A couple weekends ago, we had an inter-dojo Taikai tournament for a friendly competition between Portland area kendo clubs, with a few people who travelled all the way from Idaho and Washington.  Less than half of the turnout was from Obukan, so we had a lot of guests and a lot of fun.   The only downside was we only had half the gym, so there was a lot of noise from the open courts on the other side of the divider curtain.

Here’s a match (#8) where I almost hold my ground against Dan Combs from Obukan.  I don’t have the strength to hold him back, but I lasted a lot longer than I expected.  He scores one hit to my kote, and like a n00b I thought the match was over.  It really was, but at least I didn’t let him score two points.  I’m the guy with the white ribbon tied to my back.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In match #10, I was up against a visitor in white.  I don’t know her name, but she stepped out of bounds twice with very little encouragement from me.  Aside from a clean hit to her men at 1:39, I don’t think my Kendo was as good as it was in the other match.  Despite all that, this is the first (and only) tournament match I’ve won to date. 

http://vimeo.com/2188490 – Match #8 – I’m in white, dad is sitting in seiza.
http://vimeo.com/2188651 – Match #10 – I’m in red, dad is under the basketball hoop

Here’s the two matches that my dad was in:
http://vimeo.com/2188234 – Match #2 – Dad in white.
http://vimeo.com/2188351 – Match #4 – Dad in white.