Impromptu Family Training Sessions

[JBouch]

Every once in a while, Michigan dojos get together for family practices. I think they don't happen often enough. I bet people in other areas would like that sort of thing if they had the means as well. What if people planned some impromptu family training sessions on here? Just decided on a certain day to descend on a certain dojo.

That's all I wanted to say, really. But don't you think it would be cool if, one day, 20 extra people just showed up for practice?

[Paikea]

Every once in a while, Michigan dojos get together for family practices. I think they don't happen often enough. I bet people in other areas would like that sort of thing if they had the means as well. What if people planned some impromptu family training sessions on here? Just decided on a certain day to descend on a certain dojo.

That's all I wanted to say, really. But don't you think it would be cool if, one day, 20 extra people just showed up for practice?By "family" what do you mean?

[JBouch]

family = local/regional kendo community...unless you have some really heavy rivalries, I guess.

[Paikea]

family = local/regional kendo community...unless you have some really heavy rivalries, I guess.Ah, I see now. Sounds like fun when you've got other dojo's within a reasonable distance. You do arrange that with the sensei beforehand don't you?

[Munnin]

Actually we are looking to do that with some of the local university Dojos around here. My goal this year is to try and make our local dojo a bridge between the RPI, Union and SUNY dojos; since we are more permanent than they are. Any advice or observations others have on doing this would be welcome.

[Paikea]

We need to more of that...it's a time/distance problem for us. Nobody wants to drive home three hours from Seattle or 90 min from Corvallis after keiko and a few beers - but we need to start to find a way.

[sainueng]

We need to more of that...it's a time/distance problem for us. Nobody wants to drive home three hours from Seattle or 90 min from Corvallis after keiko and a few beers - but we need to start to find a way.

NCKF has a godo keiko on the first Sun of every month, charging a fairly minimal fee to each kenshi. I believe they get really good turnouts. Their dojos are probably more closely situated, but lots of people from Sacramento and Salinas go to San Jose for the keiko as well. Time and distance are a pain, but I think a good stable location with nice floors early on a weekend is the way to go.

[nysamurai]

This is a great idea, man. As alluded to earlier, there probably are some rivalries; it's a competitive sport (among other things) after all. But kendo seems to produce such as tight knit community (take the KW Forum for example) that I'd be willing to bet something like this could be a hit. Here in the NYC area, there are least 4 or 5 dojo, and that doesn't begin to reach out to New Jersey, Connecticut or Westchester county. I gotta say, though, I honestly don't know if anything like this is being done locally. Anybody local to NYC have something to add?

[ender84567]

From experience :wink: its a phenominal idea, since practices here can be as small as 2 or as large as 10 depending on the moon it seems, also good to free-keiko with people outside the dojo, a vast majority have a pattern and i tend to get used to knowing the persons pattern so its good to break that habit once in awhile.