how does kendo work?

[umoa]

i am new to kendo and i still do not understand how it works. i was watching the world competition and was lost. How does it work? you hit the opponent and win? or is there other stuff?

[taganahan]

hitting alone won't get you a point. you need to have ki-ken-tai-ichi. in other words, you need to have a good kiai, good strike, and some other stuff. and all should operate in unison or should i say, as one.

~taganahan

[Yann]

Do a search for "kendo": there are hundreds of sites which explains the basics of kendo, and what is a good strike etc...

[Kote-Men]

When you hit the opponent:

strike and yell the target

stamp on your foot at the moment you make contact

have zanshin-be alert...i won't bother trying to explain zanshin.

If you don't have these things then you will not recieve a point.

Kendo is not the swordfighting you see in a movie-that's all show :()

[Anime12478]

Also, you must hit the opponent in valid places: the men, the do, the kote, and I think the tsuki (if you can do that). It is not about just hitting the opponent, since points would be given all willy-nilly and shiais would last less than 30 seconds. There needs to be intent behind the strike. You want to look like you would kill your opponent if you were using real swords. So in order for a hit to be valid, you must put your all into it like the people have said above.

[Swissv2]

I had the biggest urge to say: GOOGLE.

there I said it.

[Zaphiel]

there're different points for the different places you might hit(men get's you the most points while tsuki gets you nearly nothing).

however the strike must be completly correct...
only then you get the points.....the guys with the flags on three sides of the fighting area are the referees...they've got one flag for each kendoka(so they've got two flags)...if a referee has the oppinion that kendoka xydid a strike correctly he raises the xy flag....if two referees do so the strike gets the kendoka points....this is why in tournaments the opponents hit eachother so often...because not every strike counts as a correct one.....
(this is a SHORT version of the tournament rules.....if something is missing than just because I wanted to)

[mystic_kendoka]

my website explains it all...

web.1asphost.com/deadrazer/kendo.htm

(i think i got tht right)