I’m possibly buying 2 Shinai tomorrow and know little about them. Can anyone give me a little insight about what to look for. Condition, quality, etc. Pic is of what is available.

Hey.

So I’ve had to take a year long hiatus from practice and definitely have slacked on suburi.

In January I plan to return to my dojo, but I want to know if you guys have any recommendations for shoulder strengthening exercises?

In the past my shoulders would definitely tire out quickly, which I know is due to needing more practice and improved form, but my shoulders in general have always felt weak. For example, for shoulder strengthening exercises, my lateral raise strength is kinda bad. I can only really do 12-15 pounds comfortably.

So yes, any recommendations for shoulder strengthening would be wonderful.

So, next Friday I wanna start practice again after 4-5 months of absence. How do I prepare myself for it? I'm really anxious, more than ever actually. I'm very afraid that I will forget something and/or slow everyone down. My general stamina and shape is also not peak. Advice and tips are greatly appreciated.

Hello!

I am relatively new to kendo and have been training for few months. I need some advice on breathing techniques when in a combat. During my competition practice at our Dojo, I ran out of breath in under a minute and was gasping for air like crazy. I believe my stamina and endurances are generally pretty okay.

Have anyone got some advice on any specific techniques or approach that could help me manage my breathing better during matches.

I was talking with a friend about visiting a kendo dojo, we both do softcombat for almost a decade, but would be our first time in a true kendo dojo.

Any tips and or etiquette we should follow? How should I introduced ourselves and should we bring any equipment??

Thanks in advance! Oss!

Recently, I began to take more active care of my shinai. And he faced a rather strange problem: regardless of the tension of the tsuru or nakayui, the plates wobble. This makes the structure very unstable and noisy.

I think it's about dryness. But this has never happened to other shinai before.

Does that have an explanation?

Thank you very much in advance!

My friend bought something similar to this and in practice fighting I broke one of the 4 reeds in his sword. We really like these swords as they're lightweight and fun. It seems like you could easily take it apart, so is there cheap bamboo reeds we could get for them? I haven't been able to find anything close enough. Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

I live in Japan and I'm currently registered to take the shodan shinsa in Osaka later this month on the 30th. I'm the only foreigner at my dojo though, and my sensei is unaware if/how I would be able to take the written portion in English.

From reading various posts here, it most definitely seems like I should be able to take it in another language, however I can't actually find any direct information about it online, and no one from my dojo has any knowledge.

Does anyone know where/how to find information with regards to this?

Interesting read if anyone has time: https://budobooks.jp/?p=1260&unapproved=482&moderation-hash=731686741a4b724c0fdbbaa72853dd12#comment-482

Some tie-in to recent shimpan bashing enjoyed here.

Hello fellow kendoka,

I am two weeks into recovery after injuring my right knee during a shiai, and I have questions that are specific to my recovery in relation to kendo.

Obviously I’ll listen to what my PT says, just looking if anybody knows more or has had some similar experience

I’m mostly wondering about the following things:

1. Will I be able to sit in seiza again?
2. Will fumi-komi be possible or should I look into switching my stance?
3. Should I wear knee sleeve of some sort?

Any other suggestions are appreciated as well

It's been about a year and a half since I started Kendo and 8 months in bogu. When I first started I enjoyed training and being a giant pool of sweat after practice. It made me feel like I was improving (which I did somewhat). However, I've been feeling pretty burnt out and I think it's because I've been pushing myself too much and the intensity of training is getting to me. I want to compare our dojo's typical keiko to others.

1. Footwork drills for warmup (~10-15 min)
2. Break and Bow in (~5-10 min)
3. Stretch (~5 min)
4. Suburi, 30 strikes per target (~5-10 min)
5. More Footwork but with some striking mixed in (~10 min)
6. Break and Put on Men (~5-10 min)
7. Kirikaeshi (~10 min)
8. Work on whatever the Sensei wants to do (~30-40 min)
9. Small break
10. Jigeiko (~20 min)
11. End Keiko

This is all within 2 hours. I have not trained with other dojos but another kendoka I know has said that this dojo is hardcore. How does your keiko compare? Is this typical and I'm just complaining or is this keiko actually difficult?

