3 Year Self-Taught

Hello. I've been working by myself for 3 years, and have one underling, but I really wanted to get some real experience. Any suggestions on what I should train in?

First you should find out what is available in your area.

How exactly are you teaching someone else when you haven't had proper training yourself?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by laf7773:
First you should find out what is available in your area.

How exactly are you teaching someone else when you haven't had proper training yourself?[/QUOTE]
I just taught what I knew already from books I'd read. Also, I am better than a friend of mine who had training in ninjutsu.



[This message has been edited by ModernWanderer15 (edited 10-27-2004).]

Laf is right. The first step is to find out what's available in your area. Legitimate training oppurtunities are few and far between. Most folks don't have any choices at all. A few lucky folks have two oppurtunities in their area. Unless your willing to drop everything and move, the general advice is to find what's available in your area, research the credentials of the dojos you do have access to, and go from there.

If you let us know where you are, then we might be able to suggest things in your area.

Thank you laf for your respected advice.To let you know, he's not as much a student as he is a training partner. I also thank you, Mr. Mahan.

ModernWanderer15:
where are you located there are free kendo classes in ohio. Cleveland , portsmouth , they are others also. if not in ohio what state. I will check for you . , Gary

Thank you,laf.Your advice is respected.I'm from Pennsylvania.My nearest dojo is an hour away.

[This message has been edited by ModernWanderer15 (edited 01-09-2005).]

Well that's not too bad. Sounds like you're in luck.

Hi, Im new to Iaito, have just bought some books on it. Theres no dojos anyway near where i live so i suppose im unlucky not being able to give it ago. I live in england and dont know of any dojos around here, I am going to america on holiday in march so maybe i can go to a dojo for a week [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]. But i can still read up on it and learn stuff off here.

I may have to wait another year so I can get my driver's license.

Another one 2 hours away.Both are Kenjutsu schools.Easy choice,really.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ModernWanderer15:
Another one 2 hours away.Both are Kenjutsu schools.Easy choice,really.[/QUOTE]
Wow, maybe not.Some things I was told to watch for,and this one hits on one or more. First off, it teaches multiple things. Kenjutsu,Karate,Tae Kwon Do.
Yet,it doesn't have a crappy name like Bob's Dojo.Anyone familiar with San Sai Ryu Honbu Do?(this being the name of the dojo)

Hey,Kachido. When you say "there are others".
I could only find Cleveland and Portsmouth. Could you please elaborate on other classes in Ohio? If there is one closer to the border near Pennsylvania, it could be closer. I ask you this because I found out it was in Pittsburg, which is actually 2 hours away from my town near Oil City.

Much Appriciated,
MW15

[This message has been edited by ModernWanderer15 (edited 02-07-2005).]

You may have a hard time adjusting to real training once you find a legitimate teacher cause of the self taught movements you've ingrained in your body memory.

But I do hope you find a dojo. It's worth it if you're serious bout sword training.

Well, modernwanderer15 are you a wanderer or a typical human being? Your name and personality are quite different.I personaly am going to Japan to do some wandering warrior in 2009. It should be very ineresting.You seem like a guy who fears change not a wanderer.

im a ten year old sword fanatic who for five years has been training with bokkens.i want to get a katana (non sharpened) to train with. the problem is a cant find one without a sharpened blade. so i thought of looking for a relatively dull one and foung several the problem is i have to younger brothers 7 and 5. what should i do?

nash

Wait. I know you wanna train. I can tell you wanna train bad, and I know you're gonna hate this next part. What you should do is wait. You could try to look into oppurtunites in your area for Aikido training. They will typically take students as young as yourself. You might be able to get into a kendo program.

Your only other option really is to read. There's a lot of information available for prospective students of Japanese Sword Arts. A good place to start is http://www.koryu.com There are a lot of good books there.

I know this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but it is the correct answer.

If you really cannot wait, KR, the name for what you want is an "iaito". It is a training weapon for Iaido, the art of drawing the sword. However, iaito are not meant for hitting things and are relatively fragile. If you bang them around with your brothers (which you will end up doing; I was young once), they will break, and nothing is sharper than shattered metal.

my parrents are broke as hell and after getting the "iaito" i will be broke as hell.with me getting an alowance of only ten dollars a month there is no way in hell that i will be able to afford classes

Which comes back to wait. The advice I've given to other kids your age.

