Kendo Again

So today, I actually tried a little bit of kendo. Not anything really fancy and I certainly didn't break a sweat, but they went over some uber basics with me.

I was wrong about karate not being an advantage. They told me how to move my hands and where to make contact and then left me to try it out. It felt great. My body already knows how to lock when I strike. It knows where to curl and where to straighten and how to direct energy and power through the weapon. It was incredibly familiar and felt awesome. I'm sure my technique is all wrong and the rules are different and I'm going to blister all over by the end of the week, but I still cherish the feel of making contact and striking and tensing and breathing and locking everything just the right way. Also, I understood a lot of the benefits of the stances and movements right away, though I've never seen them before and certainly never done them. It took me years to figure that out in karate. Of course, I'm missing a lot and I'm far far far from good, but it was comfortable.

I also can relate a little more to the kids I used to teach. How frustrating it is to be told to do something from a right front stance if you don't remember what a right front stance is. How annoying it is to be told to keep your left heel up if you don't know which side is your left and you don't know which part of your foot is the heel.

Oh yeah, and I'm going to be from learning katas like dancing dragon and bassai dai to learning katas like eagle bow. Sweet. I'm totally the lowest rank in the club. Sweet again. I love it. Everything I do is wrong. Actually, it's completely different from when I was the lowest rank at White Eagle. Now I know how to concentrate and learn (I actually have a method I use when learning new katas and new other things, which I found I still use in kendo) and really try. That's like, what I spent the first third of all those years learning.

I had the slightest doubt after watching that first class and seeing nothing familiar, but all doubt has vanished and I am completely excited to learn this new art. How could I have seen nothing familiar? The technique is all different, but the how and the why is pretty much the same. You still exhale when you make contact, you still lock everything just so, you still have to be uber precise. The body is the same. That's so cool.