Victorian Naginata Renmei

We've messaged everyone but just to cover all bases - we've cancelled training tonight due to the rough weather. We'd rather everyone stay safe and not have to travel given the extreme winds of last night and potential for road hazards still being cleared.

Stay safe!

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Forgot to take a photo but we had such a great turnout today and the opportunity to have some gorei, shinpan and engi kyogi practice. It was wonderful to see how everyone's technique lifted up with the addition of a little competition (and many watchful eyes)!

We've been very glad to welcome two practitioners to our group recently who've previously practiced in Japan - Mayu and Waka who are both studying here in Melbourne.

We also had a visit from our South Australian counterparts who were over for the recent Victorian Kendo Championships (gotta love cross-training!). Hopefully this is just the first of many future combined training opportunities.

It's always a wonderful experience to get to train with people with different naginata backgrounds - apart from improving our own knowledge and practice, it's a great way to connect in the wider naginata community.

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A lovely winter training session this morning - the senior practitioners took part of the session teaching the next shikake oji to two different groups ❤️ It's wonderful seeing how well everyone trains and shares instructing roles with each other!

Congratulations and welcome home to both Peter and Em from their recent participation in the World Naginata Championships and INF seminar in Boulder, Colorado.

Peter was awarded Fighting Spirit in the Goodwill Tournament and achieved his shinpn certification while Em graded for and achieved sandan.

We'd like to also congratulate Alastair from Sydney who came 3rd place in the Goodwill Tournament and extend our congratulations and thanks to our friends in the NZ contingent who participated in both the tournaments and the seminars; we always enjoy spending time with our Kiwi budo family and hope to train with you all again soon! 🥰

After some trial and error I have a fairly workable pattern for Naginata bags if anyone is interested in one for themselves.

Fourth session of our 5-week intro course and everyone is doing so well! We've covered basic footwork, furiagate, hasso and do cuts and today made a good start on furikaeshi. Plus we've tried wearing sune, done some kakari-geiko, uchikaeshi and shikaje-oji Kata 1. Amazing progress and a huge thanks to all the seniors who've been helping out each week.

We do have a little delay before we can have our final session (the floor is getting redone - yay!) but very much looking forward to seeing this intro group smash goals when we do get back.

We had a wonderful group turn out for the first Naginata beginner course for 2024! Lovely to meet so many enthusiastic people and I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all the current members who were able to train today and help welcome the beginners to the dojo.

May is the month for visitors! Today we were very glad to meet Yulin who was in Melbourne for a quick visit and joined us for Saturday training 💖

We were very happy to have Riho Naoto-san join us for training tonight. She's in Melbourne studying to the end of May so we hope to have the pleasure of her company over the next few weeks. And we might even remember to take a photo before training rather than after we're all sweaty from bogu 😂

A few of the VNR members flew across the pond to join the Auckland naginata seminar led by Alex Bennett-sensei and Saori-sensei. It was a valuable and very much appreciated opportunity for us to gain new insights and technical instructions that we don't generally have access to.

We can't say enough how important and enjoyable it is to go out and connect with other practitioners (especially our NZ friends) - each sensei will give you a unique perspective and the friendships you make along the way can have an incredible impact on your life and your training.

Thank you again to Alex- and Saori-sensei's for their tireless efforts, Tasha and Glenn for all their work in organising the seminar, and thank you to all the New Zealanders who are always so welcoming to those of us who crash their events

Finally, a big congratulations to Chris who achieved his ikkyu (1 kyu) at the Auckland grading!

The next grading opportunity will be in just over a month at the All Japan Naginata Federation sponsored seminar, which we are hosting. For more information, message us or check out our website (https://www.naginatavictoria.org/AJNF2024.html) or the Oceania Zone Naginata FB group; information has been emailed out to the Australian and New Zealand groups.

