The countdown continues! With one week left until the annual Cornell Kendo Tournament, the team has been working tirelessly with captain John Yi and coaches Alex Eitoku and Eugenia Yang. BU will be sending two teams this year, and combining members with our sister club – the Harvard Radcliffe Kendo Club (HKRC) – for a third team, for a total of 12 team players from BU. All of the team players will also compete in individuals, as well as an additional BU player for individuals only, bringing our roster to 13 in total.
The practices have become more technique focused the closer to the tournament we have gotten. Coach Eitoku and Captain Yi have been pushing for the team to become more skilled in combinations while Coach Yang has been drilling the team into developing signature techniques and general kendo theory. The more we learn, the more we have come to realize how much we actually know as opposed to learning for the first time. There have been many lessons learned these last few weeks, but none can be clearer than this: no matter what happens, we need to work harder in the tournament than we do in practice. Winning is not the true end goal, but more of a result of our own self-improvement and the improvements we have made as a team and as a family. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and we only grow together. Victory can only be achieved through the effort we put into becoming better kenshi, through the “bitter work” we put into our training.
Are the practices getting harder? Yes. Does it make some doubt their abilities? Of course. But all of that is to make sure we realize our own potential as one. Our abilities – or lack thereof – tend to be from what we have truly worked to attain. I have a message for anyone in BUKA who is competing next weekend at Cornell: clear your mind of any and all doubts (or your confidence), and focus on playing your absolute best when the time arises. We learn from both our victories and our defeats, so just play your best and think of nothing else. You have trained for this more than you think. Go BUKA! FAITO!!!