote. He managed to get ippon and then I let my guard down again and he scored. Now I was down to two fights left and pretty low on the scoring. I needed to get four points to even have a shot at feeling good. I was up against Tagawa and got two men and felt really good. Then I was up against Wilson, who was taller than me, and got two men on him as well. It was great to finish off the round that way and I felt very confident in my kendo at that point. After the matches, which Sugawara sensei was watching the entire time, I got some very good advice on the fact that I am sitting back too much and need to be more forceful in my seme. Driving home I felt very good to have finnished tied for third in points with Hanaki sensei with 6 points. I had three wins and three losses at the tryouts. I did not make the team but the tryout felt great and I was very happy with my kendo at points. I also feel that I need to continue to practice with people who are more advanced then myself in order to progress. This becomes harder and harder all of the time. Overall, the tryout was great and it was great to see my friends in Chicago and from elsewhere in the midwest and do kendo with everyone. See you all on the floor. Cheers!

Spring Break? Not for us!

2008-02-25T15:38:00.002-05:00

Hey, guys. Just a quick note to say we should be unaffected by EMU's spring break, with runs 2/27 to 3/1. HOWEVER, if you show up at the gym and the facilities are closed for some unforeseen reason, we'll meet over at the Tower Inn for some biiru-geiko. Sound good? Get my cell number and Abbey-sensei's cell number if you don't have it.

Also, I wanted to let you know that there's a great online resource for kendo info called The Cyber Dojo. It's run by Hiro Imafuji, a godan from Japan-Australia who also practiced in Latin America and is now in Indiana. A lot of good info for beginners and advanced people alike - if you're not a subscriber, think about becoming one, because there are benefits to being a subscriber, some great content. I know I frequently give the noobs "homework" and this site can help with that. I get a lot out of it.

Detroit 2008

2008-02-19T10:46:00.006-05:00

Photo taken by Wakabyashi san

The detroit tournament was another great success. The seminar before hand was also wonderful. Teramoto sensei was absolutely wonderful to watch. As the All-Japan Champion it was great to see a taller person move so quickly. I have to figure out how to move that quickly with such grace. Also, congratulations go to John Ellison on passing shodan and our old member Amy Dawson for passing shodan as well. Uetake sensei from UofM must be congratulated as well for passing his Yondan exam, as well as Joe Ponchart on passing Sandan. Onto the matches. I was feeling pretty confident with my jodan again this year and faced an old rival of mine from Ken Zen in NYC Takahashi sensei in the individuals, which were yondan and up. The match was very evenly matched and I felt that I could have won but he got me to commit too quickly and scored with a men kaeshi men for the first ippon. After that point I was determined to get one back and rushed again into another men kaeshi men attack. This match was very frustrating for me but showed me that I need to continue working on paitence on the attack. The comments afterward from Takahasi sensei were that my jodan had improved since the last time we had fought, so that was a good thing. Onto the teams. Eastern had one of the strongest teams we have ever had this year and we did extremely well. The order was Kondek, Ichiki, Myself, Ellison, Fukuma sensei. The first match had Charlie score two ippon and Ichiki scoring two one as well. Then it was me up against another nito kenshi. What is it with nito these days. Anyway, I took the match to him and made him attempt to strike targets that I wanted him to hit. He tried to hit do and I took his shinai out of his hand for hansoku. Then he tried it again and, again, his shinai went to the ground. Hansoku number two and a point for us. Now, I really do not like getting points ths way but if you can not hold onto your shinai you deserve it. We were through to the next match. The next match had us up against Ken Zen with Takahashi sensei as Taisho. Charlie got one point and lost one point for Hiki wake and then Ichiki lost two points and we were down a point. I was up against someone I had not fought before and got him to raise his hands and struck kote for ippon number one. Then, as he dropped his attention I got a hiki men for ippon number two. We were now up by one point. Ellison was next and went up against a sandan who got a kote, that really should not have counted, but he got the point back with a kote nuki men. Very big point. We were still up by one and it was Fukuma sensei against Takahashi sensei. Great match where Fukuma sensei scored two points. We were through to one match before the court final against JCCC. We started off this match down three points and it was me against an old friend of Ichiki's. I went down a point because my men fell short and stuck into my aite's keikogi and I stopped, never stop, I was pissed at myself and quickly tried to gain the point back only to lose another one to kote nuki men, my nemisis. All and all we did very well and it was a great success for Eastern Kendo. We have to figure out a way to get past that level in the teams. It has now been four tournaments of reaching that level. Thanks to everyone in Detroit for a great tournament and we'll see you all soon. Cheers!

