Me me me

Kendo is all about me me me.

But the attention that 'me' will enjoy is about criticism, defeat, failure, the blunt reminder that the 'me' is so hopelessly imperfect.

'Kokki' 克己 means 'overcome your own weakness' and this motto is often printed on a tenugui. It's nothing new. I bet the Romans and the ancient Greeks had something similar, but in the modern society, such value is getting rarer.

Even in a competitive setup, kendo is all about me, not about your opponent. Once you stop thinking about your opponent and think about what YOU are doing, that should make more sense.

Your opponent/partner is almost incidental, just a mirror, the mirror that reflects you.

You need them, but they are not the end purpose.

Why Kendo will never become a mainstream sports

I talked about kendo with my colleagues who have no exposure to it.

They were impressed by the non-commercial nature of kendo and said "gee, why I've never heard of such a good activity?".

Simply, there are not enough instructors to make kendo mainstream.

Kendo is chiefly a qualitative activity, and it's time consuming to become even a vaguely competent kendo practitioner to teach other people.

Grade is just a minimum requirement to open a club, but the grade itself is not a reliable indicator of the actual skill. Many organisations issue a grade out of leniency - to keep the organisation viable.

You should be able to tell a good kendo practitioner when they move. Not by their grade.

YouTube & forums are useful but these medium cannot troubleshoot individual issues that are caused by a person's unique set up such as physical and mental dispositions.

The kendo skill has to be transferred from one person to the other manually, which means teacher & students both have to be present in the same space for a considerable length of time.

You can't copy & paste (nor Skype) kendo skill. You & your teacher have to be in one place to make you understand the subtlety of kendo movement, because just 'wacking a target with a stick' isn't enough to call it kendo.

So, perhaps this is the reason why kendo remains a slow-growing activity and would never become mainstream.

But I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing.

Kendo exists because it's a culture that we can share the joy of. Not because it's commercially profitable.

If you practice kendo anywhere in the world, it's a great privilege as well as serious responsibility. The responsibility towards your forebearers also towards your successors.

I think such format is very rare and precious in this day and age.

Give & take is not always intentional

So, you gave a rubbish dou cut on someone's rib. You must've been in the reverse situation too.

This is the kind of unintended 'give & take' you have to accept in kendo practise.

You'll quickly learn that you do not have control over everything, and sometimes you are forced to give or take things you don't necessarily want to trade.

By giving someone a rubbish cut, you'll learn to be humble about yourself. And by being the receive end of it, you'll learn to be unmoved by adverse situation.

When you know you missed the target, briefly acknowledging your fault is advisable, but when you received a bad cut, you are not supposed to show your suffering or get angry.

If the bad cut is deemed intentional or outright dangerous, you should halt the practise and calmly express your concern to your partner, but never take it out.

It might not be the same person you do 'give & take' but, there's always unintended give & take happening in kendo practise, and that is an opportunity for you to learn how to deal with it in a calm & constructive manner.

Know your place

Wherever you practice kendo, you need to be aware of the dojo layout, especially the notion of the 'cardinal side' within any given practice space.

The cardinal side serves as a reference point to determine who does motodachi first, and this is the side you should never invade to wear/correct your armour.

This is the side exclusively for sensei/leading senior/dojo flag etc. Consider this in the same context as the altar in a church, only without physical features.

You should treat the cardinal side in the same way as a church altar and do not leave your bags or prepare yourself on that side - unless you are a sensei or the leading senior who sits facing everyone else during the line up (and I believe those senior people are already familiar with this spatial concept).

*Note that kendo doesn't push religion. It's only a reminiscence of it and modern kendo regard such notions only as custom/tradition.

The general criteria for deciding the cardinal side & where the line up starts:

1. the most detached (usually long) side of the hall from the entrance
2. line up starts from the furthest corner from the entrance

So, the position of the cardinal side & lining up order senior --> junior is not fixed, it's totally depending on the position of the entrance and the furtherest long side of a given space.

Snr->Jnr line up criteria example (some house rules apply): Higher grade in armour > if same grade = older first > people in dougi > people with plain clothes > people came late (regardless of grade)

Now you know your place.

