Shred Lord - Chronicles of a Modern Swordsman

Good weekend at squad, though I was particularly rubbish.

New coach has some interesting things to say. Here's one of his points.

Internalisation

The thing about kendo is that it's a product Japanese culture.

The western style of teaching through telling the student what he needs to know is is a releative newcomer to Japan. As little as 100 years ago, even in academia, the style of teaching was to tell the student as little as possible to set them off on the right track. It was considered to be the students responsiblity to teach himself, and the teachers role was one of advisor. The whole process was internal to the student.

This is why in Kendo, even today, the teaching methodology of Japanese Sensei is what we might think of as non-verbal.

As a result of this, there are many concepts that are almost impossible the expain in Kendo (eg Seme). So we, as students, must listen to and watch everything we can and then take that information within ourselves and turn it into knowledge.

Therefore we are our own teachers.