With the Rose City Taikai in Portland, Ore, we start the unofficial "off season" for our region, at least when it comes to tournaments. And, it was a fitting end to our "season." Win or lose, every member looked really good and did really well, out there on the floor. In particular, we could see everybody's hard practice emerge during the matches. Transfer of learning—when our practice emerges in (transfers over to!) high-stress situations, is something we focus on a lot. And even in the most ideal conditions, it still rarely occurs. But during this taikai, every single person was able to show their improvement while testing their kendo against new opponents.
Not to mention, there were also results!
- I. Morgan: 1st Place, 4D+ division
- L. Spivey: 3rd Place, 3K division
- C. Moon: 1st Place, Junior Teams
Let's continue to work hard over the summer. We have a few months before the next thing, which gives us some time to break everything down and build it back up.