"Life ain't nuttin but war..."

2008-02-13T16:10:00.003-05:00

I want to share something with you. This is one of my favorite workout songs. It's kind of silly, but I love it. It comes from the soundtrack to the film Black Mask.

Black Mask was a terribly Jet Li sci-fi/actioner that was rereleased in the U.S. in 1996. For its US release, they slapped on some bad dubbing, edited it to shreds - and gave it a great gangsta rap soundtrack. I've loved it ever since. This is the music I listen to to run, hit the bag, etc.

So, if you'd like to share in my glee, please do so. You can tell people you are in "the 701 Squad" with me!

What's the Diff?

2008-02-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

A friend and colleague of mine invited me to guest blog at the blog his company, Quicken Loans, maintains. "What's the Diff?" attempts to describe "the gap between average and excellent and focuses on the human side of the company. For my guest post, I wrote about my impending second try at the yondan exam. I hope you'll check it out. The post really helped me articulate some of my feelings on the subject. Check out my post and the Quicken Loans blog here.

Superbowl Sunday at Battle Creek

2008-02-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

I went to Battle Creek for practice on Sunday. It was well worth it, always is, and I encourage all of you to do so as well - I'd definitely like to go again as often as possible (which, admittedly, isn't very often for me). Props to John Ellison: he was going to come up from South Bend but blew out a tire and had to change that bad boy while wearing hakama, keikogi and winter coat. Then he limped home while his adopted Pats lost the Superbowl. Argh! Sorry, John.

We had a great practice lead by Matsuura-sensei and also Yoshida-sensei and Suganara-sensei. We covered basics, some advanced waza (including debana waza and tsuki-men) and did a lot of intense jigeiko - everybody had keiko with everybody. I got to fight the afore-mentioned sensei and the hard hitting drew of Stephen Chaffin, Bob Mack and Travis Hill.

Here in Michigan all the kendo clubs have an open invite to each other to attend practice and if you can take advantage of that to practice with this great, diverse body of people, you should. Definitely write or call ahead to let them know you're coming and have at it. Very valuable.

Detroit, Detroit, Detroit!

2008-01-30T08:38:00.001-05:00

Only a few weeks away. It's time to find that inner fight and prepare for the shiai and shinsa. Detroit is one of the largest tournaments in our area and everyone needs to be prepared to face extremely tough competition. Whatever you need to do to find that inner fight do it. Sutemi Sutemi and more sutemi are the key. Get ippon at whatever cost. Eastern will be represented well this year and we will all have a great time. The test and seminar starts at 4:30 on saturday Feb 16th and the tournament is sunday Feb 17th. Hope to see everyone there. Gambatte!

Couple of Quick Updates, Practice and Detroit Tournament

2008-01-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Guys, just a couple of quick updates. I also sent this out as an email. Let me know if you're noy getting emails from me: charliekondek at yahoo dot com

Practice Location

If practice is not in the usual room, we will be next door in the IM building, either in the utility gym (second floor) or one of the racquetball courts. Sorry about that, it's due to a temporary scheduling snafu and will not go on past February. Until then, we may have to move our room. More on that to come.

Detroit Tournament

By now, you should have the forms you need to enter the tournament. We also have to update our yearly dues, which will probably be around $60, to participate. The yearly fdues orms have not yet been made available, but as soon as they are, I will email everyone and we will organize getting our dues paid at practice. We have to give one big check to the federation for dues, so please see Abbey-sensei or myself with any questions.

