I recently bought a bokken, as I am crazy about oriental weapons, and I have been looking for a website or free online book with images of basic bokken moves or katas.

thank you

Blaze911

Member of Kumite Kan Gaspe , 5th kyu shotokan karate

Alright, you can try to teach yourself. You will fail, but you can try.

Let's say you are training alone. If you do a move and you think it looks right, you practice it and go on. However, what you don't realize is that you are rolling your back foot whenever you take a step forward and will destroy your ankle in a few months. Or, you could be hesitating on your strokes or leaving your left side open to attack the whole time.

These are all very common mistakes, and without a teacher, they will probably not be caught, and therefore, will never be corrected.

You might be able to learn from a book, and if you have no other option, you can find some around, but I would highly suggest that you do not.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by blaze911:
I recently bought a bokken, as I am crazy about oriental weapons, and I have been looking for a website or free online book with images of basic bokken moves or katas.

thank you

Blaze911

Member of Kumite Kan Gaspe , 5th kyu shotokan karate[/QUOTE]

You can't learn how to 'use' a bokken from a book. Find an instructor who can assist you.

Try doing 500 shomen and see if you're arms and shoulders ache and begin to tire. If they do, you're doing it wrong. Even this kind of strike looks so simple but in fact takes alot of time, training and practice to perfect. I have in no means perfected this strike as I have only been using it partly in my aikido training. I have books on bokken techniques but comparing it to actual training it's completely different. I only use it as a reference to bokken katas.

The only advice I can give you is to seek instruction if you really want to develop your bokken skills.

Good luck [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

We really need a sticky at the top of this forum. This question gets with disturbing regularity and the answers are always the same.

For many other responses to this question, search the forum for the term "Self training".

The Problem I along with many others have is the ability to find an instructor. As it stands now there is no way i could achieve the teaching of an instructor from where i am. So we look for ways around it doing our best alone cuase theres no other way. Yet trying to learn swordsmanship alone is like trying to pick up a book for the first time and telling a story. Everything becomes a mass clutter of words no matter how much you understand it or how much you wish you could understand, it all mixes together.

I would love to live life with the lifestyle of honor and respect the old swordsman use to have.

And for all you lucky enough to have this pleasure don't take it for granit =)