Used Do

[namabiru]

This is a real shot in the dark, but I'll confer with my fellow kenshi anyway.

We have an 8-year-old in my dojo, and his parents gave him a set of bogu for Christmas. And, in the spirit of getting maximum use from his bogu, they bought it a little big. Which makes sense, as he'll grow into it. However, I'm afraid that right now he's swimming in his do. When he goes down into sonkyo, it comes up to his chin. He has a good 3 inches or more on each side for room. I'm just afraid that he'll get frustrated with his do since it's a bit big for him, and kendo won't be something to enjoy, but pure torture.

As we don't have a storeroom full of bogu to lend out (a common problem I know you understand), I'm wondering how you guys handle making equipment fit a little better on a temporary basis.

Or I was wondering if, in your dojo, you had a kid who was ready to outgrow his/her do, and parents who were biting their nails over what to do with the old equipment, and might want to sell a used do off for cheap.

[tango]

If the only problem seems to be when he goes into sonkyo, is it possible you can have him instead go to one knee and see if that helps?

otherwise, I'm not sure if anything can be done. It's not really the width that should be a problem (3 inches on both sides shouldn't be that big of a deal in my opinion)... it's the HEIGHT of the dou that's the problem (as you describe). Since you can't make the dou shorter, you'll just have to figure out something else for the time being.

We also have a handful of kids in the 9-12 yr old range. Right now, they're using old club bogu which, as it just so happens, is kids' size, but still one kid is really really small and the dou is a little big for him (both height and width)..

Some parents of these kids' have asked about buying them bogu and my opinion to them was -- wait as long as you can for kids because if you buy something that fits them now, you probably won't be able to sell it WITHIN our club because we just don't have many kids that age that start kendo... so unless they plan to EBay it, just wait until they get a little bigger.
... I suppose though that maybe the club would buy it from them, but... we don't make money at our club, so... no "club funds" to purchase anything anyway.

don't know if this helps you any...

[namabiru]

Yeah, that's the only really noticable time, but you can just kind of tell at other times that it's not quite comfortable for him. Yeah, that's right. It's more the height. I don't know why I said width...

Naw, his parents smartly bought him something he'll grow into, which makes sense. I was just fishing for something that might work better for now. We don't make money at our club either...

Although the logical thing would be to purchase a club set and rent it out. It has to stay at the dojo, so it doesn't get stolen. I don't know--I need to think this through a little better first.