A couple of posts ago I talked about renshu-jiai, or practise competition, what they are and what sort of benefits can be had from doing them. Since making that post I’ve spent three whole days (two Saturdays and one Sunday) at shiai with my students while they competed in the Osaka preliminaries of the All Japan high school kendo championships. This shiai takes three days because of the sheer amount of competitors: the first Saturday was the individual competition (boys and girls), then the following weekend was the boys and girls team competitions, each taking an entire day. Even though I didn’t compete, I’m knackered !!!!
iPhone-video footage I uploaded to the kenshi 24/7 facebook page proved popular, so I put together another short vid with some better quality footage to share. Most of it is of the warmup sessions, with a little bit of shiai action at the end. Turn your speakers to 11 before clicking play:
Lastly, here is a small gallery of pictures:
3 replies on “All Japan High School Championships (preliminaries)”
That vid with the warm-up action? Splendid cacophony.
It’s better when you are there in person !
It’s impressive how much time and energy goes into these high school kendo competitions, especially with separate days for individual and team events. I also like that the warm-up footage was shared because it gives a better sense of the preparation and atmosphere beyond the actual matches. For students balancing academics with competitive activities, resources like 12 class result can also be useful when keeping track of school and exam information. Do you think participating in competitions like this helps students develop discipline and confidence that also carries over into their studies?