Is Kendo hard?

I was asked in the comments from my last post if kendo is hard, and I figured this was worthy of a whole post, not just a reply to the comment...so here goes.

There are different kinds of Kendo. There is sports Kendo, which works a lot like western style fencing with touches and points and so on, and then there is a more traditional, non-sport Kendo. I practice this later, martial arts style Kendo. We spend a lot of time in class talking about zhan-shin and the spirit of the sword and our ki energy. About being good Samurai, warriors, and defending something we care about. We've had a very accomplished sports Kendo black belt from Japan visiting us the last month or so, and from watching her, ours is a pretty grueling practice.

Each practice, you reach a physical limit and keep going. You get blisters on your feet and hands, then the blisters get blisters. You sweat like a pig, you are dead on your feet, and you keep going. You stand up straight when Sensei or one of our Sempai is talking, you do not twitch or mess with your gi (which is hanging all over the place by this point), you do not wipe the sweat from your eyes and only push your glasses back up your nose if it's dire.

And yet you are never expected to do something that you physically cannot handle. We have a number of students with different physical limitations, and they all practice and push and sweat and yell and keep going when they feel like they are about to collapse. You just modify the techniques a little if you cannot sit in a crouch because of a knee or hip or back injury or whatever else.

Kendo is hard. It's not like Aikido, where you are throwing yourself at the ground and getting bruises to show off later, it's not physically hard in that way. The techniques are relatively simple, but the mental and physical focus you have to maintain is a huge challenge. But that's what makes it all worthwhile. I know I can survive anything after a particularly good (i.e. challenging) Kendo workout.

So can you do it? Yes. Would it be too hard? Not physically (though it is very physically challenging), but you must be prepared for a mental and, later on, spiritual, challenge. This is a martial art after all, we are training ourselves to fight, kill and die if we must.

And yes, there will be pictures. Eventually, once I've figured out how to get into hakama without tying my feet together and unpack my camera anyway. :)