Monthly Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 1 Editor:  Dave Christman

 Nov/Dec  2006

All Photos by D.Christman, unless otherwise noted

Ontario Tournament, Nov 18th: Matsuura Sensei traveled to his homeland of Canada with Travis, Stephen and Jordan to participate in the Ontario Senior Open Championships. Stephen did really well by winning his court and taking third place in Mudansha. Travis did well in his Shodan-Nidan debut, by winning three rounds and almost making it to the court finals. Travis did well in his Shodan-Nidan debut, by winning three rounds and almost making it to the court finals. Jordan lost in his second match in Mudansha.  Matsuura Sensei was also defeated early and failed to make the court final for the first time in 4 tournaments. The team did really well by making it to the court finals and losing to JCCC.  The team was joined by a young lady from U of Guelph who had very little tournament experience. Despite this, Travis, Jordan and Stephen were able to hold matches to the point that Matsuura Sensei could decide the outcome. Unfortunately, this strategy did not work out well against JCCC.

    

Visit to MSU, November 27th:  I finally had a chance to visit Ron's kendo class for credit. This class, KIN 102M is the recommended way for beginners to get involved with kendo at MSU. KIN 102M is offered in the Fall and Spring of every year. Usually enrollment is limited to about 30 students, and they have filled this class completely every semester it has been offered. This coming semester (spring 07) it will have 50 people starting. I was very impressed with the seriousness, and the respect the students showed for Ron and the art of kendo. The curriculum of KIN 102M is very similar to that of any Kendo club. Since KIN 102M is made up completely of beginners, however, they focus 100% on beginner drills, rather than splitting practice between needs of beginners and experienced kenshi. Many current members of the MSU kendo club have found that the most effective approach to learning kendo was to take KIN 102M and to start attending the club practices as well about half way through the semester. If any of our B.C. intermediate or advanced people would like to visit and practice with the MSU people, Ron would be happy to see you come to the "club" practice, rather than the KIN 102 M practice. Kudos to Ron for actually having organized a "kendo for credit" class at a major state university, 

Christmas Party, December 10th:  We got together for another nice big Holiday practice, this year again quite a few people came from the Grand Rapids Kendo Kai, and we had a great practice. Ken Ichiki also came. We had a ton of food layed out, and I thought there was no way we were going to dent it, well, I was wrong...the only thing left was the chicken wings, which I admit was too much to start (8 lbs).Holy Moly, I was eating them for 5 days afterwards.

Official 2007 Holiday portrait

Tameshigiri - December 30th:  Peter Boylan sponsored a "tameshigiri" practice for the iaido and jodo enthusiasts. Peter, Fernando, Brian, Scott and I cut until we were too tired to cut any more. We have some nice pictures taken by Patricia Anderson also. See this web page for some cool pictures: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosefirerising/sets/72157594391679097/>

UPCOMING EVENTS

2007 Membership Drive:  The forms are now available at the dojo and on the MWKF Website. Please remember to renew your 2 memberships. Cost: $70 per year

Dr. Deborah Klens-Bigman Seminar: Dr. Deborah Klens-Bigman of the New York Budokai will be coming to Battle Creek dojo to teach the Tachi Uchi No Kurai kenjutsu set from Muso Shinden Ryu and Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu on Saturday, March 3, from 10:30 AM until 4:00 PM.   Cost will be $40. She has also said she will likely share some techniques and training practices from Tenshinsho Jigen Ryu, a highly developed and effective koryu kenjutsu system which she practices. If you are interested contact me.

Cleveland Tournament:  The date this year is April 14th, The info will be available here. We will definitely be fielding teams from Battle Creek and Grand Rapids this year.

 
 

I've collected a lot of stories, quotes, koans, poems and haiku. Here is one I really like:
 
"If you put on your belt and step onto the dojo floor, you signify the responsibility of your actions and of your rank. You therefore must be willing to participate in kumite, willing to win, willing to lose. Even if you have a injury you should participate, it is improper and impolite to leave before the end of class. Your sempai (seniors) should not be expected to pamper to your weaknesses. It would only be magnified, and soon any excuse could stop you from fighting, or to fight and not accept the results. If your sempai did not care about you, they would let you leave."
 
C.W. Nichol, Author  
 
( You could substitute bogou for belt, and jiyu-geiko for kumite in there )

E-mail the editor, let me know your comments at:  mailto: dtc12@comcast.net to reach me.

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