Was that before or after you heard the lamentations of your uke's women? Seriously, I am never going to get that video of scrotum tsuki out of my head whenever someone mentions kendo and sparring. @ Chadderz: Do you need/want the competitive element to the weapon fighting or do you think you might end up being OK with kata based practice in the future?
Speaking for myself I'll be content to do kata based practice one day, if it includes cool weapons and hung gar.
Yeah. There's far more kibitzing than etiquette in the JSA I've done. And I mean that in a good way. You can learn a lot kibitzing. Also, "kibitzing" is one of my favourite words, so it's win-win.
I've done the rag-in-a-line cleaning on special occasions where the act of cleaning itself was meant to be significant -- the first practice of the New Year, and demonstrations at the dojo of shrines. Just a bit of ritualistic suffering, as it were. It's never part of regular practice though. It does tend to pop up more in judo, kendo, and the like, and I think that goes back to the fact that they were invented not just as sports but as calisthenics. Cleaning the floor with a rag is a traditional Japanese activity that was translated into exercise, and so it was incorporated as a warm-up for the calisthenic part of the sports. Mostly I agree with your assessment of what koryu practice is actually like, though I would quibble a bit with "casual." I'd say that what most koryu require is respect, not just of the instructor but of everyone. The "militaristic approach" is about trying to force respect into people by requiring very strict etiquette; in koryu you're expected to understand respect and learn how etiquette serves it. The distinction between "casual" and "respect above etiquette" might seem a bit hair-splitting, but anyone who's had the experience of the acquaintance that thought that since you were rude to your friends, he can be rude to you will hopefully understand what I'm driving at. You generally get the equipment fairly early in kendo, at least from club loaners, as you're rather limited in terms of what you can do without it. For similar reasons, kendo clubs normally have fixed dates when new beginners can join, rather than taking them in on a rolling basis. So it's not uncommon to see clubs with everyone in gear.
Conversely, as one of the senior students when I started used to reprimand people, "less talk, more chop."
I can get behind that. In the training I did, there was simply no need to have respect drilled into you through a JSA drill-sergeant. Meatheads don't gravitate to koryu, so I don't think there was ever a need. It's assumed you'll act like a grown-up.
To the OP -- (!!!) Wow, that is so *not* my experience with kendo. I did it for a year at the Gardena (California) Japanese Cultural Center. Out of many dozen -- like, easily 100 students -- there were three who couldn't speak Japanese. I was one of them. The instruction was entirely in Japanese; one of the students would kindly interpret for me. First, the warm-up was mostly with the bamboo sword, and it was tiring. We cut and we moved and we cut and we moved and we cut and we moved some more. It was fast and energetic. Never never never was any one person singled out for ridicule -- not even me, the white man couldn't speak the language. The Japanese instructors were gruff, but behind the gruffness they were kind. They reminded me exactly of the stern samurais in period-piece Japanese movies. After warm-ups we broke into three sections: beginners, children who graduated from beginners, and adults who graduated from beginners. Beginners practiced cuts and the peculiar footwork of kendo. It was sometimes slow and it was sometimes fast. The other two groups practiced paired kata and the specific strikes/defenses that the instructors chose for that class. They rotated partners with frequency. After a while of that it was free sparring, again rotating partners frequently. And it was exhausting!! Constant movement, and fast, very fast strikes! It's a workout. And the senior students could be frightening with how hard and fast they hit. Yes we're padded, but the helmets reverberate. A serious whack doesn't hurt but it shocks with an, "OMG! He just split my skull in half!" feeling, and they were very good at "ring control," to borrow a term from boxing and MMA. If they want to hit you, you will not get away. You say your room was quiet? Mine was LOUD with the sound of swords on swords and swords on armor. I mean LOUD. I wore earplugs every class -- no joke -- because it was so loud. Nobody walked with his her head down. Everyone walked proudly but respectfully. They were proud of kendo. To be an instructor one had to be at least 4th dan. There were, oh, I think six instructors. One was in his 20's, a couple were in their 30's, and then there several grandfathers. Obviously kendo is not a full combative art, because the targets are limited. No one would dispute that at my old school. BUT -- the senior students and the instructors could hold their own in a fight nonetheless, because they were fast and they hit hard and they had a great understanding of distance and timing.
Kendo is a lot of fun if your in a good class, I hear it makes your reflexes super fast if done correctly
The justification I had always heard was that kendoka were trying to strike joints or vulnerable points in the armor. Something to think about anyway.
I've heard people make that claim, but it's manifestly not true. I take everyone opportunity I get to check out Japanese armour in museums etc to test the anti-armour logic my school teaches. The legal targets in kendo were the places most heavily protected by Japanese armour. Which is really its own answer: the points are heavily armoured because traditional Japanese thinking is that they are the most vulnerable. Hence, when you're training someone to fight an unarmored opponent, you have them focus on hitting these most vulnerable spots. aikiMac: I spent some time training with the Pasadena CC kendo club, and saw the Gardena group a few times at competition. Very nice bunch, it must have been a pleasure to train with them.
I wonder if the choice of targets wasn't influenced by the fact that they could be protected, given the emphasis in kendo on delivering powerful strikes to your opponent. That class sounds awesome. I would love to be able to find a similar class in a couple of years.
Your class sounds alright Aiki. However changing partners all the time can be counter productive and time wasting. Don't misunderstand me, because just on Thursday I was doing the same thing. However be size it was kata they were doing, they had to do the ceremonial walking forward, particular strike and counter, then walk back slowly. It was o slooow. The difference is when we do it, we disengage, find a new partner, bow, then have at it. It's also not rotational, but random. The class we watched was two distinct lines, with everyone rotating for the next person.
