Victorian Naginata Renmei

16/03/2026

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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23/02/2026

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

20/12/2025

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.

08/12/2025

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 ❤️

07/12/2025

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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07/12/2025

05/12/2025

Sometimes you decide it'd be nice to make nafuda for your students so you buy an embroidery machine 🤣

01/09/2025

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

Experiencing zazen in Fukushima

07/07/2025

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 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...

26/06/2025

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

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.

14/06/2025

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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