Victorian Naginata Renmei

Congratulations to Chris, Light and Kevin for their successful kyu gradings this weekend! And a big thank you to everyone who assisted as shinsa partners, gorei or on the examination panel; it's always a community effort :)

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More zanshin!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUhb3d4ER_9/?igsh=MWRzcng1b3BoZnB2Zw== 9

Doing our best every day #naginata #martialarts #budo #kendo

It was the final sessions for the year and it was delightful to have so many attend!

I just wanted to say thank you to each and every one of our members for making this such a vibrant and friendly community. It's been amazing to see all of you progress over the past year and I appreciate the effort and enthusiasm you put into your training and the club.

I want to say a big thank you in particular to Light and Lorenzo for their incredible work on the new VNR logo; they've helped us all come together in designing our club logo. Thank you to John for leading the VNR committee, to all of those on the sub-committee, with a special mention to Bernard, Grisha, Steve and Chris for all their work on the INF venue and planning. To all the senior practitioners - thank you for always helping out, whether in a grading or in the day-to-day by setting good examples and providing constructive feedback and training to others. Thank you to Tony and Grisha for your work in our armoury - you've done this out of training hours and it's deeply appreciated.

The VNR wishes everyone the best over the break and I hope you all enjoy making good memories with friends and family. Stay safe and we'll be waiting, naginata in hand, for you all on the new year.

The VNR has been working to pick a logo for a few months now - fortunately we have some amazing artistic talents in our group that were willing to do a whole lot of design work for us! The final logo is yet to be determined but I wanted to commemorate the hard work of both Light and Lorenzo who came up with our design choices.

A colour schema hasn't been chosen but for context, these designs reference:
- Victoria's state marine animal, the Weedy Seadragon
- navy as one of the Vic state colours
- pink for the Vic state flower, the Common Heath
- yellow for the wattle flower

I think they both created great designs (and took on sooo much feedback from everyone 😂) and we can't thank them enough for their time and talent ❤️

2026 Beginners course dates (5 weeks duration)
Saturday 7th Feb - 7th Mar 2026
Saturday 3rd Oct - 31 Oct 2026

Cost: $60 for adults / $40 for students and children (minimum age 12 years)
Class times: 9.30am - 11.30am
First hour will be for the beginners group only, second hour will be integrated with regular members. 11.30-12.30 is reserved for members but beginners are welcome to stay and observe.

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While this occurred during my jaunt to Japan for jukendo, this lesson is one applicable to any budo:

An empty canvas of the mind Experiencing zazen in Fukushima

This is one of the hardest things to cultivate but it can serve you so well in budo and the rest of your life.

Budo Bite | Episode 02: Heijoshin or Maintaining a Calm and Steady Mind Budo Bite is a mini-podcast series about Japanese martial arts culture. The series is envisioned as a digestible and diverse exploration of all aspects of bu...

Some useful insights into mitori-geiko. And for those of you who prefer to listen/watch, there's a mini-podcast version at https://youtu.be/iXQRhELifno?si=YewAzQoB-2sQusee

Budo Beat 27: Gaping, Not Aping The “Budo Beat” Blog features a collection of short reflections, musings, and anecdotes on a wide range of budo topics by Professor Alex Bennett, a seasoned budo scholar and practitioner.

A big thank you to the lovely people of the winter beginners course! It was a pleasure to train with you and we hope you enjoyed learning a bit about naginata (though probably less keen on the cold mornings!).

And a huge round of thanks to all the senior practitioners who've been helping throughout the beginner course - it's been wonderful to see you all growing in confidence in the role of senpai and to see you generously, positively and kindly share feedback and helpful advice. I am so proud to train with all of you.

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