Hello all, I have talked to my local dojos, and I've decided on 2 finalists. The dojo that is within walking distance of my house offers Iiado, but It requires me to be an advanced member in Karate before I can start Iiado as a part of that class. My other choice is 9 miles away, but offers a immediate course in Iaido. What do you all think I should do? Should I get the foundation in Karate and study for months in that before starting Iaido or should I make the weekly 20 minute drive?
Excuse my ignorance, but what kind of foundations does Karate give to Iaido??
You are lucky. I've got roughly 3 hours of car time round trip for a class.
Requiring a background in karate to start iaido sounds a little suspect to me. If you know you want the sword, I'd say take the direct route to it.
That's not my words, that's the intructor's. I would speculate, being a non-martial artist, that it might give me some foundation in foot movement? That is most likely completely wrong. But give me your thoughts
Depends on who the karate school are - if its someone like Sosuishi Ryu or other historical sogo bujitsu then the sword and the open hand are linked, but otherwise the issue arises of movement - different arts move differently, when we teach people one of the first issues is what is their background - aikido / taekwando / karate are the three seen most often here and each presents different problems and advantages for the student. Some open hand schools use sword as a teaching tool to deepen the understanding of the open hand, and that effects how they teach the sword.
Don't misunderstand me, I am of the school that thinks iaido practioners should do two person arts as well if their sword school does not offer regular kenjutsu or kumitachi (mine being kendo and jodo) but if you are beginning without any background in MA, then starting with the sword seems more efficient.
If you do iaido for the long haul nine miles is a much lower order consideration than do you like the dojo / is what it teaches what you want and the other question is of course 'which sword' is it, what are its connections to the world / access to senior instruction / access to japan etc through the filter of what do you want to get out of it (which often changes over time).
Nine miles is nothing even if you have to walk. The dojo that requires advance karate degree smells fishy, probably some extreme martial BS. Have you check these dojo? These are All United State Kendo Federation affiliated dojo. They definitely offer kendo and may or may not have iai, but they are 100% legit. You can also tell us the name of those dojo, and we can tell you if they are good or not.
Gordon
Two of my best training partners studied karate. Having good body mechanics isn't going to hurt you. They studied it for its own merits, though, not as some per-requisite where you had to have X months or years before you could start learning what you really wanted.
What style of karate is being taugt at the nearby dojo? What about the Iai dojo 9 miles away? What's being taught there?
If it were my choice and I wanted to learn Iai, then I'd travel the 9 miles (if the dojo was reputable).
Do you have websites or details of the dojo's in question?
Perhaps someone on here can advise on them from personal experience.
The choice is yours.
But i would ask, do you want to do karate or iai?
If you have the means to travel the 9 miles then where is the issue?
PROUD OKUDEN RYU MEMBER OF THE 7 SMUTTY WIMMIN SAMURAI!!
-iai-four nights a week. id like to do it every day, though i dont think my knees would agree
''If you study traditional iaido, Dan grades have no meaning'' - Iwata sensei
"i dont lie, i never contradict, i sometimes forget"- Disraeli
my favorite iai waza-ry thingy is that cutty heady, cutty necky, cutty waisty, changy timey cutty sidewardsy then slashy through the whole body-y...one
20 minutes drive should not be the deciding factor. The quality of the dojo and your fit in it should be. When I was in Osaka I practiced kendo at Osaka university 3 times a week..about 1/2 hour commute by bus out there and 45min by monorail/train back (practiced ended after the buses stopped running). I then went to shudokan to practice 2 times a week which was about a 1 hour train/subway ride each way. Oh...I played tourist on the weekends. When I was first learning kendo I would drive 1hr each way to visit another dojo once a week to get instruction not available in my dojo. I also used to visit Chicago about once per month (4.5hrs each way from Lansing, MI) to get the really high quality instruction I could get there.
10 minute drive each way...bloody luxury. Wish I'd had it that easy. Evaluate the _dojos_ make your decision based on that rather than perceived convenience...which should at best be a tie breaker.
As a Karate nidan I'd say it offers very little advantage when studying Iai. In fact I might even say its a bit of a hindrance since the mind sets, ways of moving the body etc are so quite different. Besides, it'll take you 5 or 6 years to become 'advanced' in Karate'.
Delapsus Resurgam
Well the time restraints is already sort of deciding for me, 5-6 years of karate would not be what I want. The name of the place is "The Dojo OKC" (Headmaster Frank Hargrove)
It boasts being the longest standing dojo in Virginia, and that the current headmaster has been teaching for 35 years. Also they say they've trained 300 national champions. The one things that worries me about the place is that they have a saying "The Blackbelt is Goal" and this doesn't seem like a good outlook. Anyway here is the website: http://www.thedojo-okc.com/index2.htm
Last edited by Drew Waits; 25th January 2012 at 07:23 PM. Reason: Typo
9 miles is about what I have to get to my iaido-practice as well (~30 minutes), and gas prices here are much worse than where you are located. So if transportation (car, bus, hovercraft, etc...) is possible then I'll just repeat what others have already told you: the karate-first dojo sounds suspicious and I would take the further away option even if it means a bit more travelling!
I'm from Europe, where history comes from...
- Eddie Izzard
Iaido has nothing to do with karate and vice versa. That doesn't mean you can't practice both. I'd say avoid anyone that expects you to do one thing as an entry into another. I don't know the dojo, so this is pure speculation, but there's usually a financial motive.
Many people I know who have good foundations in Karate fine Iaido quite difficult as the underlying principles of movement are mostly different. It depends on the sty;e of karate and iaido of course, so that is a fairly broad generalisation. It is my limited experience.
http://web.me.com/p.west/Peter_wests_Iaido_pages/Blog/Blog.html
In training I get beaten by kaso tekki regularly, but I try not to let it happen in public.
Just by a quick glance at that website, I would steer clear of that school in general.
Neil Gendzwill
Saskatoon Kendo Club
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