Wait, and(your gonna laugh), do well in school. Seriously. Sword arts are not a cheap hobby to get into. It's quite expensive really. If you are genuinely serious about doing it as a life long pursuit and not just going through a phase like so many kids your age, doing well in school is your best bet. Doing well in school, followed getting a good degree, followed by getting a good job, will give you the spare income you need to do well in the sword arts.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by katanas rock:
my parrents are broke as hell and after getting the "iaito" i will be broke as hell.with me getting an alowance of only ten dollars a month there is no way in hell that i will be able to afford classes[/QUOTE]

If my 10 year old spoke like you she would sit in seiza for a week straight. That shows a lack of discipline and you need alot of that for Iaido

Katana

So your 10 years old and you have been training with bokkens for "5 years?"

And you CAN'T find one without a sharpened blade.

That about sum it up?

Ok???????

My best advice would be to ask the person training you with the bokken--maybe they have an idea?

Or maybe they have a spare unsharpened blade you can use.

Or you might save up your allowence and put toward training.

first off i AM NOT BEING TRAINED BY SOMEONE and i could not go to classes because of the weekly fee.

oh and i am in advanced classes

Katana Rocks

If your not training then how can you be in advance classes??

Kinda what I thought. Game over.

Cxt, he was responding to Charles' "do well in school" post.

Katana Rocks

Ben


Sorry, thought since the last post was mine and I asked him about his training.

His next post was a response to mine. And since he did not label to whom h ewas speaking, thought it was him jacking around.

If it was my mistake, sorry.

im in advanced classes at school also i have another question:isn't it aquarde to draw a katana when the blade's facing upward?

[QUOTE]isn't it aquarde to draw a katana when the blade's facing upward?[/QUOTE]
This is why you need proper training. You need to learn from a teacher.

If you buy an iaito for your size, you'll probably need to get a new one each year as you grow.

i would advise the exact same as the others, and thats to WAIT. if you are inexperienced with a sword it would be easy for you to make a mistake and hurt your younger siblings (which i presume you dont WANT to.. lol). and a bokken is a good weapon as well as a great training tool. musashi himself ended up shunning swords all togeather and only used wooden swords, sometimes even making the said bokken from a tree branch or a boat oar carved quickly. WAITING is the best advice that can be given.

ok i do not buy bokkens any more i grow bamboo ones.my current one is 45 inches long,one inch thick and weighs about 4 pounds

45in long? You're only 10, so how tall are you? And if it is made of bamboo, it is more like a shinai.

do not buy them anymore? . . im not sure i understand that.

if you get a good bokken (a nice hardwood one, not a crappy one) it will last you a lifetime with proper use and care.

a stick of bamboo is not gonna do you any good unless you can make good shinai (bamboo kendo sword) and even then if you have/had/going to have an instructor he will more than likely insist on you buying a comercial one for insurance/common sense reasons.

again WAIT to buy an iaito and train with a bokken if you are feeling really serious about the said training.

45inches is definatly too big for someone of your age, you need to be training with something more of a junior size and work your way up as your arm reach/height gets bigger.

Folks

This "person" is just jacking with us.

Bamboo, 45 long and an inch thick, IS NOT GOING TO WEIGH "4 pounds" not even green.

Waste of good effort and time.

[This message has been edited by cxt (edited 02-20-2005).]

screw it if you aren't going to beleave me then whats the point?cxt i am tired of you giving me **** and not backing it up.i grow bamboo i know how much it weighs and how tall it can grow (the specieses that i have) it gets 1 1/2 inches wide and twenty feet tall.

Katana

Then you should know that a 45 inch length of bamboo, an inch around does not weigh "4 pounds."

I have an OAK staff, that is about 6 feet long and about an inch around--it does not weigh "4 lbs" why should a shorter piece of a much lighter, less dense plant??

My oak bokkn are a bit shorter than 45 inchs--say anywhere from 32-36 inchs. They are not that heavy either.
Again oak being a denser, heavier wood than bamboo or ratten.

Please, by all means explain.