Also, we still need volunteers for the Detroit tournament (non competitors). This is an excellent, fun way for new people to get to know kendo. You don't have to know a thing about running a court, just show up, get assigned to a court, and do what they tell you. It's fun, and they'll feed you. Please let me know if you're interesting in volunteering; it can be very helpful and inspiring to a beginner and earn you big points with the teachers!

Kamata sensei visits

2008-01-16T08:13:00.000-05:00

Last night we had a great practice with the full contingent of Eastern kendo there to practice with Kamata sensei from Etobikoke. Kamata sensei is a Canadian team member and we worked very hard on hiiting from the tanden and going through with sutemi and good zanshin. It is always a great practice when he visits. Thanks must go out to him for travelling all the way from outside Toronto, yes for work first, but then kendo. See you all at the next practice. Be sure to note that we may be in the utility gym in the rec/im building. See you there.

Kickoff party

2008-01-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

The start of the year party was great and I think that everyone who attended woudl agree. The Wii and chess boards were flying as was the sake. Thanks to everyone for making the drive. It is always great to see people out of bogu. Cheers!

First Practice of the New Year and Red/White Tournament

2008-01-09T08:20:00.001-05:00

This year's first practice was a great success with a good re/white tournament as well. For the first time, in a while, white finally took the win. We then proceeded to hold a last man standing competition where you stayed until you lost. This was extremely enjoyable and Joe and his nito held the court beating Ichiki san until he came up against Brian. Now, Brian was in bogu for the first time and we all know how that is and he managed to get a kote on Joe and was up for the king of the court against me where he proceeded to score a big men to win the day. Congratulations to Brain who is our newest champion. As for the rest of practice, we had a good turnout with two more new members starting up. Happy New Year to everyone and hopefully we I will see you all at the party this weekend. If not, next week Kamata sensei from Etobikoke is planning on attending practice with Ichiki san so please plan on coming if possible. A large Detroit practice is also planned for Saturday January 19th at Birmingham Seaholm if you are interested in attending please do so as well. See you all soon. Pictures and Video from the tournament to come shortly, stay tuned. Cheers!

Pic 1- The starting group for the year

Pic 2- Abbey sensei and Ponchart san face off

Pic 3- Brian the first timer and new king fights old champion Ichiki san

In Conclusion...

2007-12-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

A handful of us got together last night for a "secret practice." It was one of the world's worst-kept secrets because we told everybody last week that we'd meet at the gym and, if it was open, practice. If it was closed, go to the bar. Either way, go to the bar.

Well, guess what? It was open! So, I, Wakabayashi-san, Ellison-san and Brian-san practiced hard for an hour and then went to EMU's pretty much official second dojo, The Tower Inn for a couple of pops. (Joe Ponchart strained his back shoveling snow and couldn't make it - get better, Joe!) Great practice, great conversation afterwards. One topic: will modern China ever experience a political revolution and how would it compare to revolutions in France, Russia and the United States? Other topics: marriage and children, suriashi and balance, and bogu (Brian got three versions of "the bogu hump talk," all at once!).

It also marked one of the last times we'll be seeing Ellison for a while, as the chap is getting married and moving to South Bend. Don't cross him off your list yet, though, as he will be appearing at various get-togethers at EMU, Battle Creek, Detroit and who-knows-where. I don't know if you know this, but John and I have an ongoing rivalry. It seems when one of us beats the other for an evening's or morning's ippon shobu, that lasts about a week before the other wins the honor back. Over time we have come to jokingly imagine that we are trading back and forth a private trophy that we call "the dirty cup" or "the spitoon of destiny" or "the ash tray of victory" and whatnot. Well, I have to confess that Ellison and I had it out for the last time in 2007 and he currently holds the Grail of Debauchery. Guard it well, John! It's a great honor - but a heavy responsibility. And meanwhile I'll be training like Mr. T in Rocky III to get it back.

Anywho, have a great holiday everybody. Stay active, practicing if you can or hitting the track, the weights, callisthenics, etc. Let's come back soaring in Ought-Eight.

