tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133766742024-03-13T16:51:46.320-04:00Black Kenshi's Kendo Related RamblingsChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-66608853948508355262015-04-02T21:12:00.002-04:002015-04-02T21:45:37.088-04:00Cross Training
For a while now, I've been wondering what I could do to make my
tournament performance better. I attend multiple ones throughout the
Midwest, but for the most part, I tend to get knocked out in the first
or second round. I look around at the people that tend to do well and I
wish I was able to get a piece of that pie. And when I talk about
getting better at tournaments, Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-28674714300600712492015-01-01T11:26:00.000-05:002015-01-01T11:26:18.250-05:00Obligitory Kendo/Iaido Self-Reflection...2014 Edition
Overall,
I felt that 2014 was a satisfying one for my growth, understanding and
participation of Kendo and Iaido, despite some pretty interesting ups
and downs. I've been able to continue practicing between 3 - 5 days per
week depending on the University of Cincinnati being in session. I've
also been able to make some new friends while vacationing in Hawaii and,
of course, Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-21374749473993293862014-09-06T12:09:00.001-04:002014-09-06T12:33:37.076-04:00Shundou (蠢動) review (International Title: Bushido)I happened to find out about this movie on the internet through one of my random searches. Since I have a thing for samurai period films, I really wanted to know more about the video and if there were any reviews available. After looking at the trailers, I tried to see if there was any information available in English, other than a synopsis of the movie, but came up empty handed. Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-76826924994836186492014-07-24T21:31:00.000-04:002014-07-24T21:31:26.900-04:00Kendo Klub Duties
Dojo leaders helping their students prepare for the Cleveland Kendo Tournament
Through my final days of attending Purdue six years ago (heck, even WAY before then, in a sense), I knew that I wanted to move to a location that had Kendo available (my potential locations were the Patuxent River Naval Base in Maryland and Cincinnati, OH). In the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted to takeChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-4230287210333089642013-12-04T23:44:00.001-05:002013-12-04T23:44:16.852-05:00The More You KnowThe Iaido practice last Wednesday night was another lonely one.  Jim had some other commitments, so he wasn’t able to make it to practice.  There are only two people that attend Iaido practice on Wednesday nights, this is actually quite a common occurrence (man, we should really get more people!). I do admit that it has been about two weeks since I did anything Iaido related, other Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-47867878853709232832013-01-10T20:15:00.001-05:002013-01-10T20:15:16.103-05:002012: A Year In Review Happy New Year everyone!  Or, as they say in Japan, 開けましておめでとうございます皆さん!(Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu minna san!).  I thought that I would take some time to think about how my Kendo and Iaido training has gone this year.  Unfortunately, I am dealing with the flu right now.  But hey, the good news is that I get at least an extra day off from work! The first big thing that Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-32238851538224092922012-12-13T21:47:00.001-05:002012-12-13T21:47:27.484-05:00Kendo Ain’t Easy Too bad I actually fail that men… A friend of mine posted an article on Facebook titled, “5 Little-Known Secrets to Utterly Successful Karate-ka” which briefly talks about some of the things that some of the most successful Karate-ka go through to reach whatever level of success they want to achieve.  I think that the article itself touches on some very good points about what it takes to Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-2047470441928678662012-06-26T00:19:00.001-04:002012-06-26T00:20:54.213-04:00Dear Diary…Bleh, yet again, there is yet another long time span since I made my last entry.  Things were getting a little busy around March due to events happening at work and balancing the responsibility of setting up the promotion exam for Kendo in the ECUSKF.  After that, I’ll admit that some laziness and distraction came up since I’m involved with other things in life that makes me wish that Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-79522379354794784022012-02-26T21:50:00.000-05:002012-02-26T21:50:15.522-05:00Not Thinkin' About ItThis has sure been an interesting couple of months. I've been dealing with quite a bit of stress lately to the point where it has cut into my Kendo and Iaido practice schedule a bit. This actually wouldn't be entirely bad if it wasn't for the fact that said stress affected my health for a few weeks. In short, I had the typical cold symptoms that improved, then worsened after yetChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-55124604917748024632012-01-02T08:39:00.002-05:002012-01-02T14:51:32.810-05:00Year in Reflection And Looking Ahead
To open up the new year, we held our annual Hatsugeiko practice. It’s an opportunity for all participants to start the year off on a high note to make the current year better than the last with a high-spirited practice amongst friends and families. For us in the ECUSKF, that involves having a dinner the night before, and then make it to the practice spot so that we can start at 6 AM Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-10542561779342670412011-12-12T22:55:00.001-05:002011-12-12T22:55:15.402-05:00Mind Over Matter!   The past few months have turned out to be the most stressful that I’ve been under in recent memory.  I won’t go into the boring details, but the short of it is that tight deadlines, coupled with a tough project, hasn’t made things easy on me.  Heck, things got to the point where my heart would race as I approach the doors of the building in anticipation for what would go wrongChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-63591389941657631832011-09-25T23:03:00.001-04:002011-09-25T23:03:36.107-04:00American Kendo Leadership Seminar I know I’m pretty late with making a post about this, but better late than never, I guess. Over the Labor Day weekend, I attended the American Kendo Leadership Seminar in Seattle, Washington, led by Jeff Marsten Sensei and Robert Stroud Sensei from the Pacific Northwest Kendo Federation.  The purpose of the seminar was to present materials and resources to build the leadership ranks of Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-78918751222816977032011-08-18T21:11:00.003-04:002011-08-19T21:02:17.264-04:002011 AUSKF National Tournament Thoughts
This past weekend, I participated in the US National Kendo Tournament in Atlanta, GA. I might have elaborated on this in previous posts but, in short, it’s a Kendo tournament held once every three years in which each of the 15 regional federations in the United States send people to fight in various divisions (Youth, Senior, Men’s, Women’s Teams, etc.) on the national stage. How you Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-76288473258304196922011-08-08T22:52:00.003-04:002011-08-19T21:01:09.933-04:00What Is a Hobby?