Picky about partner

When you practice in a carousel format, intentionally skipping your turn in order to avoid / select who you practice with, is blatant cheating & extremely rude.

If you are ready to go but stand around by the carousel when there's a spare person standing in the waiting corner, it's the equivalent of telling them 'you are not good enough for me' in their face. That's arrogance.

It's not just rude to the person who wasted their time and disadvantaged by your act, but this sort of selfish behaviour is hindering the club's growth as a whole, and to a large extent detrimental to the development of the entire kendo community.

It should not be too difficult to realise that you take your senior's experience to improve yourself, likewise you are RESPONSIBLE for the development of your junior - in the same way as your senior spent time & effort practising with you, no matter how boring it might've been to them.

If you wilfully break this cycle and only practice with your seniors, the whole system will collapse.

What if your senior had the same idea and refused to practice with you? If you think it's OK for you, you cannot condemn others for behaving in the same way.

There's a very good reason why kendo practise has various formations & formats. These are developed over time to ensure that the skills are passed onto the next generation effectively.

When a carousel format is in place, refusing to practice with whoever standing in front of you is a clear indication that you are ignorant, greedy, irresponsible & undisciplined. You are telling everyone that you have failed to grasp the core value in kendo.

Some may regard such behaviour pathetic, but they won't tell you that because they don't want to waste their breath.

Zanshin explained

Zan-shin: literal translation is "remaining mind" which means "undivided alertness".

No cut will be considered complete unless a correct Zanshin is implemented. Always.

Zanshin is not a physical attaching technique but it's a way to exhibit the move required in real sword fighting.

It does not require physical strength hence omitting Zanshin / doing it wrong is just a proof that you have not understood the basic kendo protocol, or even the meaning of kendo.

In short, failing to do the correct Zanshin makes your kendo superficial.

Zanshin, originally, was meant to be done towards the person who fell down by receiving a fatal injury from you.

The purpose of Zanshin is not to be complacent about your victory and keep alerted even after your opponent has fall down. (Because they might just be faking it.)

So, Zanshin in olden days was often done towards a dead body, but in case the opponent is faking their death, you still stand a chance with a correct Zanshin.

Failing to do Zanshin could lead you to your demise. If you can't be asked to follow such key protocol, you might just not bother kendo altogether, because there are lots of other protocols that seem pointless unless you understood its history.

You don't need to know everything but when something is required for a correct cut like a Zanshin, you'd better do it properly. Doesn't matter if it's in a match or basic practice, when you cut, do Zanshin, always.

It's more important to do Zanshin in non-competitive set up because unless you makes it a habit, it won't come up during a match, and no Zanshin almost inevitably means no Ippon in a match. No matter how deadly your actual cut is.

Once you cut and gone through, turn around asap and back to cyuudan with a readiness to launch another strike.

Only then, it counts as the end of a cut sequence.

Sportsman don't have personalities

Having extremely driven trait combined with hours of practice ISN'T necessarily a personality make, apparently.

And I kind of agree with it.

The popular belief is the opposite, but maybe it's just another myth our society is happy to hold on to.

It's a cautionary tale for kendo practitioner.

Just because someone achieved in sports (or kendo) doesn't automatically make those people saints. You need to observe those people critically and use your own judgement.


BBC - The Now Show 4 Dec 2015
[14m15s] Georgie Bingham (Sports presenter) comment [mp3]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03b327b

Kendo perfection is in Zanshin

So you think you are a strong Kendo-ka?

Too many so-called "experienced" Kendo practitioner neglect Zanshin.

They whack then go through - and? AND? Hello? Haven't you forgot something?

Without Zanshin, your cut is incomplete. Zanshin often involves turnaround and back to to chuudan asap.

Zanshin is complete only when you are ready to launch another attack.

Those who physically strong but don't do correct Zanshin for every cut are not good Kendo-ka.

Not even sure if it's appropriate to call them Kendo-ka.

No matter how many tournament they won, people who don't do decent Zanshin will never get my respect.

I never tell them - they don't ask me and I'm not obliged to tell them.

