Sunday, September 25, 2011
10th Nationals 2011
By Nella
The 10th Nationals 2011 took place on 18th September at the Changi Japanese School dojo. An annual event open for application by all Singaporeans and PRs, NUSKK members grabbed the opportunity to have another exciting showdown that week. Let the tournament begin!
Seniors Ladies Match: Joyce and Kitt
Changi Dojo
The tournament was divided into 4 categories: Men’s and Women’s Junior, and Men’s and Women’s Senior, for all kyu and dan grades respectively. During the matches, each participant starts off in a round robin match, in which only two out of three kendokas could advance to the eliminations stage. The competition was intense as some of us had to face much more experienced kendokas even before we moved up the tournament ladder.
Despite of the challenges, the club has done well for this tournament! We managed to clinch at least a bronze award in all the categories that we have participated in. Once again, congratulations to Nasution, Jingyang, Weber and Gervinn for their achievements!
Weber receives his trophy from Sensei!
Men's Junior category awardees
*arranges trophies on the white line*
(Nasu.. didn't smile again)
Group shot with Peter Sensei and Renata Sensei! :)
This sums up the last tournament for us during this period. In December, we will have our final internal series as well as the 23rd Lim Kwa Chwee Memorial Tournament. For our juniors, the latter will be your very first competition upon the completion of your introductory course! Stay tuned!
2nd NUS Kendo Championships Series 3
By Nella
It has been about a month since the commencement of our 2011 Beginner Course! First of all, a warm welcome to all our new members. Hope your journey in kendo has been enjoyable for you as far. :)
Meanwhile, the rest of the club is back for our internal tournament again, which is currently at the 3rd series for this year!
The championships was held on the 16th of September. Despite the huge delays and short warm up time, all of us put up a great fight throughout the tournament. For the uninitiated, we will begin with registration and shinai checks outside MPSH6. After that, we will proceed on to individual warm ups before the start of the tournament. The ladies' elimination matches will take place first, followed by men's elimination and lastly, the finals.
Before the start of Series 3
Our new members gathered on the right! :D
Shimpans Meeting
Mentsuke
Presenting the match lineups for ladies' and men's elimination!
Teck Seng vs Santoso
Our internal series not only gives us additional experience in shiai, but also the opportunity to learn from one another. Although the opponents were fellow kendokas we have been training with, shiai settings differ greatly from our usual keiko. Moreover, tournaments serve as good sources of feedback as well. Every point is scored, not gained or lost with a reason; we need to understand these in order to improve for further sessions to come.
Finally, we ended off with the prize presentation ceremony. A big thank you to Peter sensei, Renata sensei, Wenhao and Zehao as our shimpans for this series. Not forgetting Carey, Benjamin and the rest of the kendokas for the tournament duties!
Congratulations Yonghe!
(And also to Gervinn and Melissa!)
Series 3 medals
Closing of the tournament by Kenneth
Do look forward to Series 4 coming this December! :D