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Are You A Side-Line Coach
With spring in the air, flower’s and baseball are in full bloom. As the father of a nine-year old son, each day is spent perfecting the art of baseball. This includes making that perfect pitch to first base, snagging those ground balls and...
Pain Killers Aren't The Only Answer
Pain is something that most of us dread, but pain often serves a useful purpose: it tells us that something is wrong and that we need to do something about it. So that toothache or pain in the back should not be ignored. Unfortunately some...
The 20 Fattest and Fittest Universities
Copyright 2005 Linda Slater Dowling
Is your university populace fit as a fiddle, sprinting between
classes and the gym with the greatest of ease, or is it, as a
whole, huffing and puffing its way back and forth from the
computer lab to the...
The merits of rowing machines
One of the fastest growing sports around is indoor rowing. Whether its for competitive reasons or fitness reasons or both, the advantages of indoor rowing are clear. You are indoors. You probably haven’t had to travel more than a few yards from one...
What No Golf Bag Should Be Without
Whether you are a golf pro or a rookie trying your best to learn the tricks of the trade, golf can be a very difficult sport to learn. Without the right equipment, becoming an expert golfer may be nearly impossible. So before you hit the fairway,...
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Kendo: A summary
http://www.international-kendo.com
Kendo, which literally means "way of the sword", is the Japanese
art of fencing. Kendo was created by the samurai during the
Kamakura period (1180-1230) so they could hone their skills
without killing each other. It was originally grounded in Zen
Buddhism. The teachings of kendo helped the samurai learn to
disregard their own lives in the heat of battle. This is one of
the main reasons it is considered the way of the sword.
Kendo was originally called kenjutsu however, as a result of the
world war, Japan had to change its name to kendo. It is also
known in some cultures (mainly korean) as kumdo. Kumdo is
essentially kendo without the ettiquite and with different
terminology.
In kendo there are 4 basic targets, the goal being to
disarm/kill your opponent in one hit. The basic targets are the
head (men), hand (kote), stomach (do), and finally, the throat
(tsuki). There are combinations of the hits, one example
being
"kote-men", in which you "cut off" their hand and cut their head
open immediatly after.
In kumdo the targets are the same. However, kenjutsu is more of
a "no rule/kill your enemy/not a sport" art.In kenjutsu, unlike
kendo, it is not uncommon to "spar" with 4 or 5 people at a time.
Ettiquete is a very big part of kendo; kendoka must bow upon
entering and leaving the dojo and must show respect to their
sempai (older students including sensei).
Kendo, unlike other martial arts, has no external signs of rank.
In order to know what rank another kendoka is, you must keiko
against them and judge their skill. There there are 2 sets or
rank: the Kyu (lower ranks) and the Dan (black belt). A kendoka
starts at 1 Kyu and climbs up the kendo ladder to the 8 Dan
mark.
About the author:
http://www.internationa
l-kendo.com is an up and comming kendo site with a wealth of
information.
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