Learning to relax in Kendo (Beginners Tension)

[CryingFreeman]

Hey everyone,

I'm just another new-to-kendo guy who cant help the irresistable urge to register and let everyone who might give a damn know that i'm just starting kendo and loving it.

For the last couple of i have been taking karate classes, which i love but i have also been doing research into other martial arts, their main philosophies and techniques and the benefits one can derive from them

the more i looked into them i realised that a lot of the unarmed arts have thousands of basic techniques and stances and combinations and yaddah yaddah yaddah

I also realised that the likely hood of mastering any style was virtually nil due to the sheer number of techniques and stances etc

I'm talking about things like karate, escrima, various styles of kung fu etc. which people claim to master but as far as i'm concerned they're combat training is unrealistic at best

But with kendo you only have 4 basic cuts, one basic stance yet the learning never ends

I believe that, to coin the phrase, " there is truth" in kendo
it allows you to develop your skills through combat knowing honestly just how well you could beat somebody down with a bamboo sword or bokken, if perhaps not with a real sword. the emphasis on committed attacks and focus on mastery of your self and your weapon of choice ( the shinai or bokken) is unmatched by many martial arts.

Also i feel what it has to offer in terms of hand eye co-ordination, awareness distance and timing is unmatched by other martial or fighting arts except maybe Western Fencing and Aikido

Anyway i really like this forum and i will be pestering you guys for everything you know about kendo and the sword and the meaning of life and how to be loved by my friends and feared by my enemies and that sort of stuff

Oh almost forgot why i wrote this post

Do any of you have any tips on learning to relax the tension in my arms that i have when using the shinai, the sensei says its common in beginners and i can feel that i have too much tension as well.

Are there any practice exercises i can do?

any hints tips tricks would be appreciated

[Andoru]

Hello and welcome to the world of kendo and Kendo World!

About relaxing...it takes practice. Do suburis at home, and do them slowly first. Get used to the mechanics of the cut and endeavour to relax your shoulders and arms. Ask for feedbacks at the dojo and work on it. :)

One sensei said to me: "Remember Muhammed Ali: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!".

[hamish]

Welcome!

If you find the answer let me know, as I'm still too tense! As Andoru said... practice, and getting used to using a shinai by doing suburi at home.

I always notice a quantum difference between beginners who do suburi at home, and those who only touch the shinai in class.

Keep going!!

[CryingFreeman]

What is Suburi?

I dont mean to be ignorant but i've only had one lesson :-)

[Lucien]

You probably do suburi already and don't know what they are.

At the beginning of class, if you practice big swings or 'empty cuts' in unison with other people before putting on the men (kendo helmet) then those are suburi.

It's when you take one step forward, make a cut, one step back, make a cut.

Most teachers suggest students practice suburi at home because of the many benefits they bring. Speak to your teacher and see if he recommends it for you.

Welcome to kendo and don't give up!

[EzzzE]

hi and welcome!

errr lucien i don't think he will be putting men on at his first lesson :P ( i know you mean the rest... ;) )

when you are confident enough with your suburi do some at home, don't overdo it, and focus on dooing them correct!! 200 good ones is far better than 500 bad ones. it usually takes 4 lessons to do correct suburi so don't overdo it and get bad habbits. if your not the kendo incarnation, your sensei will anyway tell you what you need to improve the first (quite few) lessons...

[Neil Gendzwill]

it usually takes 4 lessons to do correct suburi so don't overdo it and get bad habbits.
4 lessons for correct suburi? I must be a real slow learner...

[kuzu70]

Do any of you have any tips on learning to relax the tension in my arms that i have when using the shinai, the sensei says its common in beginners and i can feel that i have too much tension as well.

Are there any practice exercises i can do?

any hints tips tricks would be appreciated
Welcome! I would say practice and more practice! And don't quit!
Good Luck!

[JByrd]

4 lessons for correct suburi? I must be a real slow learner...
Hee hee! :) Sixteen years after my first lesson and I still have a lot of room for improvement in my suburi. But I think I know what EzzzE meant. It takes about that many lessons in my club to get a student ready to do suburi practice. But then, I spend about half of the first lesson on how (and why) we bow.