Beginning of the year

2007-12-12T08:21:00.000-05:00

Happy holidays everyone and I hope that you have a great New Year's Eve. The first practice of the new year will be our annual red/white tournament and practice. Please be sure that you are prepared to practice hard this first practice. The first practice of the year will be on Tuesday January 8th at our normal practice facility. Also, the kick off party will take place on Saturday January 12th at my house. Details will be available at the first practice or through the email list. If you are not on the list please email me at ericabbey at hotmail dot com to be included on the list. Until then, Happy Holidays and have a Great New Year! Cheers!!

Student Tournament

2007-12-11T13:42:00.000-05:00

There has been a new tournament announced that is being sponsored by the Midwest Kendo Association and being held in Chicago on March 15th. This tournament is called the Student tournament and is open only to those in middle school, high school and undergraduate institutions. We have a few of those and I would like to make sure that everyone who fits into this category cal attend. March 15, 2008 in Chicago. See you all tonight.

End of the year events

2007-12-06T11:05:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Our last practice of the year will be this upcoming Tuesday. The University will close down until the third week of January. Please come on out to this final practice. Also, UofMs final practice of the year will take this Saturday along with Detroit kendo's practice. Hopefully we can have some people attend. In the new year we have the Ontario University Taikai in January and the Detroit Open taikai on February 15th and 16th. Please be prepared to attend the Detroit taikai especially and if you can volunteer to help please let me know. Also, be on the lookout for our start of the year party so that we can begin the year right. All Eastern and UofM participants are welcomed. Over the break please be sure to focus on movement from the Hara(center) and focusing on attacking with conviction (sutemi). The beginning of the year starts very quickly and this will be the focus at the start. Have a great holiday and remember that Kendo will always be here. Cheers!

Devil's Night Practice

2007-10-31T08:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone that came out for the practice last night. It was great to have a full practice in order to allow for the newer kendokas to see what it is like in bogu. As we move into the last quarter of the year please be aware of the focus that was discussed last night. We need to work on being much more aggressive in our kendo in order to "take ippon" not just get it but take it away from your aite and crush them with the first ippon. This is extremely important for us to develop, along with the continuous practice of moving from our hips and using our hara to cut. All of the new people please remember to work on reigi and practice outside of the dojo. At least remember kirikaeshi, please. See you all next week. Have a great Halloween. Cheers!

Jodan in Chicago

2007-10-08T11:35:00.000-04:00

The midwest tournament was a great time for me and this tournament was the first time that I felt extremely confident with my jodan. The individual matches were great and I was fortunate enough to fight my long time friend Jon Condan first. As some of you know he also does jodan so my first match of the tournament was ai jodan. This was great and we wagered ont he outcome as well. After some varying attacks that were meant to put him off balance I managed to get him to commit to a men attack and struck men nuki men for the ippon. This was enough to win the entire match and he now owes me one. Then I faced the sensei from Moline Kendo dojo and again was faced with a strategy issue. I could not find a way to his kote. Instead I pushed a bit more and saw an opening and went for men. The timing fell that he went for tsuki and the same moment but I was faster and broke through the tsuki to score the men. Again, one ippon was enough to win the match. I was one fight away from facing Sugawara sensei for the court final and only needed to get through one more opponent. This was my downfall because my head was filled with that possibility and I was not concentrating enough on my opponent. He proceeded to score kote and hiki yaku do on me for the win way too quickly. I felt bad but knew why it happen right away. The main thing for me was that I felt extremely happy with the improvement of my jodan in the individual rounds. On to the team matches.

I was on the University of Michigan A team which was a stacked team. we managed to get to the court final against Detroit A. These matches were great. The first team match was against Purdue C who were a new group of kenshi with great spirit. I managed to get two points and we went through to the next round against Moline A. This next team was a combination of kenshi and I was up against someone that I have not seen before. We were up by three points at the time and I was able to keep it that way with a hikiwake. I was disappointed that I could not get ippon but we advanced to face Detroit A anyway. This was a great fight. We went down 2 to 1 but scored one ippon against Ryota Takahashi sensei. Then we managed to get another ippon on the older Takahashi sensei. I was up against Tani sensei and thought I could get at least one point on him. The match was tight and we were both playing very well. I went down to chudan after tsubazereai and right before I could get up he got my kote. I was extremely upset about not being able to give the team a lead. We went on to go down to Detroit A who continued on to take first place in the event. I had a great time and it was great to fight so many new people. Hopefully I will see everyone at the dojo soon. Cheers!

