meow
22-01-2004, 09:21 AM
In the first place: Please excuse if my english is sometimes a bit "strange". I am from germany. ;-)
After reading a lot of stuff about kendo in newsgroups and on this board, I searched a club in my town and asked for a training.
Thanks to all the nice folks here who are always helpfull, answering noobie-questions. We need your advice. Really. ^_^
So,what happened, that I picked up kendo, which is a not so common martial art!? I was learning karate for five years, but this is already ten years ago. Because of working reasons I didnīt find enough time to train regularly and after a while I quited. But still, I was attracted by martial arts (tried Wing-Tsun for a few months, which did not suit me...) and I always felt that something in my life was missing.
Around christmas I was bored and surfed the web, reading newsgroups (rec.martial-arts) and stumbled over a few articels concerning kendo. (Thanks to Mr. Neil Gendzwill. He pointed out some details about kendo and showed real politeness. His articles were very helpfull for a beginner hungry for information.) My interest grew the more I read about it. So I did some research on my own, browsed the web and found a lot of interesting kendo-sites.
Ok, ok...I shorten this. :-)
(Maybe I will start a new thread later and describe, what is so interesting in kendo for me.)
So, yesterday I had my first "taste" of kendo:
I went to the gym, where the training was about to take place. (I managed to be early...)
Luckily I managed to pick up a guy who was just arriving and he went inside with me. So I didnīt have to run around and search for the entrance...^_^
When I entered the gym (No, I did not forget to bow, before I entered...*g*), a very nice guy gave me a welcome and handed me a shinai. There I stood, trying hard to make it look like a shinai was a very normal thing for me to pick up every day...*g*
Then the sensei started training. (Warm up, running around, doing some stretching etc...)
So far so good...after warmup we did some basic exercises, just hitting men and kote with the shinai (Is this called suburi?) Yippiiiieeeehhh....I was doing my first kendo exercises....and the best was, I still knew how to count on japanese...LOL
Swinging the shinai looks so damn easy and is soooo hard to do...but nevermind. :-)
Then we did some basic footwork (Suri-Ashi!?) just sliding with the right foot. And after the class has reached the other end of the hall I had managed to move about 3 meters...*g* We did this a few more times and this reminded me of my first karate lessons. I felt like I was disabled...*g* ("Whereīs my wheelchair!!???")
It was a lot of funny anyway. :-)
The next exercise was to put the movement and swinging the shinai together...ooops...where is the exit...!!!???
Our sensei was really kind and he even took the time to show me and another newbie how to split the motion up into two parts, which helped a lot. This excercise kept me busy until the end, the time was flying.
At the end we formed to rows and suddenly i had someone in full armor in front of me ("Oh my gosh!!! They tricked on me!!! First they make me feel safe and now they will beat the shit out of me!!! Where is the exit??? He/She will kill me!!!") I was lucky to find out, that this was kind of an ending ceremony: we just kneeled down, the got up again and bowed...PHEW!!!! ^_^
At last we formed a circle and did seiza.
I noticed, that there is a lot of etiquette in kendo, much more then I remember from karate. But on the other hand, I found it much more relaxed.
I also noticed, that in karate we always had the kyu-grades in one row and the sensei in front of them, showing techniques and giving commands or counting. In this kendo training we formed circles a few times and the sensei was not so "seperated" from the kyu-grades (I donīt know how to describe it better) Is this common in kendo? Please do not get me wrong: I do not in any way want to compare kendo and karate, and after just one kendo traing session I am not at all able to even get an idea what kendo training is all about. Iīm just curious...:-)
Oooops...itīs late. Time for bed. Tomorrow is my next kendo-date :-) I am already very exited. (Ordered my shinai today. Canīt wait to start doing suburi workout at home.)
Thanks for your patience
meow ;-)
After reading a lot of stuff about kendo in newsgroups and on this board, I searched a club in my town and asked for a training.
Thanks to all the nice folks here who are always helpfull, answering noobie-questions. We need your advice. Really. ^_^
So,what happened, that I picked up kendo, which is a not so common martial art!? I was learning karate for five years, but this is already ten years ago. Because of working reasons I didnīt find enough time to train regularly and after a while I quited. But still, I was attracted by martial arts (tried Wing-Tsun for a few months, which did not suit me...) and I always felt that something in my life was missing.
Around christmas I was bored and surfed the web, reading newsgroups (rec.martial-arts) and stumbled over a few articels concerning kendo. (Thanks to Mr. Neil Gendzwill. He pointed out some details about kendo and showed real politeness. His articles were very helpfull for a beginner hungry for information.) My interest grew the more I read about it. So I did some research on my own, browsed the web and found a lot of interesting kendo-sites.
Ok, ok...I shorten this. :-)
(Maybe I will start a new thread later and describe, what is so interesting in kendo for me.)
So, yesterday I had my first "taste" of kendo:
I went to the gym, where the training was about to take place. (I managed to be early...)
Luckily I managed to pick up a guy who was just arriving and he went inside with me. So I didnīt have to run around and search for the entrance...^_^
When I entered the gym (No, I did not forget to bow, before I entered...*g*), a very nice guy gave me a welcome and handed me a shinai. There I stood, trying hard to make it look like a shinai was a very normal thing for me to pick up every day...*g*
Then the sensei started training. (Warm up, running around, doing some stretching etc...)
So far so good...after warmup we did some basic exercises, just hitting men and kote with the shinai (Is this called suburi?) Yippiiiieeeehhh....I was doing my first kendo exercises....and the best was, I still knew how to count on japanese...LOL
Swinging the shinai looks so damn easy and is soooo hard to do...but nevermind. :-)
Then we did some basic footwork (Suri-Ashi!?) just sliding with the right foot. And after the class has reached the other end of the hall I had managed to move about 3 meters...*g* We did this a few more times and this reminded me of my first karate lessons. I felt like I was disabled...*g* ("Whereīs my wheelchair!!???")
It was a lot of funny anyway. :-)
The next exercise was to put the movement and swinging the shinai together...ooops...where is the exit...!!!???
Our sensei was really kind and he even took the time to show me and another newbie how to split the motion up into two parts, which helped a lot. This excercise kept me busy until the end, the time was flying.
At the end we formed to rows and suddenly i had someone in full armor in front of me ("Oh my gosh!!! They tricked on me!!! First they make me feel safe and now they will beat the shit out of me!!! Where is the exit??? He/She will kill me!!!") I was lucky to find out, that this was kind of an ending ceremony: we just kneeled down, the got up again and bowed...PHEW!!!! ^_^
At last we formed a circle and did seiza.
I noticed, that there is a lot of etiquette in kendo, much more then I remember from karate. But on the other hand, I found it much more relaxed.
I also noticed, that in karate we always had the kyu-grades in one row and the sensei in front of them, showing techniques and giving commands or counting. In this kendo training we formed circles a few times and the sensei was not so "seperated" from the kyu-grades (I donīt know how to describe it better) Is this common in kendo? Please do not get me wrong: I do not in any way want to compare kendo and karate, and after just one kendo traing session I am not at all able to even get an idea what kendo training is all about. Iīm just curious...:-)
Oooops...itīs late. Time for bed. Tomorrow is my next kendo-date :-) I am already very exited. (Ordered my shinai today. Canīt wait to start doing suburi workout at home.)
Thanks for your patience
meow ;-)