By Kristopher Inting
This weekend marks the 12th Anniversary of IGA Kendo Club. So it seems very fortunate that Feb 12 also marks the club’s return to keiko after nearly two years of not practicing due to the pandemic. We were actually supposed to try reopening last January, but it was pushed back due to the raising of Alert Level 3 in Metro Manila last month. While it seemed like a bit of bad luck at the time, it meant that starting training now made it all the more significant!
Admittedly for many of us this was a difficult session because our bodies were not used to the movements anymore. Also it was a new experience doing all the various protocols necessary to ensure our health and safety, such as maintaining social distancing as much as possible, using masks during training, minimizing taiatari, foregoing kiai for now, and sadly no “2nd dojo”. The theme for the day was “safety in training” after all. It was still a happy experience for everyone involved, as we got reacquainted with kendo and each other.
We would like to note however that we are not fully back into training yet. We are using the next few weeks to refine our safety protocols and training regimen under an Alert Level 2 scenario. So for those wanting to train with us, we are asking for your patience for a few more weeks before we can start accepting new members/beginners again. We are certainly looking forward to fully opening when the time comes!
Finally, we would like to thank Rim Sports Center for hosting our keiko. They were very gracious hosts, and they have a very nice facility. We hope to be able to work with them again in the future!
Happy 12th Anniversary IGA Ken! It’s been quite a ride so far, and here’s to more years of training together!