[This message has been edited by cxt (edited 02-20-2005).]

no need to flame the kid, he is just trying to estimate as best he can for his age. but 4lb (thats just less than 2kg in aussie weight) would seem reasonable if a little excessive. but then again some of my lighter swords are only 800gm or so - and thats steel

put it on some scales KR and tell us the result. either way, get a bokken/train/wait for iaito/train.

it depends wht part of the bamboo plant you use and how long you wait to carve it

well if you are just doing that with the bamboo, then i would expreiment on what parts are best to use for strength VS weight. as strong as possible but also as light as possible is desired. and i would recomend (because of your age and/or possible height) using something a little shorter than what you have explained.

but overall the recomendations of the experienced here still stand, use bokken/wait/get iaito later/keep training.

Katana

You DON'T "carve" bamboo.

Its a thin walled plant that has a more or less hollow core-nothing really to "carve" in the same sense as you would oak or other wood.

And no, there is really no other part of the bamboo that would do for a bokken.

Some bamboo has thicker walls than others though. I've seen bamboo with walls that were nearly an inch thick. I suppose you could carve them, but I still don't see why anyone would want to.

i also have some bamboo in my back yard that would have nearly inch thick walls, so i kno wexactly what ya mean, but i also cant see the point for making a bokken out of it as once the section has been split lengthways it is easily broken. unless it retains its walls intact it becomes very weak. again - go with what the others have already said, they are steering you in the right direction.

cxt get of my ***.and go bother your mother

[This message has been edited by laf7773 (edited 02-21-2005).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by katanas rock:
cxt get of my ***.and go bother your mother

[This message has been edited by laf7773 (edited 02-21-2005).][/QUOTE]

Watch the language.

perhaps your telling off the wrong person laf, lol. that seems to be the general concensus from the people here as they seem to find certain people offensive, perhaps as a moderator you should take notice of that.

Disagreeing is part of the process. I don't dictate HOW they disagree. What i don't tolerate is foul language. I don't recall CXT calling him any names or "degrading" him, he was only telling him he was wrong. It's CXT's opinion and the two of them are here to discuss it. Katana just got aggravated and lashed out. I know this and wasn't "telling him off", i was simply telling him to watch the language.

Thanks for playing though.


[This message has been edited by laf7773 (edited 02-22-2005).]

Why dose everyone say "dont teach yourself" if your like me and teach tour self all your sword skills then you'll be better then others beacuse i go online and look up techniqes from all sword styles im not stuck with just one style all the best swords men out there and in the past have taught them selfs what they know to some exctent if you only study one style you'll be predictable against a aponent but you should get taught by a master if you can in many styles not just one but if you cant then keeps teaching your self.

lycao,

Did you actually read the previous posts in these "self taught" threads? There are several reasons why self teaching is bad for you. Many of the best "swordsmen" out there did not teach themselves. There is a big difference teaching your self and practicing what you have learned alone at home.

I may have missed it somewhere. How old are you?

I have taken the advice given as promised. I have completely stopped all I had been doing.
I told everybody I had to stop, then implored
any other untrained friends, like my "training partner", to stop as well. In the mean time, I'll be looking around for other chances of learning.
As for wandering, I figured I'd just walk out on my own and dissappear for awhile, then come back later(after acquiring an electronics job and working for about 10 years so I can come back to my job after my year's vacation).If I don't reappear, that's my problem. I'm just going to look for enlightenment(find myself)for awhile.

I have taken the advice given as promised.I've completely stopped ANY self-training.I've also told any other self-taught friends to stop, to add another plus.
As far as wandering goes, I don't have enough money to go to Japan,or anywhere. I've had it planned for a while now. After I got my job in electronics(that gets me up to $60,000 a month),I'd take my year's vacation and dissapear for a while. Whether I come back or not is my choice and my problem. As far as being a wanderer or a normal person, I'm not entirely sure what I am, but I mean to find out. I know it seems strange, maybe even suicidal, but I plan to reappear somewhere somewhere in the Montana/Wyoming area. It's not a religious thing, rather philosophical in my view. I'd like to find myself.

$60,000 a month?

Wow.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by laf7773:
lycao,

Did you actually read the previous posts in these "self taught" threads? There are several reasons why self teaching is bad for you. Many of the best "swordsmen" out there did not teach themselves. There is a big difference teaching your self and practicing what you have learned alone at home.

