Archive of News and Updates

Welcome to Trinity Term!

Hope everyone had a good Easter holiday! The new term's practice is starting today, slightly earlier than the previous term at 20:30 on Mondays, at usual times on Wednesdays and Sundays. As many of you are now moving into armour, please bring your own tenugui, and if you have, your own kit! You may feel slightly out of shape being away for a while, but don't worry... everyone's feeling the same way. We'll cover the basics again.

(Updated: 09 May 11)

Beginners' sessions starting today!

Thank you very much for all the interest and support at the Fresher's Fair last week! Those of you who signed up would have received an email from our president last night. If not, please contact (naoki.ichiryu[at]lincoln.ox.ac.uk) so I can add you to the mailing list.
Our dedicated Beginner's Course is starting this week (MT week 1), and continuing through the term until week 8, when we'll have an internal grading. Please take a look at course schedule (PDF file, 47KB) for further detail.

(Updated: 11 October 10)

Welcome (back) to a new academic year of kendo

Welome, and welcome back to new and returning members of OUKC. Hope you had a great summer break! If you are a returning member, we'll have practice as usual this week onwards EXCEPT for Wednesday 6 October (session cancelled). Please also note the term training times as updated above.
As for freshers and other people who are considering to join, we would like to send warm welcome in advance. If you're still unsure whether to join or not, you may want to visit us at Fresher's Fair. We'll have a stall in the sports club section inside Examination School, probably along with other marcial arts like karate and aikido. Fresher's Fair runs between 9:00 - 16:30 Wednesday through Friday.

(Updated: 04 October 10)

Term starting

Please note that the University term is starting in October. Week 0 starts on the 2 October. Our venue bookings on Mondays and Wednesdays will go back to our term time arrangements. We will announce nearer the time about Sunday practices as well.

(Updated: 16 September 10)

Referee Seminar in Oxford

There will be a Official BKA Referee Seminar / Shiai Training taking place on Saturday 25 September at Cheney School. Anyone above 2nd dans are required to attend at least one Referee Seminar a year. On Sunday, there will be Intensive Training as well in the same venue. Please see details on BKA Calender.

(Updated: 16 September 10)

Easter

Please note that there won't be a practice session on the 5th April 2010 due to Iffley Road Sports Facility being closed.

Ref.: Holiday Period Opening Times 2010 (OU Sport Website)

(Updated: 22 March 10)

Monday practice time change (22 March 2010 onwards)

Mondays: 20:30 - 22:00 at Iffley Road Sports Complex

(Updated: 23 March 10)

VARSITY 2010

Kendo Varsity Taikai 2010, sponsored by Eurokendo. Photo Credit: Katharine Byrne
Photo Credit: Katharine Byrne

Annual Kendo Varsity Game took place on 20th February in Iffley Road Sports Complex, Oxford.
Congratulations to the winners of the individuals and team competitions! The event was a great success. Thanks to all referees, volunteers, and perticipants for the support and help run the event successfully!

This event was sponsored by Eurokendo

(Updated: 05 March 10)

HT 2010 End of term social!!

See you there!

(Updated: 11 March 10)

KENDO VARSITY TAIKAI 2010

Kendo Varsity Taikai 2010, sponsored by Eurokendo

Annual Kendo Varsity Game will take place on 20th February in Iffley Road Sports Complex, Oxford!!
The event officially starts at 16:00, but if you are planning to help out at the event, please be there by 15:30. The event includes the individuals tournament (open to any members of Oxbridge Club) and the team competition (Five per team: Oxbridge students only). Friends, family and supporters all welcome. Come watch the epic battle!

This event is sponsored by Eurokendo

(Updated: 18 February 10)

Additional Sunday Session for armoured members

There will be a trial armoured member's practice session planned on Sunday 7 February from 19:00 until 21:00 at South Oxford Community Centre off Abingdon Road. The fee is £ 3 per person to pay for the venue. If enough people are interested, we may consider practicing weekly here. Please direct any enquiries to (naoki.ichiryu[at]lincoln.ox.ac.uk).

(Updated: 26 January 10)

Welcome back! HT 2010

Welcome back to those of you who have been away. HT 2010 is an eventful term for OUKC. This week, we will have Honda sensei visiting our Wednesday session. During February, we will have three visiting students from Japan. On 20th of February, we are hosting KENDO VARSITY 2010. We'll update you with emails!

Also, please note that after an extensive discussion, the committee has decided to raise the membership fee. Please use the 18 Jan 2010 version of the application form (found on Documents page) when applying for your membership from today onwards. Any enquries should be directed to the committee members. The emails can be found on the Contact page.

Our HT week 1 session will take place tonight, 18th Jan 2010 from 21:00 in Iffley Road Sports Complex as usual. Hope to see many of you there!

