Hey all, I just bought my first Bokken to begin training with. Should be at my house today. Anybody got any good beginner tips or tricks for me. My class hasn't gone over the techniques with me yet, so I figured I'd get started on basics early.

Hey, I had the same problem when I got mine, so I decided to look elsewhere, such as youtube. Youtube however is flooded with "freestyle tricks" and as such it is very hard to find good videos that you can trust to be traditional. A user named chosonninja is ALWAYS traditional and so far has always been correct as far as I know. I'm not sure if he has one for a bokken though. But that should be a good place to start. When in doubt ask your sensei, I'm he knows other senseis that work with bokkens and such.

Dave Lowery has a book called "Bokken" that is a break down of movement, strikes, and has a few two man exercises in it. It seems authentic and Lowery has a reliable reputation in those areas.

I'd recommend looking into it.

Darrel Max Craig has a couple of kendo books that are really good as well that might offer you some insight. I found them useful when I was fighting with the SCA.

... A user named chosonninja is ALWAYS traditional and so far has always been correct as far as I know. I'm not sure if he has one for a bokken though. But that should be a good place to start...

His stuff is usually quite good. Isn't he LE too? Don't think he has anything specifically for bokken but he has quite a few other sword videos.

His stuff is usually quite good. Isn't he LE too? Don't think he has anything specifically for bokken but he has quite a few other sword videos. Um, I'm not sure, but he has +1000 videos so I figured there had to be something useful but I never did search it, youtube isn't being very friendly to me lately.)

Thanks everyone, I'll explore all those option. I definitely plan on talking to my sensei.

Darrel Max Craig has a couple of kendo books that are really good as well that might offer you some insight. I found them useful when I was fighting with the SCA.

Useful for SCA combat, eh? I may have to add him to my list then.

During your SCA days, were a two-hand sword guy, or sword and shield guy?

I played with a few different styles. If I went weapon shield, I usually fought mace and shield. It worked nicely for my more aggressive tendencies. It was more common for me to fight witha katana length sword since that was the kind of thing I was interested in. I would occassionally fight two stick, but not that often.

The the two handed sword really was my bread and butter, however. The only thing I didn't put any time into was the polearms.

Now I want to go did my armor out .

I found them useful when I was fighting with the SCA.

oh the SCA I've heard of them before, as I recall I tried joining but couldn't find a local group, I should try again it looked really interesting, what better way to learn about history then to go through it?

It's fun for sure. There is alot of historical back drop and most of the people involved are pretty knowledgeable. There is some loss of actual combat tactics I'm sure. But, it's still a riot to play.