Welcome to the website of Cougar Kendo, a University of Houston sports club. Interested in Joining? Please contact us at cougarkendo@gmail.com. Also please read our Frequently Asked Questions page. And.. join us on Facebook.

Dojo Precepts for Cougar Kendo
Borrowed from the Chiba Dojo.
1. Manners are first. Those who study Kendo must always have proper mind, arrange their clothing neatly, value discipline, and maintain proper etiquette.
2. Respect your dojomates. Respect your sensei and sempai and follow their teachings well. Also, care for your kohai and lead them well. Be a good example in everything you undertake.
3. Work hard. The dojo is a place for studying waza, polishing the mind, and training the body. Great effort brings great results; mediocre effort breeds mediocrity.

PRACTICE: TTH 7-9 Room Multipurpose Room 1 (We start in the hallway next to MP1) of the UH REC center.

12.16-1.16 Winter Keiko at the Houston Budokan
1.17 First Practice
1.22 Rice Pounding
2.?? Guest Sensei visit
3.03 Dojo Cleanup
03/12-17 Spring break
4.?? SUSKIF Testing
5.10 Last Keiko
5.?? End of the Year Party

Site Last Updated: 1.4.12

12/26/11 Last Keiko of the Year at the Houston Budokan

CK attended the last practice of the year at the Budokan. Members had the opportunity to keiko with Bokuto instead of Shinai.

12/17/11 Last Saturday Class of the Year

CK attended the last Saturday Class of the Year.

12/15/11 Last Practice of the Year

12/03/11 UH Football Program Sale Fundraiser

The Conference USA Championships at UH marked the end of the first semester of program sales with IMG for Cougar Kendo. Members attended a total of 7 home games to raise money for the club. Thank you for the great opportunity IMG!

10/30/11 Second Halloween Party At the Guerra's

More smores and then some.

10/09/11 UT Taikai

On October 9th, the University of Houston’s Cougar Kendo (“CK”) sports club participated in the 10th Longhorn Invitational Team Kendo Taikai (“Tournament”). The Tournament, hosted by the University of Texas Kendo Association, takes place every year at the University of Texas’ main campus in Austin. This is CK’s 3rd time in a row to compete at the Tournament. ”). In the previous years, CK’s “A” team has made it to the quarterfinals, won the Longhorn award (for best fighting spirit) and defeated the University of Texas team.

Members of CK had the opportunity to tryout for spot on one of the two teams during practice early September. The tryouts first consisted of each member doing as many rounds of Kirikaeshi as possible. Kirikaeshi is a vigorous 21 cut drill that tests a person’s physical and mental stamina. Immediately after, each member fought 5 of the club’s seniors in a row. The seniors are club and university graduates or assistant coaches. Each member had to score as many points as possible against the senior they were matched up with in 90 seconds. To assist in the try out process, Rick TheBerge Sensei, a 6th Dan (blackbelt) from the Houston Budokan attended to help judge the matches.

CK sent two teams of twelve competitors each, “A” and “B”. The teams where composed of members of no rank to 1st Kyu (brown belt), club officers, and even an international student from Brazil. Economics Junior Miguel Morales led team A, while Annabelle Pan, an Accounting Junior, led team B. Kenny Phan, BS/BA ('11) in Biology/Chinese Studies, was the team coach.

This year, the Tournament consisted of 14 teams from various cities in Texas and Mexico. A majority of the competitors were higher ranked and far more experienced than the Cougar Kendo members. Nevertheless, the club fought with Cougar pride and spirit. The Cougar Kendo A Team had a particularly tough draw. Their first opponent was a team from Mexico which had 3 national members on their team. Their second opponent was the Texas A&M team A. Shy of just one point, Cougar Kendo’s team A did not break out of their round robin group. Cougar Kendo team B made history, after fighting the Austin A team, they fought SMK, a team from a private Dojo. By defeating SMK, Cougar Kendo team B broke out of their round robin, which is a first for team B. CK made it to the quarter finals to lose to a team from Texas A&M.

The Tournament also had Coog participants outside of the CK teams. CK’s Sensei (instructor), Mark A. Kerstein, participated as a judge. Sensei is a 5th Dan, with about 40 years of martial arts experience. He has a JD ('98) received from the UH Law Center and runs his own law firm, The Law Office of Mark A. Kerstein. In addition, UH undergraduate, Marketing Senior Van Nguyen, and UH Alumni, Shamina Chang BA ('10) Psychology/Philosophy, Peter Lee BS (‘07) Biology, and Chris Nguyen BS ('11) Biology, participated on the Houston Budokan teams. Both Budokan teams placed 3rd in the Tournament.

In addition to the tournament itself, the Tournament gave CK members a rare opportunity to practice with and learn from “Duke” Tagawa Sensei. As one of the two only Kendo 8th degree black belts in the US, Tagawa Sensei is one of the highest ranking Kendo practitioners outside of Japan.

Cougar Kendo was founded in 2008 and is the largest and most active sport club on campus. Practice takes place Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 9 pm in the Multipurpose Room 1 on the first floor of the Rec Center. No experience is necessary to join. For more information, please visit COUGARKENDO.COM

10/07/11 Demo for UH Parents Day

09/15/11 UT Taikai Team Tryouts

After 3 days of tryouts, the teams for the 2011 Longhorn Team Taikai have been selected. Club members interested in trying out for the team had to do as many rounds of kirikaeshi in as possible in a row and then fight 5 of their seniors.
A team: Chris Charles, Ambarly French, Edmond Fung, Miguel Morales (captain), Nancy Phan, Sang Yu
B team: Alex Bering, Liam Geihl, Keite Gularte, Brian Huang, Robert Lott, Anna Pan (captain)
Team Coach: Kenny Phan (UH '11)
CK members Shamina Chang, Peter Lee, Chris Nguyen, Van Nguyen will also be competing at the Takai on the Houston Budokan (Chiba) Teams.

08/21/11 Booth & Demo at the Rec Center

Thanks for coming to see us at the rec center!

08/12-13/11 AUSKF Nationals
SUSKIF sent 16 people to compete at nationals 9 of the 19 members of team SUSKIF are Coogs!

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