/otaku/ - Japan / Otaku / Anime

I used to do kendo at a local club but stopped since I moved to another city. I need to find a reputable local group. There's one in the town next over from me. I also boxed for a while but all the gyms here are monopolized by a drug dealer so I stay away from those places. I really wish I could compete but I started to late to be great and kendo. I mostly do it as a hobby.

I only study HEMA which makes me your natural enemy OP

Mou Ippon! gave me a passing interest in Judo. Great anime.

>>6602
AUSKF has a dojo map for the United States with all of the official sanctioned Dojos, that coordinates with the All Japan kendo Federation.

https://www.auskf.org/dojos

Being good at kendo does not require you to start early. You can start late and still practice. Most of the people in my Dojo started in their late 20s or 30s and some even older, and made it up to 3 or 4 Dan.

For most people, kendo is not a competitive sport, unless you do it exclusively for competitions, and even there, stamina and technique beats brute force. Cultivating good Ippon and good style and spirit is better than just being able to land hits, because eventually you will learn to just not get hit.

>>6603
A fellow swordsman is always a friend. Even though your swords are not made of nippon steel folded over 100000 times.

I used to practice judo a long time ago (but not THAT LONG ago) but after >>6604 I got curious and looked around for dojos and they're all aimed at kids…

>>6602
>>6603
I was always interested in swordfighting but there's no such thing around. The furthest I got was reading the di Grassi book and fancying myself a master swordsman.

>>6609
The trick to finding any dojo is see if it is recognized by the governing body for the sport. Sure it's gate keeping, but if nobody tries to limit who can "teach" a sport, then you get a million dojos that are likely to be scammy commercialized fight clubs.

There is not a lot of money in sword sports to begin with, so everyone does them as a hobby or for intrinsic reasons, not to make money.

>>6608
Thanks Sushi.

>>6609
Kendo isn't sword fighting really. Its a competitive sport. There's lots of techniques in Kendo you'd never use in an actual swordfight and vice versa. In Kendo the aim is to score points and there strict ground rules. Combat sword techniques would fall under Kenjutsu. Besides that, there is a lot of overlap in basic stance, footwork etc.

Judo is great. I wish I could do it but I really really hate people touching me (^_^;)