How to promote kendo?

[munenmuso]

In a country where the word KENDO is almost never heard, our club stands as the only kendo club in the country while I heard it has been here since the 60's brought by Japanese expats and some local enthusiasts. Most of the local members of the club are basically either those who accidentally found the club or somebody from the club who spread the word to another with the hope they can become "samurais", or at least do certain things that is "samuraiish' . In short, kendo here is not well exposed to the general populace making it almost isolated compared to other arts like aikido, karate, taekwondo and the likes. The club has been doing efforts to promote kendo into a popular sport but somehow it still lacks the luster to attract new members compared to the above mentioned arts. Kendo here is competitive also but not as matured compared to other countries outside Japan because we have enough senseis to support the
club.

My question is :how can we effectively promote kendo to make it more competitive with other martial arts and appealing to the general public as well?

Your point of view will greatly contibute in the promotion of kendo here......arigatou.

munenmuso

[nodachi]

A poster or two at large schools and colleges where there is a sensei or someone who can teach will usually draw a small club. That's always a start, from there, it can grow from year to year.

Community centers are always a good place to start something as well.

Get 'em when they are young. Then you have a pool of energetic people to spread Kendo when they get older.

[Will]

I suggest contacting a local newspaper and or television station to do a report on any type of regional event, such as a tournament. You know the media is always interested in neat new stuff that no one else has reported.

[Cary Y. Mizobe]

Munenmuso,

In addition to the suggestions previously made, I would recommend doing a demonstration at a cultural festival, a tournament (other martial art i.e.: Karate, etc), a high school or college, etc. Anything to get initial exposure. Also, starting a website can also be highly productive.

I started Westside Kendo Dojo (Los Angeles) in Nov. 1999 with 20 students. In 3 short years, we now have over 70 members, with new people calling to inquire every week. Most of these people found us through our website.

Good luck!

With kiai :^{ )

Mizobe-sensei

[Atama]

My dojo has just recently opened a new branch, to promote the club we set up a 10 week beginner course where for the cost of £50 a beginner would get a shinai, boken 10 classes and 3 months BKA Membership. We advertised in our local press and put some posters up, and it worked well we got about 17 through the door which was pretty good as the average kendo class in my are consists of 10-12 on average.

[Phorest]

Woo! Mizobe Sensei is on the boards now. :D

The Westside Kendo dojo was the first Kendo message board I found, and this shortly after. The Westside boards sure are slow moving recently. Oh well.

Sorry to hijack the thread though! :(
Please continue!

[chidokan]

I did a demo at the local Japanese exchange university, which went down quite well. I also do (japanese) car showrooms when they have new cars coming out. That gets a bit of cash in for the club as well as doing some promotion work! Its surprising how many people come and ask stuff afterwards, so take some leaflets to hand out as well.

Tim Hamilton

[munenmuso]

Thanks alot for your all your suggestions guys. We are also looking forward that AJKF will accredit and acknowldge our club at the soonest time. We've been lobbying this for a long time already. I'll send your suggestions to our board of directors and I'll post again for the outcome.

Arigatou gosaimasu........

munenmuso

[nodachi]

So what does one do when they do a kendo demo?

Pardon my ignorance as I have never actually seen a demo, only visiting actual practices.

And what does one do if they don't have anyone to do a demo with? I may need to cut my stay in Japan short for various reasons (but I don't want to leave, Japan rules!), will be returning to high school teaching in America, and want to start a Kendo club.

And BEFORE people attack, no I will NOT be the sensei nor do I want to be (yet). I plan on simply doing the administrative leg work and organizing to get sensei from local dojos to visit and teach. I plan on staying in the student line just like everyone else.

[chidokan]

if you invite teachers and say you would like a demo for the students in your dojo, they will bring a couple of theirs over to help them show how its done.
I usually do an iaido and kendo demo together to give a better 'flavour' of whats involved in using swords.
A quick demo of the various cuts for kendo, some exercises for a quick warmup ( and I mean quick!), followed by some fencing, then kendo no kata, and finally iaido.
The iaido is done using a few people. One demos the waza, then a couple of others use bokken to show what is happening. This seems to work quite well.
You will be a 'sensei' whether you like it or not if you run the club, by the way, as you will be the senior student! Think of it this way, if you are lucky enough to have a local club with easy access to good teachers, why would you set up another club? Who would go!!! The thing is to accept the fact that although you will have visitors from time to time, and no doubt you will go to seminars etc, most of the time you will be the one who is teaching!
All clubs have to start somewhere, we aint all got 10th dans down the street!