Midwest Championship Report

2007-10-08T11:31:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I travelled down to Chicago to represent Eastern kendo at the Midwest Championship shiai. It was a great event that was bigger than expected due to the date change. It was also a chance for me to see a good deal of my long time kendo friends. Jack and I were the sole representative members for eastern and jack did extremely well again taking second place in the Junior youth. More medal for that neck. Congratulations. As for myself, ti was a great tournament that will be recounted in another post. Congratulations also go out to all of those that tested for various rank. Ken Wakabayashi = Nidan Takeishi Kioke = Nidan Alex Nitz = Sankyu all Jingran Wang = Ikkyu all passed with flying colors and Joe Ponchart passed his shiai portion of the sandan exam. Great work everyone. See you all on the floor, Detroit is just around the corner. Cheers!

Fox sensei Birthday Practice

2007-09-25T08:45:00.000-04:00

Hello all, I will be travelling up to MSU on Sunday for Fox sensei's 50th birthday practice. It starts at 12:00 at the IM and will be followed by a dinner reception. If you can attend please do so. I hope to see many people from the past and present at this practice. See you all there.

Kamata sensei visits

2007-09-12T08:21:00.000-04:00

It was a great practice last night as we had Kamata sensei visit us again from Etobikoke. It is always great to practice with him and to learn from his extremely good kendo. The main thing to take from the practice last night is to keep going through with your hips. We also had Fukuma sensei practice with us again and hopefully he will continue to join Eastern kendo, it looks like he will. Thanks to everyone for practicing hard and giving it your all. The tournament is approaching quickly so please be on the lookout for forms and registration information in your e-mail. See you all at practice.

Midwest Championship 2007

2007-08-30T14:25:00.000-04:00

Hello all. The Midwest Championship tournament will be held in Chicago this year on October 6th and 7th. The 6th is the tournament and the 7th is the promotion exam. Please be sure to stay tuned for more information. I will be going this year so let's try to get a great team together if possible. See you all at practice.

New Semester

2007-08-27T16:10:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Summer is almost over and it is time to go back to school. This also means that Eastern Kendo will begin a new semester next tuesday. I hope that everyone had a great summer and look forward to seeing those that were busy throughout the summer. I have been busy the past couple of weeks with Owen but will return to practice tuesday pretty consistently. See you all there.

Practice 7/24/07: Welcome Fukuma-san!

2007-07-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

Hot, small practice last night in which we continued to work on kihon for bogu and new people ("big, slow, correct!"). We are joined by Mr. Fukuma, godan, from Ube, Japan (<--I hope I'm spelling that correctly) and very happy to have him!

Great practice, everyone working on what they need to work on. Wakabayashi-san of UM reminded us that arriving early for practice and having a proper warm-up is not only traditional kendo but important for safety.

MSU Visit, 7/17/07

2007-07-18T14:08:00.000-04:00

Ron Fox and Wendy Chen of MSU Kendo visited us for practice last night. Great practice as usual with Fox-sensei. Attendance last night was roughly half bogu and half new people, so Fox-sensei covered a lot of important ground for the new people and kept them working (footwork and swing) and instructed the bogu people in a series of drills, then leading us into jigeiko.

Let's all try to remember what Ron taught us about footwork, balance and cutting. Some key points (and please help me out if you can):

-bring the left foot up quickly to join the right when stepping
-keep your balance, don't be cutting with your chest and arms in your hurry to make the cut
-remember the drills, stepping in from to-ma, extending the kiai, making the attack from to-ma and following through
-Fox-sensei said the Japanese believe practice should be "big, slow and correct!" This is good to keep in mind
-Relax the shoulders and float the sword up and down, cut with the legs

Always great to see MSU Kendo. Let's all try to get out to MSU to repay the favor!

We're Back! (And Badder Than Ever?)

2007-07-18T13:59:00.000-04:00

So, you guys are gonna think think is ridiculous but I have not been updating this blog lately because...

