[PRengine]

i've always been told that it is inappropriate to bang your shinai, lean on it, pick your toes with it or other behavior like that.
hope that helps you some.

[Kemapreedasse]

Bangin your shinai is a bad thing, but some people hit it on the floor for random reasons, I can admit that I also hit the shinai on the floor. While we are on this topic, when people do tsuki, why do they hit the floor then?

[Fdmnrnba]

Hmm. Is he doing it just when he's talking? Because I've seen some waza that involved hitting the shinai to the floor after its connected. Some form of katate tsuki I think, but other than that, I don't really see a reason to.

[ftpsoft]

It is wrong to bang you shinai on the floor, but what are you going to do?

[MicoSiru]

I don't know whether this is wrong, but when our sensei was away our sempai pointed out to us that sensei always bangs his shinai on the ground and that this is verry wrong (Bad shinai ettiquet (sp?)). nobody dares speak to sensei about this though, as he is quite a scary man. he also never speaks to us new starters, only the senior students, never jokes, smiles or asks us if we have any questiones . Is the shinai banging wrong? Are most sensei's this scary? Help is needed.....PLEASE!!!!

[corkBrobe]

It seems to fly in the face of a very basic Japanese concept. You respect everything that is a facet of what you do. In the Japanese baseball league they treat every piece of equipment from bats to gloves with the same respect that us kendoka give to our shinai, bogu, and dojo. Hitting the floor with your shinai while speaking really seems to violate this concept. I'm sure your sensei doesn't mean to be disrepsecting his shinai and he probably does that to emphasize his points, much like how a school teacher would hit the chalk/white board. Personally, I don't think he should be doing that but afterall, he is your sensei so I guess there's not much you can do. Pick and choose your battles I guess.

[nasxbrtyol]

Actually i hafe three senseis.. michael. Michael. Stuart. and Mikaela(swedish name to hard to translate).
Michael, the best one.. is the best of them, so hes my primary sensei. His cool, but has a creeepy kiai. Its like this otherworldy scream thats veary hoarse in the sound, not dark or light but just strange... amazing really.

[fectsnanteemy]

My sensei is quite cool, he did attempt 6th Dan (2 weeks ago in Japan) but unfortunatly he failed. He would have been the highest ranking sensei/kendoka in Scotland

He does bang his shinai off the floor too

[italertb]

I don't know whether this is wrong, but when our sensei was away our sempai pointed out to us that sensei always bangs his shinai on the ground and that this is verry wrong (Bad shinai ettiquet (sp?)). nobody dares speak to sensei about this though, as he is quite a scary man. he also never speaks to us new starters, only the senior students, never jokes, smiles or asks us if we have any questiones . Is the shinai banging wrong? Are most sensei's this scary? Help is needed.....PLEASE!!!!

Shinai banging is definitely not a good thing. At the same time, it's not really the place of a student to try to correct an instructor. You just have to hope that somebody of an equal or higher status might point it out at a seminar or other event. It's not something that is particularly uncommon - even one 76 year old hanshi 8th dan that I know of, an extremely well known and well regarded person, said that he was recently told off by one of his sempai for doing exactly that, which made me smile.
If you really want to do something about it, you could just copy him and start banging the floor with your own shinai. Hopefull this will bring some kind of telling off, at which point you could say that you're just copying him. However, I don't really recommend doing this kind of thing - I certainly wouldn't myself.

[RenyBontes]

Bangin your shinai is a bad thing, but some people hit it on the floor for random reasons, I can admit that I also hit the shinai on the floor. While we are on this topic, when people do tsuki, why do they hit the floor then?

Sometimes it's pretty much unavoidable if you really throw your body into the tsuki and the kensen impacts with a lot of power. That doesn't make it a good thing though. And certainly not something to try to do until you're very confident with your tsuki.

[rikdpola]

Sato bangs his shinai on the ground on several occasions in the vid of him and Iwasa. He does it after tsuki and kote (or debana kote anyway). A japanese sensei I spoke to, said it was because it's easier to get the shinai out of the way for a counterattack from the opponent (e.g. harai), and still get it up in chudan-no-kamae again. He said it wasn't good kendo, but rather something developed by those having a 'sport kendo' view. The same as dodging.

[KongoSan]

Some of us did brought up this question to some of our senseis and they told us that it is wrong doing, however some kendoka or dojo are still doing that. Just bad habbits.

I've seen a kendoka likes to hit his shinai on the floor after he attacks and catch up with another hit after hitting the floor. Don't really understand.

[NeroASERCH]

It's not that he hits it on the floor in keiko or anything, he hits it on the floor when he is speaking to us.

[unioneserry]

I am glad that I am not the only junior Kendoka who gets upset by the fact that some senior kendokas bang their Shinai on the floor. First of all - These senior kendoka have to have a lot of money to treat their Shinai's so badly. Their Shinai's will need replacement more often.
Secondly you know that the Spirit of the Sword does not reside in their Shinai. They obviously have never in their lives been anywhere near a Nihon to. Try banging one of those on the ground and see what happens to the Sharp edge of the blade.
No matter how much consternation it causes us, it is not the job of the junior Kendoka to correct the senior Kendoka as was said earlier in this post.
I just smile and say to myself "well if this person keeps banging their Shinai on the floor, I am going to be a better Kendoka than him sooner than I would have otherwise. As a matter of fact I am better already." With that thought in my mind I hold my kamae and my Shinai up with humility and self-respect.
Also discipline is the hardest skill to attain. Discipline is a measure of ones brain function. The more disciplined you are, the more in control of your neurological functions you are. It improves your chances of achieving Ki Ken Tai No Ichi.
Once again we have to keep the spirit of the sword alive in our Shinai and in our minds.
Warmest regards to all.

[8cyVn4RJ]

I just smile and say to myself "well if this person keeps banging their Shinai on the floor, I am going to be a better Kendoka than him sooner than I would have otherwise. As a matter of fact I am better already." With that thought in my mind I hold my kamae and my Shinai up with humility and self-respect.

Not only is this paragraph directly self-contradictory, it's also pretty damn arrogant. Let's not forget that, as you say, we are 'junior' kendoka.
If you think that hitting the floor with your shinai is going to cause it significant damage, then I guess you're not much one for do strikes either...

[Qvqnubpj]

I would never dare confront him! (note: I vote "Pant-wetting" on the pole ^_^)
he's too scary, even for the senior students....

[whatisthebluepill]

My senseis in Japan and my sensei here in Hawaii occasionally bang their shinai on the ground to get kid's attention when they are slacking off. Very scary.

[Hinigyday]

Going up against my sensei, you know he's going to hit your kote, regardless of what you do. But, if you don't at least try for his men, he feels you aren't trying hard enough.

He teaches us in the traditional manner, and works our butts off (if I could just figure out why I get so overheated, I'd get my butt worked off, too), but we learn, he explains everything we're doing, what the purpose of the movement is, and how we can improve.

Criticism is always constructive, there is no room for disrespect for any student in his dojo. Everyone is treated with respect.