Monthly Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 3 Editor:  Dave Christman

 Mar-April  2007

All Photos by D.Christman, unless otherwise noted

Cleveland Tournament, April 14th ( Reported by: Matsuura sensei ): Once again, the Battle Creek Kendo Kai (BCKK) and the Grand Rapids Kendo Kai (GRKK) joined forces to travel to Cleveland, OH to participate in the 19th Annual Greater Northeastern Kendo Federation Championships.  This tournament is hosted annually by the Cleveland Kendo Club. There were a total of 15 kendoka (6 from BCKK and 9 from GRKK) who participated. This tournament is a major competition with over 150 entrants from clubs all over the United States and Canada.  Clubs from places such as NYC, Washington DC, Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami, Detroit, Toronto, and many large colleges took part.

Outstanding results were achieved in the individual divisions. Thom Jorgensen of the GRKK was runner-up in the Mudansha division.  Chris Brooks and Jordan Holmgren, also of the GRKK took third place in the Mudansha division.  Travis Hill of the BCKK took third place in the Junior division (16-18 years old). Finally, Kotaro Yoshida of the BCKK took second place in the Sandan ("third degree black belt") and over division.

The biggest news of the day came when the team consisting of Travis Hill, Stephen Chaffin and Kotaro Yoshida of the BCKK combined with Yutaro Matsuura and Jordan Holmgren of GRKK won the Adult 5-Person Team Tournament championship. Hill led off, followed by Holmgren, Matsuura, Chaffin and Yoshida was our Taisho. We defeated 5 teams to win. University of Michigan, Case Western, Shidogakuin of Washington DC, Georgia Kendo Alliance of Atlanta in the semi-finals and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Center of Toronto in the finals.  The final was won in a sudden death overtime thriller with Yoshida defeating Tamaru of JCCC. It was the second time we had to send out Yoshida sensei to break a tie.

This victory is significant due to much larger clubs with higher ranked kendoka were defeated by our strategy and careful setting of the order of our players. 

(Note from Dave C) These guys worked real hard to win this event and it is a real feather in our cap. It proves that effort in weekly practices can bear fruit and rewards in competition. Also I'd like to give kudos to our guys who went but did not win a medal, Big Bob, Scott, and Craig.....

The gym at Case Western Reserve College in Cleveland.  Photo by J. Hill

New Sword Rack:  Whatever you do, do not smash yourself backwards into the new sword rack and impale yourself. Dave sensei hand made the sucker, and doesn't want to have to have a Quentin Tarantino moment pulling someone off of it.

Thanks to Dan: Our own Dabid sensei stands a little straighter and fights back a little harder since dojo member Dan Hammond got the support pole re-welded for us at no charge. Thanks to the CATC welding Instructor too.

Welcome to the new Guy:  Jim Krusko             Welcome back:  Christine Cho for the summer.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Michigan Family Tournament:  The date is definite: May 20th. Pick up your information at the Dojo.

MWKF Summer Camp:  The date will be August 3-5th again this year, and will be again at the University of Wisconsin. Information will be upcoming soon.

AUSKF Summer Camp:  The date is June 29 - July 1st in Swanee, Georgia More info to come.
 

I've collected a lot of stories, quotes, koans, poems and haiku. Here is one I really like:
 
"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself."
Shunryu Suzuki,  Zen Roshi  
 

E-mail the editor, let me know your comments at:  mailto: dtc12@comcast.net to reach me.

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