Johnson Cup and Testing

On the weekend of October 26th, the Johnson Cup and testing were hosted in Columbus, OH.  All of our members did quite well, and below are the recognized successes of each member.


Shin Haman received third place in the no bogu division

Cincinnati A received first place in the teams division!
   Congratulations to all the members - Chris George, Keafer Mock, Jyoshu Tsushima, Brian Dirk of Indianapolis, and special thanks to Kazuhiko Bessho who received a concussion and continued to pull out a win for the team! Great job team!

For testing:
Chris George gained 3dan
Jyoshu Tsushima confirmed 2dan
Rachel Sawicki gained 1dan
Andrea Grisell gained 4kyu

Congratulations to all of our members. Let's continue working hard and improve for the future!

Joint Practice

Everyone,

The next joint practice will be held here in Cincinnati at the Corryville Rec Center.  For those of you that live on, or near, campus, the rec center is just a few blocks from campus on the corner of University St. and Eden St.

Everyone in the club is highly encouraged to attend these joint practices whenever they can, even the beginners.  In fact, there will be a beginners practice for the first half of the total time slot we have there.  Because the beginners' practice was mainly set up for the Japanese Language School kids, the primary language used will be Japanese.  If you don't know Japanese, don't worry since practice is very easy to follow and any personal advice will be handled in English.

Not only is this a great time to get some extra practice in, but this is a great opportunity to get to know people outside of our immediate Kendo circle that you will likely see repeatedly if you continue practicing.  You are also welcome to attend the after party at Buffalo Wild Wings.  Rides to and from the practice location are available for those that need it.

Chris George

Fall Announcements

Hello everyone! I hope y’all had a great summer. There is a LOT of things to discuss, so I’ll cut right to the chase.

I recently caught wind that Ariga-sensei, the regional federation president, might be close to selling his home, so Miami Valley will be holding a farewell practice and party on September 2^nd. Practice will be from 11 AM to 1:30 PM and the party is currently planned to be at Deja Brew, located directly across the street from the dojo. Keep in mind that this falls on a Sunday, thus, Saturday practice is canceled. If you have any extra time between loads of homework and stuff, please come and say goodbye before he moves away (though he’ll still be the federation president :P) And while we are on the subject of Miami Valley, for the past few weeks, the times had been altered to accommodate the Japanese Language School in Columbus while they were off for their summer vacation. It looks like it’s over now so, starting this Saturday, practice will be back to its normal time of 11 AM ~ 1:30 PM.

On the home front, UC Kendo practices will be starting up again this coming Monday on August 27^th in Multipurpose Room B from 8:30 to 10:30. Whether you’ve been practicing for 10 years or barely heard of Kendo until…now…all are welcome to join us for some fun times. We had some great events over the past year so let’s try to keep that going!

I’ve been hearing about quite a few tournaments down the pipeline. If you have bogu, you are eligible to participate. Here’s a brief rundown of the ones I can think of:

Cleveland Student Tournament - Eligible for those that are currently in college or recent grads scheduled for September 28^th-30^th at Case Western Reserve. There will also be a shinsa for those testing up to 3^rd Dan on Saturday with the tournament happening on Sunday. Based on the information packet, the due date for turning in testing applications is September 21^st and the due date for the tournament is up in the air (but safe to assume that it’s due on the same day as the testing form). For more information, you can go to http://www.clevelandkendo.com/student_cup and download all the necessary forms and stuff. If we can, we should try to send everything to them at once, so please find out if you’re able to go ASAP so we can plan stuff out.

2012 SEUSKF Tournament – The tournament will be held in Atlanta on October 7^th and promotion exams will be held on October 6^th. This tournament is available for everyone that is wearing bogu. I will have to clear this with my parents, but since the tournament location is about 15 minutes from my parents’ house, then we can possibly stay there and save some money. The tournament and testing (up to 4^th Dan) application deadline is September 10^th, so we’ll need to decide on who will be able to go quickly and arrange money and stuff. Please see the link (http://www.atlantakendokai.org/2012/08/01/2012-seuskf-tournament/) for more information and the tournament packet.

