Keiko: A Kenshi's Journey

Let's talk about kendo! This year has been an interesting one.  A lot has been happening, mostly in my personal life, but throughout it all I was able to keep a fairly regular kendo schedule.  I feel good about the progress I made this year, even though it's been very subtle to me.  Not a lot of giant breakthroughs or new insights into anything, but a lot of smoothing out and polishing what I know, and trying to improve the mental aspects of my kendo.  I believe, for the most part, that I've been doing a good job of it, although in practice I definitely notice that I get hit a lot more.  That's ok, though!  Practice is there for a reason and if I'm not getting hit I'm not doing it right.  One of the things I've been focusing on is trying to act with a purpose.  Not throwing attacks out here and there without thought, but really trying to focus and do everything purposely.  My attacks have become fewer, for the time being, but I feel like more and more of

Photo courtesy of James O'Donnell Two weeks ago the Spokane team and I participated in the 18th Annual Kent Taikai.  What a time we had, too!  A few surprises, a few gasps, laughs, and loads of spirit and energy throughout the entire day of kendo.  We had competitors strewn across the 1-3 Kyu, 1-3 Dan, 1-3 Dan Seniors, and Women's divisions, and overall our members did extremely well.  I was able to cheer on and witness a couple of our members in the seniors group take both first and third place, and our women's and kyu competitors do some excellent kendo in their matches.  My division, and the bulk of my dojo mates, weren't fighting until later that afternoon, in the 1-3 Dan group. The afternoon came, and finally I was up.  My first opponent was Chaney, from Sno-King.  I don't know if he remembers but I fought him in my first appearance at this taikai, four years ago in the team division.  We ended in a 1-1 tie then, but I knew that this match would have to e