Dojo news

Exam results

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Today, NKR organized the summer exams (combined with a Central Training for all others). The CT drew roughly fifty people, with about twenty five more people taking exams. It was a great turn-up today! I can’t say anything about the CT instruction as I took the exam myself :)

To everyone who took their exams today: thank you for your hard work!

Congratulations to those who passed their grade:

  • Ikkyu: Yasuhito Kawanishi, Haruki Yokota, Jeroen van Nigtevecht, Davin Mahespalsingh, Thomas Sluyter, Hans van Overeem.
  • Shodan: Koki Tomokiyo, Houdaifa Bediar.
  • Ni-dan: Charl Barrel.
  • San-dan: Ran Miyahara.

Sponsor message

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Dear all,

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Prints, black/white and colour, come in many sizes; mostly 24 x 30 cm. to 40 x 50 cm. Some much larger. Some are framed.

Most were shown in museums, galleries here and abroad. Worldwide subjects incl. Cuba, Korea (North and South), China, USA, Holland, S.Pacific, Japan.

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Check out his work at www.paulvanriel.com.

Studio: Ateliers 2005, Van Weerden Poelmanlaan 4h, 1185 HB Amstelveen ( 250 m. from A9, a 5 min. walk from the Cobra Museum ), free parking inside the gate ).

Upcoming exams

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In a few weeks, three to be precise, NKR will organize their semi-annual kendo shinsa. On the 26th of May, while attending the ‘central training’ in Amsterdam, you are given the opportunity to grade for a new rank.

If you would like to take the examinations, please ensure that you are well prepared.

  • Have a short chat with sensei, for advice and pointers regarding weak points in your kendo.
  • Go over the requirements as set out by NKR: ages and fees and general requirements.
  • Read our short shinsa preparation guide.
  • If you’re rusty on kata (why?!), read our kata study page for a good start.
  • Try to bring somebody who can record your exam on film. It will help you develop your kendo!
  • If you’re going for a dan grade, don’t forget to bring your yellow registration card.

Good luck!

Results of EC kendo

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EKC2013-2This weekend the European Championships kendo were fought in Berlin, Germany. The competitions in shiaijo A were filmed by the EKC crew and are available on their UStream channel. This includes the finals of each tournament.

The full results and draws can be found on the website of the EKC:

Some of our own members and friends took part in the competitions. Here are the relevant results.

  • Sayo van der Woude made it to the women’s finals, only to be bested in the end by Safiyah Fidai. Sayo-sempai also received a Fighting Spirit trophy in the teams’ competition.
  • Kiwa van Riel made it to the top of her poule, but was bested in her match against D. Yokoo from Germany. Kiwa-sempai also received a Fighting Spirit trophy in the individuals’ competition.
  • Our friend Sekee Chung sadly didn’t get to fight outside her first poule.
  • Our friend Marije Wouters made fared the same as Kiwa-sempai: she made it to the second round after her poule.
  • The dutch ladies’ team made it to the quarter finals and ranked third in the end, together with Hungary.
  • Of the six dutch gentlemen who competed, only our Jouke van der Woude and Ran van Riel made it out of their poules. Ran-sempai was defeated by Serbian A. Vuksanovic in the first round after the poules. Jouke-sempai defeated Greece’s D. Kalkovalis, but was then beaten by France’s K. Nakabayashi who would go on to fight in the finals.
  • Unfortunately the dutch men’s team did not make it outside their poule, as it included the champions: France.

Great work everyone! Thank you for showing us your best!

A guest from Aruba

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Next Saturday Renshinjuku kendo dojo will host a special guest from Aruba: Sergio Valesquez-sensei. Velasquez-sensei teaches at Bun Bu Ichi dojo and has been a friend of Heeren-sensei for over thirty years. They took part in many international competitions together and they were room mates as members of the dutch national team.

Velasquez-sensei was European champion and Heeren-sensei brought the Aruban national team to the world championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

Velasquez-sensei is a talented kendoka and your really have to meet him in jigeiko or kihon keiko at least once! Please make sure to join us next Saturday!

Kind regards,
Bert-sensei

Student statistics

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Here’s a bunch of interesting statistics, for the first half of the ’12-’13 season.

  • The average participation of all members (whose names are on the attendance roster) for classes in Amstelveen is ~27%.
  • So far we have had 48 trainings.
  • Everyone in the top 5 has an attendance record of over 80%: Roelof, Machi, Mike, Onno en Zicarlo.
  • Everyone in the top 5 has at least two months of 100% attendance. The only one with at least two months of full attendance, but below 80% is Machiko at 79,17%
  • Roelof-sensei has missed only one training and has a stellar attendance of 97,92%!
  • The average attendance goes down every month, starting at 37.5% in september and down to 20% in January. It went back up a little bit in February, at 23.6%
  • Mischa was only present in September (before his leave of absence), but at that time he trained in Almere as well so his attendance was 137.5%.

5/3: Visit of Furuya-sensei

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Everyone, please make sure to attend the tuesday evening training of March 5th!

Furuya-sensei, teacher of our founder Bert Heeren-sensei, will visit our dojo and participate in the training. Everybody should come and show their best efforts!

Iijima/Spring Cup report

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First off, here’s the gallery with photographs courtesy of Roelof-sensei.

Unfortunately none of our members managed to snag a winning position in the individual tournaments. Highest placed Renshinjuku kendoka was Jeroen van Nigtevecht who came in fourth. The winning kendoka were:

1. Wesley Haeke
2. Werner Karnadi
3. Peter d’Hont
3. Geert van Dort
FS. Rachid Karraz

In the teams competition a Renshinjuku team managed to score third place. The results are:

1. Fumetsu Giants +1 (Joeri van de Burgh, Werner Karnadi, Kasimir)
2. Museido 3 (Marije Wouters, Rachid Karraz, Kerstin Binder)
3. Renkoma (Kiwa Miyahara, Kensaku Maemoto, Nienke Jaarsma)
3. Fumetsu Snakes (Seekee Chung, Jay Jay Mast, Rik Nieuwenhuijzen)

Congratulations

A wonderful training/party

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_DSC9032Yesterday’s ‘Sayonara & omedetou’ training and party was a great succes!

In honor of the Tanidas, the Fukuyamas and of Kurogi-sensei, we had organized a training with lots of high-ranking sensei and with a buffet to follow. Imagine our surprise when the expected attendance was greatly exceeded by the surprise visit of kendoka from Scotland, Belgium and other dutch cities. Our friends were in town for today’s Iijima Cup and decided to drop by for our training.

All in all almost sixty kendoka trained at our dojo last night! It was a sight to see! Which is why it’s great that Roelof-sensei took lots of photographs :) The gallery is over here.