[mikapoq]

Balance and an open mind are essential to bettering ones kendo. We are not samurai, none of us alive today and participating in this forum are or ever have been samurai. But we are kendoka, and we should take what we do seriously. That does not mean only doing as your main sensei feels is most correct. In fact it means growing beyond that and pulling away from it. In learning kendo we have three steps on the path ( I forget off the top of my head how to say it in Japanese and since I'm supposed to be working don't have th time to look up the actual phrase):

First, we take in all that we are taught and hold it sacred. This learning comes from our sensei. It can be augmented by reading material but reading material cannot replace or be superior to that actual experience of having a teacher work with you to learn the basics of kendo.

Second, we start to see that there are other things that other instructors and kendoka do differently and that exactly what sensei does might not exactly fit our own concept or abilities in kendo. This doesn't mean we discard all we have learned up to now, we just see that there is more out there to learn.

Third, we form our own kendo. We draw away from what our sensei taught us and make our own understanding of ourselves and kendo work the best way we can. We make kendo our own and unique to us. All this we do while still holding firm to the basics and valuing what has been taught to us from our first day to the present.


I think those who follow this development become the strongest kendoka. Some of them use strange looking waza, or prefer to fight nito or jodan. How they do it doesn't matter if they follow the path above they tend to become strong formidable opponents and people we can all learn a bit more about our own kendo from.

Does that make me sound too serious? I hope not.