Martial Arts

[The Pezman]

That is a side effect of doing things through the school. Our club meets twice a week for an hour. It's difficult to believe we could get much accomplished. But we do. We move quickly and cover a lot of stuff. Our sensei is a math teacher at the college, and also has over 20 years of experience actually teaching martial arts. He's a good professor and sensei, and pretty much all his students from either arena really enjoy working with him. I'm a green belt now and think I could go toe-to-toe with green belts from other dojos. And money, yes. The classes themselves are free... we've only had the purchase equipment. We don't even have to pay for tournaments (well, we do. But we get reimbursed).

In short, while the club's conditions aren't ideal, we have a lot going for us and I feel confident in my Chidokwan abilities.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Well, unfortunately, our club doesn't really get any assistance or attention from VT. We meet three times a week, two of those times being from 10PM to midnight in a room horribly unsuited to Kendo; it's too small for our numbers and the floor is made to keep people from sliding across it (which is what you have to do all the time in Kendo), and we can't get anything better because other clubs have more priority. We also don't get any money from the school, so all equipment, dues, and travel and tournament fees are covered by the members. It's far from ideal. Still, we make do with what we have. Our teacher (who, while a good teacher for us, is still only a 2nd Dan in Kendo) keeps us training. I just know that it hasn't been enough for myself thus far. I'm still lacking severely in skill; I suspect I'm only as experienced as a regular practitioner that has spent half the time I have in Kendo.

[1337 1]

Well, unfortunately, our club doesn't really get any assistance or attention from VT. We meet three times a week, two of those times being from 10PM to midnight in a room horribly unsuited to Kendo; it's too small for our numbers and the floor is made to keep people from sliding across it (which is what you have to do all the time in Kendo), and we can't get anything better because other clubs have more priority.

Yeah, but really that's an advantage if you had to defend yourself in reality: I can guarantee that when three guys with knives ambush you late at night as your about to cross the road, you won't have the choice of an "ideal battleground". Although probably less applicable to kendo (unless you carry around a sword or similar weapon with you everywhere ), getting used to fighting in different situations is essential. There has been many a tale of fighters getting injured when defending themselves, simply because of the terrain.

Many martial arts teach you ways around some such things; things like karate and taekwondo teach you to "pivot" when you kick, so as to prevent injuries that would be sustained from kicking flat footed.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Kendo isn't self-defense, however. It isn't even sword-fighting in the real sense. The original form, Kenjutsu, is applicable to fighting with a katana, but Kendo is a derivative of it, more a sport born from the ban on the traditional training after WWII. The spiritual aspect is still there in Kendo, but the practice of Kendo as we know it is far from being applicable to self-defense. I mean, no one in their right mind would try to fight with a sword using standard Kendo techniques.

[RealFolkBlues]

Kendo isn't self-defense, however. It isn't even sword-fighting in the real sense. The original form, Kenjutsu, is applicable to fighting with a katana, but Kendo is a derivative of it, more a sport born from the ban on the traditional training after WWII. The spiritual aspect is still there in Kendo, but the practice of Kendo as we know it is far from being applicable to self-defense. I mean, no one in their right mind would try to fight with a sword using standard Kendo techniques.

I almost agree with you completely. Having done kenjitsu, I can tell you that I happen to love going after people's hands, one of the three striking points in kendo. Now as for stabbing somebody in the chest, it sounds brutal, but that's actually pretty silly.

As for self-defense aspects of weapons trainings, my favorite anecdote I experienced personally. Buying breakboards for one of my tests one day, the guy at the hardware store recognized my request for what it was. He trained in a karate dojo, and they focused mainly on point sparring, so when I mentioned that we did kobudo (Okinawan and Japanese weapons,) he remarked about how you couldn't really use that stuff in real life. Ironically enough, he had a four foot closet dowel in the cart he had been pushing, with which I immediately started performing a jo kata. The dowel is still my jo today. You'd be surprised how often you can find improvised weapons, and obviously that can make a huge difference in a fight.

[Oddllama]

Yeah well I'm still a ninja and can probably take all of you at once, and decapitate you and disappear in a puff of smoke. You other ninjas know what I'm talking about.

Join us or be ashamed. Those are the two choices presented to you. Or don't get in our way and stay the same. That is a choice, too, I guess.

[The Pezman]

Pics or it didn't (doesn't?) happen.

[eppy]

Yeah well I'm still a ninja and can probably take all of you at once, and decapitate you and disappear in a puff of smoke. You other ninjas know what I'm talking about.

Join us or be ashamed. Those are the two choices presented to you. Or don't get in our way and stay the same. That is a choice, too, I guess.

I choose the latter

[BlueMage]

That is a side effect of doing things through the school. Our club meets twice a week for an hour. It's difficult to believe we could get much accomplished. But we do. We move quickly and cover a lot of stuff. Our sensei is a math teacher at the college, and also has over 20 years of experience actually teaching martial arts. He's a good professor and sensei, and pretty much all his students from either arena really enjoy working with him. I'm a green belt now and think I could go toe-to-toe with green belts from other dojos. And money, yes. The classes themselves are free... we've only had the purchase equipment. We don't even have to pay for tournaments (well, we do. But we get reimbursed).

In short, while the club's conditions aren't ideal, we have a lot going for us and I feel confident in my Chidokwan abilities.

We have the same due to being a uni club - we have to share gym time (where the dojo is situated) with other classes. The head-sensei is also the Course Coordinator for Mechanical Engineering, and was my early mechanical subjects lecturer. As he's a little Asian guy with a distinct accent, I had an edge on everyone else in the class if understanding what he was saying

As for weapons, I only fool around with 'em, don't actually train, but one of the advantages of Shorinji is that the movements can be adapted very easily to be used with weapons, so when I train with my bokken (either one now - girlfriend got me a hefty black one for Christmas) it's essentially practicing my Shorinji Kempo routines.