...I forgot my username and password. And then had to redo it through gmail blah blah blah.

I'm so sorry I haven't been updating this very useful tool. For now, let's recap what's been happening with the club over the summer.

1) As you know, we had the Family Tournament in May. Wonderful tournament, already been covered.

2) Summer has been slow. Practices have often involved only a handful of people for various reasons (school, work, vacation, etc.). That's not that unusual for our club, though. U of M personnel have been in regular attendance.

3) Abbey-sensei and his wife had their first baby, OWEN! Welcome to the world, Owen. Abbey-sensei, we'll see you when we see you!

4) Practices: we have been working on a lot of basics as usual. We have been working on the footwork drill that Abbey-sensei instructed us to work on (walking across the floot, cut on three, recover on steps 4-6, repeat). Because it has been hot, we've also been closing with kata, which allow a good cool-down period. Plus, it's always good to work on kata!

That's a good recap for now. Expect more regular updates from me and, wherever you are, hope this finds you doing well!

Jodan at the Family Tournament

2007-05-23T10:41:00.000-04:00

This year's tournament was again a great opportunity to test out my jodan aganist familiar people. I was up against Akamatsu Asaoka again but this year she did not go for the precious area. ; ) I was able to win with a do and keep her at bay until the time ran out. I then proceeded to fight Matsuura sensei and lost to a do from him again. This is the second time I have faced him and lost to a do. I did feel that he had a plan to go against me and I did not and that was one of the reasons that I did not do as well as I hoped. He completely took away the kote angle and then kept the maai tight which forced me to think too much and drop my hands. This was detrimental and allowed for him to take full advantage of the scoring opportunity. It was great to fight him and talk with him afterward about the fight. During the keiko afterwards I was fortunate to be in with the yondan and up crowd for Tagawa sensei's lessons on men and zanshin. It was great to be able to practice with yondan through nanadan. I was able to practice chudan techniques as well as jodan techniques and it was great. All in all, a very nice tournament that I was happy went off well. Cheers!

Family Tournament

2007-05-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone that came to the Family tournament. We had a great time practicing and competing with all of the dojos around Michigan. As you can see, Michigan kendo is very strong and continues to get stronger. I wanted to thank all of the people that drove a great distance to attend and the senseis that helped to lead the practice afterwards. If you have any good stories or pictures from the event please do not hesitate to post them here or at the website. Thank you again to everyone that helped set up. The results from the tournament are below.

Sandan and up:

1st: Murakami

2nd: Tani

3rd: Takahashi

3rd: Matsuura

Shodan/Nidan:

1st: Akamatsu

2nd: Kurita

3rd: Tanabe

3rd: Yamauchi

Mudansha:

1st: Brooks

2nd: K. Hwang

3rd: Marsch

3rd: Holmgren

Women:

1st: A. Akamatsu

2nd: Arai

3rd: A. Hanaki

3rd: Klar

Junior B:

1st: Hill

2nd: Akamatsu

3rd: Yamauchi

3rd: B. Hwang

Junior A:

1st: Arai

2nd: S. Suzuki

3rd: A. Suzuki

3rd: A. Hanaki

NonBogu:

1st: Thompson

2nd: Nagamine

3rd: Carolan

3rd: Sato

Fighting Spirit:

M. Suzuki

Ten Years Later!

2007-05-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Please visit the pictures page on the website to view some great photos of Eastern Kendo's first years. We celebrate our ten year anniversary this year and these photos are phenomenally great. Here is just one of the first tournament. Who can you see that is still here?

Semester Break and Family Tournament

2007-04-26T12:53:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. We will be off the week of May 2nd due to the school being closed between semesters. I hope to see everyone on May 8th. Have a nice time off but remember that the Family Tournament is just around the corner on Sunday May 20th. Get ready for a great time with all of our Michigan dojos. The best thing about this tournament is that you get to meet and fight with people that live extremely close to you. Please be sure to come out, even if you are not in bogu, to help with the event and participate in our 4th year of hosting this great tournament. See you in a couple of weeks. Cheers!

