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void-demo
pic cc Simon

How I won the BKC

by The Void

When Robin & I were drawing up the tricklist for the first BKC, we wanted a range of difficulties in the tricks. What we came up with, at the time, looked pretty challenging. I myself had only done Bird (the top trick) once or twice at that point. At that time in Britain there was a bunch of half a dozen or so hardcore players (that we knew of), who were all at a fairly similar standard. Any one of them, or perhaps the odd dark horse, was in with a good chance of winning the championship.

Obviously, we were all going to have to practice all of the tricks on the list a lot before the big day, but I realised that something else was required. During the competition, we were going to have to run through the list. An obvious statement, but it occurred to me that this was an extra factor that had to be considered. So, from December I started practising running through the list according to the competition rules. At first I did it once a day, but I soon stepped up to twice a day. After not too long, I managed to complete the list for the first time. A little while later, I did it again, and by Feb/March, I was completing it quite often. In the two weeks before the competition, I increased my practise regime to three times a day. It's my belief that it was practising running the list, as well as practising the tricks individually that made the difference for me on the day.

So, now we come to the new tricklist. Bearing in mind that this time around the competition was an Open, and open to all nationalities of players, I wanted to push the standard up a little further. Looking at the advanced list, the top end may seem a little scary. 1-12 are no harder than last year's tricks, and 13-16 are ones that most players with some experience will have at least thought about trying. Yes, 17-20 are hard tricks, but then they are right at the top of the list. Remember, you don't necessarily have to do ALL the tricks to win the comp - just more than anyone else!

Anyway, the gauntlet has been thrown down, so I urge everyone to start practising running the list now, and I'm sure in a month or so, it won't look quite as intimidating as it does now. So, .....who's up for the challenge? See you all at the BKO!

The Void
British Kendama Champion (retired)

PS One last thing..... More Knees!