Midwest Kendo Tournament – The annual tournament will be held in Madison, WI on October 29^th with applications due by October 18^th. Word has it that we might have our Johnson Cup/Testing around the same time, so this tournament might be a no-go for us. Nonetheless, the PDF with the application forms can be found here (http://www.midwestkendo.com/images/Forms/mwkf%20taikai%20madison%202011.pdf).

Johnson Cup/Testing – This is more of a heads up than anything, but we are planning on doing the annual Johnson Cup and testing in late October. Details are still being formed, but I will let you know as soon as I get more information.

I will try to update the calendar with all the dates and information (can be found on the sidebar to the right) as soon as I have the opportunity. Let’s try to make this year as successful as we can!

--Chris George

Summer Kendo for Cincinnati

Hello all, this is Chris here with some important practice information!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone for making the UC Kendo Club as successful as it has been this past year.  Not only did we achieve some tournament successes with our UC teams, we even gained quite a few new members.  Whether you're a beginner or advanced person, frequent or sparse attendant, you all have something to contribute to the success of the club.  We hope to see you all next semester as we try to make the club grow even stronger from sheer Kendo ability as well as friendships.

For those of you that might be itching to do some Kendo during the summer hiatus, there are still several opportunities to get some practice in that's within driving distance.  Below are the practice times and locations for the Miami Valley Kendo Club in Dayton and the Northern Kentucky Kendo Club in Covington.  If you happen to be out of town this summer, you can ask me for places to practice where you will be.

Miami Valley Kendo Club
Nihon Karate Do Taiyo Washin Ryu
2028 Harshman Road
Dayton, OH
Saturday:  11:15 - 1 PM (Extra practice from 1 PM to 2 PM for those that want a little extra punishment)

Northern Kentucky Kendo Club
Wednesday 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Iaido practice is from 6 to 7 for those that are interested in trying it)
2823 Eden Avenue
Cincinnati, OH

Sunday 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM (Iaido practice begins at 8:00 AM if you're interested in trying it)

         Step 'N' Out Dance Studio

721 Madison Avenue
Covington, KY

Cleveland Tournament

On Saturday, UC Kendo traveled to Cleveland to compete in the annual Cleveland/GNEUSKF Championships at Case Western Reserve University.  Everyone had some fantastic fights.

Congrats to UC Team A (Thomas Koizumi, Chris George, Jyoshu Tsushima, Sun Kim, and Kazuhiko Bessho) on taking third place in team matches
Congrats to Bessho-sensei for defeating Burm Kim in individuals
Congrats to Charlie Fan and Sean Senske for participating in their first tournament! You did great!

Let's continue to work hard and continue to succeed!

Spring Quarter Hours

For Spring quarter, UC Kendo practice takes place at the following times in the Campus Recreation Center:

Monday 9:30-10:45
Tuesday: 8:30-10:45
Wednesday: 8:30-10:45

All practices will be held in Multipurpose Room A.
For more information, contact Rachel Sawicki at sawickrt@mail.uc.edu

ECUSKF Kentucky Tournament

Congrats to everyone who attended the Kentucky tournament today!!! I think for the first time, everyone came home with a medal!
Jyoshu-1st place 1dan/2dan individuals
Keafer-2nd place in Mudan individuals
Danessa-2nd place womens division
UC Team-2nd place team matches
Rachel-Fighting spirit award Mudan individuals

Good job everyone, lets practice hard so we can make these all 1st place positions next time!

ECUSKF Spring promotion exam results!

Congrats to Keafer for passing shodan, Robert for passing ikkyu, and Boom for passing nikyu at the ECUSKF Spring promotion exam! Everyone did very well, keep up the hard work!

Detroit Tournament and Promotion

Over the weekend UC had eight members compete in the Annual Detroit Tournament. Everyone fought hard and did well.
Congrats to Kazuhiko Bessho for his promotion to yondan!
Congrats to Jyoshu Tsushima who took first place in the nidan individuals category!
Congrats to team B for their fantastic matches, their fights inspired everyone to do their best as well!

Let's all train hard together, so next year we can do even better!