Well I'll repeat again, Ki Ken Tai no Ichi. This concept included all of the options you listed. I know you can't have all of that, but that's the idea of Ki Ken Tai no Ichi. Ki - your spirit (kiai, determination, devotion), Ken - your weapon(s), Tai - your body (cunning, movement, speed whatever), no Ichi - focus in all of above listed together. If you follow this concept, timing and instinct will naturally come along. You can argue all day that speed and whatever, but this is the concept is taught in Kendo or any Japanese swordmanship. If you want to be like Musashi, you probably want to understand more about this concept.

determination, devotion same diff to me but I'd have to go with determination because what good is everything else if your not there to use it...

theres my 5 yen

Erm, but the whole point I told him was use Kikentainoichi as a concept for martial arts. It is not something just for Kendo to describe a perfect strike, rather it's a concept. Well at least I prefer to use this concept to help myself improve in anything I do. The idea is to focus, and Kikentainoichi describes the components to focus in order to achieve a perfect strike or in your daily life could be anything. If you think about it, Ki applies to everything. If you don't have spirit or will to do something, you will fail. Ken - your weapon or your tool, knowing the weapon/tool is just as important. Tai - body movements for martial art but I would replace this to all coming down to yourself how you apply your skills and techiques. All together if you focus you can suceed.

And did you also notice I put Ki (Devotion, determination, blah blah) together? Mean you substitute those according to different situations.

Maybe I'm just thinking too much... I dunno, if you read the Kanji again, and think deeper rather than knowing its as a term

I wouldn't describe any of those choices as strategy. The poll doesn't make sense in relation to the thread title.

Kikentaiichi is a term used to describe what the kendoka needs for a perfect strike usually with tenouchi as a compliment.

However in a broader sense, the devotion part which you speak of is not just at the hit (ie single point in time). It is not in one tournament, one shiai, or even one practice. It is not even counting how many practices you attend a year. It is a commitment that you make to keep practicing through the good and through the bad all in the while believing that something good will come out of it. IMHO, believing in that and trying to improve yourself a little each day is the strategy that should help you become better in general.

Tim

Feel free do discuss which attribute is most important & why

There's Ki ken tai no ichi.... buuuuut I'll go with cunning.

I usually try to hide behind one of the shinpan, then I sneak up behind him and BAM-O! Ippon! The other thing is to bring shrubbery to the shiai. Hide behind the shubbery until you can jump out and score a quick point. These two techniques, or waza if you will, require the utmost cunning.

I agree with Anime, all your positive facets will go to waste if you don't have the determination to use it. Strength, speed, timing, and instinct will all come naturally (I assume...I don't think I've been doing kendo long enough to know how well it works for everyone). As for cunning...I don't know if you'll need that in a dojo because making sure your back is turned to the sun so your opponent may be temporarily blinded for a second may not come in handy. Just my opinion though.

to be ultimately successful in kendo, i think you need patience, diligence and most of all, Devotion. You really have to keep up with practices. For me, a lost practice one week just kills me the next. People come and go, but the ones who truly stay successful are the ones who (even though sometimes they absolutely hate it) stick with it and perservere...

My 0.02$(US),

Tim

Interesting...thanks for telling me about that. Thank you for informing me of my ignorance again (probably won't be the last time..lol.)

mm...sorry about that...

sorry. i just had to say the weapon. its a given. without it, kendo wouldnt be kendo.

but besides that, definately determination. without determination, things fall apart. you lack the drive to push yourself and improve.

Indeed... i totally agree. You see for a while kendo got almost unbearable to me because i lost a few practices due to (school)tests and such.
This forced me to increase my efforts to keep up, wich was a great task to perform. but i endured, and now , i dont ever want to quit kendo, and im not as newbish as before. Actually i feel like a have got an deeper understanding of the way of combat/shiai. before i was to technique oriented.

i said technique. i'm not quite sure why...it just seems to stand out as being important.

Strategy poll
 

I finally figured out how to set this thing up. Anyway, the purpose of this poll is to see what modern day kendo-practicineers (sorry about the spelling) feel is the most important attribute in kendo. Should be interesting to see the results, hm? -ninjamster15

I also think determination

in shiai good players never give up and that's what makes the difference.

Thank you everyone for your input. Theres just one thing: hai hai, you said you chose cunning, right? right now, there are not votes for cunning...oh well. Thanks again everyone for your input (even hai hai...laugh).

I feel that determination is the best attribute to have. You can have the strength, speed and technique but if you don't have the determination to do the best that you can, then the other attributes would be harder to come together.

Ah...I see...now I realize how it is that you can assassinate ninja assassins...