So I am a shodan since 2022 and after relocating to a new city, I was allowed to start my own group. Things were going great until our first jigeiko session. So currently, I have 6 people in my group, but only one of them had a bogu, so we were the only ones doing it. So this person started kendo 4-5 months ago, and while she does have a background in traditional Kenjutsu, she seemed clueless about everything basically. However, when we did jigeiko, she really surprised me. While she didn't necessarily beat me, she performed as well as I did at the very least. I believe this was her first time ever doing jigeiko, aside from messing around with friends. So she matched me in my dojo, in my sport after a couple of months. It might be immature but I feel really embarrassed and humiliated. This really shattered my confidence. I was the only girl so I never took it personally if guys outclassed me, and plus I held my own most of the time. I did only 4 local competitions in my life since my category was basically empty where I live, but I won all 4 of them. So, how can I pick myself up after this and regain my confidence?

Hello everybody,

I've seen kakudaikis for the men at California Budogu and Tsubasa Budogu. How useful are they and are they recommended? Btw. I have an 10mm stitching Men.

Hello, before I start I have to say that I've been training kendo for a couple of months now so I'm pretty new. In my last training session my sensei made us focus mainly on holding the center and performing successful strikes as a result of it. The thing is I generally have a problem staying in the center which causes me to get hit often after I try to strike and sometimes I even miss the strike altogether. When I go for a men strike with fumikomi, for example, I instinctively move a little to the side, almost like naname-ashi but not quite, which ruins my attack.

How did you learn to properly hold the center? Is there an exercise or something I can do at home to overcome that issue?

After the Australian Kendo Championships this weekend (where i was less succesful than i would have liked), we had a grading today, and I successfully passed Yondan on my first try. Super stoked to start my journey to godan from today!

Hey everyone. I'm relocating to Orlando in the coming months. Does anyone know of a way to contact the organizers to reach out and ask them questions?

Hi guys! Been doing kendo for a bit over 7 years now and I’m at Sandan. Just got back from my first Australian Kendo Championship and I sort of got hooked on the shiai side of kendo. I realised however that while my spirit is high I have mostly been training in Shinsa kendo, so I am lacking that speedy and aggressive kendo needed to be competitive. Also realised that I’m 35 and not that young anymore, after few shiai my whole body hurts, and can barely move my neck after some fierce taiatari. We cannot reverse the years unfortunately 😁 but is there something I can do to get my body into a condition where I can train to be actually competitive? Also the clubs in my state do not train for competitive kendo so I would have to compensate in my own.

Hey all, I have the opportunity now to learn at one of two schools, one teaches Ono-ha as recognized by Reigakudo and under the most senior practitioner outside of Japan. And the other is Tenshin itto-ryu.

I am leaning ono-ha based on the instructor and age of the style but wanted to get a deeper understanding since I am still so new.

What do you think?

One of my senseis uses nito sometimes and it's really fun to keiko against, but everyone has been saying you need to a. Learn jodan first and b. Be Nidan to ask to learn jodan. But I was at a tournament recently where a mudanshan was fighting with nito so I was wondering if there's any actually rule/etiquette for asking to learn jodan/nito

I am spending the month of May in Tokyo. I have been training in Kendo for 2 years, so still very much a beginner. I have limited Japanese language skills - enough to order food, get directions and training in martial arts but I am not fluent. I am looking for suggestions in or near the Shinjuku area that will allow a foreigner to train.

I thought this would be a common thread but I have tried researching this for the past month and there is not a lot of specific information. I am interested in obtaining contact information for dojos that are willing to accept foreign students, so I can reach out and introduce myself.

I am planning on making this a 2-3 times a year training since I usually go to Japan about three times a year and stay anywhere from 10 days - one month. So this is not something that will be one and done and I am attempting to make this a long-term excursion.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

UPDATE: Based on everyone's suggestion, I was able to reach out to several dojos and received 2 invites to visit. Thanks to everyone for volunteering information that was very helpful. I will be spending the next month continuing to research the dojos and working on my language skills, and of course, training as much as I can! Thanks again and have a great day!

i know i’m pretty fast so i come in men pretty often, usually i go first, but lately sensei have been telling me that i come too fast and i need to endure a little harder. it’s so hard to keep it in because i want to come in as soon as there’s any pressure but i need to work on holding it back and going at the right time. i’m always scared of getting overpowered when we both come at the same time which is why i try to come first every time. does anyone have any advice for not coming in too fast?

I don’t ever reply to threads that seem ridiculous, but I must share my thoughts about (Question, Is the assumption made that neither opponent is wearing armor?) because I don’t want people who are on the fence about starting kendo to be influenced by this guy’s experience in kendo in any way.

Just reading the title was a red flag to me and it certainly was that. It reminded me of the flame section on Kendo-World. Look…I don’t want to bash the guy/kid because I don’t know him, but his reply to Kenkyukai was very telling. 99 percent of his response was total bullshit. The 1percent I do believe is that he tried kendo and he didn’t like it, kendo wasn’t what he thought it was and that’s okay. Whether he was even wearing bogu is debatable…if he was, it was probably club bogu. Years of experience? I seriously doubt it, maybe 6 months to a year at most.

