Kendo in "The Games"...

[Obukan_dude]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSEn483ntc8


That is all. (apologies to Awooga Guy.)

[KILNJOX]

that didnt look like kendo..stoops.

[samurai80]

At least the guy that won seemed to have some understanding of what kendo is. You could see his posture was better than the other guy, and he tried to have fumikomi, zan shin, and until towards the end, he seemed to wait for openings instead of whacking away. I apoligize to whoever the sensei was who tried to teach the loser, but he was a three month waste of your time. Honestly, he looked like one of the guys from one of Ronald Gotlin's videos.

[ZtefaNNN[K]]

What´s that show about ?

[Girubatto]

i guess its about men touching eachother with shinai

[shred_lord]

From the Channel 4 Website The Games is where 10 famous faces compete against each other in a total of 18 sporting disciplines over nine days to be crowned the champion.
Before entering the tournament, the celebrities spend a gruelling three months in intensive training with world-class sporting experts and athletes. They are required to become adept at a range of sports including the water ski jump, speed skating and, for the first time in this tournament, White Water Kayak Slalom, Kendo and Archery.
The celebrities will not only battle to win that coveted gold medal, they will also compete on behalf of their chosen charities. The pressure is on as every night they will compete before a live audience.

[Andoru]

After watching the video 3 times I now have a better understanding of what went wrong in it.

It's not the kenshi, coz, after all, what's so unusual about beginners doing shiai with each other?

It's not the hasegawa men...

It's not the shinpan..

It's the WTF commentary and the shitty music!!

[Mike Molloy]

I watched the show cos of the kendo content, but the thing that impressed me was how the competitors got to grips with the other sports in such limited time.

The stand-outs were:
1) The water-ski jumping. Hitting that ramp at 60mph looked bloody dicey, and indeed one poor fellow stacked it and broke his leg. Nasty.
2) Diving. Would you go off a 10 metre board after only 3 months practise? I was white-knuckled gripping the sofa just watching it. Props to the Blue Peter guy!

[ZtefaNNN[K]]

well, it looks like a very TV-friendly version of kendo, maybe keeping more of the "kendo essence" would be better to the eyes of those who know about it, but it does the job when it comes to promotion, besides, it´s not an easy task to take kendo on TV outside japan or korea.

[Neil Gendzwill]

1) The water-ski jumping. Hitting that ramp at 60mph looked bloody dicey, and indeed one poor fellow stacked it and broke his leg. Nasty.Are you sure it was mph and not kph? Most people waterski at no more than 35 mph.

[Kenzan]

Disgusting.

~Even if they are better than me,

Disgusting I say.

Could this be the face of "Olympic Kendo?"

[shred_lord]

Look guys, I'm not a massive fan of this but the whole point was that they were doing stuff as rank amateurs. They didn't perform great at any of the events compared to long time practitioners, but for people with 3 months experience split between all the disciplines, they did pretty bloody well. To be honest, I have seen worse kyu grade matches.

As for the scoring, it was a simple case of wanting them to score sometime within a week.

It does not follow that all televised Kendo would be like this....

In fact, I can't even think that the dreaded "Olympic Kendo" would be like this.....

[A Wadlow]

hahahahahhaha did anyone read the first comment? Brilliant

"2. The referee does not understand what a point is."


Someone does later correct him though.

[JSchmidt]

To be honest, I have seen worse kyu grade matches.

I haven't.

[shred_lord]

I haven't.Uh... Well done!? :confused:

[Mike Molloy]

Unfortunately Honda Sensei did look a bit embarrassed at being shimpan. I suspect he felt the programme format might not portray Kendo in an appropriately respectful light...

He certainly has no problems taking the mick out of himself though. His victory in the "International King of Sports" face plant competition was just awesome! :D

[dwez]

The year previous they did sumo wrestling. I ask which would be more embarrassing TV. As it stands this did raise the profile of kendo in the UK so it was a worthwhile endeavour on that front.

As to this being an example of what could be Olympic kendo. I don't recall any Olympic sport being represented by a celebrity athlete with only 3 months training.

I used to love International King of Sports, when i could be bothered watching. Wasn't there one where you had to run through sheets of progressively thicker polystyrene? Now that's be an Olympic event in my book.

[JSchmidt]

The year previous they did sumo wrestling. I ask which would be more embarrassing TV. As it stands this did raise the profile of kendo in the UK so it was a worthwhile endeavour on that front.

I disagreed then and I'll disagree now. I think it did nothing positive for the image of kendo and I'm not a believe in 'any exposure is good exposure'.

It was embarrasing having to go to work next day, hoping that none of my colleagues had seen and comment "Is that what you do?".

[Kenzan]

To be honest, I have seen worse kyu grade matches.

But of course, that's to be expected....(from members the BKA.)

ZIIINNG! LOL!
:D

J/k!



In fact, I can't even think that the dreaded "Olympic Kendo" would be like this.....


It would be worse.
Think....Zatoichi style flourishes and electric bogu. With points given for style.

[dwez]

I disagreed then and I'll disagree now. I think it did nothing positive for the image of kendo and I'm not a believe in 'any exposure is good exposure'.

It was embarrasing having to go to work next day, hoping that none of my colleagues had seen and comment "Is that what you do?".

Well you know what good kendo looks like. I remember watching it and being disppointed they didn't get a better grasp of what it was about [even though I wasn't back practicing at the time]. It was nice to see it on TV, I guess I'm just a sucker for any recognition of things I like.

Joe Public will either have gone "that looks crap" or "that looks cool", but if it hadn't been in the Games they probably wouldn't have thought anything. They probably wouldn't have even noticed any difference between what they saw and what was on offer in the nearest dojo to their totally untrained eye, if it encouraged them to check it out.

Still it's all old news and over and done with now. The only hope would have been that like the high dive , which got better year on year, if they had have kept kendo as the martial art, where previously it had changed each year, you would hope it would improve also. As it seems it has now been cancelled then it's a pointless discussion.

[JoDuncan]

I too have seen kyu matches worse than this.... looking through my men-gane towards my opponent!

Remember just how shite you were after 3 months?

Highlight of the vid was at the end when i saw who the ref was!

[Landorph]

i dont even have bogu after 3 month.... so for those guys to manage something, their fighting spirit was higher than your average beginners kendoka in your dojo definately..