Glasses and Men

[katiemcginnis]

I used to wear contacts, but no longer do, and am returning to Kendo in a few weeks. I'm not sure how this will work!

I truly can't afford "Kendo eyeglasses." Am I right to assume that my expensive everyday glasses+Men is a recipe for disaster?

Has anyone here managed practice WITHOUT their glasses? I can see shapes and wonder if I need anything more than this, for sparring.

Thanks.

Katie
http://katiemcginnis.wordpress.com

[Neil Gendzwill]

Have you given up contacts for medical reasons? If not you might want to consider getting back to them. They really are the best solution.

Failing that, your men can be modified to accomodate regular glasses, basically by cutting channels in the ring of padding around the face.

[Tort-Speed]

I tried my regular glasses but their metal side parts pushed against my head after tying the "men" securely. Then I took a pair
of old glasses, still usable, cut them off at the sides just in front of my ears, and attached two gizmos (like clamps) that had a hole in them wide enough to string an elasticized band through. Knotted the band, after allowing for length, at the two side parts, andit works o.k. My old glasses haven't a big frame, so that's why they fit inside the men.
Without glasses, up close I can see, but like in a fog, though good enough to recognize opponent is getting ready to move, or is already
taking some kind of action. I try to imagine that it's like in some kungfu film where the bad guy throws dust in the good guy's eyes so the GG has to rely on sense and perceptivity!

[DaveB]

I wear contacts pretty much full time. I've tried one session without them or glasses, which was pretty awful. I could make out the red oval of the menbuchi, but kote becomes a blue blur. Some good advice from the previous two posts though.

[verissimus]

I know one guy who uses prescription swimming goggles.

[Anorymous]

The same question has been asked before. See the ensuing discussion for yourself.

[monkeycam]

As someone who use to be an optiian there are 3 main solutions
1 use contact lenses. The best option in my opinion, get daily disposable lenses if you don't want to do the cleaning disinfecting process.
2 kendo glasses, very expensive as is all purpose made things.
3 get an old comfortable glasses take the sides/ars off by taking out the small screw and attach elastic bands that are long enough to go behind your ears but not too tight. This is a cheap and simple option to start with.

[ipkalium]

I have astigmatism and a little long sighted left eye. Before I start kendo, I used to wear contact lens when playing basketball but my vision often lost focus and can get be worse than without lens. It will have the nice focus again shortly. It's pretty common for astigmatism contact lens. That's the reason I don't use contact lens.

I've never done any kendo with glasses. I can't see the opponent's eyes clearly but it still works fine for me. I think it depends on how bad you need the glasses. I've heard that it's a little more problematic in fencing as a lot of people can't see the foil clearly without glasses.

[katiemcginnis]

Thank you, everyone, for these suggestions.

I gave up contacts because I have extremely dry eyes. They might work for a sixty minute practice session, I don't know--I just know that whenever I wore the daily throw away ones it was always painful. The last straw was a year ago, when one dislodged and became stuck and tore and I had to go to the emergency room and use eye-drops for a week.

I'd feel bad mutilating my spare pair of glasses. Maybe I will look into Kendo glasses. Ho-hum.

[Tort-Speed]

Monkeycam's advice is probably easier to follow than mine: though I did "mutilate" my glasses by cutting the side pieces short, it was nice at last evening's keiko to be able to see many details that'd just been a blur. If you follow his/her advice, when you have spare money to spend, you can get special Kendo glasses and then reattach the sides to your spare pair!

[dillon]

Before mangling perfectly good glasses (or even buying kendo glasses), check that they fit within the mengane first. I practice regularly enough that it would be worth the money to get kendo glasses instead of using contacts but unfortunately, my mengane is quite narrow so adult size glasses (kendo or otherwise) won't fit inside. There should be at least a 3mm gap on both sides between the edge of the glasses frame and the lining due to things shaking around during keiko.

[dillon]

Just checked the product info on one of the kendo glasses available in Japan and it's recommended that mengane clear width be 140mm minimum. The glasses themselves have a width of 137mm so that's a 1.5mm minimum recommended gap on both sides. More is better of course.

[Jiyoui]

Laser eye surgery! Then you don't have to do any of the above mentioned suggestions

[Mr Yellow]

I have a pair of kendo glasses from http://www.bogushop.com/proddetail.asp?prod=KA00 and I tried them on for the first time after getting some prescription lenses and they work very well.

Before then, I has a plastic pair and fortunately they were fine with my men but there was the rare occasion when I would get a serious knock during practice (e.g. kote punch in the mengane) which can dislodge them slightly.

[Cailin Coilleac]

I have the exact same pair that Mr Yellow has, bought it from Kendo24.de in Germany. They are pretty good!

Sadly they don't fit -all- men, so some men will still require adjustments. When I bought my men from Miyako Kendogu they did a free-of-charge adjustment. It works great!