Kendo value-system

I believe the value-system in kendo has a lot to offer to enhance modern living.

Problem is that not many kendo practitioners are taking it.

If you remove such value-system / philosophy, kendo is only a brutal sword fighting discipline, and I no longer see the point of it.

Institutional abuse in kendo community

From my observation, there is a worrying tendency in kendo community which attracts (and sometimes promote) anti-social and abusive behaviour.

These abuses are often take place thinly disguised as part of kendo discipline, and we were led to believe that some unpleasant, manipulative and devious behaviours are part of kendo culture, so, shut up and put up.

But after a few years of regular practice in various dojos, seriously questioning my own findings and some in-depth discussions with experienced practitioners, I now feel that I'm able to distinguish abuse from discipline reasonably well, so I decided to share my concern with wider kendo community.

I believe this phenomenon exists due to the misguided perception of kendo - brutal, archaic, hierarchical & somewhat exotic discipline that (incorrectly but often romantically assumed) operates outside the norms & boundaries of everyday life.

This is far from the image the mainstream kendo community wants to portray, but the reality is that often hierarchical culture in kendo is used as a platform to exercise one's petty authority and inflict abuse on junior members by senior people of undesirable traits.

This issue is not limited to far-flung obscure dojos. Reputable and established dojos in big cities are equally susceptible to this type of insidious problems.

Allowing such devious behaviours poses a risk to the entire kendo community in the eyes of the wider society.

In short, our reputation is at stake.

The institutional problem here is that the victim often feels powerless due to the hierarchical nature of kendo.

Grade and past achievements are highly respected and such prestige culture is a big discouragement for the victim to challenge their senior, and even when they plucked up the courage and complain, they meet with dismissive or indifferent response from their peers and seniors.

Too often their voice is not taken seriously due to the myth that in kendo the higher rank you get more righteous you become.

Such simplistic association is unrealistic yet the kendo community quite readily accepts such naive view when it comes to its members.

There's also a critical flaw in the system, such as the grievance procedure set by the national umbrella organisation which designated the dojo leader as the first point of contact for any grievances - it is wholly inadequate if the dojo leader themselves are causing the problem.

There is also no anonymity for the victim to report an incident, and their complaint is very rarely investigated by the umbrella organisation. Such record simply vanishes into the void.

Given that kendo community is highly intertwined - almost incestuous, even talking to a complaint officer from other dojo risks victim's welfare if the complaint officer is happened to be well-connected to the accused.

They could gang up on the victim and make it impossible for the victim to practice kendo wherever they are present.

Alongside such weak system to prevent abuse, too many aspects of dojo management is left to the discretion of dojo leaders that could be used to conceal internal abuse.

Some dojos carry an air of cult such as blatant hostility towards other dojos and demand excessive devotion to the club from its members. Such controlling atmosphere breeds unhealthy attitude & often resulted in abuse.

Some seniors routinely take advantage of their position to harass junior members of the opposite gender.

When such concern is voiced, typically the dojo leaders (who are not the accused) are disinterested in dealing with such issue and put most of their effort in silencing the victim or sweep the matter under the carpet, or even throw out the accuser from the dojo.

If an adult can be abused like that, more vulnerable group are equally at risk if not grater.

Any of these behaviours are totally against the mainstream kendo value, but the obscure presence of kendo in society, weak internal system and naivety amongst the member are currently allowing such institutional abuse to continue and its victims to suffer in silence.

Such injustice should not be associated with kendo whatsoever, but sadly, that's the current situation from my observation.

And since the abusers are getting away with it, this culture could attract people with similar undesirable dispositions.

It is this indifferent attitude that needs utmost urgent change, and I believe the solution is quite simple.

Think this in terms of acceptable behaviour in a workplace.

Albeit kendo is primarily charity/volunteer activity, that doesn't warrant harmful behaviour. Volunteer activities can be done in a professional manner and such professional culture would attract more people with the right idea into kendo.

The bottom line is, when a type of behaviour is unacceptable in the wider society, it's still unacceptable regardless of whether someone has an exotic hobby or not.

