by Mark Kawabe | Nov 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
Congratulations to our students who successfully graded! Congratulations as well to all those who were successful in their attempts. And, of course, to those who weren’t successful, I hope you consider how you can improve to attain that next level. A few...
by Mark Kawabe | Nov 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
Someone asked me how this year’s JCCC tournament was. Here are a few observations. Shinpan-cho Bryan Asa noted at the end of the tournament that the referees needed to do a better job controlling the matches to prevent roughness from creating safety issues and...
by Mark Kawabe | Nov 19, 2015 | Uncategorized
Sitting in a McDonalds waiting for my daughter’s job training session to end when I should have been at the dojo, my mind wandered to the state of kendo in Ontario. Kendo, along with other weapons-based martial arts suffers from low participation rates. Karate,...
by Mark Kawabe | Nov 17, 2015 | Uncategorized
On my most recent visits to the JCCC, Tsumura Sensei has been teaching me how to strike men properly. That might sound odd to you. After all, someone with a 5th dan should know how to do this already. And, of course, you’d be right in thinking that. However, the...
by Mark Kawabe | Nov 15, 2015 | Uncategorized, Unwritten Rules of Kendo
There’s an “unwritten” rule of kendo that one shouldn’t ask one’s sensei if you are ready to grade. If you have to ask, you probably aren’t. If you were ready, your sensei would have told you to get your registration in. Or...
by Mark Kawabe | Nov 15, 2015 | Uncategorized
Over the past two weeks I subjected students at our dojo to one of the most challenging things in kendo. I asked them to watch videos of themselves doing kendo basics. Ooooh – scary!! Watching yourself doing basics is often an eye-opener. Thought your ki-ken-tai...
