Grading?????

[Bokuto no Ryu]

Though I practice kendo, we don't practice at a dojo, nor with a sensei. Our instructor is a 1st dan (if I'm not mistaken) who is also still learning. We usually rent out a room, at the local YmCA 3 nights a week, for an hour and a half each. What I want to know is, in normal kendo dojos, are you awarded a rank as you progress in your training? I'm just asking because we have none of that, we're just a few guys that get together once in a while to practice something that we love.

[hamish]

Check it out with the Portugese Kendo Federation, generally the individual dojo is responsible for grades up to maybe 3rd or 2nd kyu, and then the national federation is responsible for grading higher than that. Have you been to any national camps as a club? If you want to grade, maybe think about joining your national federation, otherwise your grades will not be recognised by them, and you don't want to find that out after the fact.

Hamish

[mystic_kendoka]

but also, in ordinary dojos, you dont get grades as easily or as quickly as other martial arts, eg. Taekwondo, (got a red belt in only 3 months)

[Kirin]

Though I practice kendo, we don't practice at a dojo, nor with a sensei. Our instructor is a 1st dan (if I'm not mistaken) who is also still learning. We usually rent out a room, at the local YmCA 3 nights a week, for an hour and a half each. What I want to know is, in normal kendo dojos, are you awarded a rank as you progress in your training? I'm just asking because we have none of that, we're just a few guys that get together once in a while to practice something that we love.

To earn ranking by IKF, your dojo must be affiriate to local federation and national federation. That means you must pay local & national dues.
Without this you will not get official IKF ranking.

keep practicing and continue kendo ~ :happy:

[litige]

how many dojo's out there grant the rank if Ikkuy?

[cazoo]

Though I practice kendo, we don't practice at a dojo, nor with a sensei. Our instructor is a 1st dan (if I'm not mistaken) who is also still learning. We usually rent out a room, at the local YmCA 3 nights a week, for an hour and a half each. What I want to know is, in normal kendo dojos, are you awarded a rank as you progress in your training? I'm just asking because we have none of that, we're just a few guys that get together once in a while to practice something that we love.

1st dan? i thik it'll be better if u learned from someone more higher ranked....cause yeah.....1st dan isnt that hard to acheive and by learning from him u may pick up some bad habits. I've been told that "Bad habits develop in 3 days, while it takes 3 years to get rid of them" or something along the lines.

joining kendo clubs arent expensive at all (minus the equiptments) cause the clubs basically charge u enough to pay off the rent for the place they're borrowing, and some extra money here and there to spend for like tournaments. and yeah, the teachers are mostly volunteers so....i'd really recommend that you join an actual club if u are serious about continuing kendo.

[Will]

1st dan? i thik it'll be better if u learned from someone more higher ranked....cause yeah.....1st dan isnt that hard to acheive and by learning from him u may pick up some bad habits. I've been told that "Bad habits develop in 3 days, while it takes 3 years to get rid of them" or something along the lines.


In many places in the world they don't have the oppurtunity to train with anyone much higher...true they're getting bad habits, but they're laying the seeds for future generations.

[Gohanssj]

well the highest rank in kendo in our class is 1st dan, but hes from japan and it takes very hard work in japan i heard from him, but the instructor is a red sash in kung fu which is almost the highest, but the 1st dan black belt from japan is awesome with a sword, its hard to pick up his moves.

[mystic_kendoka]

actually its easier to get shodan in japan... my dad says you get get shodan in 1~3 years easily, this is becuz most schools have school dojos and there are plenty of dojos around, so if you're willing there are many dojos that will take you, and they train 2~3 hours everyday, which means the progress is about 10 times more than the average kendoka in europe... the grading requirements are the same as well...

[Neil Gendzwill]

Japanese shodan - depends on when he started. If he's trained since he was a little kid, he would have had to wait to get shodan until 14 or 15, in which case he might be pretty good. But if he started in high school or later, then he probably got shodan in 2 or 3 years like anywhere else and he only looks good in comparison to the rest of you. It's hard to evaluate something like that when you don't have any real measuring stick.

[Kirin]

Japanese shodan - depends on when he started. If he's trained since he was a little kid, he would have had to wait to get shodan until 14 or 15, in which case he might be pretty good. But if he started in high school or later, then he probably got shodan in 2 or 3 years like anywhere else and he only looks good in comparison to the rest of you. It's hard to evaluate something like that when you don't have any real measuring stick.

In Japan you can get shodan at age of 13 (7th grade Junior High)
...and 15 or 16 (10th grade High School) you can test for 2 dan.
So eariest you can earn 3 dan would be age of 17.

My case, I started when I was 8, and got my shodan at 13, and 2 dan at 16.
Where some friends who started Junior high , was able to get shodan in 1-2yrs. However, there are big diffrence between shodans at age of 14.
Kid with 6-7yrs kendo experience vs Kid with 1-2yrs :wink:

And seems those who started at young age go up ranking ladder smoother than those who started late. (most of late starter struggle - fail once or twice - at 3 or 4 dan testing, then another struggle at 5 dan and more struggle at 6 dan)