[bahrain41]

i stopped Shotokan just over 4 years ago -- im taking aikido as a PE class here at uni, and the instructor had his own dojo in a city about 25 minutes away from where my dorm is, so he directed me to his website.

originally i wanted to train with him in aikido, but i saw that they offered kendo once a week, so i went with that as it had always fascinated me.

Kendo, as i percieve it, is one of the most difficult arts to master -- intense training in both the physical and spiritual aspects -- concepts of control, etc...

In physical arts not involving weapons, it is easy to grasp the physical concepts because your weapon(s) is/are your body, and therefore you are in complete control nearly all of the time. such isnt the ase with kendo -- it takes lots of dedication and practice to make your shinai act like an extension of your arm -- you cant swing it around blindly and hope to hit something.

also, kendo leaves far less openings and opportunities during keiko than in sparring in other arts -- kendoists are very defensive and have amazing reaction time -- though i must admit that my previous training has proven useful -- having sparred for countless hours in my shotokan training has conditioned my mind into constantly observing and looking for openings and weaknesses in my opponents, and taking them the second they are open, and perhaps even creating my own openings through mind games.