doaninja

Learn whatever appeals to you. I tried Nunchukas, and absolutely hated them. I tried the various swords... and thats it. That is all I have bothered to learn/train in. Do not learn something because someone else wants you.. or because you think it would impress people. Learn something that you will like and enjoy, so you dont lose intrestest in it, and you continue to practice with it.

I have picked up 2 books on japanese swordmanship, and one on Kendo. Amazing. Reallly amazing. I am certified with the katana now.. and figured the books would be good reads. But I am absolutely fascinated by the philosophy, katas and movements involved in the books. I, practice some of the forms I have been reading.. and even though I know they are not perfect... to me, its awesome. I feel great after doing them, and even though I may not do it exactly like an instructor would show me, even though I have some very small minor flaws in my forms that a trained eye could show me.... I can not help but feel the balance when I do the forms. Not sure why?? Maybe because, In my perception, I am doing the forms correctly, just need refining, so I dont have any pressure on me from someone else to learn them?? I dunno. I can understand now why Karate students rave so much about katas and how good it is for you. Not to mention, to read Japanese history and philosophy is incredible. I cant get enough of it!! I just dont understand it.. but I like it. Anyway, I wanted to share that with everyone!!

Well, as far as instructors not letting you learn other weapons till your high lvl, that is entirely dependent on the instructor. I know 2 instructors within my area, who do weapons training. If you ask them specficially to teach you, lets say..Sword, they will do so. Now, since your a novice, they are not going to give you a sword and start whacking, they will hand you either a nice wooden stick or a Shinai (bamboo Sword) and let you practice with those. Even then, for the better part of a year, you spend learning forms, katas, and proper stances, or that is how they do it. The reasoning behind this is fairly simple. Some instructors will indeed not let students into weapons classes, until they have reached a certain belt ranking, like brown belt. Supposedly at that level, they are able to control themselves better, etc etc etc. Well yea, I would agree with you that after 2 years worth of training, they ought to have better control of themselves. However, if you were to take someone into a controled and monitered environment, and give them harmless weapons, you can teach them control and discipline all the same. I think some instructors wait until students are a higher rank for multiple reasons. If you are learning TKD, I imagine your instructor will want you to learn TKD, before even thinking about toying around with weapons, since TKD is the MA that you are supposed to be mastering. Some do it, I think to make money, knowing that weapons training would be neat and cool to some, they make people wait till they gain higher rank, which would mean they would have dumped alot of money into training to achieve that rank. I think some do it, to make sure there student is disciplined enough to wield a deadly and powerful weapon, to understand its power and not abuse it, or take it lightly. I was taking TKD, until i started taking weapons classes. Now weapons training is all I do. So far, i have learned Bo, Nunchuks, Cane, and various polearms. Its great! Once I am done with my weapons training, I will be able to pick up almost (keyword is almost) any thing around me, and use it in some way rudimentry fashion as a weapon =). D. D.

I never said anyone was afraid to go and learn with others, what I said was, Craknek does not have a Kendo instructor available to him to drive to every day, kind of hard to learn with others, when everyday you have to drive an hour. Once again, this thread was about Kendo, not karate, not Kungfu, etc. I agree with you, that Karate is to dynamic to learn on your own. D.

I agree with you, alot, more so then you may think. I just want yout know, that this thread pertains to the art of Kendo, even though we have gotten a lil side tracked. Let me toss a scenario at you Martial artist, and tell me what you think. Let's say you have met an instructor who knows the forms and techniques of many different weapons. Of those weapons, he agrees to teach you the use of Katana. If he was to teach you how to use, wield, move with a katana, and the forms that go along with it, do you not think that you could teach yourself kendo? Now, remember, I am not saying your teaching yourself to be as good as a master, you would still need to make periodic visits to an instructor to let him look at your forms, to make rank. But, do you think that it is entirely impossible? The main problem with Craknek, when he wrote this is just that. He wants to take Kendo, the closent Kendo instructor is a godo 45 mins drive away from him, however he has found an instructor to teach him swordplay, however his instructor does not know Kendo as an Art. So could he not teach himself Kendo, and go to the instructor who is so far away for grading etc etc etc? The only reason why I am saying yes to this, is because Kendo is just swordplay. As I said before, there are no kicks, no punches, no grapples or throws. No board breaking, no spinning kicks, nothing! just the Sword and how to wield it. I agree 100% with you martial artist, that unless you have a Hapkido instructor, don't try to learn Hapkido or Karate etc. Styles like that have such a dynamic set of moves that you can not possibily teach yourself, as they encompass more then just a sword (if even that), as they utilize your entire body and the movement of it, in styles like that, you need someone to point out to you whether or not your swinging your hip right, or how to execute a roundhouse, or how to do a turning spin kick. But Kendo, no, as long as you can learn swordplay, you can learn the katas and forms from a book. Just my 2 pesos D.

Hey, great reply Sandan, really informative. Any Joe American out there can just say Nope. How about a reason behind it? For the love of god, you do not need to train 100% of the time, 24/7 with a real live instructor to learn a martial art. If you really have the desire and will to do something, you can get it done. I along with anyone else, never said you can learn it as fast, or as good as someone who went to a real instructor everyday, but you can learn it, and be good at it, the parts your bad at, that is when you would need to consul someone of more exp. to help you. I will be teh first to admit, that some of the more advanced martial arts in the world today, such as Kung Fu would probably need a dedicated instructor. Not every move requires you to be shown by someone. With practice, you will eventually get it down and once again, if you read about something that looks complicated, then by all means go and find someone agian who knows more then you, and have them show you that PART. You do not need someone to show you form and stance, if you have step by step instructions. If it make syou feel better, then have someone watch you, to point out bad habits, so you can work on it. D.

Well, with all this talk about not being able to do anything without an instructor, I disagree. IF.. IF you can find lets say a Weapons Instructor who could teach you Broadsword and Katana, you should be able to teach yourself Kendo, since Kendo as a martial art really only uses the sword. There is no complicated kicks, or grapples, or throws etc etc, just the sword. So if you can have someone teach you how to use the sword, you can apply it towards Kendo by reading a comprehensive book with guided explanations and pictures. The other part of Kendo is all mental and spiritual, which you can also accomplish on your own, if anyone tells you you cant, then I guess that is there opinion even though you can. Besides, learning Sword and Kendo on your own will be very very fun, for the main reason that you will more or less create your own flare and style to go along with it, as you will not have a instructor trying to force feed down your throat his way of doing things. Hell, if you learn Kendo, and you want, You can add some other basic techniques of other arts, just for fun, in case you drop your sword, etc etc, where as an instructor would not let you do that. And if you really want to make sure you are doing it correctly, you can do what you said in your first post Craknek, and that is to try and find a Kendo instructor near you, and let him watch your forms and movements, and let him critic you, you can do this once a week, two weeks or once a month, and thats it =). Anyways, Have fun Craknek, I hope your journey is a hard and painful one, as it will just make it Ohhh so Sweeter when you accomplish what you set out to do. D