I've found exhaustion to be a useful tool to help me relax. Try practicing until you feel like you can't do one more strike, then do ten more. You must rely on kiai and determination to help you make them, instead of muscle strength.

Oh, and welcome to the beautiful and awesome world of Kendo! :)

[Wout]

I've found exhaustion to be a useful tool to help me relax. Try practicing until you feel like you can't do one more strike, then do ten more. You must rely on kiai and determination to help you make them, instead of muscle strength.


I've found not wanting to do my 200 or any number suburis too fast and a mirror to be a usefull tool to relax.
I'm not really the person to tell myself 'now I'm gonna do 500 suburis' I just start suburi and try to do them as correct as possible. Actually I think relying on determination will make you more tense then just trying to remain relaxed. If I compare it to running, if you just run your pace nice and smootly you will get much further than when you use determination to follow someone faster than you, because you will get tense and cramp up much faster.
well maybe the most important thing is that you do suburis at home at your own pace so that you learn how to keep relaxed, and don't forget it's the left hand that strikes. :)

[rainmaker]

It has been more than 1 year, I still do not understand how to do correct Suburi.. I pretend or immitate.. sad very sad.....




4 lessons for correct suburi? I must be a real slow learner...

[burntpheonix]

Hey, I just wanted to say, don't give up on unarmed styles entirely. Maybe you just haven't tried any other styles besides karate but I'd like to point out, alot of the basic techniques are VERY similar. The TKD forms are derivative of karate forms, just like kumdo is derivative of kendo. Once you have a firm grasp of the basics in karate, you've already got a leg up in any other style you want to try. Mental attitudes and things like etiquette are very similar between styles as well. And learning a little self-defense might come in handy someday.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling now.

[JByrd]

Actually I think relying on determination will make you more tense then just trying to remain relaxed.
That's where the exhaustion comes in. It is very difficult to tense muscles that are so fatigued that they refuse to contract. A lack of resources leads to economy.

Personally, I find the idea of 'trying to relax' to be kind of an oxymoron. To me, one cannot force oneself to relax any more than one can force a plant to grow. It's more a matter of cultivating the conditions that allow it to happen.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Personally, I find the idea of 'trying to relax' to be kind of an oxymoron.
There are some physical things you can do to help, though. Getting the grip correct is a good starter - tension in the grip translates all the way back. Trying to get the shoulders back and down also helps.

[DCPan]

Personally, I find the idea of 'trying to relax' to be kind of an oxymoron. To me, one cannot force oneself to relax any more than one can force a plant to grow. It's more a matter of cultivating the conditions that allow it to happen.

IMHO, that's why sensei keep yelling, "use your hara!".

Deep breathing affects your sympathethic and para-sympathetic systems, which would alter your mental and physical states.

There's also the "listen to your heart beat" trick.

There's also the "overcompensate" trick of intentionally over tensing, and letting go, relaxing by default (which is used by spies to overcome lie detector tests).

[Reikon]

Hey everyone,

I'm just another new-to-kendo guy who cant help the irresistable urge to register and let everyone who might give a damn know that i'm just starting kendo and loving it.

For the last couple of i have been taking karate classes, which i love but i have also been doing research into other martial arts, their main philosophies and techniques and the benefits one can derive from them

the more i looked into them i realised that a lot of the unarmed arts have thousands of basic techniques and stances and combinations and yaddah yaddah yaddah

I also realised that the likely hood of mastering any style was virtually nil due to the sheer number of techniques and stances etc

I'm talking about things like karate, escrima, various styles of kung fu etc. which people claim to master but as far as i'm concerned they're combat training is unrealistic at best

But with kendo you only have 4 basic cuts, one basic stance yet the learning never ends

I believe that, to coin the phrase, " there is truth" in kendo
it allows you to develop your skills through combat knowing honestly just how well you could beat somebody down with a bamboo sword or bokken, if perhaps not with a real sword. the emphasis on committed attacks and focus on mastery of your self and your weapon of choice ( the shinai or bokken) is unmatched by many martial arts.