Cleveland Recap

2007-04-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Grand Rapids/Battle Creek on their Championship win over JCCC! What a great day for Michigan kendo. It was an overall wonderful tournament, and much shorter this year. Congratulations to everyone who competed. Please relay your experience as a comment. From what I know, Nathan had his first win and John Ellison had multiple victories during the mudansha division. Jack fought hard throughout the day in multiple divisions and earned a lot of respect from the surrounding sensei's. Our team was lucky enough to fight with Hajime Sugawara sensei who has been a good friend to me for a long time. We had a great first match against Purdue and then faced Shidogakuin DC and went down on points. Everyone fought extremely hard and Eastern Kendo shone throughout the day. Thanks to everyone that came down and we will see everyone at the Family tournament. If you have any pictures or comments please feel free to add. Cheers!

Jodan in Cleveland

2007-04-16T08:50:00.000-04:00

To reflect on this past weekend's tournament let me begin by saying that everyone that participated was great. I was lucky enough this year to face another nito kendoist in my first match. It was great to have the opportunity to face someone new using nito. I scored a kote nuki men for the first point and then another men from there. It was great to face a strong kendoist and come away with a two point victory. I was then up against Onitsuka san and the fight was very competitive and balanced. I thought that I had him and was fairly confident in the way the match was going. As soon as I thought about that I went for kote and he scored with a kote nuki men. This has become the downfall for me and I really need to work on getting my kote a bit faster. The team matches were great because I got to fight alongisde my jodan sensei Sugawara sensei. He was gracious enough to be our chuken and we got through our first opponenet. I did what I could and tied the match to put us through on points. Then we faced Shidogaukiun DC and I was up against Kamata Sensei. He was extremely hard to face but, after he socred hiki do I was able to get a kote from him and it was great to score another kote in a tournament. Until the Family tournament. Thanks to Cleveland for hosting a great event. Cheers!

Michigan Family Tournament

2007-03-26T08:43:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

This year's Michigan Family Tournament will be on Sunday May 20th at our regular practice location. We are expecting a great turnout again with all of the Michigan dojo's participating. This will be our third year hosting this event and it gets better and better every year. The tournament is free to participate in and the banquet after the tournament is just $20. This is also a a great time to meet everyone in the Michigan Kendo community and practice for upcoming tournament throughout the year. We hope to see everyone there! Cheers!

Forms will be available shortly.

Cleveland 2007

2007-03-19T15:28:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

The Cleveland tournament is just around the corner and registration is due this tuesday. If you are planning on attending please bring your check book to practice so that we can register you for the event. I am going and hopefully we will have a full team. If you have any questions about hotels or banquet please see the Kendo Club at the University of Michigan's website at http://www.umich.edu/~umkendo/tournament.html This will be another great tournament. See you at practice. Cheers!

Picture from Detroit Taikai

2007-03-05T08:08:00.000-05:00

What a great picture of Eastern kendo with our sensei. The list of people in the front from left to right. The Japanese Consulate of Detroit, Harada sensei, Tagawa sensei, Matsumoto sensei. The rest of the folk you know or will know soon. See you all at practice.

Detroit 2007 after glow

2007-02-19T11:25:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-19T11:19:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

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!

Dues for the Year

2007-01-21T17:52:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Please make sure to have forms filled out and dues turned into me this practcie or at the latest by next tuesday. The forms are available at http://www.midwestkendo.com/events/2007-membership-info.php

Everyone needs to make the chekcs payable to me so I can send one check for the dojo.

Alos, please be sure to complete the form for the Detroit Tournament and send in your fees for testing is you plan to test. Those forms are available from me or in the beginning of the year packet that was given out earlier.

See you all at practice.

Kick off the year party

2007-01-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that came out to the kick off the year party. We had a great time and started the year off right. Meeting all of the newer and youngest kenshi was excellent and we must get together again in the summer. Detroit is coming up so let's focus on our kendo and doing the best we can. If the US victory has taught us nothing else it should be that anything is possible if you believe in yourself. I believe that we can do extremely well this year at the tournament and test. See you all in practice. Cheers!

