My step-daughter went with me to kendo practice last night. She is 11 (just) and had tried it about 6 months ago and found it rather daunting. She has had previous martial arts experience and had gotten a black belt from the ATA but neither she, nor her Dad (who is a judan in Goju Ryu karate and a sandan in Shotokan karate), nor her Mom (who is also a shodan in the ATA) felt that it was a traditional style.
Her Dad is unable to teach due to recent knee surgery and as a result he has been wanting her to continue her martial arts training in another style.
When she went 6 months ago there were no smaller kids her size and she found that the warm-up for kendo was harder than any workout at her prior dojang. She had been vetting the class lately and noticed that we have had a number of kids sign up in the past few months.
It was a good class for her. She was able to get through the warm up in good shape and then did the footwork and suburi drills fine (we partnered a couple of times). After that we had a 45 minute kata session and she was partnered with a 9 y.o. Japanese girl who is a member of our club. They got along famously and worked on Ipponme and Nihonme of the Nihon Kendo Kata. The sempai wanted Yoshi-san and I to work with our daughters. I told him it would be best if he coached my step-daughter and I coached his daughter. That worked out great.
She told me after class that she had had a good time and was looking forward to doing it again. By small steps are champions made! :-)
Atta girl, Brit!!!
Posted by: Mizobe-sensei | January 31, 2005 at 02:17 AM