PUBLIC MARKS from Takwann with tag training

Training and Practice Dummy and other kendo Innovations

You can download the PDF of iaido kakari keiko exercises that Yamasaki sensei teaches. These are useful for building up your basic iaido skills and body condition to support the performance of iaido kata.

When we are learning a new skill, say for instance a new kata or a new type of kick, your movements may be clumsy and jerky – not at all like your instructors movements. This is because your brain has not yet laid down a memory pattern for this movement. It hasn’t recruited the appropriate motor units in the muscle and developed new neuronal and synaptic connections that enhance communication between the muscle and the brain.

Here first is the 'conscious competence' learning model and matrix, and below other theories and models for personal learning and change. The earliest origins of the conscious competence theory are not entirely clear, although the US Gordon Training International organisation has certainly played a major role in defining it and and promoting its use (see the notes below about the conscious competence model origins).

Once we finish a personal defense training class, a question that should remain in our minds is, “Where do I go from here?” We trainers almost universally say that you have to practice after a class to ingrain the skills you learned in order to achieve the unconscious competence necessary to prevail in a critical incident. In order to practice properly, you have to have a plan for it. The saying “Only perfect practice makes perfect” applies not only to the physical skills involved but also to the structure of what and how you practice.

Recently I have received some questions in the Q&A area about bullying and other forms of violence in kendo. And I happened to help Blake Bennett with his thesis on the very topic. I hope one day you can read his thesis somehow. After reading the thesis and thinking about violence in kendō, I thought it is very important for every one of us to consider howkendō sould be trained and instructed without losing the core essence of kendō. It is true that in kendō we still have "traditional methods" in training. These look vicious and really violent to itsaudience if they do not know what they are doing.