I don't know whether or not you have any talent but, if you train exclusively in the dojo and do not practice any at home, then you better be at the dojo often. Otherwise, your progress will naturally be very slow. Especially when it comes to shiai or shinsa, it's going to be very difficult to strike with good kikentaiichi when you have, comparatively speaking, very little practice time with a partner. Of course you have a point. My normal practice frequency is twice a week. Strange thing is, just *before* practice I had the impression that kikentaiichi worked just fine, even heard so from my sempai... For my part, I've also progressed slowly but, kendo is fun to me and I like the people I practice with so the rest doesn't matter much to me. It's ok to feel discouraged, I think everyone goes through this feeling at times. As long as you still enjoy kendo, I think you should just try to work through this stage. Thanks. I have had that attitude previously, nothing wrong with that. I think two philosophies conflict here: Since kendo is so much a competitive sport, is it "right" to practice it just for the enjoyment of it, but not working so much on progress? Regarding test anxiety, that's pretty normal for people to experience. Deep breathing has a calming effect or maybe try warming up extra hard to get rid of the nervous feeling. Although, the best way to stay calm is to train hard so that you have some confidence in your abilities.