Annual Red/White Tournament

2007-01-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone that came out to the first practice of the year. The traditional red/white tournament was held with the red team claiming victory. The most important part of the practice was that everyone came and gave their best kendo. For many of the beginners this was their first experience wihtin this realm and they did great. Detroit is closer than we think so let's continue to practice hard and prepare for the tournament. The kick off party is this weekend. If you do not have directions please email Charlie or I. Hope to see everyone there. Cheers!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope everyone has a great year of kendo and everything else. We are starting our 10th year as a club and I am extremely excited to begin the year with everyone. The Detroit tournament is only 6 weeks away so keep coming to practice and practice hard. We will also be having a beginning of the year party at my house. Stay tuned to the email list for more information. See you all on the floor. Cheers!

Holiday Practice and break

2006-12-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that came out to the last practice of the year last night. I hope everyone has a great holiday season and a good time off. Now is the time to think about your year of kendo and what you gained throughout it. As you begin the new year what are your goals for kendo in the new year and what do you want to get out of kendo in 2007? We are starting our 10th year as a club and some big things are planned so let's all put our best kendo forward and continue to focus on strength, compassion, and honor. Cheers!

WKC

2006-12-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

USA USA USA USA...That is the chant going through my mind today as I learn that the US Kendo team has beaten the Japanese Kendo team at the 13th World Kendo Championships. They then went on to the finals against Korea and lost in a tight match. The point is that kendo has become a world wide phenomenon and it shows. Now we all need to up the ante even more to compete with the top in the US. See you all at practice. Cheers!

Picture is curtesy of Sim at the below link.

http://www.simulacre.org/wordpress/photos/album/72157594416829085/

Thanksgiving Practice

2006-11-21T16:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and I hope to see you at practice. As the holidays approach please be sure to remember your kendo and use it to remain calm and focused through all of the rushing and fast paced nature of the holidays. The end of the year is a time to focus on what you have accomplished and to see how far you have come within the year. Be sure to begin contemplating this now. The Detroit tournament is just around the corner so be sure to also prepare for a good strong taikai and test. See you all at practice.

Halloween practice and All Michigan Practice

2006-10-30T07:41:00.000-05:00

This tuesday there will be no practice due to halloween and the space being scheduled to someone else for this week. See you all next week. Any updates from Chicago please post here, or create a new post.

There will also be an All-Michigan Practice at MSU this sunday November 5th. It is at 12:00 in the upstairs gym of the IM building on the campus of MSU. Hopefully everyone can attend.

Practice and send off

2006-10-25T08:52:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to last night's practice and send off for the Midwest Championship. Good luck to everyone competing and testing. Be sure to represent Eastern and UofM kendo well. Remember sutemi and hitting with zanshin and all will be well. It sounds so simple doesn't it? well it is. Stop thinking and attack. Kampai!

Midwest Championship

2006-10-13T09:21:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Please take the time leading up to the tournament to focus on your own kendo. I know that many of you are testing and worried about competing but now is the time to focus on your kendo and what you can do to focus. The time for practice and worry is over and now you need to focus your attention on doing the kendo that you have learned. Please remember, as we continue to practice hard, that every extra push and every extra bit gets you closer to the goal you set for yourself. Never limit yourself by falling back on being tired, your senseis and sempai know when it is too much to handle and can tell when you are at the point of exhaustion so push yourself and then go one more. See you on the floor.

Barany sensei practice

2006-10-03T11:29:00.000-04:00

It was great to visit with Barany sensei and the folks at MSU kendo. The practice was centered around footwork and kihon with a bit of jigeiko thrown in. Barany sensei has the most effective footwork I have seen in a long time. His strength is completely generated from his ability to control his movements from his legs. This allows for a straight forward progression even when attacking from an angle. This is something that everyone should be striving for, including myself. It was good to catch up with a friend and practice with a great sensei. See you tuesday.

Barany Sensei Visit at MSU

2006-09-28T08:46:00.000-04:00

This sunday from 12:00-2:00 Barany sensei will be visiting MSU Kendo from Hungary. Please come out and practice with him if possible. He is a fantastic kendoist and a great teacher. I am sure there will be a get together afterward as well. Hope to see you all there.