Kendo Diaries

I went to the Iaido class and when I told the sensei that I had amour already, he told me to go ahead and bring it and he would show me how to lace it all up. I should point out that the class I attend is not a lesson, it is a practice session held for local kendoka who attend a dojo in MA, and I have been allowed to attend by the sensei as a favour. [for which I am very grateful]

I dutifully arrived with bogu. I have not bought a bogu bag yet so I arrived with it in a shopping bag, which prompted a comment of ‘nice bogu bag’ from a student I had not met before. I explained that it was new bogu, and the bag was next. It did cause much humour.  We chatted for awhile about cross training for Kendo, and how cycling became addictive.

The karate class finished and it was our turn to go in to the dojo. Sensei arrived and I went downstairs to get changed in the ladies restroom. Back upstairs, three people laced up my bogu and explained what they were doing and why, and so far so good.

Sensei instructed class to continue on and then took me aside to instruct in how to put on the bogu. Assuming seiza, put on tare, and then do. Then I rejoined the class and we warmed up and started drills. It is essential to warm up thoroughly as injury can easily occur, especially in the achilles tendon.

It came time to don the men, and this is where things got tricky. Firstly, I wear glasses and can’t see without them, unfortunately they don’t fit inside the men. Ergo, no glasses and now I am vision impaired. Secondly, my face is in a mask and I am looking through a grillework of metal, adding to my visual issues. Thirdly, I am now deaf, as the men covers your ears. Lastly, I am new and have no clue what to do, cannot hear, and cannot see. Doh! I have researched online and you can buy glasses frames that bend to your head, so I will buy some and have just single lenses put in as  don’t need to read, just see.

I did feel a bit stupid, as I couldn’t hear what was being told to me, and this made me slow to respond. The armour made me unable to tell where my shinai was, and I was peering at things like Mr Magoo. Nerves make me talk, and I found myself asking a lot of questions. Yet, paradoxically, unable to respond immediately to instructions as two of my senses were impaired.

Breathing also became difficult as my men is not broken in and is stiff, when I move my shoulders the flaps push the men upwards, and my mouth is too low, a couple of times I felt I was going to throw up. At one point I asked for a break, and took time out to remove the men, wipe off my face, and drink some water. After 5 minutes I joined back in.

The first time I got hit, I blinked, the second and third time, the same. After about five hits to the men, I got used to it, and the shock value was gone. Now I also felt better about striking others as I knew what it felt like. It also gave me a good gauge of how hard I should strike. I did get body checked a few times because I didn’t move out of the way in time to avoid the follow through of my sparring partner. As the session progressed I did start to feel that the others were becoming a little tired of babysitting me, but that was just paranoia, at no time did anyone treat me badly.  At the final sparring session, the sensei really pushed me to move fast, strike faster, and yell louder. Basically, when you get to that point you stop thinking and just act, there’s kind of  a sense of panic. Class was over. I removed my armour along with the others, in ritual fashion, and finally gulped air. I felt good.

In summary, I would say that it is hard to move and coordinate well in the armour, it is a learning process. Your senses have to adapt to the feel of everthing. Your agility is changed. Your tactile senses change, for instance the gloves [kote] also need breaking in and are a little stiff. This makes feeling the shinai a little muted. Getting used to looking someone straight in the eye and then hitting them with a stick takes a little to overcome too. Years of  ‘be nice, don’t hit’ and now here I am, ‘hello, good to see you, whack!’ All in all, a great experience.

I am counting the bruises I have today, I have seven. I have one split toe and 5 blisters. I carry them proudly.