The importance of doing kata

News from the BKA has it that after the next grading at Mumeishi Kata requirements will change.

Essentially it will affect all those attempting 1st Dan and above and really means that kendoka will be required to learn more of the later katas than before. This is more in line with European Kendo Federation grading requirements.

But what does this mean? Well it means that we will be learning all of the katas, not just the ones needed to get you through your next shinsa. Of course the only way to get to those later katas -Ropponme, Nanahonme and the Kodachi katas is to have thoroughly grasped the earlier ones. To do that you have to actually come to the kata lessons.

At Liverpool Kendo Club we practice, on average, twice a month for two hours each session. Very few clubs nationwide will devote so much time to kata and certainly not in such detail. Additionally for club members this lesson is FREE! The cost of practice is included in your monthly fees so the only thing stopping you going is getting there. Information on the practices are updated regularly on the club calendar, with the location on the map.

If this was not enough to convince you of the importance of kata just remember it was only through kata that 'Daniel-san' wins in Karate Kid 3. Go on, do it for Mr Miyagi! ;)

Kata back at Crosby

Kata is on again at Crosby 7:30pm start at Chesterfield High School. More information available on the training calendar. See you there.

Monday Night Kata Is Cancelled

Just to make everyone absolutely aware kata on Monday night is cancelled. Unfortunately there won't be anyone available to open the school. Mike will keep us informed about future lessons. Meanwhile if everyone can subscribe to the club's RSS calendar at

Liverpool Kendo Club Training Calendar

all future training dates will be updated there, as well as in the news, which you can also subscribe to in your RSS reader.

Liverpool Kendo Club News Blog

Northern Goodness

Members of the Liverpool Kendo Club sallied forth to do battle once again in the first ever Northern Open Kendo Championships held in Newcastle on the 25th of July. Joe Wilmott, Daniel Antoni and 'prodigal son' Chris Keegan restored some of our honour following the recent Bowden Taikai.

All three members of the three man team managed to win their first matches 2:0 [our most successful result ever]. In the second matches Joe Wilmott survived the full match unscathed resulting in hiki-wake [a draw] whilst Daniel and Chris lost their matches. Despite these results they made it out of the pools and into the second round.

Sadly the second round proved their undoing and they all lost their matches 2:0. The only consolation being the winning team went on to reach joint third place. Well done to the three guys who put their kendo on the line to show what we can do and better luck next year.

Beginners Night's All Right For Fighting.

Our next Beginners Night is next Wednesday 29th July. Please ensure you come as early as possible to the dojo, all beginners to arrive by 7:15pm. Don't forget, loose pants, preferably those that you can turn up without them falling down, shorts or 3/4 length trousers.

Current members, if you can remember to bring a spare shinai to share just in case we're blessed with record numbers of eager new participants.

Stoke Seminar and Grading Roundup

It was a small contingent from Liverpool that made it down to 'the Potteries' in Stoke for the annual seminar and grading. The seminar on the Saturday focused a great deal on seme and how to get your opponent to do what you wanted to do. Sensei John Howell's likened it to a chess game. The afternoon was taken up with shimpan practice. Mike Carter called a particularly good kote, it was a shame the other judges missed it. This was then followed by a detailed look at oji-waza.

The grading on the Sunday was a particularly long and hard affair. There were 25 ikkyu grading, 12 shodan, 8 nidan and 15 sandan. Everyone performed their shinai grading before any kata's were taken. Sadly both Mike and Oscar did not get through to the kata stage for sandan. In particular Oscar's trademark kaeshi-do's drew a few gasps of appreciation from the spectator's but it was not to be.

Dave Weston managed to make it second time lucky and defied the odd's to achieve nidan. If there was any indication of how tough the grading was the fact there was a 75% failure rate in the nidan section is evidence enough. A tense moment followed the kata as Dave was pulled aside to be instructed on the correct grip for waki-gamae, and then it was all done.

Also of note was occasional visitors from Do-Shin-Ken-Yu-Kai York, Mark Welsh who passed his ikkyu and also the help and support of Kobudokan's Andy Fisher who was paired with Dave for kata practice on the Sunday. Congratulations and thanks to them.

Technology... baa humbug.

Back in the day you could quite easily get away with corrupt floppy discs and eventually CD-Rs and even DVDs. Since solid state came along most of them are pretty much fool-proof. That is until this week when my 8GB SD card seemed to disintegrate.

This means anyone expecting video footage of their practice last week, well I'm afraid it's escaped back to the Matrix. We'll do it again some other time no doubt, so meanwhile you'll have to remember sensei's advice