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

Another year, another Bowden 'attempt'

Team Liverpool travelled to deepest darkest Reading to take part in the 2009 Sir Frank Bowden Kendo Taikai. Despite Dave initially being asked to randomly choose the initial competition bouts they went with a pool system. Our pool meant we would have two matches each and face Mumeishi A team and then Hizen C team.

The 2009 Liverpool team was:

1. Senpo - Dave Weston
   
2. Jiho - Daniel Antoni
   
3. Chuken - Mike Carter
   
4. Fukusho - Joe Willmott
   
5. Taisho - Oscar Carter

First up Dave survived the first 3 minute encounter to Aziz, unfortunately losing to a Men cut. Second Daniel in his first ever shiai faced a 4th Dan and also lasted the entire match only losing one point for two hansoku, where he stepped out of the shiai-jo twice.

Mike was up next and his opponent took one men cut and then a hiki-men on our chuken. 

Joe had a difficult time losing to two men cuts and was mightily displeased with himself but desperate to do well in his next fence.

Oscar brought up the rear and started strong but lost to one kote but surviving the 3 minutes.

The second line up against Hizen C and Dave once again got caught out with a men cut and in a similar scenario to Daniel's he misjudged the boundary of the shiai-jo twice and lost a point due to the two hansoku. The match had overrun it's 3 minutes by this time but it was still a disappointing exit. Our shiai virgin Daniel stepped up once again and acquitted himself spectacularly. He managed another 3 minutes this time without conceding a point.

Mike was up next and once again got caught by hiki-men and then a men cut.

Joe battled valiantly this time, desperate not to prove himself but his opponent caught him quite a tai-atari that practically took him off his feet. He caught his balance on one leg but whilst he struggled to regain posture the Hizen Fukusho seized the open men cut. Aftre the ippon Joe continued with spirit but got caught out with one of his own favorite waza kote-nuki-men near the full-time mark.

Lastly Oscar managed to get in a few do cuts and kaeshi-do's but with no score until the match was paused. From the reset the Hizen Taisho shot out of the blocks to seize a men.

Overall it was a deeply challenging Bowden with far more questions about our efforts than previous years. The results seem quite disheartening but I think we acquitted ourselves well in the face of such strong opposition, that contained considerably higher grades and GB squad members. Videos and photos will follow in the gallery and hopefully we will be able to assess where we can improve for next time.

Because Joe asked for it...

...over at the Liverpool Kendo Club Shop there is now a jacket, ideal for the summer? I've also done a white t-shirt for those that stock up on Daz and it turns out to be the cheapest thing they do with both back print and front print.

Check them out if they're your bag, and a reminder we make no profit from these items they're just there so you can display your love of Liverpudlian Kendo!

No kata Monday!

As the title says there is no kata on Monday, it being a bank holiday and all. You should know this anyway if you've signed up to the calendar as an rss feed, if not, why not?

Additionally, when we work out when the next beginners night will be happening we will update the calendar, news, forum and beginners pages on the website to let you all know.

Enjoy the long weekend.