do I have to shout in Kendo to pratice it?

by Terry
(London)

As I am the sort of person that if I do I rather strike quietly or I may grunt at worst or breath out through my nose.

Can I strike quietly or will I get told to leave a dojo?

Kendo-Guide.Com: Thank you for your question. A short answer for if you can do kendo quietly or not would be no. You cannot be quiet. This is why.

We are not just shouting. We are not just being loud. We are training inside us, which no one can see what’s going on.

By being loud, we train the core of our body. If you do it right, you will feel your abs and back getting tight.

And also you are increasing your energy level by shouting. Shouting is breathing. By shouting we are exhaling air. And quickly breathe in so we can respond to our opponent. This is very hard to do if you are not used to because we constantly moving (burning our energy i.e. consuming a lot of oxygen).

Easily imagined, it can increase our physical strength and also mental strength by shouting a lot.

Shouting helps you to get rid of a lot of “thoughts” including fear and hesitation. It helps you focus more.

Plus it is a good stress relief :)

Those senseis with high grade are rather quiet but they have gone through the “being loud” phase. That is why they are so good.

So it is not the matter of being told to leave a dojo or not, you are not benefiting from kendo if you do not shout a lot.

So if you want to do kendo, please be ready for that. If you do not want to shout, you should do something else or zen. All the Japanese martial arts, if you do it right, have the same goal, which is to discipline human character. The same goal but different path to reach there. That’s all.

Hope this helps.

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