I'm going to start doing #TBT blogs that center around a person, place, or edit that has helped me grow as a kendama player over the years. This week I am choosing Rodney Ansel a.k.a. Roddama. I'm really stoked to be back in Japan jamming with this dude. Rod and I have traveled a lot for kendama in the past few years, France, Denmark, Amsterdam, Japan. It's hard to believe that this toy has allowed us to see some of the most amazing places ever. Rods style is unlike any other in the world. When he is going for combos his mind is somewhere else. He is a player I respect for always trying to improve and push the sport. The first time I saw Rod play kendama was when he entered our Oversized Kendama Edit Competition. I had never heard of him or see him do a single trick. This edit was filmed in 2012, just to give you some context to how hard these tricks were at the time. He was doing things I had never seen done with a kendama before. I knew after watching this edit I had to meet this dude and jam some dama with him. I believe we met for the first time at the 2013 EKO in France. That event is still one of my favorite kendama events to date! Sadly I took Rod out in that comp but I won a Gold Mugen so it was worth it. 
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