Also i feel what it has to offer in terms of hand eye co-ordination, awareness distance and timing is unmatched by other martial or fighting arts except maybe Western Fencing and Aikido

Anyway i really like this forum and i will be pestering you guys for everything you know about kendo and the sword and the meaning of life and how to be loved by my friends and feared by my enemies and that sort of stuff

Oh almost forgot why i wrote this post

Do any of you have any tips on learning to relax the tension in my arms that i have when using the shinai, the sensei says its common in beginners and i can feel that i have too much tension as well.

Are there any practice exercises i can do?

any hints tips tricks would be appreciated
Um...Not quite sure what you mean by Escrima having 1000's of different stances, being unrealistic, etc...

[Wout]

Personally, I find the idea of 'trying to relax' to be kind of an oxymoron. To me, one cannot force oneself to relax any more than one can force a plant to grow. It's more a matter of cultivating the conditions that allow it to happen.well, you do know when a muscle is tense and you can contract a muscle, no...


well then the other way around you can relax a muscle too, the hardest thing about it is that you have to be conciously busy with relaxing esp. in the beginning. Muscles will tense up by themselves sometimes it's up to you to relax them actually it's more or less the same with your mind sometimes your so stressed out you've got to say to yourself: "and now deep breath and relax".

As Neil said,start with a good posture and think about the symptoms of tensing up and try to correct them if you feel them emerging.

[musashi270]

I am also new to the world of kendo, but here are many different exercises that help you relax. I would reccomend going to a couple of Tai Chi classes and working on relaxation there. Also, breathing is one of the most important aspects, and proper breathing will help all of your kendo.

[2005 combo]

Hi All,

I have studied the links to Breathing and Martial arts.

My findings are that there is a significant link between breathing and body tension - there are techniques to control this.

I suggest the book Mindfulness with breathing (By Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) :cool:

[bokkenbreaker83]

welcome to the forums! i havent started kendo yet, but in other sports i've played i have noticed this. i never knew there were certain techniques although my friend did tell me one when i was running, he said to take 3 steps then breath in then take 3 steps and breath out......

[CryingFreeman]

Thanks for all this feed back, yeh i did do some suburi but my kote and my men where all over the place and so was my ready position, i'm gonna have to by a shinai as soon as possible and get to practicing

oh yeah all that sliding around has made the sole of my left foot really sore is that common?


Um...Not quite sure what you mean by Escrima having 1000's of different stances, being unrealistic, etc...
i'm not quite sure either cuz i dont really know much about Escrima i was generalising some martial arts forgive me

the hundreds of stances and unrealistic nature of other martials was just me using hyperbole to get my point across

yeah what i really mean is that other martial arts are less defined in what they have to offer to a practitioner and this kind of lets a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of them but with kendo what you see is what you get if you know what i mean,

if i'm not making sense just ignore me and know my intentions were honourable

[Andoru]

Hi All,

I have studied the links to Breathing and Martial arts.

My findings are that there is a significant link between breathing and body tension - there are techniques to control this.

I suggest the book Mindfulness with breathing (By Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) :cool:
Have you read the series of article on breath control by Steven Harwood as published in the Kendo World magazine?

[Optomitrist]

You prabably should not go around ranking how great martial arts are. Even though we are biased (wink wink). That doesn't mean we can bash others. No one will ever win an argument from another school. i have spent many a day arguing to shaolin-do students who think they can walk on water.


Oh yes, and as far as relaxing. I agree. do slow subari to the men and kote. Stop at the end of the swing and losen your shoulders, it is surprising how easy it is to tense up after a while. The only way I learn how to do this was to try to get the correct techinique without forcing your shinai upon your aponent. The farther you reach and the harder you try to hit the person, the tenser you will be.

[jsking]

Breathing, always breathing...

