pugh-the-special-one said:
Your first Kendo lesson, always looked really appealing to me as a sport, would love to give that a go great looking suits, but i've always loved and admired most things Japanese, must be thier sense of order and discipline fit's in with my personality I guess.
To be honest, it was a little disappointing.
I went to one club on Sunday for a look and liked what I saw but when it came to actually doing a bit I found they took themselves a little too seriously.
Didn't help that they stuck me with a visiting instructor and GB team member for my first go at whacking someone with a bamboo sword (shinai). After I'd hit him on the head (with one of those guards on) half a dozen times he just said 'don't worry, I'll get to hit you that hard soon'.
I would have prefered a bit more feedback but the British martial artists have a knack of trying to out-japanese the Japanese with their Miyagi-isms. How about "Don't hit too hard, do it like this rather than like this, here's where you're going wrong"?
Reminded me of one my seniors in karate who used to say stuff like "more fast punch" when the silly arse was from Yorkshire!
Anyway, for that reason, I'm out.
