Most memorable Kendo moment

[nodachi]

What is your most memorable Kendo moment, be it in practice or competition, and what did you learn from it?

I have no two cents to give here, everything is still overwhelmly new and memorable after 4 months in.

Please share your thoughts and experiences.

[kendokamax]

Getting third place at the Canadian National's in the team division.

That was very cool..

sorry Neil :P

[KATSUJIN]

Winning the first place for the first time in a individual tournament...which was the First National Open Championship in Singapore....although i still feel like i was in a dream.......

[GMason]

Unfortunatly, they aren't particularly success stories. Like every one elses.

The first memory I have is of the very first taikai I ever entered. I had only been practicing about six months. Guess who I drawn against .......... My Godan Sensei :( :( needless to say I didn't progess in the Taikai.

The other memory I have that sticks in my head the most is, practicing at the Butokuden in Kyoto. As the Video "Kendo's most gruelling challenge" was the reason I started Kendo. It was amazing to practice in the Dojo I had seen on TV, and sparked my interest in Kendo.

[ben]

Doing jikeiko with the late Nakakura Kiyoshi sensei. He was already 80 when I trained with him, but the old bastard almost took out my left eardrum with a katate men from behind. >_< I moved through a hell of a lot faster after that...

b

[munenmuso]

Memorable moments?

When my wife and daughter saw me the first time practicing kendo despite those years they hesitated to come along with me where I won all my fights in that monthly tourney. She does not have any idea what kendo is and always find me strange everytime I left the house with my bogu bag and shinai. She always thought I was into something fishy: going fishing in the nearby river. Then came that day where I was at my finest, their presence for the first time to witness me fight where I emerge the winner and show to her the beautyof kendo. I was one euphoric lucky bastard.

[KhawMengLee]

Me....scoring ippon against a san/yondan in my first shiai(last week) and then going on to double grade and get my sankyu :)

[AlexM]

OH GOODY!!!! An open topic for me to train my typing muscles. . . Unfourtunately my kendo is rather un-memorable. Here are a couple of godd moments.

The 2002 Ontario Senior Open.
For once I was confortable doing shiai: losing or winning seemed strangely irrelevant. It helps when you feel you were fighting well. Couple of things at that tournament:

-Hitting for the cycle (almost): I managed to land points on men, kote, do and gyaku do. All that was missing was a tsuki and I would have gotten points on pretty much everything (keep in mind I was fighting in mudansha, except for 1 match in team, so no tsuki).

-Fighting Team Canada member Kyo Kamata in team matches:
Senpo vs. senpo. Ippon shobu. I had a great fight against a guy who should have cut me to shreads within the first 5 seconds. I was really agressive and either didn't feel his pressure or I was the one taking the initiative (I had no pressure to win after-all so I just went for it). Another thing, hearing the crowd cheering you on (people that don't even know you but wanted the other guy to lose) is quite a rush (Confound be damned). I lost (I was supposed to after-all) but everyone congratulated me afterwards: they just said "Great match". Sadly this was my only match that was not recorded for future generations to witness the level of my greatness :D . . . maybe that's a good thing.

-The crowd booing Matthew Raymond in the team finals match:
It wasn't mean or anything, it's just that he had pushed a guy out and the crowd felt that he should be the one penalised. The best part was seeing him smiling behind his mengane upon hearing the boos (from the entire crowd). Never seen that before and probably won't for a long time.

Great tourney.

Last thing, taking a road-trip to the Halifax tournament with 4 other people. 14 hours in a van asking ourselves why in the name of the All Mighty are we doing this. Followed by 14 hours of questioning our sanity for pulling this off and wondering why we even did this in the first place. Fun trip (and yes it was very much kendo related because without that tournament we would not have driven 2500 km. in a weekend).

I'll spare you the other anecdotes.

[kendokamax]

well an other momerable moment for me was when team canada went to montreal for their trainig camp

we had a team match vs them

Team Quebec Vs Team Canada, so 2 teams of 5 players
and the girl team too.

It was an amazing experience for me,

I was jiho of the 1st team of team quebec, and managed to hit men on one of the rookie of team canada (he was very nervous I think), so we had hikiwake. The rest of the team did well, but we lost 3-0, I think. It was very a good experience and It help me a lot having more confidence in my kendo.

[Atama]

Mine was getting third place in the british national taikai in the womens event. It was my first ever taikai and I thought I'd been knocked out about four times but they kept calling me up to fence. I had know idea I'd won even when they where calling my name out to recieve my medal. I still have no idea how the hell I managed to come 3rd because I don't think I fenced that well ....but if they wanna give me a medal then what the hell.




Lisa

[Raiza]

There were great things about my first taikai at the Ontario Senior Open (the Raymond incident was priceless!), but the one memory that sticks out is one that happened very early in my short kendo career during practice.

