Second Practice: Feelin' better

[New Guy]

As I just said, I just had my second practice. I don't feel as tired and achy as I did after last week's training. Sensei says that next week I will move from the bokken to the shinai, and I was wondering how you guys progressed at your rate. Also, I found that I got a blister on my left hand, on the lower-right part of it, where it was meeting with the bottom of the bokken. This is normal, right?

[A P]

Hello New Guy....Welcome to Kendo!!!!!!!

I am here just to tell you that I will be going to my first kendo practice

tonight. I am looking forward to it..... And hopefully I won't get blisters.

But if I do, then it just a kendo thing. It just like when you lift weights, you

get blisters. I am pretty sure that it is a normal thing. Any way I will let

you know more about it after practice.


Good luck with your kendo......

[ALI G]

Hello New Guy....Welcome to Kendo!!!!!!!

I am here just to tell you that I will be going to my first kendo practice

tonight. I am looking forward to it..... And hopefully I won't get blisters.

But if I do, then it just a kendo thing. It just like when you lift weights, you

get blisters. I am pretty sure that it is a normal thing. Any way I will let

you know more about it after practice.


Good luck with your kendo......

New Guyz...blisterz in dat areaz iz a good sign...itz tellingz youz dat youz are holding da shinai widz yer left handz with "half pinky"....axed yer senseiz about dis...

AP - Letz hope ya putz az mucha energyz into yer Kendoz training az ya doez postingz on dis forumz....

Boyakasha

[Yzakj]

Hey,

You should try to go to practice more than once a week, I go 4 times a week. I am only assuming you will go once a week because you said its gonna be your second practice. But if you just put your heart into it, and try your hardest, you should get better. I hope you enjoy your first kakari geiko! HAHAH

[Andoy]

Yeah i have a blister on the bottom part of my left hand. It's perfectly normal. You might and probably will get blisters on your feet too. But again once they harden with callous it'll be good.

Let us know what happens in the following practices.

[Yowai]

>90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.

[LNGUYEN]

>90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.

Are you kidding me? Then all the non Japanese Kendokas out there, including me, are making up of only 10%

[Fantasia]

New Guy, ignore everything Yowai says.

He/she seems to only find delight in either arguing with people or trying to discourage them or put them down.

Keep at it! I've got blisters in those places too. Nothing on my right hand, but one broke at the base of my left forefinger (was gripping wrong the first practice) have a diagonal blood blister near the base of my palm, one that's close to breaking just below my left pinky, and one that came within probably about two or three steps of breaking the balls of my left foot, but it settled down and is stronger than ever and gave me no problems my third practice.

[Neil Gendzwill]

90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.
90% of anybody will quit kendo after 6 months, so long as it's their own decision. It's a different matter when you're talking about kids going to the dojo because their parents force them.

[GMason]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your first practice.

Can you lift your arms above you head now..... I couldn't after my first practice :-)

Blisters on you left hand are normal, you should get them on your Little finger up to your middle finger, as this is the part of the hand you should be gripping the shinai with. You may start to get some on the side nearest your thumb on your Index finger, but that will be from bad technique.

If you get some on your right hand then it is definatly bad technique, but hey it is only your second lesson so it's to be expected.....

[ALI G]

>90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.

I guezz diz wouldz includez youz and hai_hai....

[Kendo-Girl]

Blisters ... uuuuh ;-)

My first training went well - but after the second and third training I had huge blisters on my left hand and foot. Sensei took a look at them and just said "They're at the right place!" :-)

So I guess blisters are normal. Hope the skin will harden some day and I don't get blisters anymore. In the meantime I'm using plasters on my toes to prevent blisters.

Thekla

[Kendo-Girl]

>90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.
I wouldn't say that this is generally correct, but I started my Kendo class with 12 other newbies. On the second training we were 8, on the third training five and after the fifth training everyone apart from me had left and never showed up again.

I wonder why they had all stopped. Maybe a lack of information what Kendo really is. Or their expectations were too high. Maybe they thought you enter the dojo, put on all that cool looking armour stuff and act like in "Kill Bill" ;-)

Thekla

[tango]

most do not have the patience it takes to develop the basics.

they see some of the more experienced people in the dojo going through kikari-geiko or ji-geiko and they want to be able to do that on the first, second, or third night they show up at class.

when they figure out how much patience and work it takes just to learn how to move their feet.. and then add to that proper suburi.. and then add to that moving and swinging and the same time.. and then add to that the stomp.. and then add to that the concept of timing and ki-ken-tai-ichi... they start asking, when the heck am i gonna get to wear bogu and do some REAL kendo...

most who start kendo don't want to learn kendo.. they wanna do "stick fighting"..

of course, i'm always amazed at how some people will work HARD on their basics and have patience before getting into bogu and then as soon as they get in bogu, all those basics and learning ki-ken-tai-ichi go RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW!

[midnightdawn]

>90% of non-Japanese starting Kendo will quit within six months.

I can kind of see this. Is this your own estimate or something you read though?

[midnightdawn]

I wouldn't say that this is generally correct, but I started my Kendo class with 12 other newbies. On the second training we were 8, on the third training five and after the fifth training everyone apart from me had left and never showed up again.

I wonder why they had all stopped. Maybe a lack of information what Kendo really is. Or their expectations were too high. Maybe they thought you enter the dojo, put on all that cool looking armour stuff and act like in "Kill Bill" ;-)

Thekla

And ditto on this. I am at a college dojo, and they have a callout every semster for new members. I am the only person left from my semester, and I had I think about 15-20 other people with me at the very very beginning.