[Louis X]

oh yeah all that sliding around has made the sole of my left foot really sore is that common?
I've just had the same problem. It was, I think, because I put too much weight on my left foot AND my left heel was too high too. I'm working on relaxing my feet ;)

[Reikon]

i'm not quite sure either cuz i dont really know much about Escrima i was generalising some martial arts forgive me

the hundreds of stances and unrealistic nature of other martials was just me using hyperbole to get my point across

yeah what i really mean is that other martial arts are less defined in what they have to offer to a practitioner and this kind of lets a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of them but with kendo what you see is what you get if you know what i mean,

if i'm not making sense just ignore me and know my intentions were honourable
Try out Sayoc.com's video clips - (click here) (http://sayoc.com/wrapper.php?file=multimedia.php&osCsid=c10b782500de3d53afd5537bcf17b912) ;)

BTW...you forgot TKD in those generalizations....How could you forget TKD? :P

[CryingFreeman]

Try out Sayoc.com's video clips - (click here) (http://sayoc.com/wrapper.php?file=multimedia.php&osCsid=c10b782500de3d53afd5537bcf17b912) ;)

BTW...you forgot TKD in those generalizations....How could you forget TKD? :P
lol!
sorry forgot TKD was a martial art http://www.kendo-world.com/forum/images/icons/icon10.gif

[CryingFreeman]

I have come up with a "cunning plan" to reduce the tension in my arms im going to stretch, swing and contort my arms and shoulders in order to increase there flexibility daily for the next couple of weeks

hopefully that should help

no pain no gain

[latinKenshi73]

There are some physical things you can do to help, though. Getting the grip correct is a good starter - tension in the grip translates all the way back. Trying to get the shoulders back and down also helps.
I'm not sure this will help completely but it's a good start. I have noticed that stretching as much as possible can get me somewhat flexible when practicing suburi or anything else. Our Head intructor also stresses the fact that we need a good stretching before we do anything, so maybe I'm not that crazy lol. Plus it helps not getting your Achilles tendon messed up later in life. Witch I've heard it hurts very much! Hope this helps you and welcome to the Kendo world. and don't quit!

"Courage to Change To seek Unknown Potential"

[Hisham]

Mokuso which is the breathing exercise you do while you're sitting in a seiza posture should help you with learning how to relax you're muscles.

[2005 combo]

Konichiwa. Thanks for the cool tip. Andoru san.
Do you have any Aikido experience?

[Andoru]

I sure do...but just 2 years worth though. You're a practising aikidoka?

[xorandor]

Mokuso which is the breathing exercise you do while you're sitting in a seiza posture should help you with learning how to relax you're muscles.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't Mokuso (which I always thought to be meditation) a mental exercise, rather than a breathing exercise? I always thought that we concentrate on our breathing to help us meditate, and not the other way round, where we meditate to help us with our breathing...

[kuzu70]

At the beginning of keiko, during mokuso I try to clear my mind to ready myself for the upcoming keiko. Concentrating on breathing during mokuso helps.

After keiko, during mokuso, I try to clear my mind to be grateful for the keiko I have just had.

[xorandor]

My personal view on mokuso is that we do it in the beginning to not bring troubles from outside the dojo into training. We do it in the end to not bring troubles from training back into our daily life. Anyone else has this same view?

[not-I]

Well, people use mokuso for different, though broadly similar, purposes. Although its posture and form are based on zazen, it's too brief to really be used for object-less meditation. Focussing on your breathing, specifically in and out of your abdomen (hara) is key to concentration in mokuso, but you can also concentrate on specific contents at the same time.

Following the advice of my sensei, i've found that it's helpful to use the first mokuso to clear your mind of the outside world, and mentally prepare for keiko, focussing particularly on your resolve to learn and improve and be a tool for others to learn and improve (i.e. leaving your ego behind).

The second mokuso can be used to focus on what you have learned during keiko -- in a sense, summing up for yourself the key lessons you are taking with you and can bring to the next keiko.

Regarding breathing during keiko, i think it's a major factor in helping you to relax. Specifically, research has shown that prolonging your exhalations (steadily breathing out longer than you breathe in) causes the neurons in your brain stem to fire slower, naturally clearing your mind and relaxing your body. It's also good for endurance. You can practice it during mokuso or outside the dojo as well, e.g. counting to 3 for inhalations and to 4 for exhalations, gradually extending the latter to 5, 6, etc... There are some good articles in Kendo World about breathing.

Another tip, which will be familiar to those who do tai-chi, zazen, yoga, or similar practices, but might sound strange to others, is to focus on breathing "energy" (ki) into your hara and while exhaling, "pushing" the ki down into your legs and feet, all the while keeping your abdomen relatively tensed. It may sound like mumbo-jumbo, but i've found it to be highly effective in relaxing the shoulders and upper body.