(Updated: 18 January 10)

Kendo Social

Beginning of term social for HT '10 will take place on Friday 29 January!! Come along for a meal and drinks!

(Updated: 26 January 2010)

Cancelled sessions due to snow 3

Today's session (13th January 2010) is now cancelled due to Oxford School closing early.

(Updated: 13 January 10)

Cancelled sessions due to snow 2

Our session on 11th January 2010 is now cancelled due to Iffley Sports Complex closing early.

Please visit the OU Sports Federations website for further details.

(Updated: 10 January 10)

Cancelled sessions due to snow

Please note that Saturday session on 09 January will be CANCELLED due to Cheney School being closed for the weekend due to snow/ice condition. (Also see below)

Apologies for any inconvenience caused to you for not updating the information about the cancellation of our Wednesday session on the website on 06 January in time.

We will update you via email as information becomes available about our sessions and venues opening. Please email me (naoki.ichiryu[at]lincoln.ox.ac.uk) if you would like to be added to the OUKC mail-list to receive the updates.

Please take care on the roads... Looking forward to seeing everyone back once the snow/ice chaos is over.

(Updated: 08 January 10)

Christmas Vacation Training

Here is the finalised plan for our kendo practice sessions during the Winter Break period. Please take note of the time changes for Monday sessions.

If you have any questions, please contact Naoki (naoki.ichiryu[at]lincoln.ox.ac.uk).

Mon 14 December 09 (20:00 - 22:00)
Wed 16 December 09 (20:00 - 21:30)
Sat 19 December 09 (14:30 - 16:30)

Mon 21 December 09 (20:00 - 22:00)
Wed 23 December 09 -- NO PRACTICE
Sat 26 December 09 -- NO PRACTICE

Mon 28 December 09 -- NO PRACTICE
Wed 30 December 09 -- NO PRACTICE
Sat 02 January 09 -- NO PRACTICE

Mon 04 January 10 (20:00 - 22:00)
Wed 06 January 10 -- CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW
Sat 09 January 10 -- CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW

Mon 11 January 10 -- CANCELLED
Wed 13 January 10 -- CANCELLED

(Updated: 08 January 10)

Christmas Vacation Training (Out of date)

Although term is drawing to a close, the club will continue to train over the holiday, so if you are remaining in Oxford, get some practice in!

Normal training times apply until the next Monday (7th Dec). During the vacation, the following Mondays are booked for the Iffley sports centre:

  • 14 December 09
  • 21 December 09
  • 4 January 10

The sessions will be from 20:00 - 22:00 for the dates listed above.

Unfortunately the sports centre will be closed for the rest of the weeks over the holiday. Wednesdays practice will continue as normal through the vacation EXCEPT FOR 30 DEC 2009, when the school is closed, so there is no session.

Term training times will resume in 0th week (Sun 10th Jan) next term.

(Updated: 10 December 09)

Beginner's Grading & Oxford Cup Results!

Our second Oxford Cup took place on the 28 December 09. The event was a great success! Thank you very much to Michio-sensei who organised the event, Dave-sensei and Rowena who kindly refereed our matches. We are also very grateful for the beginners who helped out in the scoring, timing and organisation at our armoured member's competitions. Thank you very much!!

If you've missed our exciting competition, visit (http://www.youtube.com/user/OneRyu254) for videos of armoured members' matches.

Beginners' Cup

Beginner's Grading

Oxford Cup (Armoured Tournament)

Congratulations to all!

(Updated: 08 December 09)

Mumeishi 3's: Results

On Saturday 21 November, OUKC and OCKC members participated in the Mumeishi 3's competition. Ivy Ko became the third in Women's individual tournament. OUKC B team: Wei Hao Yuen (senpo), David Parkes (chuken), Michio Wise (taisho) became second in the team tournament, which started off with 84 national and international teams. Congratulations!!!

OUKC winners

Also, well done to all the other participants for representing the Club with the positive kendo spirit!
Finally, thank you to those of you who came and supported us! We very much appreciated all the cheering!

(Updated: 24 November 09)

Beginner's Grading & Oxford Cup!!

On Saturday 24 November 09, we will be holding the Beginner's Grading and our 2nd Oxford Kendo Cup! If you would like to join, please register by email before lunchtime Friday 27 November.

Venue: Cheney School
Time: 14:00 -
Email your name, beginner/armoured, college (if OU student) and grade (if you have graded before) to Michio Wise (Michio.Wise[at]sharp.co.uk)
3 pounds entry fee. Be on time!

At the grading, beginners will be asked to demonstrate suburi, some basic cuts against an armoured motodachi, and kirikaeshi. We will do it in a competitive format, and the better you do among others, the higher grade you will get. It will be a great opportunity to show off your achievement as well as a chance to have a lot of fun! Hope to see many of you there!
The Beginner's Grading will be followed by matches among the armouerd members. Participants to this event should also register by email. Ones who are not participating can watch and cheer for your fellow members! It will be a lot of fun!
In both of these events, we will be giving out prizes, so get your shinai ready and register yourself NOW!!!!

