How to increase my stamina for kendo?

by umme
(Bandar Seri Begawan)

I know that stamina is important in Kendo. I have been given some suggestions by someone on how to increase my stamina which is by doing high output workouts like running, bike riding, etc, in short full output series (e.g, 4 minutes, rest 2 minutes, etc).

Could you give me some suggestions apart from what I have mentioned above on how to increase my stamina so that I won't be tired easily during shiai or jigeiko?

Answer: I am not a sports training expert, so I don't know exactly what you should do outside the dojo. However, in order to increase physical strength and endurance for kendo, you should do a lot of kirikaeshi, uchikomi and kakari-geiko.

When you do kirikaeshi, try to do it with long breaths. It doesn’t have to be one breath from the start. If you can do it with one breath, that is wonderful.

If you breathe in and out after each strike, it doesn't increase your physical endurance. And make sure you strike each cut properly. Cf. Breathing in Training: How to Breathe in Kendo Training

"Properly" means you cut each men down. Many people just swing their sword and as soon as their shinai hit the motodachi's shinai, they pull their shinai back. That is not what they should be doing。

We really have to try to cut down onto our motodachi's men. If we do that, kirikaeshi becomes very hard and tough exercise. So if you do kirikaeshi thoroughly, you will be very strong and stamina will increase.

When I was a kid, my dojo only lets us do kirikaeshi, uchikomi and kakari-geiko. Jigeiko is only once a week out of three training per week.

At my high school, we started hundreds of suburi and hundreds of kirikaeshi. About two thirds of training time was spent for these basics.

I'm sorry that I couldn't help you with this.

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