It is rather puzzling that may people within the kendo community seem to think that there's a different law operating inside the kendo community therefore they are exempt from the normal rules & regulations. (a cult-like mindset)

Such misconception is not only irrelevant but also dangerous.

In order to promote healthy & mainstream image of kendo and deliver on it, all of us are responsible to identify and tackle such institutional problems.

I would suggest 3 points below to be introduced and maintained. This level of openness and firm attitude towards abuse would send a strong message to the entire community that kendo will not tolerate abusive behaviour and the perpetrator will face the consequence regardless of their reputation, connection, grade or past achievement.

- acknowledge potential risks and raise awareness amongst its member (education)
- set a clear and fair grievance procedure by the umbrella body (system)
- any incident reported should be anonymised and (with a permission of the victim) shared with the entire community annually as case studies (feedback + preventative effect)

Challenge authority if there's a valid reason.

Kendo should taught you to make a good judgement and act upon it without hesitation.

How to do basic Fumi-komi footwork in Kendo

Stand with both of your knees slightly bent.

Push your right kneecap with your right leg while the balance shft forward (with the upright posture maintained), only when your posture no longer can sustain your forward-shifted balance, your right foot should 'take off' forward and quickly land on the floor again, immediately followed by your old friend the left foot. The 'flight duration' of the right foot should be kept minimum.

Nice Fumi-komi noise happens when you learn to subtly adjust the angle of your ankle on landing. You should feel that the front-half of the right-foot sole captures a packet of air and squash it without putting any pressure on the heel.

Never kick up the right foot like French can-can. Not only the landing noise will be dull but also you are risking to injure your heel bone by landing on it in high velocity with your full weight. Bad idea.

The sole of your right foot and the floor should be as parallel as possible all the time. Even if you can adjust the angle before landing, adjusting a wide angle takes more effort and time than keep the angle always optimum.

If the arch of your right foot can be seen by the people around you, the angle of your sole is too open. To get the optimum angle, the adjustment has to happen in your ankle.

Under any circumstance, including Fumi-komi, you should never land with your heel. Take your heels as  the 'little resting stools' to place your weight from time to time, but not something you can land with it at full power.

Compared to the discipline of swordsmanship itself, fumi-komi is a relatively young technique, apparently. And this is one of the reason why there's no effective, fool-proof way to teach fumi-komi - so I was told.

Said that, it is an effective technique and was developed in order to achieve sharper and quicker footwork with the minimum impact on the body at landing.

To my understanding, fumi-komi should work as a shock absorber with minimum interference to the overall body movement necessary.

Importantly, never forget your old friend the left foot. Fumi-komi is complete only when your old friend catches up with you. Don't leave it alone. I could get very lonely and spoil your kendo.

This article is just for basic technique. Once you become able to make the noise consistently, there are a lot more subtleties to work on to make the sound surprisingly loud. But people who can do fumi-komi consistently should know what to work on, so I won't talk about it now.

Kiri-kaeshi common misconceptions

Receiving role = set the pace but not the distance.
Attacker role = decide the distance but otherwise follow the receiver's pace.

The receiver set the pace (rhythm), attacker decide the distance.

This must be strictly adhered, importantly, regardless of the relative rank between the pair.

Frustratingly, it is very common (and very wrong) to see a senior attacker just cutting like a mad, completely overriding a (junior) receiver's pace.

If the attacker override the receiver's pace, the receiver will never become a good receiver and they will only pick up a bad habit from the misguided attacker, and they will do equally questionable Kiri-kaeshi to other people in their dojo and beyond.

Such indifference will pollute the overall quality of Kendo. Those people are not helping anyone.

And if a practice partner were happened to be trained in a more traditional environment, such Kiri-kaeshi style can be considered as an ignorant and poor behaviour.

Your Kendo credential will be instantly judged by those who know & care.

If the receiver's skill is not up to scratch, the experienced attacker must help the receiver to do better.

Being a receiver also requires a good skill and it comes with practice. The experienced attacker must help the receiver to make that happen.