SOCIAL AFTER THE COMPETITION... JOIN US!! :D

(Updated: 24 November 09)

Welcome to our new members!

Thank you for everyone who signed up to our club at the Fresher's Fair! Welcome to OUKC! If you have signed up but haven't recieved email notification from our mailing list, please email naoki.ichiryu (at) lincoln.ox.ac.uk. Hope you enjoy Kendo with us!

(Updated: 14 October 09)

New Club Blog!

On Monday 12th October 09, we welcomed about 50 new beginners. To help remind everyone about each of our beginner's session and to update people who couldn't make it to the practice, we've set up a blog to summarise what we've learned each week. I hope you find it useful!

OUKC Blog

(Updated: 14 October 09)

Term-time training

Welcome, and welcome back to a new academic year at OUKC. From week starting 04 October 09, we're switching back to our usual term time training schedules. Please note that the change applies to Monday trainings only; Wednesday trainig times are unaffected.

Mondays: 21:00-22:30 at the Iffly Sports Centre
Wednesdays: 20:00-22:00 at Community School (Unchanged)

(Updated: 06 October 09)

Fresher's Fair

This week, Fresher's Fair will be held at the Examination School from 9:30 until 16:30, between 07 October and 09 October (Wed - Fri)

This will be a great opportunity to introduce our club to freshers, and students at OU in general.
So, if you are a fresher, come along to have a chat, or just to see what kind of stuff we do here at OUKC.

Thank you in advance for those of you who are involved in setting up and running the OUKC stall! More help will be greatly appreciated, so if you can spare some time during this period to run our stall, please contact our president, Wei Hao (wei.yuen at worc.ox.ac.uk).

(Updated: 06 October 09)

Farewell to our Captain Chris!!

Christopher Ballinas who had been our captain, finished his degree at the university and left to his home country, Mexico. However, he promised to be back to practice with us again in near future.
He has contributed greatly to the development of OUKC, and his stories will surely be told to future generations of OUKC kendo-ka!
Best of luck to you, Chris!!

(Updated: 06 October 09)

New Sandan

On 5th of July, OUKC Captain Christopher Ballinas passed the Sandan Grading. Congratulations!
(Updated 10 July 2009)

Summer Holidays 2009 (28 June 2009 - 04 Oct 2009)

There will be training both Mondays and Wednesdays during Summer Holidays, but please note the slight change of time.

Mondays: 20:00-22:15 at the Iffly Sports Centre (Earlier start)
Wednesdays: 20:00-22:00 at Community Schools (Unchanged)

Also, please note that on following Mondays the Sports Hall (Iffly) is unavailable for our training therefore there will not be a session.

(Updated: 29 June 09)

Trinity Term 2009

Please note that during Trinity term (19 April - 27 June), Monday sessions start at 20:30 instead of usual 21:00. We can have two hours practice!

Cancelled training sessions (May)

Due to bank holidays, two Monday sessions will be cancelled.

Newly Graded Members

All of OUKC members who graded at Watchet Seminar on 17 May 09 passed. Congratulations to Chris E. for passing Shodan; Tim, Naoki and Dave P. for passing Ikkyu! (Updated: 19 May 09)

Cancelled training sessions (April)

Two MONDAY sessions are cancelled:

We will have our Wednesday sessions as usual. Monday session will resume on 19 April 09. (Updated: 06 April 09)

Grading and Seminar

Watchet Seminar and Grading is on 16-17 May. Check out the BKA website for details.

University Taikai

OUKC members participated in University Taikai at The University of Kent on Saturday 4 April. All of us competed as individuals and as a team. We had a great time with a lot to learn from this experience.

The members were: Chris B., Taishi, Wei Hao, Ivy and Naoki. Gel and Michio participated as referees

OUKC team unfortunately lost against Imperial Uni in the first round by a close margin. Ivy and Naoki got joint 3rd place in the Ladies division!

The next University taikai will be held next year in the University of Edinburgh. (Updated: 06 April 09)

Ozawa Sensei vist

On Saturday 26th of March 2009, four visiting Japanese Sensei headed by Ozawa Sensei, the author of Kendo: The Definitive Guideamazon.co.uk joined and lead our special training session.

We were very fortunate to have great sensei's with us. Thank you very much to everyone who have attended this session. Those of you who missed it, can look forward to his visit next year!

Part of the session and an informal interview with Ozawa sensei and other members will be aired on Friday (27th of March) at 7:30pm on SixTV.

Varsity 2009 Results

Saturday 31 January 2009: Motomi Tomioka and captain Cristopher Ballinas obtained joint 3rd place in the individual competition during the Varsity Games in Cambridge. Motomi also got the Fighting Spirit Award.

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