That is awesome! never known anyone to do Kendo (have seen it a few times but not enough tbh). It looks a fantastic MA. Would you mind starting another thread and telling us all a bit about it?
Little embarrassing to start a new topic, but am happy to tell you about it here and answer any questions you might add.
I won't explain what Kendo is since the wiki can do a better job at that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendo
I guess I start with a small intro, I started Kendo after looking for something to join or do after I moved down south, good way to get active and make new friends, I saw Kendo in an Anime called Bamboo Blade, by episode 6, I said to myself that's what I wanted to do.
Found a club that had a beginners course starting a month or two later and started to attend, it lasts 12 weeks at ours, we have two sister clubs and I went to both courses so got double the training before we moved joined the main class.
I practice twice a week but would like to train more, but money to travel limits that because I would need to travel to Oxford or London for extra training and at £10 or £25 a time by rail that's a little too much for me right now.
Training wise, an training session starts slow and easy and slowly gets harder and more intense at the end.
Kendo training consisits of a lot of basics and repeating that over and over and over 100's and 1000's of times till everything becomes muscle memory.
You learn how to hold a Shinai (Bamboo sword) and how to do the basic cuts (hits) and waza (techniques) there are four (5+ really), but these are the main areas to strike, these are Men (head), Kote (wrist/hand), Do (Chest/sides) and Tsuki (throat), the idea is that if you can cut these area's prefectly each time, you can cut any part of a persons body.
The golden egg of every Kendoka (Or Kenshi) as we call ourselves is to do a beautiful Men cut with full spirit.
Each cut is done with Kiai (scream) as well as the correct fumikomi (like a slap on the floor with our foot) and full and proper zanshin which is to show "look at me, I just cut this guy down, hooah" as well as being ready to attack the next guy! Of cause, the cut has to be correct and the technique or waza has to be right, there is few other points, but the three things are what really counts to score a Ippon (point)
Kendo is all about going forward and attacking, never backwards. Anything else just shows weak spirit and not the right thing to do.
Training wise, we start with lots of Men cuts with zanshin (running tho and pass the person you just cut as well as Kiai'ing and all that) then we might do a other cuts, like Kote to the hands and wrists, sometimes Do.
There is lots more we can learn in the first hour then this, while the second hour is when we might switch to a execise called Jigeiko (sparring with everything learned, but no pressure to win) and Kirikaeshi.
In Jigeiko, we normally spar with someone for 3 to 5 minutes where we fight each other, using everything we know and learned that night. For me, personally, it's very tough in the last 20/30 minutes because am not really fit and the feeling I get or anyone gets at the end is awesome, knowing that you beaten yourself to keep on going and not stop is very rewarding when it can be really easy to stop yourself.
Kirikaeshi, is a other major execise we practice a lot which is like.. none stop hitting, you attack the person, normally their Men about 9 times (has to be a odd number) while going forwards and backwards. Personally speaking again, this is the second most hardest thing I do in Kendo, because you do this X number of times with everyone and at the end, your arms feel like they going to drop off, but again this is me being unfit, lol
It's very rewarding to you and to others if you can do something really nice, to hear Sensei (teacher) say to you, that you done something good, it's a pretty good achievement since it's hard work to get everything working right.
There is a common joke in Kendo is that, we might fix an problem but make a other problem in fixing it. lol
So it's a none stop battle really each week, but like I said before, this is a life time thing, my two Sensei's have been doing Kendo for over 45+ years now and they are only 6th or 7th Dan. (8th is the max really, there is 9th and 10th, but it's not really awarded anymore)
I'm 30 now, so my dream is to become a 5th or 6th Dan which is going to be a very tough road to travel. There are no coloured belts in Kendo.
Kendo is practiced with an Gi and Hakama and armour (Bogu) that covers our body, a lot of people get uneasy and easy quit when they wear the Men (hat), when I first got into Armour after 12 weeks, I said to my mates, I feel like a tank, your vision is closed and you feel very bulky, I been doing this for almost 2 years now, it's like a second skin to me.
Kendo has a very high drop out rate, we are currently running a beginners course in Reading and we have about 15 or so beginners, we be lucky to have 5 of them stay, but the likley hood that we only get to keep 3.
In my course when I started, we had 16, there is only 3 of us now, we did have a few more, but they stopped coming, while the beginner course at our sister who started at the same time as mine, only has one member left. We be lucky to have 1 or 3 that stay when the year is finished.
I been to a lot of Taikai's (competitions) and training weekends about the country, I done pretty well at competitoins for my peer group level and lost a few as well, but it's a lot of good fun.
Kendo in the UK is pretty small, we have about 1000+ members, so it's really easy to get to know everyone and make and stay friends with people.
This photo below is taken at the Oxford Xmas Cup last year, I just had a match which I won and (I was freaking dying inside because it lasted like 9 minutes) and I was walking to the other side of the court to fight my second match. (I don't have red eyes btw lol) I also won my second and my third to lose in my 4th match for 4th place, but I won Best Fighting Spirit which is pretty awesome since it's only given to those who as the name implys, has the best fighting spirit, two of my matches lasted well beyond the time limit and over 9 minutes, so I think it was well deserved, I had no breaks in between my matches to rest and get my breath back, but they did allow me a minute before my second match. lol
This was at the British Open 11 at London.
Finally, Kendo can be done by all ages, there are kids as young as 5+ who practice this and people into their late 90's, everyone is an equal in Kendo, weight, sizes, sex and all that, don't really count.
If you have any other questions or whatever, just ask.