Overriding the receiver's pace is practically stealing a leaning opportunity from the receiver, and the attacker might wonder why their receiver is always such a pain to practice Kiri-kaeshi with. Well, duh.


Likewise, it is none of the receiver's business to decide the distance.

Unless practising with a 4 year-old beginner as an attacker, the receiver never adjust the distance for the attacker.

Simply because the receiver cannot know the length of the attacker's limbs and how far they can jump. Two individuals with the same height will have different swing range and jumping ability. So, distance is strictly the responsibility of the attacker.

When cuts are done the receiver simply slows down and stop in the position so that the attacker can turn around and adjust the distance for themselves (while the receiver is STATIONARY). Don't even fidget in the slightest. Moving 2cm makes difference.

If the receiver kept moving about, the attacker is just chasing the receiver and cannot decide the correct distance until the receiver eventually stops moving.

The receiver never should waste attacker's time like that.

Kiri-kaeshi sequence is carefully constructed for the maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Being 'creative' doesn't help under such circumstance.

Kiai

Rule:
The 'roar' must be totally unintelligible.
(I guess at least in your language, but ideally in ANY language.)

It should be just a wild roar, without indicating / being perceived to be indicating any meaning. The meaning doesn't matter, the *presence* of a meaning is already a breach of the rule.

Bear that in mind; I see Kiai as a way of 'revving up' one's capacity. Not only in a psychological but also in physiological sense.

Imagine a good motor revving. You know a good roaring makes you feel accelerated and gives a lift to your spirit.

Find a Kiai that you feel good, and do it.

In the spirit of Kendo

"Be prepared."

Someone said this as an ending note of a keiko.

It's a nice thought but that's a scouts' motto, I thought.

I guess what he meant was to value precision and foresightedness, but it came out in slightly scout-y wordings.

His suggestion was not wrong but made me giggle inwardly.

Don't be a 45-degree fool

The "45 degree" is often taught as the standard angle for L/R alternate cuts during kiri-kaeshi, but very stupidly, without clarifying where the pivot should be positioned or where exactly the cuts should land as the result.

Depending on the position of the pivot, the "45 degree" method can be pretty dangerous (& incorrect).

This is the reason why some people bash their partner's head almost from side to side while kiri-kaeshi, bursting the blood vessels in their partner's eyeballs, causing blood-shot eyes and mild concussion.

This isn't OK. This is dangerous and stupid.

As above, a valid 'Ippon' by L/R Men cuts are only awarded for the strikes no lower than the top-strings on a Men.

There's no such cut as "bashing from the side" exists, so, don't do it during kiri-kaeshi. Where that came from?

Be reasonable, don't be a 45-degree fool.

Togetherness in kendo

It might be a bit of bombshell but I don't believe in togetherness when it comes to kendo. None at all.

Why?

In the most fundamental level, kendo is a lone discipline. Even oneself is an object to be conquered.

In such a stoic value system of kendo, I believe a cosy group mentality such as togetherness is inimical.

The reason why I'm writing this is because I visited a dojo and the main instructor was preaching such togetherness as a way of kendo, and I fond it contradictory.

Remember, the root of kendo is a discipline for the ruling class. They cannot (should not) rely on others.

To be independent, not needing to look to others to take own action, not to lose the ground when there's no-one else to support you, you need a discipline.

Kendo caters for that sort of needs, but not much else.

The higher you get in the pyramid of power, less mass you can lean on & huddle to. That's why you need to conquer your own weakness - the premise is that you are the only one you can truly relied upon.

That's the fate of the ruling class and that's why they had to horn their swordsmanship in the first place.

When you cross your shinai with your partner and do sonkyo, symbolically speaking "one of us must die, we pay respect to that would-be-lost soul" is what we do sonkyo for.

In this context, no matter how "grow together" sounds attractive, it's unachievable and wrong-headed.

In kendo people help each other because they understood they are all on their own mission alone, and the fact that 'being on one's own mission' is the only shared sentiment, and this needs to be understood as the part & parcel of kendo.

Anything else is ultimately incidental. Cosy togetherness, having post-keiko social is not essential factor in kendo.

