Kendo; iaido; when?

[Charlie Kondek]

Hi. This question is for anyone who has been involved in kendo and iaido.

Do you think there is a general rule of thumb for how long one should be involved in one discipline before taking up the other?

In other words, a fellow kenshi who has been out of the loop for a while said that in his day iaido was encouraged for kendo-ka, but that the kendo-ka should be at least san-dan before taking up iaido.

My iaido instructor said that in the old days, one had to develop a certain skill level in iaido before taking up kendo.

The obvious answer is: you should take up the other discipline when you're ready for it. But is there a general rule proscribed?

I'm hoping in particular that Hyakutake-sensei will weigh in on this. In the Midwest Kendo Fedaration, the senseis have been encouraging kendo ka to take up iaido, but I haven't heard anyone say specifically, like, "Don't take up iaido until you're at least shodan," or something like that.

Thanks in advance!

[Sarah M]

I don't think there's any general 'rule' but it may benefit taking up one of the arts first before moving to another.

One one hand, doing Kendo first gives the practitioner the much needed continuous suburi practice and emphasises distances between you and opponent which you don't often get in Iai. On the other hand, if you move to Iaido after training in Kendo even after a couple of moths you can pick up on several subtle differences between the two 'styles' which some people may find it difficult to create a differential between the two, especially if you practice Kendo and Iaido at the same time or have been practicing Kendo for several years.
This could also work if you start Iai first. You find if you've practiced Iai then moved onto Kendo your cut's tend to be a lot rounder.

Back to your question; I was never told to train in Kendo until I was a certain grade before I moved to Iaido and I've never heard of anyone else going through that either. It may just be a case of increasing the standard of Iai or trying to make it more popular among the Kendo lot.

Hope it was *some* help!
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Sarah M
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[hyaku]

Hello Mr Kondek

As Meik Skoss quoted the other day "Wheels of a cart". I think most of us older guys started Kendo first, because ZNKR Iaido had not been invented some years ago and it was hard to find a ryuha.

I have to agree with Sarah that doing Kendo with another person gives you a better idea of opponent awareness. Then again lots of people from other arts aikido, karate etc also have this.

I know it doesn't relate to seitei too much, but one the main problems I see is the fact that the feet must settle slightly before the cut to use the hips to cut with a sword. Of course in Kendo it's Kikentai uchi/ichi. This is the main obstacle to overcome into doing both as they are the intrinsic fundementals of each art. So the sooner you start to differentiate the better.

A dan grade in either is necessary to start the other. Some of these "Gaijin Renmei" (lol) have there own set of rules like different coloured keikogi for kyu grades and different time gaps between grades.

I say, if you have the chance to do both and the time to do it "go for it"

Regards Hyakutake Colin

[Charlie Kondek]

Very good advice, good points.