2005 Saskatoon Kendo Seminar

[Neil Gendzwill]

Just an early warning that the annual Saskatoon seminar is coming up March 4-6 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Returning to teach this year is Kamata-sensei of Etobicoke Kendo Club in Ontario. Assisting him is Daisaku Taguchi; Taguchi-sensei is from Sunrise Kendo Club in BC. Miyaoka-sensei is the host instructor. We expect several other sensei to be there but no confirmations yet.

Rough schedule:
Mar 4: godo keiko 7-9 pm
Mar 5: seminar 9-12 am
tournament 1-6 (individual and team)
dinner/party 7-?
Mar 6: grading 9-11 am
jigeiko 11-1
seminar 3-5

Price is $60, including lunch on Saturday and the party Saturday night. Grading costs are as per CKF schedule. Air Canada and Westjet both have seat sales on until January 19, so now is a good time to book. Hotel info to follow. Contact me for more information by PM or email.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Hotel is now confirmed:

Best Western Inn & Suites
1715 Idylwyld Drive N
(306) 244-5552
Reservations 1-888-244-5552

A block of 20 rooms has been reserved under "Saskatoon Kendo Club" for March 4 and 5. All rooms have two beds, are non-smoking and cost $CDN80/night plus taxes. Cut-off date for reservations is February 18th. Reserved rooms may be cancelled anytime up to 4 pm on March 4. Please let me know if you have any difficulty with the reservations or if the hotel runs out of rooms in our block.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Another seminar has come and gone, fairly successfully. Over 80 people participated in the seminar, the biggest yet. I'd like to thank our guest sensei: Kamata-sensei from Etobicoke, Taguchi-sensei from Sunrise and Takagaki-sensei from Steveston. I'd also like to thank all the instructors of the visiting clubs for making the trip along with so many of their students: Stephen Moses of Calgary, Stephanie Bozzer of Edmonton, Corie Namba and Tom Yamashita of Winnipeg and David Fowler of Regina. Thanks also to Lance Wall of my own club for bearing the brunt of delegated duties.

We had a very nice godo-keiko on Friday night, followed by some refreshments in various locations. Saturday morning was seminar, with Kamata-sensei leading the 3+ dan group in a shimpan seminar and Taguchi-sensei and Takagaki-sensei instructing the rest. Saturday afternoon we had our tournament. Some strong showings from the Calgary club, especially their junior members, and a good effort from various Saskatoon and Edmonton people but it was Manitoba Kendo Club's day with about half of the placings and a team win. Congratulations to Corie, Tom and the rest, clearly they've been working hard.

Saturday evening saw supper at a local Chinese restaurant ("Hello, Michelle? That will be 85 for dinner") followed by a party at my house where the various awards were presented. Highlights of the night included presentation of a special gift to Takagaki-sensei for coming to most of the praire seminars (Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Regina - Bob hits them all) over the last 7 years, and another gift to Miyaoka-sensei as congratulations for his recent promotion to nanadan. Both gifts were joint efforts on the part of all prairie kendo clubs. The loudest cheers were reserved for 11 year old Bryn Williams of Manitoba, who received the fighting spirit award for a very gutsy performance against kids twice his size.

Sunday morning we held the grading and I am pleased to report all passed: 12 ikkyu, 6 shodan, 3 nidan and 1 sandan. Congratulations to all candidates, the overall level was clearly higher than last year.

After most of the visiting clubs went home, Kamata-sensei and Taguchi-sensei joined us for our regular club practice, and endured long lineups at keiko for their valuable advice, administered in the traditional format of butt-kicking.

Thanks again to all, and we hope to see you next year. Mark your calendars for the first weekend in March.

Tournament results (note the first listed 3rd place fought the winner in the semi):

Beginners (non-bogu):
1. Matthew Jewell CKC
2. Phil Mattie CKC
3. Paul Mattie CKC
3. Chris Jensen EKC

Kids
1. Riley Dawson EKC
2. Tim Lee MKC
3. Conner Mascho SKC
3. Bryn Williams MKC

Mudansha
1. Vincent Breault MKC
2. Grant Gordon CKC
3. Shawn MacFadden SKC
3. Rochelle Reonal CKC

Women
1. Kyoko Miyata MKC
2. Corie Namba MKC
3. Stephanie Bozzer EKC
3. Julie Kim CKC

1-2 dan
1. Hisaki Kajiyama SKC
2. Koichi Miyamoto MKC
3. Jun Park MKC
3. Anantha Duraiappah MKC

3+ dan
1. Daisaku Taguchi Sunrise
2. Neil Gendzwill SKC
3. Yu Kurisu MKC
3. Kyoko Miyata MKC

Team
1. Manitoba Kendo Club
2. Saskatoon Kendo Club
3. Regina Kendo Club
3. Calgary Kendo Club

Fighting Spirit Award
Bryn Williams, MKC

[Gerald Audette]

On Behalf of the Edmonton Kendo and Naginata Club, I'd like to thank Neil for yet another excellent semiar! We all learned alot, made new friends, played with old friends and had a great time!

And I have to say that you did your job well...as driver of the team "bus" I can say that at more than one point on the trip back to Edmonton I was the only one awake!:)

Thanks again Neil. See you in Edmonton in May!

Gerald

[Dave Fowler]

On Behalf of Regina club I must say it was a blast as always. Look forward to seeing most of you at Edmonton Seminar.

Have you posted info on that yet Gerald?

[Gerald Audette]

Hi Dave. I was good to see you again in S'toon.

We're still finallizing some of the details, and I'll get it posted as soon as possible!

Gerald

[4doormadman]

Go Edmonton Seminar! I enjoyed myself last year, and I just know it'll be a blast this year (only cuz I get to get my ass handed to me by naginata folk, haha)

[mark]

Thanks, Neil & Lance,

It was a great seminar. I have added another 2 pages to my todo list.
Looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Thanks again,
Mark

[Gerald Audette]

Go Edmonton Seminar! I enjoyed myself last year, and I just know it'll be a blast this year (only cuz I get to get my ass handed to me by naginata folk, haha)

We're planning on having a naginata seminar at the same time as our kendo seminar. We are looking at having a good isshu-jiai component as well. We've had a lot of positive feedback from last year's seminar - and several people have asked us if we'd do it agian.

Hope to see you in May!

[Neil Gendzwill]

I'm looking forward to it. Didn't get a chance to dance with Deryk as I was fairly busy all weekend, hopefully in May when I'm not running the show there will be an opportunity.