Anyway, as a kendo practitioner you don't need a lot of reasons to treat others well. You just do it as a matter of principle.

Even put historical aspects aside, everyone's body & mind work differently. The way you utilise your own quirks cannot be shared as a group behaviour, and that's the reason, ultimately, why kendo is a lone discipline.

In this context, pushing happy-clappy togetherness mentality is at best misguided and could be encouraging the wrong mindset that is detrimental to the development of kendo skill.

You must be accountable for yourself and not look for any excuse about the state of yourself.

In my opinion that's what kendo stands for.

Counting up to 10 in Japanese - cheat sheet

For native English speakers this is my best proximate pronunciation of one to ten in Japanese.

1 - itch
2 - knee
3 - sun
4 - she
5 - go
6 - lock*
7 - hitch**
8 - hatch
9 - queue
10 - Jew

*6 - although it writes 'roku' in Japanese, I'd strongly suggest ALL the written 'R' in Japanese to be pronounced as 'L'. Even if the English speaker feel it's not exactly the same as how the native Japanese say, pronouncing all the written 'R' as 'L' is way better because it sounds a lot more natural to the native Japanese speaker.

 **7 - to be precise it's 'sheech/shitch' but many native Japanese pronounce it as 'hitch' too. 7 also can be pronounced as 'na-na' and both are correct, but 'hitch/sheech/shitch' is more common.

4 - can be pronounced as 'yon' and both are correct, but 'she' is more common.

Quality before quantity

As the same concept in manufacturing, if your form is incorrect, doing the quantity will only mass-produce faulty products.

Quantity will never compensate the lack of quality. Rather, it'll only accentuate the problem.

By repeating the wrong thing, you are teaching your body to remember the wrong movement and built up the wrong muscles at the expense of your time and effort.

In kendo, quantity matters only if the quality is right.

When you cannot do the right movement slowly, trying it harder & faster won't help.

Doing x amount of repetitive practice doesn't guarantee a thing, unless the form is correct.


Get the form right or you might as well not to bother at all.

Shinai has sides

The 'sides' on a shinai - think it like the sides of a coin. The Japanese term Ura (reverse) / Omote (front) collates nicely with such concept.

You need to be able to distinguish each side when you do below techniques:

1. 'Harai' (knock away)
Self-initiated, straight-line horizontal slap (to create an opportunity)

2. 'Suri-age' (slide up)
Reactive, upward curvature slap (to counteract already-happening attack)

Understanding the meaning 'Front (Men-side)' and 'Reverse (Kote-side)' may become relevant when you apply these techniques with subtly, such as the opponent's built & habit.

If you know the meaning 'front' or 'reverse', you can reason your tactics better because the muscle required for the 'front' side and 'reverse' side action are different.

Ideally you should be able to perform above techniques from both sides, but the Men-side tend to work better in certain circumstance and the Kote-side in another, and you need to figure out by yourself what works best for you, because aside the opponent's habit, you have your own habit/strength for each side and you need to know your own forte in order to make split-second decision for the best possible outcome.

Some opponents hold shinai tilted towards Kote (to guard), then slapping from the reverse (Kote-side) is easier as the distance to catch the opponent's shinai with yours is shorter, whereas if the opponent is holding the centre very strong, slapping from the front is effective to 'break' the defense and get that ippon with Men.

So, be aware of the both side and try to figure out which combination (opponent's attributes + your own habit/ability) works best, the strategy is effective only for you.

Basic cuts order 'wrist-face-body'

Often you would practice basic cuts in a certain way.

It's: Kote - Men - Dou

In English it's: wrist - face - body

And this order normally stays as is because of the simple fact that each target gets progressively further from the attacker.

Wrist - nearest, compact footwork
Face - median, normal footwork
Body - furthest, deepest footwork

This is the reason why we practice these 3 cuts in a particular order and it rarely changes, now you know why.

Aim

Wrist (kote):
the forearm near the wrist where the cylindrical protector is, never hit the hand (risk of injury)

Face (men):
the upper boundary of the forehead or the hairline, not the top of the skull

Body (dou):
just below the right ribcage (from the opponent's view), not the waist on the side