If you want to start kendo because you like anime, samurai movies, kendo videos or whatever, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, plenty of people have. However, if you have experience in mixed martial arts, karate, judo or boxing etc. and you want to incorporate your experience into kendo, then you’re going to be disappointed because kendo is a martial art that stands alone, just like football and baseball are two different sports, it’s like oil and water, they don’t mix.

I’m only speculating here…but it seems to me that he was influenced by kendo vs. naginata videos or kendo vs. hema videos or even backyard ninja videos. This_is_not_what kendo is, even if it’s against naginata, it’s just an exhibition, nothing more, we don’t train to fight various martial artist, we train to fight fellow kendokas in shiai.

This guy is/was probably a mudansha doing crazy shit in keiko and was told to stop doing crazy shit by seniors and his sensei and didn’t like it, hence being ignored by everyone and fabricating stories on reddit. Nothing against shin-kendo, but maybe that’s what he should look into, it might be something he likes better than kendo.

Shin-kendo is not affiliated with AUSKF btw, which is a subject I will not discuss at all.

Hi everyone, I have a little problem, cause of that I need some advices. My Men is round 1.5cm smaller than my head. Can I wear the men or is the difference too big?

If we can assume that a kendo match is actually using real swords and that this is a real fight to the death, is it assumed that neither side is wearing any protective armor. A strike to the head or face, side torso, and wrist is considered a point.

This is basically a really stupid question, but I like to live on hope.

Is it possible for non-participants to practice geiko during the championship with the participants after the competitions are done for the Day?

My better half is a reserve and I will travel with her, but I Wonder if it is any point to bring my bogu as well.

I really, really want to but I don't have high hopes.

For background, I used to do different martial arts before karate and ninjutsu at the same time for few years. We sometimes would do also simple kendo work. When covid happened I dropped martial arts. Two years ago I decided to pick kendo. But within half a year I dropped it.

I came back to kendo this year and I have been experiencing pain in training in my Achilles but I'm fine the next day. I know this common.

But now my shoulders hurt and I got golfers elbows that hurts the most.

I do golf, and my form is actually good and don't get golfers elbows from it.

But with kendo my right elbows really hurt atm I can't even hold a hand bag. I been doing different range of motion exercises for it. I get it's probably over extension, or poor form. Or probably coz I haven't done something like this for a while.. idk 🤷🏻‍♀️

Do you have any advice to deal with this?

Hi everyone,
Does anyone knows if Guangxi University has a Kendo club? Or if there is a private dojo somewhere in the city? If yes, please let me know! Thank you.

In my hunt for a better place for our club to practice, I’ve run into the question “what’s the lowest ceiling height that works for kendo?”

I mean obviously the higher the better, but there’s also the question of availability and being able to practice in a place with good floor and mirrors and such things.

What would be a minimum height? All input is appreciated.

I have a shinai I plan to only use for shiai and grading, with another for regular practice.

Will keeping it in the plastic wrap keep it 'fresh' or should I still regularly apply oil/wax.

Seito-ha, Nanken…Kenshi 24/7 article

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Thank you all for your replies in my last post… I’ve been a fan of Kenshi 24/7 since its inception, I always look forward to reading future articles from Mr. McCall.

When I finished reading the article, I’ve never heard of seito-ha or nankin used in any kendo context, I’ve heard many times my sensei tell me;

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-No, not that way, this way!

-You’re still doing that, stop doing that!

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This is an example of what my sensei would say to me to correct my *bad habits* during keiko. The things I was doing wrong were limiting my progression in kendo, I’m not showing my true abilities of what my kendo could be. I was 5,6,7 years doing kendo, a nidan in high school.

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As a high school teen, my senseis were very strict during kendo camps, keiko was all about developing your basic fundamentals My kamae, my footwork, my mechanics, my breathing and most importantly, my focus. Focus on these elements to improve your kendo, so that you can further your understanding through practice. Don’t treat your practice like you’re a zombie, do it with focus and with vigor, in other words…don’t do it half-assed or your kendo will stagnate.

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That was my sensei’s message to everyone in camp, develop what you’re being taught in the dojo, and do it correctly, the best you can. Don’t give up if something is too difficult to learn, kendo is supposed to be hard, “Don’t give up”.

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Don’t we all learn kendo this way? The seito-ha way?

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In my experience, *nanken* is normal, it’s a normal learning process in kendo, every kenshi goes through some form of nanken phase. (especially high-schoolers) So…what is nanken to me?

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As a mudansha, I always found it difficult in shiai fighting kids who were unorthodox, whether they were too bendy or whatever they were doing to confuse me. (nanken vs. nanken) It was difficult for me to win the match. My own issue was that I would try to win with speed and was too defensive, and this showed in my approach when I fought. I would randomly attack, this was evident when I became a yudansha, which is normal phase that every kenshi goes through. (in my dojo anyway)

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At shodan, one of the things we were told was that we weren’t utilizing the wazas being taught in waza keiko, we were just randomly striking. There was no purpose to our approach. (riai) Randomly executing waza with speed was all we really knew…I would try to surprise the opponent when I execute.