I may have missed it somewhere. How old are you? [/QUOTE]

im not saying its the best way to learn if you can then ya get taught from someone how knows what there doing but for me there arnt any dojo's around that teach any type of swordsmanship so i have to teach my self kinda sucks but but oh well and to answer your question im 18.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ModernWanderer15:
After I got my job in electronics(that gets me up to $60,000 a month),I'd take my year's vacation and dissapear for a while. [/QUOTE]
*jaw drops*
Are they still hiring? I'd like to make $60,000 a month as well.

It is simply not possible to "teach yourself". "Teaching" implies the imparting of knowledge to someone who does not already have it. If you do not already have the knowledge, you cannot teach yourself. You can study and puzzle things out on your own, but you cannot teach yourself, or anyone else for that matter, something that you do not already know.

It ranges from $20,000-$60,000 depending on the job and experience. I had to do research for school.

You do mean $20-60,000 a year right? There are no jobs i know of that pay that much per month.

It ranges from $20,000-$60,000 depending on the job and experience. I had to do research for school. The electronics jobs will be opening in the next several years. Ranges from electronics technician to game design.

Again, $20,000-$60,000 a year, not a month. Even at $20,000 a month the anual salary would be $240,000. Electronics technitions in your area only make $42,000-$55,000 a year. In San Diego they make roughly $47,000-$60,000 a year. This isn't even the entry level salary, it's for a senior electronic technition III. I think you got the anual salary mixed up with the monthly salary.

[This message has been edited by laf7773 (edited 03-01-2005).]

Maybe you're right.I think I did mix that up.
I did that a while ago. I think it paid pretty high in aviation electronics.

Noted, thanks. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]


[This message has been edited by ModernWanderer15 (edited 03-01-2005).]

[This message has been edited by ModernWanderer15 (edited 03-01-2005).]

nobody seems to get the fact that i am a ten year old sword fanatic,AND that i CANT afford formal classes.along with that there are no dojo's in my area. it is this or nothing.

Katanas rock,

There are dojos in your area. There is the Phoenix Kendo Kai, i believe it's at the YMCA. There is also the Kenshin iaido dojo in Phoenix. I'm sure there are more. At 10 yrs old i don't expect you to afford anything, that is what your parents are for. If they can't afford it then your best bet is to wait. You can't teach something you don't know.

KR i know exactly how you feel. im 19 and can only now afford classes.
laf you seem to be ignoring the fact that cxt is being very rude by flatout disreguarding any and everything KR says. probabally just cause hes a kid. i don know him he could be BSing us, im taking what he says at face value for now.

cxt lay off a bit. go ahed and disagre with him but a bit more gently, kay?

and since when is *** and **** bad language? it is a valid way to censor ones language on message boards

if being "self-taught" is such an issue with people, i would advise conditioning until you can afford classes. (running long distances, jumping around, climbing, moving quickly, etc) Take anything you have to do and turn it into some kind of "training" for yourself.
also, if you can find a dojo in your area, (i'm not sure if this is allowed, but it's worth a shot) try trading physical labor for lessons. As you're only 10, it won't be crazy demanding stuff. Even basic chores would be useful to the owners of the dojo. If you're truly dedicated, they may come to some kind of agreement for teaching you.
Ignore all of the "wait" stuff, you can always train in some way that won't hinder your later lessons, even if you have to wait to practice actual swordsmanship.
Good luck with training.

(i, too, was interested in martial arts and swordfighting at a young age. unfortunitally, i listened when people told me to wait. it took 12 years before i found someone to teach me [i live in a VERY small town surrounded by a whole lot of NOTHING]. I've never stopped regretting my choice to not train on my own for those 12 years. don't make the same mistake. if it's truly something you care about, you'll find a way, i promise. just keep working hard.)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by katanas rock:
it is this or nothing.[/QUOTE]Then it should be nothing. Sorry little fella, but you aren't ready for serious weapons practice. If you take a great deal of care, the risks are small. If you make the smallest of mistakes, the consequences are massive.

Listen to the guys on here - be patient. Get older, get a good education. Get a decent job with some extra money each month. Attend classes. Enjoy yourself.

Until then, keep away from Highlander films, carry on with the bokken and set a few small goals. Above all, be patient...

Take care,

Scott

[This message has been edited by ScottUK (edited 04-07-2005).]