There was a thread started on the Kendo World forums not too long ago that was discussing whether or not Kendo should be considered a hobby. One thing that everyone can agree on is that there are various elements of Kendo that personally makes it enjoyable enough for use to continue. However, the fact that it’s easy for Kendo to go from just an activity done outside of the home to Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-32971151735258298892011-06-19T22:45:00.001-04:002011-06-19T22:45:13.392-04:00AUSKF Iaido Summer Camp 2011 First of all, I apologize for the long break in between posts.  It’s been a mix of lack of time, laziness and figuring out just what my next post would be about.  I’ll have to consider a better system for more frequent posting sometime. I attended the 2011 AUSKF Iaido Summer Camp at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.  The entire seminar lasted four days which included a Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-56008610334960802572011-04-27T22:57:00.001-04:002011-04-27T22:57:54.751-04:00Preparing for AUSKF Nationals This coming August, I will be participating in the AUSKF Championship in Atlanta.  The tournament is a very big deal here in the United States.  Every three years, each regional federation chooses people in their area to represent them by participating in the tournament.  Naturally, that means that each federation will send what they consider their strongest Kenshi to vie for theChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-16926245035295373212011-03-10T21:55:00.000-05:002011-03-10T21:58:46.002-05:00Tightening Muscles First of all, I apologize for the long delay in making a post.  I blame it partly on my own laziness (hey, I did hear about that two-year slump where bloggers tend to get blogging fatigue) and the fact that I made my plate a bit full with other things and interests.  Hopefully, I can try to be more frequent in the posts in the future. These past few weeks have been rife with various Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-19314589796005433682011-01-16T20:25:00.001-05:002011-01-16T20:27:15.173-05:00I Don’t Like Your Kendo Style One of the most common pieces of advice that we are given while we are fighting other people is to be aggressive.  It’s common to overthink the situation and start to play defensively, especially if we’re familiar with oji-waza.  The former case causes delayed reactions while the mind shifts back and forth between the internal consciousness and the fight at hand, while the latter caseChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-5875417267486410042011-01-02T21:24:00.001-05:002011-01-02T21:24:54.981-05:00Yearly Retrospection 2011 is now here.  When the year is ending, I like to go back through the year and evaluate what happened and how I performed throughout the year and think about how I can improve myself the next year.  Since martial arts is such a goal-driven activity, it’s especially important to think about these things to give yet another frame of reference for where I want to go. The biggest Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-11035704147227233122010-11-28T14:31:00.001-05:002010-11-28T14:31:12.256-05:00Thanksgiving Thankfulness I recently made it back from Milwaukee to visit the sister and see other family for Thanksgiving.  There was no Kendo or Iaido involved for the trip, but it was all worth it with the good food I ate and the cool things I saw in the area.  In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to take the opportunity to list the things I am thankful for when it comes to my martial arts Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-61804643690129492082010-11-24T00:34:00.004-05:002010-11-28T14:35:26.640-05:00Quality Over Quantity?
I really, really want to improve in my Iaido…
I’m very fortunate with Kendo because the three dojos that are in the area provide me with up to five days of practice per week, but I’m not so lucky when it comes to Iaido. Usually, we have two days per week to practice, which is fine. But due to some scheduling conflicts with the Corryville Rec Center for the fall/winter season, we Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-86942864357186800392010-09-21T21:05:00.000-04:002010-09-21T21:05:46.462-04:00Keeping Members
Originally, I wanted to give some advice about how to retain members in the club, based on my own personal experiences. But as I keep pondering on how to go about doing that, I'm slowly beginning to realize that, in most cases, there's very little anyone can do to try to make people stick around.
The biggest thing that gets in the way of retention is the sequence of progression. Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-3006445556114033912010-09-06T22:53:00.001-04:002010-09-06T22:55:09.986-04:00How To Improve Club Visibility
The Northern Kentucky Kendo Club has grown a lot over the past year. When I first arrived, there was only me and about three other people that regularly attended the practices each week. Now, through the efforts of the dojo leader, Jim Atkins, the club has blossomed into a decent-sized club that has about 10 to 15 people that come on a regular basis.
This wasn't an easy thing to do Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-13777386550918207282010-08-24T21:50:00.000-04:002010-08-24T21:50:03.541-04:00Working Towards that Immovable Mind
There are many people who practice kendo that believe that they have completed their practice of the kendo fundamentals during the beginner stage and only attempt to relate to them theoretically thereafter. However, this is a big misconception to the pursuit of true kendo.
Until you are 50 years old, you must endeavorChristopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13376674.post-22076481147867024372010-07-31T22:28:00.000-04:002010-07-31T22:28:48.387-04:00Nichibushin Shinai BagI had a shinai bag that lasted me quite a few years. But once a small tear at the top became a full-blown hole, I felt that it was time to get a new one. The old shinai bag was one of the ballistic material ones from E-bogu and was about $30 or so. It has lasted a while and had transported my shinai and bokken wherever I needed to go, so there are no complaints there.
Christopher Georgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11886883174852018121noreply@blogger.com0