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Yuko-datotsu vs. Ippon Kenshi 24/7 new article.

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After reading Mr. McCall’s latest article, I decided to share my thoughts here on reddit. At the end of the article, there’s an old video of Inoue sensei sharing his thoughts on what constitutes an ippon. When I first saw this video over 10 years ago, it really took me back to what my sensei was telling me years ago as a teenage kendoka about my approach in shiai.

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I’ll try to summarize my thoughts the best I can…everything I was doing in shiai was superficial, it lacked depth. In other words, I was too one dimensional, my kendo has essentially peaked. Which meant, I had to break everything down to the bottom to rebuild my kendo and refocus.

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All the *bad habits* or nanken I acquired in kendo are just part of the process in learning kendo in my dojo. To break my bad habits, I had to refocus on everything, starting with my breathing. Breathing correctly is how I learned to refocus on my kendo, it changed everything in kendo for me, everything made more sense to me physically and mentally in kendo, including mokuso.

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For me anyway, if I’m not conscience of my breathing in any activity I do, my mind tends to wander into space…breathing helps me stay focused and present during keiko, breathing put me on the right path to relearning and understanding kendo at a deeper and higher level. (16 to 17 years old)

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Proper breathing to me…was the first step to fixing my bad habits and made me a stronger kendoka as a teenage competitor. Now what does this have to do with winning ippon and executing waza with yuko-datotsu? You see, in our dojo, we were taught to execute waza that we’re taught in waza keiko and to apply it in jigeiko and in shiai, at this beginning stage, we were mimicking sensei’s movement. It’s how we were first taught to coordinate our movement/mechanics.

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At this beginner’s stage, we only had a superficial understanding of Ki Ken Tai Icchi and yuko-datotsu. Meaning, your hands and feet needed to be in-sync along with snapping your hands and wrists for sae and tenouchi. At this stage, we were not striking from the core, (tanden) we were striking with our hands and feet first and not the_body_first, this is how we were taught in the beginning. Doing this leads to unorthodox kendo and bad habits are formed, which is normal in kendo, it was part of the learning process in our dojo.

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I’ve touched on this before, you cannot strike naturally from the tanden/core if you don’t breathe properly, this was the first thing we had to learn as yudansha, breath control. I was conscience of everything I did in keiko starting from rei to sonkyo, sonkyo into kamae with natural posture, my footwork and mechanics executing waza improved because I had to practice breathing into my abdomen and then slowly exhaling while doing everything in keiko. (striking from the core)

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In the end…my whole approach started to change in keiko and in shiai both physically and mentally because my mechanics felt more natural to me and not forced. My kamae became more settled/stable with minimal movement instead of dancing around like I was shadow boxing. (state of readiness) I developed a deeper understanding for seme and maai and selecting and timing waza executions because I could read the opponent better both physically and mentally. I became more aware of various situations to execute and time strikes. (riai)

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There’s a lot more to this…but as usual, this post is getting kind of long, so I’ll end it here. What are your thoughts on the latest article Yuko-datotsu vs. ippon?

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I'm researching for a story I have in the back burner where one of the characters is supposed to train on small iaido/kendo dojo. However, since the story takes place in a fictional version of a small-ish Brazilian city that, as far as I know, has no IRL iaido dojos, I can't just base it on the history of a local dojo.

So I wanted to know the requirements and/or the general process one needs to go through to open a proper, legit dojo IRL, cuz I really want to avoid accidentally writing a McDojo.

Anyone have any experience with the Kendo dojo in Ekkamai? I can't seem to find any phone number or email for them, sorry if this isn't allowed! https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ekkamai+Kendo+Dojo/@13.7203955,100.5811732,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x30e29fa5f1c00721:0xd57da5c89752c00!8m2!3d13.7203955!4d100.5811732!16s%2Fg%2F11ggz8_2_d?entry=ttu

I passed 1st kyu last year and I’m happy that I now passed shodan 🥳 I only train like once a week so I should probably train more now 🤣

Hi everyone,

Because of my muscle problems, I had to look for transitional alternatives. Then I had the idea of doing it with a suitcase.

Will my senseis chase me if I use an normal suitcase as a bogu bag ?

The chin rest on my men has gotten oily because face. Any good ways to clean the oil off? I've tried alcohol with not great results.

I usually see it is given in a horizontal position, held with both hands. Where should the sharp side of the blade face? Myself? SHould the tsuba side be on my left?

Not sure if I'm blind or looking at the wrong places but it doesn't seem anyone is selling a size 39 women's Carbon Shinai.
I do see women's 38 but I'm more looking for a size 39 was thinking of getting one soon in the future.

Thanks.

Hi I'm an Australian university student who's recently picked up Kendo as part of a club/beginner course. I'm lucky that my membership comes with a shenai even if not the best quality but I'm wondering where I might look at other equipment, especially the undergarment robe? (sorry I'm not sure the correct name)

Answers specific to Australia or Western Australia would be the best! But I understand from my experiences with fencing and ice hockey that WA isn't the best for sports equipment so I'd also appreciate international sites!