Hero photograph
Kendo
 
Photo by Frankie Vella

Kendo

Frankie Vella and Georgia Ford-Keen —

At the beginning of the year Logan Park formed a relationship with Otago Kendo club to run a school club here at school. 

12 to 16 students regularly attend on a Monday and Thursday after school.

School Club Do Jo Captains are Georgia Ford-Keen and Jayden Te-Tana they have recently been named as school club leaders.

All students are beginners and are working toward 9th Kyu.

I recently attended a club session and was impressed at the level of fitness needed. The Otago Kendo club is preparing our students to attend regional competitions in the future. The relationship between school and club has been a great success for both parties. Special thanks to Darryl Tong, Tasha Derrett and Robin Hanson from Otago Kendo and Nick Biggin from Logan Park. 

Below is Georgia's summary of the year.

Kendo is a modern Japanese martial art, which means, ‘the way of the sword’. It is a modern adaptation, like Iaido, of the old style of sword fighting in Japan, called ‘Kenjutsu’, which uses bamboo swords, and protective armour.

The club in Dunedin has been around for awhile, that had a small number of members because of not really being advertised. When I began, almost a whole year ago, we only had about 8 members but after coming to Logan Park to have lesson in P.E classes at the end of last year, in the new year, we were able to create an interest in a number of students. At the start, we had a large number of 35 students who came to the club the first few days, and the number dropped until we have a smaller constant number of members who now come to the club, which is about 20 member.

With these people, we have gone from being dangers to ourselves, to now being able to wield the shinai with precision, going through the first grading: of getting the clothing; the second: getting the armour; and most recent, and the third: of getting a national grading.

The experience, depending on the person, can vary, but I think most people for the first time, find the experience of going to a grading nerve-wracking because you are expected to do your best in that moment to get your grade because they don’t re-test, which is the most worrying part, but the experience is much more amazing than I let on, it’s really inspiring to be able to stand in front of the higher grades, who have gone through the same experiences as you are now, and being able to test the skills you had been developing.