I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about this. How does your dojo teach shiai? I don't mean the rules, technique or wazas. How does it deal like issues like someone not knowing what to do during sparring, or how someone's technique quality decreases in shiai, how to make it cleaner, use different wazas, etc? My dojo does a lot of jigeikos, sometimes I feel like that relies on kendokas figuring out shiai on their own. imo, it can be compared to letting someone figure out how a strike works without explaining it to them. Yes you could give them a lot of time and maybe they'll get it right but it's much more efficient to explain the technique to them like that they can focus on the details. So it's not a bad way of teaching shiai but there's probably some other way to show it.
Do you see a different waza to be applied every now and then? Do you have specific practices, like what to do against someone who crowds you or stays too far away?

I searched for instructions on how to wash hakama and in each and every one of them its written that you should fold it before washing. Should I fold it the same way as I fold it for later use in training, or just simply fold it so it can fit in a bucket?

To make a long story short, I am a complete beginner but am absolutely infatuated with kendo. I want to practice kendo but there are no dojo’s near me that offer it. I’m looking for advice on where to start or if it is reasonable for me to teach myself with practice videos and such? I want to learn more for the discipline and for the art of kendo but have no clue where to start. Any advice/tips would be greatly appreciated :)

Practicing debana kote has left me confused from my own distance. I am fairly short and have been told to close the distance more often, but i struggle to find the appropriate distance for this. I always had the impression that when doing kote, my distance in chudan should include having our kensen a gap worth a few inches away from each other. Despite this, i cant seem to fully extend my arms as i often find myself too close to them after cutting. Although i have learned that doing my fumikomi on the spot helps this, i still struggle. Am i just missing the timing for this? Or is there something else i am missing?

Hello there

First off: i‘ll talk to my dojo and sensei, but i‘m interested in your opinion.

My girlfriend and our daughter, including grandpa, will be travelling to Mallorca in spring. I went with them once, and it is absolutely not my island and i don‘t want to spend money on holidays i don‘t enjoy. Anyway: i have like 10 days off - and i could use this for a EU practice trip (or even participate at a tournament) But! I am 5th kyu, still learning many basics. And i was wondering: what you think? Is it to early to join other clubs for practice?

Hi all, i started doing Kendo 3 year ago, I'm a 1 kyu and since i entered this new dojo every Keiko i have with this senpai i end up with a Lot of bruisers in elbows and back, every class end up with me crying from the pain, and feeling a lot of fear when practicing with him, this kind of practice is normal to learn how to bear with the pain ? or is it just me that can keep up with kendo ? maybe i just have to give up and practice something less painful, sorry for my english jaja 

Sorry for being so killjoy. What do you guys think? Is this not for me ?

This is a message to the lost tourist who will follow my steps in coming years, wondering without much success how to get tickets to the All Japan Kendo championship.

Well, it turns out both 7-Eleven and Lawson are ticket purveyors, so it would have been as easy as going to one and buying the tickets in advance.

The information in the website was sparse, the few pages that offered tickets felt like sketchy resellers and there was no sale directly at the Budokan.

I wish you better luck than I had!

I actually come from the naginata side of things, (I did do kendo for about a year in first grade) and it's super different. You guys are much faster and louder, but your legs are always vulnerable, because you don't do sune (idk how to spell it) in general it's just a vary different feeling fighting a someone with a shinai (again idk how to spell it)

It's always fun though

my senpais keep telling me that it’s normal and also it’s was my first tournament in kendo ever but I still felt embarrassed

So I've been getting some conflicting information on this. From what I've read, foot sweeps seem to have been at least a part of everyday training until the 60s, while some others say it was phased out of competition between 1945 and 1950 when the Americans were still in charge of Japan.

I am 178 cm tall and weigh around 60 kg. What size should i buy? I am male

I need to know quick if synthetic cotton gi are any good. I’m looking for a lightweight gi that doesn’t absorb much sweat

Started with Kendo after over a decade in taekwondo. Completely love this budo and have a fantastic school.

The only problem is that I’m very much competition driven and I need that in order to keep myself motivated. I’m rankless right now and 6th kyu in Iaido, and I totally get that I’m very inexperienced right now. Probably more months before I can even touch a hogu.

But when can we start to compete? I think I’ll go full on and I’m considering quitting taekwondo competitions for this. I got very tired of taekwondo on how this changed over the last decade, and Kendo sort of is bringing this magic back.