[CurtisTH]

Last week I stopped at my dojang on the way home from work to drop off some holiday gifts. I was able to have a conversation with my sabumnim (7th Dan). He is also an accomplished swordman who has a number of well respected videos on the market. (http://www.kendoacademy.com/usa/swordsample.htm)

My question to him was "If you faced someone with a real sword would you use the fighting skills you have in kendo or the many techniques you have mastered in sword practice". With the help of a native Korean speaker I was sure he understood my point. Obviously the stated reasons for studying Kendo is to improve ones character by learning the principles of the katana. We are not training to become combat swordsmen.

He carefully considered my inquiry and did not give me a quick response. I could see he was really thinking about it. While he was pondering my question I suggested to him that many of the sword stances he teaches would be too impractical if you were dealing with a single opponent standing in front of you. i.e. Having the sword held at your side in waki is too slow to bring the sword into play.

Eventually, he said if he had one opponent he would stand in chundan and attack whatever target presented itself using the ingrained kumdo attacks. However, if he had multiple opponents he would use the sword techniques and stances that were suggested by the number and position of adversaries.

My final annoying question was "then why don't we practice against multiple opponents on a regular basis in class?". I never got an answer to that one. I didn't want to press my luck so I let it slide. I thought this conversation was worthy of a thread.