Meet Abigail Westblade!

Hey everybody, my name is Abigail Westblade. Let me tell you a little about myself and how I started my kendo journey. 

In 2018, when I was 8 years old, I saw a video of a kendo tournament my dad was watching on YouTube. I asked him to take me to go watch a practice in person, and I’ve been hooked ever since! It’s hard to believe that was 7 years ago! 

Throughout those 7 years I have met many people, some of which have become my closest friends. That’s one of my favorite things about kendo, all the new people I get to meet and practice with along the way.

What draws me to kendo is not only the competition, but more importantly it’s an opportunity to practice self discipline and feel a great sense of accomplishment after a good, hard practice not only in my home dojo in Memphis at Memphis Kendo Association, but also when we visit other dojos across the Southeast, as well. 

I’m very excited to be part of Team Hokubei Budogu because I want to help contribute to building youth kendo across the country. What an honor!