As beginners, we were learning to do hayasuburi in a more coordinated fashion. During one particular exercise, one person holds their shinai horizontally above his/her head and the other person has to hit the shinai between the two hands of the partner. While I was holding my shinai and was very focused on my partner, I noticed a very soft grazing on my hand, as if someone was hitting it with a feather. I look over and Sensei is also doing hayasuburi, finishing his cut just above my hand. He looked at me mischieviously and in response I smiled, sighed, shook my head and gave him a mock-scolding look. He had a very hard time trying to not to laugh and lifted the point of where his cut ended. We've been on very good terms since then.

What I learned: My Sensei is not only incredibly good at kendo, he's very human too and has the capacity to view you as an equal, regardless of rank. My appreciation and respect for him increased enormously after that incident. IMHO, he embodies the best of kendo and I'm grateful that he's been so patient with me.

Raiza

[2muchryt]

the most memorable moment for me was, and is, after practice when i'm getting in my car and i think about how fortunate i am to have a good sensei.

[don_lubo]

Ben you caled sensei with kyoshi shogo "the old bastard"????
What kind of kendooka are you?????

[munenmuso]

For sure he meant well. He's just complimenting and being sarcastic at the same time. He's just awestruck by the power of that old b__tard, same us being run by a truck and you can't fo anything about it except to curse. Cheer up dude:D

[inner_cent]

Originally posted by don_lubo
Ben you caled sensei with kyoshi shogo "the old bastard"????
What kind of kendooka are you?????

This is the same Don_lubo AGAIN .....
If you are as stupid as your thick, maybe you get the humour...
I think everyone are sick of your brainless comment

[2muchryt]

okay i changed my mind.
reading that last post is now my most memorable kendo moment :)

[Will]

At my third kendo taikai, I played against a kid who knocked me out in about 45 seconds. That really sucked (even though he got first place that day).

A year later at the first taikai of the year I played against the same guy second round. I came in, held him off then bam! hit his kote. A couple seconds later he hit my men. Then just about when time was almost out, I was able to do a nuki-men and win the match.

I got second place that day, the first time i placed. Haha, i wrote my college app essay on that.

[kendokamax]

revenge is sweeet :P

Something like that happened to me too. First match I lost against this particular person I dont think the guy didnt even know me, then I beat him the tournament after, then he just beat me last tournament...hope we can meet next time, so i take my revenge once more haha

competition is fun.

[Shikai]

My most memorable moment was ippon shobu against a 4th dan during a taikai in Japan last fall. I had just made shodan. The technique was tsuki. Perhaps more memorable was later seeing a photograph of that tsuki appear on the back cover of Kendo World Magazine (No.2) when I returned to the states. It was one thing to tell the story, or hear my sensei describe the match, but quite another to see a photograph of it, much less on the back of Kendo World. That moment and my most excellent sensei have compelled me to dedicate my heart to Kendo for as long as possible. Unfortunately, everybody now does tsuki against me all of the time!

[Raiza]

Originally posted by AlexM
The 2002 Ontario Senior Open...

Here's your chance to relive that moment of monumental boo-ness if you don't have the tape, Alex. I stumbled across a montage of the tournament with a nifty soundtrack to boot...

http://www.jccckendo.com/kendo/gallery/tournaments/2002ontsenior/index.html

[Hongsermeier]

Most memorable...currently...winning my first match. It was against a guy who loved to try and shove you off the court to win. I'd let him come in and then side step him. When he turned around to see where I went I was waiting. His men was so open even a blind man could have hit it. 2 points in about 1 min.

[kendomushi]

My most memorable moment was finishing a match on Mt. Mitake and having every sensei I knew come up to me and tell me that if they could have, they'd award me 4-dan then and there. I had lost the match and was fighting a man who later that year got his 5-dan, I had gotten my 3-dan two years prior.
What it taught me was that I am capable of rising above my current level and self imposed limits. However, that entire match is a virtual blank in my mind. I have no idea how I did it or even what I did. To this day, I am still trying to make that doing, not thinking, totally committing myself to each and every move and attack a habit. Sometimes I know I'm doing it, but still not with regularity.
That was 4 years ago and I'm still trying to learn from it.

[iwatekenshi]

Simple. Going against a Nanadan Sensei who switched to his speciality in nito-ryu during the middle of jigeiko. He said, "OK ippon-shobu!" That was cool. So we started and in about ten seconds it was over. I had done a tsuki that had dropped him to the floor.

Footnote: Later in the hour we did uchikomi and kakarigeiko; the favor was returned to me. Just excellent!

[Hai_hai]

I farted in seiza after "sensei ni, rei". Oops.

[Kiki]

Every time I feel like ‘I get IT’:D ...only to forget “IT” at the next keiko. :confused: UGH

The 2002 Nisei week tournament was my first individual tournament (one team event before) and I was sick with nerves. I came up from the locker area in time to hear my name being paged and my opponent was already on the court! Thankfully, I was in bogu and just needed my men and the judges were forgiving. I fought 5 straight matches, including two over-times. For some strange reason I was apologizing to everyone I beat. After I finally lost and came off the court, some nice yudansha women began congratulating me. Turns out I took third. I couldn’t really believe it until the awards ceremony.

When I first started, well before I wore bogu, I made a goal to score on a particular sensei who had gone undefeated in a couple of big tournaments. Last month I did it and the look of pleasant surprise on his face was a thrill. I know it was just at adult jigeiko but I was happy, even when he made short order of me immediately afterwards.

