You sure you aren't breaking it when hitting others?Originally Posted by KawazoeTamaki
You sure you aren't breaking it when hitting others?
Okay, wow. Um,
It kinda started to feel like I'm blaming and questioning my sensei's skill or something.
I just want to say in my humble opinion,
my sensei's a very admirable kendoka not just in his skill in kendo but in his passion in kendo and teaching it.
If I remember correctly, my sensei is 4th dan, and yes my dojo is definitely AUSKF affiliated.
I was just wondering if this happens to anyone else. I guess this kind of practice wasn't common to begin with.
I'm calling The Star Rise
It's fairly common in our dojo to use this type of practice (just after warming up and before we wear the men). Oddly enough (given the original post), our sensei uses it to emphasise tenouchi. We haven't broken shinai doing this yet. Normally we check shinai for cracks, etc. 4-5 times during practice.
Yeah same on this end with the tenouchi. But we occasionally also do this practice with just left hand, to emphasize swinging stright with the left hand,
and i think that's when shinai really takes the beating since there is no right hand to give a full tenouchi.
As for me, my strike actually becomes weaker when I do just left hand,
but it's a different story for sensei, you know.
And yeah..I definitely should check my shinai more often.
I'm calling The Star Rise
If your shinai is pretty dry, wouldn't that make it crack easily? Could you try it with a new one, and make sure you or the shop oils it well? Few Sensei are perfect so as you say, maybe with his left hand only, the tenouchi leaves something to be desired. Maybe he is trying to demonstrate the importance of power from the left - not right - hand, so it gets overdone. I'd show it to him innocently and ask him how you can repair it (besides getting ahold of a new one).
Some dojos use half-shinai length shinai and let people hit as the mini-shinai holder hoists it to about head level to the right of his head as the hitter comes in; that style lets the hitting person go straight ahead and the receiver turns to face him/her as he/she turns to do a kamae and repeat the action. They seem impervious to wacking and have a specially long tsuka, nearly 1/2 the length of the shinai. I suppose as with most stuff in Kendo, they have a special name...just I have seen them used often for
repetitive hitting, with people especially youngsters lining up to have a go. Some teachers hold one low for kote and a 2nd one for men.
I teach a class at MSU...beginning kendo. Because MSU does not supply bogu, almost all of the striking practices we do use the shinai as a target as described by the original poster (when striking men that is). In the several years the class has been running I think that only one shinai has ever been broken. I am surprised that you are having the bad luck you are having given an instructor at the level you described.
1.Is it only your shinai that is getting broken or do others have this problem?
2.As JSchmidt and ender asked/commented, since you are only checking your shinai after you get home there are two problems:
- How do you know it is in this exercise your shinai is being broken.
- Discovering a broken shinai at home after practice is a bad thing. It usually means you were practicing with it when it was already broken and dangerous. Especially since you know you are breaking shinai regularly please get in the habit of checking your shinai periodically during practice. I check it every few rotations. Having said that nonetheless it is possible to break a shinai and not see it until later.. but not likely the way you are describing the break.
3. What sort of shinai are you getting? If your instructor is 4-dan with decent te-no-uchi, the shinai may be the problem not the sensei...this too has been pointed out.
4. When you receive, at the point of impact apply te-no-uchi with your own hands to the target shinai. That will tend to help bounce the attacking shinai back.
5. This should have been first and again as pointed out by various folks..talk to your sensei about it!!! He can see your practice, we can't.
We used to do this sort of practice a lot at my old dojo. At my current dojo we use it for tenouchi practice like verissimus's dojo. I understand why it's worthwhile but I still don't fully understand why your on such a 'receiving end' from it. However, your sensei is of sufficient grade to know what he's doing so I'd say it's more likely the shinai.
Thanks for all the advices, guys.
I'll ask my sensei for his opinion in next practice.
I'm also switching the place I buy shinai from.
If anyone is interested, my shinais were "Shoshin_Top Quality Smoked (BIO) Shinai" fromm bogu zen.
I'm calling The Star Rise
The last group of those type I got from bogu zen were extremely dry, and broke the first half of practice in which I used them, So I would be suspicious of the shinai. for sure. As a comparison, the current e-bogu kai I am using has lasted 6 months so far. (and now i've jinxed myself and will probably break it friday....)
I'm a super kendo slacker.
are you maintaining your shinai?
Are you keeping your shinai in your car?
I remember some guy asking Liang Baiping what the philosphy of Taiji was. Baiping looked at him and said, "The philosophy of Taiji is to crash through to their center and kill them".
Cheap shinai? I bought 2 shinai from ebay ($33) thinking it was a good deal but turns out otherwise. My sensei was quick to point out the differences and said I can use them as long as they last which probably would be that long. He was right. First one split at the first class, and not from my Sensei or a high ranking student. I put my $$ into a good quality one and it works fine.
I keep having this dream where Im in kendo class and my shinai shatters after I block a attack. On the one hand Ive got some psychological issue Idk that I need to tackle, but on the other, If I'm dreaming about kendo then Im obsessing enough which is good... i think
If you’re a guy then yes it’s a really serious issue…and it has nothing to do with kendo
Sleep it's just a symptom of caffeine lack
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