Tim Hamilton

[Confound]

Perhaps we should reach out to the annoying cosplayer demographic. Frighteningly enough, I've heard of kendou and iai demonstrations held at anime conventions. The very prospect makes me fascinated and repulsed at the same time. Can you imagine the cloying hands of fanboys? Yech. O, wait, we're trying to attract winners, not losers.

In all seriousness, Nodachi, it really is a good idea to start a kendou club in the school where you'll be teaching. It's been my experience that skilled teachers are very willing to lend aid, especially to people who thank them by working hard. Even though I'd like to make it clear that I disagree strongly with your assessment of Japan, and that it is my firm conviction that you're being more than a bit naive about it.

c

[kendomushi]

I am part of a kendo club on a US military base here in Japan. In the past year we lost most of our members to reassignment. As a restult we were faced with a need to promote the club if we wanted it to continue. To this end we got a news story on the base TV station, an article in the base paper, and a commercial on the base radio station. In all honesty, none of the club members liked the material that was produced, except for the news story. But we didn't need to appeal to us, we are already hooked. Now after 2 months of this we suddenly had 5 people show up out of the blue to try the class and at least 3 of them came partly from hearing our commercial.
What I'm trying to say is, think of who you want to attract. However you promote kendo, if your purpose is recruiting members, you have to appeal to them and they probably know nothing at all about kendo. Determine your target audience and remember what you say is not nearly as important as how you say it.

[Old Warrior]

For over a decade I have tried everything I could to help promote my European Fencing Salle. Our club is subsidised by a manufacturer/supplier and it bears the name of the company. We have a full time Maestro who has a Silver Medal from the Olympics and was the winner of a number of World Cups, in his day. All his former fame does not translate to new students. We have had a dozen articles printed about our club, even in the NY Times, but it doesn't translate into new students.

I am very definite in my opinion about what it takes to survive and prosper. You need to reach out to every local school and offer demonstrations. The same for local shopping malls. Introductory classes should be offered at minimal cost. Club members must welcome newbies like they are new fraternity brothers/sisters. When class is over you need to offer extra help and encouragement. If a new face shows up to watch, go over and welcome them. New students must be a priority because there is always natural attrition.

It is very hard to promote an activity that is more like learning the piano than baseball, basketball or football. You can't become a good Kenshi without endless hours of practice of the same few techniques over and over again. The biggest detriment is that the art does not appear on TV and therefore it never gets mass exposure. Also the cost of the equipment puts off parents and today you must rely on parental transportation to get kids to class. Schools are hesitant to even allow Kendo as a club activity because they perceive it as dangerous.

I think the best we can all do is talk about Kendo with great enthusiasm and invite everyone we run accross to try it. It may not be mass marketing - but we want dedicated students not dilettantes.

[kendomushi]

Originally posted by Old Warrior
IIntroductory classes should be offered at minimal cost. Club members must welcome newbies like they are new fraternity brothers/sisters. When class is over you need to offer extra help and encouragement. If a new face shows up to watch, go over and welcome them. New students must be a priority because there is always natural attrition.

I have to agree completely with this, especially the last two sentences. We offer our classes for free, to give the GIs here a chance to experience a part of Japan that is still honestly Japanese and because we feel learning kendo is of value to everyone.

The general public knows little or nothing about kendo and other sword skills beyond what they see in movies. Their only real information comes from those of us who practice those skills.

[Hyaku]

Adult education in the U.K. used to help me out a lot with Kendo and Iai classes offering it in their program. You needed a minimum membership but regulars at my other clubs would sign on to make up the numbers. It worked well because if they joined the course they would pay for it in advance and would therefore stick it out.

The problems I had were in course description. It was a "Remember WW2"? thing. Not so much the people who wanted to do the course but the education board was not at all happy

We got away with it by describing it all as "Japanese fencing" and used the real names as people became accustomed to it. As no one knew whwt the hell Iai was, the fencing word pulled them in.

Hyaku

[Hyaku]

I "never" let people watch. My introduction to Kendo was take off your shoes and socks and come and join in. Afterwards they said "If you had watched would you have come back?

The answer was no. Watching the two Nidan who were at that time British team members (Before the BKA was formed) I really thought that someone was going to get seriously injured had I not given it a try to appreciate it.

Hyaku

Damn. This 5 minute posting thing does not give me enough time to edit a letter.