Halifax Shuurenkan Kendo
1531 Grafton Street B3J 2B9 Halifax, NS, Canada

I want to thank Will Blades for all the insight he's bestowed on us over the last few weeks. It was great to have you with us to shake us up a bit. I believe everyone got a little bit better . We hope to see you back again soon! To everyone who put the effort in to get your butts to class while Will was visiting, good job! Especially with the heat warnings we've had. Everyone worked hard and sweated harder! Now take what you learned and try to apply it every class. Steve

Awesome class today, solid bogu work out great to have ourbold friend and club member Will Blades joining us while he's home. Please try to make it to a class over the next week to practice with him, I promise you'll learn something! Steve

Another fun class today as always! Great to see everyone who managed to dart around the marathon and get to class today. After class I was explaining part of my mental process, I want to explain it here for everyone and give some background that I hope is relateable. On my drive home I recognized it was the basis of my personal Kendo philosophy. First allow me to preface that when I started Kendo I was very much a passive person who struggled to take the initiative, I had nev...er been active in sports or competitions and lacked confidence in life. Truth be told I still struggle to take the initiative sometimes, but I've gotten a little better... In the beginning my mind raced all the time, I'm naturally inclined to anxiety so having an empty mind and being in the moment is one of my life goals. I would constantly struggle internally against my own mind, my strike's not good enough? Why bother, I can't beat this person? Why bother. Honestly this type of thinking held me back in many things. But then Kendo is life and life is Kendo. When I came back to Kendo a few years ago after my hiatus I just wanted to get out and interact with friends. I wanted to pick back up and old hobby and have some fun. But truth be told it wasn't always fun, I was still too hard on myself and my mind was always running, sometimes I didn't want to go to the dojo. I love Kendo and love our little club but... I didn't have a real why, as in why am I doing this. When Robertson Sensei joined us he introduced us to whats clearly one of his core philosophys, Kendo IS fun. For me Kendo could be fun, but it was also always hard work. Somewhere over the last few years I made a decision, Kendo IS fun. Period. When we start class and we do mukuso I've made my mantra "Have fun" at the end of class I tell myself "That was fun". When I'm exhausted after a drill and can barely catch my breath I tell myself, "oh my god that was so hard but so much fun". Everything in my mind gets labeled as fun. When we do two hundred swings i a row? That's a lot of swings? That's a lot of fun!Kendo IS fun. When it drags you through the dirt that's fun. When you land an Ippon that's fun. Reiho is fun. Kiai is fun. Kendo IS fun. When I'm exhausted I don't think "I can't do that, I can't handle having anymore fun"... So I do more, I get exhausted and catch my breath, "that was fun, let's have more fun". When I suck, I laugh, "I'll get it if I practice more, and practice is fun!" I rarely miss a class these days, sickness would need to knock me down to rob me of my fun. Everyday I look forward to the next class. I would double my class time if I could. So I invite you all to consider my personal kendo philosophy. You've all helped me formulate it, I've stolen parts of it from my interactions with all of you. Reflect on it and if you would like, steal it from me it's yours if it's useful. I will see you on Tuesday and we will have a lot more fun! Steve Harris

Whew great class today I think I feel my lungs growing after all that

Great class tonight everyone! Lots of happy faces sweating to the basics! Followed up by kihon boktou waza. Nice to see Andrea come out of hiding tonight too