Kendo for LIFE

Kendo-Guide.Com Newsletter, Issue #043 - What does kendo mean to you?

G'day! How have you been? Sorry for the long silence.

I have two announce to make.

1. Additional Media for Interview with Alex Bennett
2. "I Super Appreciate You" Discount

1. Additional Media for Interview with Alex Bennett

Addition to the video, you have 2 more media files.

One: mp3 file Two: PDF file.

What do these mean?

One: mp3 file is for you to listen to the interview. You can listen to the interview anywhere you want as long as you have a portable device such as iPhone with you.

I personally find it more effective to listen to the same thing over and over until I memorize the content.

I had a specialist to remove background noise so it won't annoy you as much.

Two: you can now read what's said in the interview. If you want to know the terms more precisely, it is super useful.

If you are not a native English speaker, this pdf file will help you a lot. I am not a native English speaker myself and I still remember how hard it was for me to understand native English speakers.

Especially if you are used to American English, you may find difficult to understand Kiwi (New Zealand) accent.

So here it is. I hope these additional media will help you to understand the interview deeper

Get a copy of Interview with Alex Bennett now.

2. "I Super Appreciate You" Discount

I do not usually do the discount except for a short period of time at the beginning of the new product launch. But this time...

It is not because a long waiting holiday is coming, but thanks to you guys, visitors of Kendo-Guide.Com exceeded 10,000 (unique visitors) last month!!

I started "The Cyber Dojo" in Dec 2006. Moved the site to Kendo-Guide.Com in the middle of May 2008. The number of visitors in May 2008 was 34.

I could not do this without you. Really. So I will take 50% off from the products listed below just for the newsletter subscribers and Kendo For Life, LLC customers. Without you, more than 10,000 visitors could not be achieved only by myself!!!

- Online Kendo Basics Video

- How to Learn Kendo Movements More Easily and Quickly

- Interview with Alex Bennett

It will be effective on Monday the 12/6 (EST) until 12/21 (EST).

To get the discount, you need a coupon code.

Coupon Code is: ThankYouSoMuch

You can share the coupon code with your friends or kendo mates as a holiday present for them!

Thank you again for your long lasting support!

- Review on Bogu

I recently had a chance to review a 2.0 bu hand stitched bogu set of Maruyama Kendo Supply. If you are looking for a good looking but practical bogu set, my review on this bogu may be helpful.

Maruyama 2bu Review: 2bu Hand-Stitched Bogu by Maruyama Kendo Supply

Hope you enjoy the update in Kendo Q&A as well!

Announcement

- Kendo Guide in Russian

- Some articles from Kendo-Guide.Com in Russian.

- Kendo-Guide Social Network

- Facebook
- Linkedin
- Twitter

If you think I am not doing well with these Social Networking, please let me know. I do not want to be uncool!!

Kendo For Life, LLC Products

- Kendo Beginners eBook: Kendo Guide for Beginners
This e-book will give you great amount of information about kendo. It probably answers you most of questions you have when you start kendo. Download your copy of a sample today!

- Online Kendo Basics Video
11 kendo basics videos (139.8 min) are now available. You can watch them online or download to your computer. Get them all together with 32% discount.

- How to Learn Kendo Movements More Easily and Quickly
Are you having a hard time to get the kendo movements right? Try to find out methods that make easier and quicker for you to learn the movements.

- Interview with Alex Bennett
Do you think you are too old to continue kendō? You don't know how you should improve your kendo? Listen to Alex Bennett sensei who passed his 7-dan exam at his first attempt. He talks about how he trained for his 7-dan exam and how he performed in his 7-dan exam.

Thank you!

Now enjoy the updates!

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What we have in this issue is shown below. Enjoy this Newsletter!

Table of Content

- Kendo Q & A -

- What does kendo mean to you? -

- Comments or Questions -

There are links to change your email address for the newsletter or unsubscribe at the bottom of every newsletter. Thanks!

- Kendo Q & A -

- Tameshigiri

- Nito Ryu Strikes

- Why fumikomi-ashi in Kendo?

- Measurements for kendo uniform

- Order of bows at the beginning/end of training

- One shiai occurrence

- Feet position when doing sageto

- Hachimaki

- Kendo and reality

- history of kendo?

- Kendo Romanji and Kanji

- Back pain when wearing men

- What does kendo mean to you? -

Does kendo mean anything to you?

I am sure that you have a reason/s to choose kendo over many other martial arts.

- Some are interested in samurai culture. - Some are interested in Japanese culture in general. - Some are interested in Ruro ni kenshin (anime). - Some are interested in swords fighting. - Some are interested in philosophy behind kendo. - Some are interested in losing weight. - Some are interested in exercises through kendo.

Do you remember this post by Olga? Kendo among other martial arts

I am sure you have your reason why you do kendo.

One thing I am now interested in in kendo is its cultural and educational values.

Cultural Values

Kendo carries many rituals from old days. If you talk to young non-kendoists about how to bow or how to even wear hakama (kendo pants), they probably do not know how to do those.

If I am not doing kendo and not being asked why by you or my students, I probably did not know many reasons behind certain rituals.

In other words, if we remove those cultural values from kendo, it will be no longer "Japanese" culture. 

For instance, when we put a men on, we do not just time a mast around our head, right? We must look nice and tidy by aligning menhimo (strings) and flat. We do not want himo twisted.

This is a part of Japanese culture. Even a twist of himo should not be allowed. Must look beautiful.

I cannot remember the exact words but Moriji MOCHIDA sensei (10-dan) said,

"Our kendo must have hin in our kendo because we do not live in a war period."

Refer to "The meaning of hin"

If kendo was just a sport or a method of beating up others, we would not have to follow these cultural values. We are not only after "results" such as winning, losing, hitting or getting hit.

How to carry a shinai is also one of the cultural values that kendo has. How to draw out a shinai and so on. Without these cultural (historical) backgrounds, kendo is not really what it is.

Educational values

Unless you go to Physical Education University, you do not get degree on training kendo. So I am not talking about "degree" or "certificate" when I say "educational values" in kendo.

We all know kendo has teachings in it. We can apply these teachings in our daily lives. For example, we have a concept of zanshin,shikai and so forth.

What is Zanshin?

What is Shikai?

But not only these complex teachings that kendo teaches.

Appreciation and pain

We bow to each other before and after training.

Simply we are showing our appreciation because kendo without a partner, we cannot really train much.

Also we are appreciating our partner for letting us hit him/her.

We all know kendo involves some degree of pain.

Our partners let us strike them knowing that we may hurt them.

If we do not appreciate their action, there must be something wrong with us, don't you think?

And many people complain that their training partner hit them in somewhere with no armour covers. I remind them that they also do the same thing.

That happens in kendo. That is why we should not forget about appreciation and respect towards our training partners.

Because we understand the pain, we can appreciate what our training partners do for us to improve our kendo and our personality.

Of course, there are more teachings that I think carry the educational values such as zanshin for students (review what you learn at school), enzan no metsuke (look at a problem in many aspects) and so forth.

What is "enzan no metsuke"?

I hope this article helps you in some way.

- Comments or Questions -

If you have a kendo related question, please go to Kendo Q&A and use a special form for that.

If you want to contact me personally, please use a contact form.

If you do not send me email through the form, my email system does not pass through your emails. That means I never get your email.

Please do not use the email address I used to use at The Cyber Dojo either. It will not be used for communication purpose. This is the main website. Click here to contact us...