Pass the iron I have a crease.

Please don’t take what I am going to say as ignorant or having a go, I am just telling of a few experiences I have had regarding practitioners of Kendo & Iaido, and I am not generalizing in any way so please don’t gun me down.

I practice Aikido and have for a while been thinking of taking up either Kendo or Iaido to compliment my Aiki.

After visiting many dojo’s of both arts I decided to give it a miss because am I the only person who thinks that Kendoka’s care more for how they look and how much there latest bogu cost than actual training (In 5 out of the 8 kendo dojo’s I saw there was at least a 25 min warm up in front of the mirror) Has anyone any similar experiences?

And the Iaido dojo’s I went to, well I admire the art and the mental training they do, but (and speaking from personal experience only, because I have not been to every Iaido dojo in the world) why are they so weird, and a few times I tried to inject some fun into the question (and I was not trying to mock the art, I mean fun in the general sense) I was given a very strange look. I would like to hear what you guys think about this?

Shadow of myself

Let me get this straight... You watched a class that had an extensive warmup in front of a mirror and you assumed it was vanity? Oh that's rich.

As for the formality in Iaido dojos, you're pretty much dead on from my experience. An iai dojo is not a place for fun and games. The folks in an iai dojo are swinging implements made for killing other human beings. More importantly the weapons used in training are dangerous to other students. Even the slightest touch with a live blade can cut someone bad enough to cripple. A certain degree of formality is a matter of safety. Get Iaidoka off the mat and into a bar and you'll see plenty of fun and games [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Charles Mahan:
Let me get this straight... You watched a class that had an extensive warmup in front of a mirror and you assumed it was vanity? Oh that's rich.

As for the formality in Iaido dojos, you're pretty much dead on from my experience. An iai dojo is not a place for fun and games. The folks in an iai dojo are swinging implements made for killing other human beings. More importantly the weapons used in training are dangerous to other students. Even the slightest touch with a live blade can cut someone bad enough to cripple. A certain degree of formality is a matter of safety. Get Iaidoka off the mat and into a bar and you'll see plenty of fun and games [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif[/IMG][/QUOTE]

I was trying to say that they spent for my liking too much time trying and worrying about how they looked rather than getting down to it, Just my opinion. Once I step on the mat I get down to warm ups and doing techniques.

Well I was not expecting them to be swing from the chandeliers, and the blades where well packed away (much like the atmosphere) And I am sure that underneath those stern, emotionless faces, there was some damm happy souls.


I am certainly not knocking the arts, and I when on the mats take things as serious as they need to be taken. I was just asking if anyone had a similar experience where they went to a Kendo dojo and found them to vain, or to a Iaido dojo and found them to "what’s the word" odd

Shadow of myself


[This message has been edited by shadows of myself (edited 02-04-2005).]

Hi shadows of myself, I only recently took up Iaido (4th of jan actually) and although not odd, I have noticed the Iaido dojo attracts a different crowd to many other martial arts, take for example TKD (something I have been doing for many years).

In my recent experience, I have found that the Iaido crowd are slightly more mature in age, and are alot more patient. This is one of the attracting factors that made me seek out a dojo. Apart from that they are just people.

Shadow


Seriously no offense here, but if I dropped by to watch your Aikido class, would I be impressed?

Would I be impressed if I knew little to nothing about aikido?

Or would it be easy to jump to all sorts of "off" conclusions?

Would I be impressed if I had 20 years of MA practice under my belt?

In which case I might be to quick to dismiss things that were "different" from my background, too quick to label things "shortcomings" or how "open" people are--compared to what I know.

What I am getting at is that maybe you should consider giveing them a bit more time before writing them off.

I don't think you understand how sport-sword-fighting works. The long excercises are not vanity or making sure you look good, but are to improve your fighting and reduce your likelyhood of gettin injured.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a fencer, not a Kendo fighter, but the sports are similar enough for me to comment. If your knee is place wrong in your engarde or if you roll your foot during a lunge, then sooner or later, your legs will fail you, perhaps disasterously and permanently. Good form reduces the stress on your knees and ankles, reducing the chance of injury. This is the reason that my team spends no less than twenty minutes warming up and stretching, and the first hour after that is devoted to footwork drills. These are done in front of the mirror so you can see what you are doing right and wrong: are you bobbing like a spring? Swaying like a pendulum? Is your knee straight in your engarde? All of these points are as important as working on your blocks and parries. You may have the best sword-arm on the planet, but if you can't do the footwork, you will lose.

I'm suprised they didn't teach you that the first day. Were you just observing, or did you attend a beginner's class?