With the dojo now closed for maintenance it's time to rest and reflect on a beautiful year of naginata with you all. We've been lucky to meet a number of lovely new pokey-stick friends through the beginners course and even been so fortunate as to have a very welcome returnee in the form of Tony!

The support we've received from the North Sydney group has been very much appreciated and we'd like to extend a very special thanks to Peter who visited several times and shared his incredible technical knowledge and skills with us all.

I'd also like to personally extend thanks to Stephen for his amazing work running the Monday night sessions - it's been fantastic to have the second option for training every week. And a big thank you to Michael and Caelan for always being willing to step up as senpai to others.

We'll be returning to the dojo early in the new year (most likely 6 January 2024) and with the number of anticipated events we're reducing the beginners courses to just two - one in May and one in October.

**2024 Calendar outlook**
Mon 26 + Tue 27 February > New Zealand Naginata Seminar (Auckland, NZ) [TBC]
April > ANF annual two-day seminar (Melbourne, Australia)
13 - 17 July > 8th World Naginata Championships and INF Seminar (Boulder, Colorado)

A big thank you to the New Zealand Naginata Federation for letting a few crazy Australians gate crash their championships. Sarah did particularly well in her first overseas competition with a medal tally of 4 - first place as past of the winning isshuji team, third place in the engi, second in the NZ vs the World teams and a well deserved Fighting Spirit Award. Em Jay shared in the third place engi and NZ vs Worlds tally plus third in the individual shiai.

Competitiond such as this are an incredible opportunity and we're so lucky to have a group of amazing budo friends just across the pond.

We're always so happy to have naginata friends visit us - we've been lucky to have Peter join us from Sydney for a few sessions and tonight we also had the lovely Alice from NZ ❤️

A little something to plan for next year...

See you there!

The 8th World Naginata Championships and Goodwill Tournament will be held July 14-14, 2024. Seminar dates to be announced later.

#なぎなた #薙刀 #武道 #大会 #世界大会 #

A huge thank you to the committee of the Melbourne Budokai Kenshikan Dojo for approving the purchase of new equipment for the naginata training group. The support of the MBK in the continuance of naginata is always very much appreciated and never more so then when you get the first whiff of new bogu smell!

Lovely to be back in the dojo again training with people. I was only slightly mean making everyone do uchikaeshi and kata from migi chudan 😂

What a lovely second-last session for the year! While it was a small group we had a good time with some more 'fun' exercises - Seme in the Dark, Nodo Ball, Copy Kata....

And then a really relaxing lunch and chat at Hunter & Disciples - definitely have to do some post-session lunches more often!

Final session is this Monday night and I believe Steve is planning to make sure we go out with a bang :)

Even though we're winding closer to the end of the year, we're already thinking about 2023! We've set dates for the next beginners courses just to give you some time to plan ahead.

Saturday 4 Feb - 4 Mar 2023
Saturday 20 May - 17 Jun 2023
[Tentative] Saturday 30 Sep - 28 Oct 2023

Nothing quite like training with friends!

It was an absolute pleasure to have Alice (of New Zealand) join us at training today. Naginata is as much about the community we build and friendships we make as it is about our training. We're always very happy to see our NZ and interstate kin! ❤️

A big welcome to the new beginners course crew! It's always a pleasure to teach an introduction to naginata when the group is so friendly and enthusiastic :)

Just a little reminder that the naginata beginners course will start next week from 9.30am - 11.30am. Loose, comfortable clothing is suggested - with the weather getting chillier, you may want to wear a few layers!

And an update on this morning's post - there WILL be training next Saturday (28 May) as the roof works have been postponed due to weather.

Monday training is on pause for a few weeks at this stage - but should be back in early/mid-June.

Due to works on the building, this coming Saturday's session is cancelled as it's not advisable to be training under a roof while it's being replaced!

A huge congratulations to Sarah on her successful grading today! And a big thanks to Peter who has been so generous with his time and knowledge the last few weeks - it's been our absolute pleasure and privilege to train with you.