Martial Arts rambling

This weekend the martial arts organization I belong to had a huge event in Norfolk. People came from all over the place and did all kinds of demonstrations and we trained, and it was pretty amazing. I wouldn't say it was "fun," intense is a better word for it. I still haven't sorted out my thoughts and impressions of the whole thing, parts of it were really uplifting, parts totally demoralizing, and I have no idea what the net effect was, but something very cool did happen.

I got promoted to a green belt in kendo. This probably requires some explanation. I was at the 9th kyu, and went to 6th. That's skipping over a the whole range of yellow belts. It's a big promotion. I have no idea how this happened, but there it is. The most I had hoped to accomplish was a yellow belt, which would be the 8th kyu. Again, I still have not really processed this, but I did notice a huge shift in my training on Sunday. Wow but are the expectations ever different! Kendo is intense as it is, but there's a whole other level that I wasn't quite expecting (though should have been). I think I just wasn't expecting things to feel so dramatically different. And I don't know if it's the expectations I have of myself now or those that my instructors have, probably it's some of each, but in either case I'm surprised to find that I'm so excited about this. I actually was glad that I was getting called on small things I was doing wrong, that I was expected to handle things I didn't think I could, and that when we were sparring (which I really dislike, mostly because I have no idea what to do) the crazy 14 year old yudansha I was working with refused to let up for a second.

I still think kendo is harder than aikido. You need a different degree and kind of physical and mental endurance. You need control and presence of mind, and those things are difficult to cultivate. But once you start to realize what it is you are trying to cultivate, the results are pretty astonishing. We don't talk about flow so much in kendo, that's more of an aiki thing, but it's not because kendo doesn't flow. It's that the flowing is harder to conceptualize, and somehow I think it's more complete. It starts when you pick up the shinai, and doesn't stop until you take the armor off.