Once a week enough at the Dojo???

[MrTremere]

I just started but am concerned about only having a once a week practice at the club. I've bought some books to help me out but I don't want to star any bad habits from home.

I really look forward to hitting people with sticks. :laugh:

Frank

[Neil Gendzwill]

If you can only make it to practice once per week, ask your sensei for some homework.

[MrTremere]

They only meet every friday. It is a small club. Only 8-9 people in Bogu and 7 without.But its only 15$ a month.

[JSchmidt]

First, please only post the question once, instead of posting in multiple sub-groups.

Ideally, twice a week should be the minium. Once a week is possible (I did that when I started and have been doing lately due to work), but your progress wont be as fast.
My kendo really took off when I started practicing 3+ times a week.

Jakob

[Loki]

I had the same problem like you, MrTremere, so i started to do some additional training at home.
Don't worry about the mistakes you can make. Everyone does something wrong in training, at least beginners like us.
Just think of what your sensei told you in dojo about the suburi, or whatever you want to train. If make mistakes your sensei will see it next time in dojo and tell you about it.
Just try it out!

[midnightdawn]

Hmm, just because your dojo is small, doesn't mean you shouldn't practice at least 2 times a week. Perhaps you could talk to your sensei and see why you dont. My dojo has about the same numbers, and we practice twice a week.

Also, don't worry about mistakes. I think it is really important at first just to get the strength in your body to do kendo, so when you go to practice you can focus on fixing what is wrong with your swing, rather than focusing all of your energy on just surviving the practice.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Hmm, just because your dojo is small, doesn't mean you shouldn't practice at least 2 times a week. Perhaps you could talk to your sensei and see why you dont. My dojo has about the same numbers, and we practice twice a week.
Often it's simply a problem of finding practice space. With the popularity of indoor soccer here, finding a decent space with high ceilings and sprung floor is very difficult. If you've got a small club, you have the further problem of expense - dividing a regular rental amongst a handful of people gets very pricey.

[MrTremere]

I just need to find somewhere with higher ceilings. I'm too embarassed to practice outside. My apartment is practically an old age home and very public...I feel wierd. I practice on my knees ALOT.

[moment]

saw broken shinai to a shorter length. fill it bb.s for weight equivolence. now u can practice indoors in low ceilings.

[Phlebas]

That's exactly what I did. With my sawed-off shinai I can do hayasuburi, solo kirikaeshi, and other standing exercises in my basement but I still do a fair amount of suburi sitting in seiza. No matter how you account for the weight loss of a sawed-off shinai I still think it's good to practice with the full-sized one most of the time.

[Jagaimo]

I still do a fair amount of suburi sitting in seiza. No matter how you account for the weight loss of a sawed-off shinai I still think it's good to practice with the full-sized one most of the time.
One of my instructors has the newbies do a lot of suburi in sonkyo position. I think it helps out with balance and it is kind of a low position kamae anyway. But I believe his main reasoning is just to get them used to sonkyo.

I agree that it's better to practice with a full lenge shinai since the length will make it more obvious that the cuts are not straight, assuming that you are practicing in front of a mirror.

[Loki]

saw broken shinai to a shorter length.
It's not necessary to saw of a bokken or shinai to train indoors. In a kendo book I saw another (much cheaper) methode: You can train haya suburi using a small folded towel (a tenugui for instance). This fullfills every requierments therefore, shimeru and co. It's maybe too light at first but after an hour it gets heavier.

to MrTremere: Be always proud to be a kendoka! There's no need to hide!

[ALI G]

I just need to find somewhere with higher ceilings. I'm too embarassed to practice outside. My apartment is practically an old age home and very public...I feel wierd. I practice on my knees ALOT.

4 someonez whoz worn da keikogi & hakamaz outside as a costumez....whyz ya feelz embarrazed 2 practice outsidez?

[Machismo111]

I just started but am concerned about only having a once a week practice at the club. I've bought some books to help me out but I don't want to star any bad habits from home.

I really look forward to hitting people with sticks. :laugh:

Frank

Sorry for ressurecting an old thread, but someone once said "It is better to learn incorrectly and be corrected later than to learn correctly from the start." Im not sure if I believe it, but the person that said it was famous, so there ya go =)

[tango]

It's not necessary to saw of a bokken or shinai to train indoors. In a kendo book I saw another (much cheaper) methode: You can train haya suburi using a small folded towel (a tenugui for instance). This fullfills every requierments therefore, shimeru and co. It's maybe too light at first but after an hour it gets heavier.

to MrTremere: Be always proud to be a kendoka! There's no need to hide!

gruss gott, loki-san!

how does one use a small folded towel to do suburi?

do you just swing it like a normal shinai/bokken?
or do you use the small towel as if it were just a tsuka?

neugierig,
tango ;)

[Loki]

Servas Tango!

Just fold it to the lenght of a tsuka, hold it like a tsuka and swing it like a shinai. It's a funny alternative to a shinai! :D