Time for a new goal.

[Karaken]

My dojo isn't the strongest in the area, so when we went to tournament, we had two nidan and three ikkyu ( including me ). So apparently, we weren't doing very good in the team tournament after losing all individuals in the first bout. I was the third one out facing the captain of the team. I was determined not to have an absolute and complete loss by our team. After three minutes of total concentration and so many aiuchi, I had a draw with GoDan sensei and standing ovation not only by my team members but others who knew the opposing sensei ( I'm sure noone knew me ).

Later my sensei came and gave me a big smile.

A long long time ago somewhere in the galaxy - center

[nodachi]

Just doing a simple drill in practice shortly after I started Kendo in Japan and recieving the grunting-nod-of-approval of the head sensei as he acknowledged that I did some drill well, instead of the funny-look-at-the-gaijin-trying-to-learn-kendo-look that I had only recieved before that day. After that practice, the funny look was gone and the atmosphere towards me became serious.

I owe him a lot for all he taught me and I won't forget that day.

[dorkusxmaximus]

The head sensei from a Japanese University kendo club visited my dojo and approached me after class was over. He said I had very beautiful form ^_^. That is the most memorable to me because a praise from a Sensei from Japan can't get any better than that =). It's worth even more than winning a shiai.

[qpuppy]

Me... hmmm... yeah.. getting 1st, 2nd or 3rd in tournament is very memorable.. until the time where you start losing.. and not getting any placing at all....
To me.. my most memorable moment was at this years Australian National Championship we had 4 visiting sensei's:
Saiji IIZUKA sensei, 8 Dan Hanshi, 62
Ken'ichi ISHIDA sensei, 8 Dan Kyoshi, 54
Satoru KANAKI sensei, 8 Dan Kyoshi, 52 (strong Jodan kendoka), and
Hideaki TAKAHASHI sensei, 7 Dan Kyoshi, 38.
( for a brief details of these sensei visit http://www.nswkendo.org/28AKC/28AKCIntro.htm )
we were in a treat, the sensei decided to perform some demo for use.... and Kanaki sensei was amazing with his Jodan.... But yes anyway.... after the comp... there was about half an hour of goodwill jikeiko and I had the chance to go against Kanaki sensei for a short 2 minutes... what was most memorable about this is that.. it was a very normal but educational keiko.. when all of a sudden he went into Jodan... at that time, it freaked me out..... (especially after seeing the demo but the senseis)... even though it only went for 30 second before the drum went off to change.. I almost S**Ted my hakama.... :S with out thinking.. each time he lefted his arms up.. i just went stright for the kote.. (of course not getting him).. and after teh who goodwill keiko.. I found out that I was the only person who experience the Jodan by kanaki sensei.. he didnt do Jodan on anyone else...... hehehe.. well my main point is.. made me felt SPECIAL.... :D

so yeah.. that is the most memorable kendo moment of my kendo life.....

[AlexM]

Originally posted by Raiza


Here's your chance to relive that moment of monumental boo-ness if you don't have the tape, Alex. I stumbled across a montage of the tournament with a nifty soundtrack to boot...

http://www.jccckendo.com/kendo/gallery/tournaments/2002ontsenior/index.html

I've seen the video and it just deosn't capture the moment of having an entire crowd boo a team canada member. The fact that it was all in good fun helps.

I also know who is responsible for starting that wave of boos but I'm not telling.

[Kiki]

Misterkurukuru-
Yup. I was taisho for the Violent Femmes and emcee last Sunday.

Takei Sensei still looks 90 feet tall to me and he hits hard too. I think he has beautiful form. Maybe one day I’ll manage to get a kote on him...maybe.

Now that you know I belong to the “Dark Side” and live in the red dojo, does this mean we can’t be friends anymore?! Well, either way I look forward to meeting all of you at the next open tournament.

[samurai999]

memorable kendo moment? Matchwise, my first trophy.. The NCKF adult kyu championship. By the use of skil and cunning.. ahem... er I mean plain dumb luck, I somehow won.. *shrug*
Why was this one memorable? Not just that I actually won some thing, but something big! Plus, my sempai let me hear it and worked me out to near death at the next keiko and the keiko after that and the keiko after that. :D

Eventwise? I'd say the AUSKF champs. First time I was participating in something that huge and (other than the organization of the tourney and my crappy match) was a very memorable experience.

Tim

[Inouye02]

hey kiki, if you live in the valley , you can switch to the sckf, there is san Fernando Valley dojo, where mrkurukuru's and my favorite hachidan sensei teaches...

[Kiki]

Thank you, but...
As my karma would have it, I almost join at SFV but the timing was off and I ended up at OSULA. This is my home now, although I am sure I would have been happy either way.

Sorry for discussing things off thread.

BTW I am really enjoying reading everyones' memorable kendo moments.

[m_french]

Originally posted by Kiki
I was taisho for the Violent Femmes

Now that's a great team name........"lemmee go wild, like a blister in the sun":beard: