Gradings 6th Kyu-2nd Kyu

[JHusch]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what would be required for the ranks of 6th Kyu-2nd Kyu. I know that most of the time these are awarded at the dojo level, but it would be nice to know what skills would be required at each level.

If this has been discussed already I appolgize in advance, its late, Im in a server room, and Im bored ;)

[JSchmidt]

Big kiah, big spirit,big cuts, reasonable footwork and ki-ken-tai. (It's the same all the way up to Shodan)

Jakob

[Pauly]

Big kiah, big spirit,big cuts, reasonable footwork and ki-ken-tai. (It's the same all the way up to Shodan)

Jakob
I agree. But for ikkyu and shodan, your cuts, footwork, and spirit-sword-body will obviously be more harshly judged. But if you concentrate on the things JSchmidt mentioned before, you won't having any problem earning your ranks. Just work hard!

[mystic_kendoka]

in my dojo, every year we have an exam, as well as 3 other during the year, but for the final exam, we have a list of things we need to know, for yonkyu, this is what i needed to know,

Tellen van 1 tot 10 in het Japans
Kendogi en hakama correct aandoen en knopen
Bogu correct aandoen en knopen + tenugui (hoogddoek)
De Japanse benaming kennen van drie plaatsen (Daitotsubui) waarop mag worden geslaan
Shinai in elkaar steken
De benamingen kennen van de onderdelen van de Shinai
Verschil kennen tussen migi en hidari jodan
Uchi yoko men (= zijwaartse slag op hoofd) uitvoeren
Uchi do (= slag op buik) uitvoeren
Zes suburi oefening kunnen uitvoeren (+ haya suburi VERPLICHT)
Uchi-komi uitvoeren (te - men - do - kote/men - kote/do - kote/men/do
+ men/taiatairi/men - men/taiatairi/kote - men/taiatairi/do - men)
Men Kirikaeshi uitvoeren (geen stop bij het opspannen)
Vier shikake waza (= aanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi men
Twee shikake waza (= aanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi kote
Eén shikake waza (= aanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi do
Men oji waza (= tegenaanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi men
Men oji waza (= tegenaanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi vrije keuze
Kote oji waza (= tegenaanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi vrije keuze
Do oji waza (= tegenaanvalstechnieken) uitvoeren gevolgd door uchi vrije keuze
Kata : ipponme, nihonme, sanbonme & yohonme twee kanten kunnen
Jigeiko examen gevecht
Kiai stevig en gebruiken als ademhaling en oppeppend ook aanvallend

sorry its in dutch, but most of it is japanese or quite obvious..

the last line says, kiai must be strong, be used as breath regulator, enhance spirit, and used as an attack

[JHusch]

Thank you for all of the responses, that definatly helps :)

[Wout]

things they told me

dress properly, no zekken.
Attack in keiko. but don't block another ones attack if he has you just let him have you you can turn around go in kamai and continue (blocking only loses valuable keiko time you could use to show how good you are ^_^) I was told in keiko for examination blocking is a nono. (offcourse if you can counter it's all good I ment pure blocking is not good)
When doing kirikaeshi your stop must be forward and the move from yoko men to yoko men must be fluent and keep your left foot behind your right.

[mystic_kendoka]

is it forbidden to have a zekken for under nikyu's?

i knew a sankyu in our dojo who had a zekken

[JSchmidt]

Zekken is just a name-tag and got nothing to do with grade...as soon as you get your armour you should get one.

Jakob

[Neil Gendzwill]

Zekken is just a name-tag and got nothing to do with grade...as soon as you get your armour you should get one.
I'd say ask your sensei, some clubs do this differently. Our sensei explained that when you wear the zekken, you are representing your club and so we give zekken to people who we feel are ready to do this. In our club, this has evolved into a tradition of presenting people with a zekken when they reach shodan.

[Pauly]

things they told me

dress properly, no zekken.

The "no zekken" in testing is for judges to not give you special preference. Even the 5-dan candidates have no zekken.

As far as receiving zekken only based on worthiness to represent you club: I say the sensei should give you zekken but not ask you to attend public shiai until he or she thinks you are ready. Zekken is the most important part of your uniform. It is the only thing that gives you identity in the most subtle manner.

... unless you kick ass like * ****** ******

[Neil Gendzwill]

Zekken is the most important part of your uniform. It is the only thing that gives you identity in the most subtle manner.
How is having your name spelled out in large white letters "subtle"?

At any rate, your opinion or mine matters not a bit - what matters is the policy at your own dojo, so as always ask your sensei. I only brought up our own policy to illustrate that it is not always the same everywhere you go.

[mystic_kendoka]

i think maybe it is nikyu for our dojo,
as my sempai, wout, care to speculate?

[Wout]

I just ment not wearing a zekken on your exam, during practice a zekken is surely allowed. how else will you be recognised ^_¨^

[Wout]

heh I got my zekken through the club when I was rokyu, they were ordered in bulk and are alll kinda similar, it's more a question of availabity then 'when' you are ready I think.

BTW sungi, I'm not your sempai benji is or sometimes you are your own sempai ^_^

[mystic_kendoka]

doesnt sempai refer to anyone higher/older than you?

i always thought sempai meant higher person or elder and "the" sempai was the highest in ur dojo...

benjamin is the sempai of antwerpen kids? what about hans? i've never seen benji coming to the kids class ever...

id say my sempai was louis...

[darren]

Neil, I like the idea of a dojo tradition for the presenting of a zekken. There aren't so many rites of passage these days. Whenever I come across one I think it is cool.

It is hard enough to get people to stick with Kendo, finding ways to be inclusive like this is a nice reward and encouragement. Of course others might disagree that this should be necessary.

[JSchmidt]

*shrug*..for me, the zekken is just a name tag. Especially being a motodachi, it makes my life an awful lot easier if I can see who's who :)
It's a nice idea to give people one when they pass shodan, but IMO, that's a tad late for it :)

Jakob

[Neil Gendzwill]

*shrug*..for me, the zekken is just a name tag. Especially being a motodachi, it makes my life an awful lot easier if I can see who's who :)
We're a pretty small dojo, I know who everybody is.
It's a nice idea to give people one when they pass shodan, but IMO, that's a tad late for it :)
The only real need for it is at tournaments, and we're so far out in the sticks that the only tournament most people go to is our little local one. And then, again, we know who everybody is. Although recently it's been getting big enough that having zekken for everyone would be nice.

[mystic_kendoka]

one thing that strikes me queer is why is the zekken on the tare? cant your name be written anywhere else?

i mean.. to find someone's name, u look at their crotch :S

anyone know how it became traditional to have a zekken on the tare?

[squid]

Well it could be that many people need to change their zekken due to what group they are with. Most of my sensei and friends here have 3 or 4 zekken. Prefecture, town, cho, dojo, etc...from the tare they seem easy to replace. It would be kind of expensive to have several different keikogi with your name and place stiched on then. Well just a thought.

On the dojo issue my first night at the local budokuden I hadn't recieved my zekken yet and I was told that I could not practice there without one (even if I was a beginner). Which felt kind of strange as other sensei had told me that it would be ok. (It isn't like I went without asking.) Yeah, different dojo have different rules...best to ask.

[YAMAFELL]

I never was told 6kyuu-2kyuu if i got those.. I just took the Ikkyuu test a little over a week ago, and now i have a ranking.. I don't think the 6-2 are that important. I think Ikkyuu is a way of saying, I am now practicing kendo in order to become a **DAN** but other than that.. it seams a bit pointless to me to have so many kyuus.. Maybe because I was never told about them...

As for Tare names, I got mine when my club ordered them for all the first years. It was nice because I used to fight in practice shiais with no name at all, but everyone can tell who you are by color... (red or white) and also that I was the biggest girl around... and maybe the blonde ponytail... that stands out compared to the Japanese girls around me.

But to have the zekken on the tare is just most convient, and it sticks there, and i think it looks good. I have to get myself a new zekken when i get to america, but I think i will stick with my katakana name. maybe, i am still unsure.. hehe.. oh boy..

I like the idea of a zekken being a right of passage. I mean, before that you can write your name on your tare with chalk.. and then.. one day, you are apart of the club! yay... (I know i felt honored when i got mine after 6 months of belonging to the club.)

Oh, also talking about zekken... They make good storage space, so here is a good tip... Always hate that itch on your nose when you have your men on? well to scratch it put a chopstick in your zekken ^_^ Then when you are just standing around, you can pull it out and itch your face and put it away after a few seconds. and bye bye itch! (my friend in my dojo taught me that one.. ^_^)

[mystic_kendoka]

Then when you are just standing around, you can pull it out and itch your face and put it away after a few seconds. and bye bye itch! (my friend in my dojo taught me that one.. ^_^)
seriously... —0— (koreans will now wht i mean)

wht does ur zekken look like anyway?
is it just plainly your name and ur dojo's name?
my dojo's zekken RULES it has ur name vertically in kanji or hiragana or katana in big, our dojo name (SeiShinKan 淸心館) written a bit smaller in kanji vertically on the left of ur name, and then ur name in english letters underneath horizontally... looks COOOL o yea also has a belgian flag at the top left above the dojo name, for when we go international..

[Neuron]

Neil:

Doesn't it get confusing when you go meet people outside your immediate area?

I sometimes go to dojo's in other cities, and we receive kendoka's from other dojos
for "degeiko" quite openly. It makes life a lot easier if you knew who everybody was.

What doesn't help is zekkens with:
1) Non-Japanese names written in Japanese only (Japanese forced to fit phonetically)
2) Dojo name and nothing else



I've also seen problems at gradings when some of the dojo's had their own tare's
where they glued dojo emblems onto where the zekken would be. I think they
had to wear someone else's zekken back to front to become anonymous for the
grading. (And yes, you are supposed to be anonymous when you are graded to
minimise any biasing.)



