Is my sensei rushing things?

by Eric

First of all I have to offer you my thanks!

I'm doing Kendo for only 7 weeks now, after 4 weeks I took my exam to 6th Kyu and passed, in September I aim for the 5th Kyu. Your instructions did no small contribution to that. Thank you very much! I'm considered talented because of that.

I'm happy to hear that from my sensei but I won't relay on it. I know there is much I don't know. I train very hard at home too.

I think he knows when someone is ready, but I seem to be the first disciple doing things so quickly. He said he wanted to see how far he can push me, that seems to be quite far... Because recently I train Oji- and Shikake-waza on a regular basis now.

My question is: do you think my sensei is rushing things?

And a quick side question: do I have to warm my hand/shoulders up before executing Suburi at home? My warm up is quite time consuming, as a result I don't have much time for Suburi. After all Suburi are considered as a "kind of warming up". I fear I might hurt myself!

Thank you very much in advance and keep up the good work!

Answer: Thanks for your question. Thank you for your kind words! I am glad to hear that my website contributes to your kendō improvement!

My answer is…

Trust your teacher.

I like not teaching things a lot at once. But some people really do learn quickly so I give them more in that case.

Now you should be very careful not to lose your good basics. It is easy to mess up your basics when you start learning waza.

I personally do not really teach oji-waza to my students. I emphasise more on shikake waza.

The reason is simply. If you do not know when to strike, you cannot really execute oji-waza.

It is probably because I really like "go for it". I intentionally try to execute oji waza to practice and also my kendō came to the point where I should not strike whenever I want.

But you should initiate and strike to learn good opportunities and your distance.

About warm-up. This is what I think and I am not a doctor so please cunsult your doctor or sports instructor or some specialist.

Start suburi really slowly until blood pumps into your arms. Do it really big so all joints and muscles that you use for suburi are stretched too.

Make sure to stretch after suburi. Hands, wrists, arms and shoulders.


Hope this helps.

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