YAMAFELL:

6-2kyu's are probably for children in Japan. I think it helps to keep children
motivated if they got awarded grades once in a while, since they can't grade for
1-kyu till they're 12 years old or thereabouts. If you're only 8, that's a long long long
way away, and not much of a motivation to endure getting bruised every other day.
Even for grown-ups, it's kinda nice to confirm your progress.

[Kote-Men]

Our dojo takes a while for rank..

Most of the newbies that join or dojo leave very quickly because it takes about 4 months to get gi and hakama, then about 11 months to get bogu. Most of them become 6th kyu after 1 1/2 years of kendo. Kyu rank is given to the people in my dojo every about once a year, so it takes a while to become shodan.

I was very suprised reading in other threads that some dojo's allow people to use bogu in 5 months or less. How odd.

In our dojo zekken is given as soon as you get bogu.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Neil:
Doesn't it get confusing when you go meet people outside your immediate area?

Well... not many in our dojo who isn't shodan bothers much to travel the 250 km to the nearest other dojo. Where they know most of the people anyways, because they come up here for our annual seminar.

Distances between clubs in the Canadian Prairies are somewhat daunting. After Regina (250 km) we could go to Edmonton (500 km), Calgary (620 km) or Winnipeg (800 km). It's not the sort of thing you do for a casual practice, which is one of the reasons we organize a number of seminars, to give an excuse for everyone to get together and drink^h^h^h^h^h practice.

[litige]

Big kiah, big spirit,big cuts, reasonable footwork and ki-ken-tai. (It's the same all the way up to Shodan)

Jakob

wouldn't it be all the way uo to the End?

[Hai_hai]

Our dojo takes a while for rank..

Most of the newbies that join or dojo leave very quickly because it takes about 4 months to get gi and hakama, then about 11 months to get bogu. Most of them become 6th kyu after 1 1/2 years of kendo. Kyu rank is given to the people in my dojo every about once a year, so it takes a while to become shodan.

I was very suprised reading in other threads that some dojo's allow people to use bogu in 5 months or less. How odd.

In our dojo zekken is given as soon as you get bogu.
Does it really matter to you? You attend class in your blatantly show-off bogu with like 2 months, maybe 3 months of experience, and then shove your hakama with embroidered name in everyone's face because you think you are some kind of samurai.

[litige]

I was very suprised reading in other threads that some dojo's allow people to use bogu in 5 months or less. How odd.


not odd at all, but very normal.
You know in real dojo in real japan, they have it as soon as they start kendo.

[YAMAFELL]

Well, I guess progress checks are good. For kids and adults alike when the grading process is slow. And I got my show off old beat up club bogu after maybe 1 month. And when i got my name i ran around pointing to my crotch all day long.. it was a happy day.

[taganahan]

are the 6th kyu -2nd kyu ranks really important?

~taganahan

[Yann]

To me they are important: it encourages you, shows you that you're on the good way, progressing. Even if in term of ranks they are nothing, I think they are still important for the beginner.

[Hai_hai]

are the 6th kyu -2nd kyu ranks really important?

~taganahan
Depends. If you want to know if you are progressing and need to gauge yourself.

[Neuron]

Well... not many in our dojo who isn't shodan bothers much to travel the 250 km to the nearest other dojo. Where they know most of the people anyways, because they come up here for our annual seminar.
Oops... me forgets, Canada big... :surprise:

As for bogu, I think I was quite slow by my Dojo's standards. It took me about 6 months. The Dojo aims to get you in armour in 3 months. I think it's good to get used to wearing and getting hit in bogu, but at the same time, you shouldn't forget basic practice without bogu like footwork and suburi :wink:

I'd love a hakama with embroidery. Except, I keep moving dojo at quite quick intervals, so I can't get one with a dojo name and my name, and just my name looks a bit sad, I think...

I also love hitting people with shining new armour in the Do cos I'm evil like that :wink: Especially if they have a habbit of doing hikimen and not getting out of maai quick enough :smiley:

[Hai_hai]

...I'd love a hakama with embroidery.
Yes, you do.
...Except, I keep moving dojo at quite quick intervals, so I can't get one with a dojo name and my name, and just my name looks a bit sad, I think...
Just get your last name on the koshiita.

[Andoru]

Depends. If you want to know if you are progressing and need to gauge yourself.
Just like to add that, grading is like any other exam and is vulnerable to human errors (kenshi and grading panel). One doesn't necessarily get what one deserves.

[Hai_hai]

Just like to add that, grading is like any other exam and is vulnerable to human errors (kenshi and grading panel). One doesn't necessarily get what one deserves.
Of course. That's when wearing rich-boy show-off bogu comes into play. Uh duh.