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Thread: 10 year old gets black belt in iaido

  1. #16
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    My son started kendo aged six after several attempts to put him off (you can't go to the pub after training with a six year old, its his bedtime...) by ten he decided to start iaido because some of the teenagers in the club were doing it, and we finally allowed him to put in for shodan (after being TOLD to by our 7th dan iaido teacher from ZNKR) about three months before his 14th birthday. There were complaints from other members even then about breaking the rules. I think he would have took and passed nidan comfortably by the time he was 15, but rules is rules. Again the same ZNKR teacher wanted him up for it. The 'wait until 18 for nidan rule' finally put paid to his training, (along with girls and guitars), after he turned 16. Eight years to nidan is a long time in anyones book, but for a young boy it must be an eternity... I suppose he could be quite good by now (at 27) if he'd kept going!
    Tim Hamilton

    Why are you reading this instead of being out training? No excuses accepted...

  2. #17
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    Originally posted by Chidokan
    Eight years to nidan is a long time in anyones book
    It's 9 years to shodan here for judo.
    Neil Gendzwill
    Saskatoon Kendo Club

  3. #18
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    Default 9 years to shodan?

    It's 9 years to shodan here for judo.
    I don't understand these types of time in grade. Why spend 9 years getting somebody to something as mundane as shodan ranking? It makes me ask, "What is wrong with the instruction?"

    I have run into so many people who have come from schools where it is 7 years or more to shodan. When I work with these people they are no better than people I meet who got shodan in 3 or 4 years under competent and dedicated instruction. In fact, these people really didn't seem to improve much after shodan at all, they just hang everything on how long they "struggled" to get to shodan.

    I don't get it, sorry. In Japan, shodan in judo can be acquired in as little as two years, and some of those people are quite good in that time frame, not expert mind you, but competent in the basic waza. So, why this huge discrepancy? Why is there all this front loading on the shodan rank?

    Unfortunately, and I am not saying it is the case in your area, it is usually that the instructor is fleecing the students and keeping them at low rank to protect his or her position because he or she has stopped training with their seniors.
    Glenn R. Manry

    ---Iaijutsu, don't forget the doorman.

  4. #19
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    Default Re: 9 years to shodan?

    Originally posted by gmanry

    Unfortunately, and I am not saying it is the case in your area, it is usually that the instructor is fleecing the students and keeping them at low rank to protect his or her position because he or she has stopped training with their seniors.
    No, these are guidelines for time in rank that are quite common in this province and may (I'm not sure) be mandated by the provincial association. I train at a small family dojo where the yearly fees are less than some dojo's monthly fees - he's got no ulterior motive.

    I have noticed that the local judoka, not only in our club but in others, speak of "black belt" with a certain amount of reverence or whatever. I'd have to say that in terms of skill level, I'd equate the local shodan in judo with a sandan in kendo - at the point where all the waza are known, and from a pure technical POV there's not a lot left to learn.
    Neil Gendzwill
    Saskatoon Kendo Club

  5. #20
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    Default Re: 10 year old gets black belt in iaido

    Originally posted by John Lindsey
    [B]"When Trevor was five my brother bought him a karate suit and we took him to classes and he did really well, picking up a trophy after just six weeks."/B]
    A trophy after just six weeks? I some what doubt that. But I could be wrong about this.

    I have opened one, and then my zanshin broke
    Ok, I saw that and something jumped out at me, and I think this was what you were getting at. The dude didn't look like he was holding the sword properly.

    Jon
    Jonathan Wood

  6. #21
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    If I showed that picture here in Japan of the family they would say, "Kawaiiiiiii or Guuu(Good). Thats what its all about".

    Feel sorry for the kid who probably fell over the belt and broke his leg after the picture was taken.
    Hyakutake Colin

    All the best techniques are taught by survivors.


    http://www.hyoho.com

  7. #22
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    Default Re: Re: 10 year old gets black belt in iaido

    Originally posted by Chrono
    Ok, I saw that and something jumped out at me, and I think this was what you were getting at. The dude didn't look like he was holding the sword properly.
    Oh my! Now that picture belongs in the KKKK thread!

    Both hands are back at the kashira end of the tsuka, the tsuba's working its way up the blade, the tsubadome isn't securing the tsuba at all...I could go on and on.

    Does the phrase "What's wrong with this picture" come to everyyone else's mind?

    --Brian Owens
    Last edited by Brian Owens; 5th March 2004 at 07:04.

  8. #23
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    Default Re: Re: Re: 10 year old gets black belt in iaido

    Originally posted by Yagyu Kenshi
    Oh my! Now that picture belongs in the KKKK thread!

    Both hands are back at the kashira end of the tsuka, the tsuba's working its way up the blade, the tsubadome isn't securing the tsuba at all...I could go on and on.

    Does the phrase "What's wrong with this picture" come to everyyone else's mind?

    --Brian Owens
    Then I will take another one from the same page and put it in KKKK. Enjoy
    Roar Ulvestad

  9. #24
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    My experiences in the U.S. in re: judo shodan are the same as Neil's. The shodan is considered a VERY big deal in U.S. judo. I think in Japan it's seen as more of the "mastering the basics" ceritificate, whereas in the U.S. they really push those kyus. I have one Japanese friend who earned his black belt in high school this way: every day in school he went to club where they beat the hell out of him. Eventually he learned to keep up. Six months in, they switched his white belt for a black belt. That was it.

    In the kendo circles I move in the kids don't even think about rank, they just play. Then sometime in their teens they start going for the kyus and earn dan grades over high school and college.

    A buddy of mine studies a gendai jujutsu (quite good stuff, too, very randori-oriented). The black belt test is, like, 12 hours long. When I told him I would be testing for san-dan in kendo and that the test was about 3 minutes of jigeiko in front of a panel of judges (plus kata if you pass the shinai part), he said, "Eff you!" (In a nice way, of course.)

    I passed, by the way! And I'm only nine years old.

    We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular. Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula.

  10. #25
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    Charlie,
    the EXAM is for 3 minutes, the test is all weekend and the buildup to it....I'm guessing you took the grade at the end of a weekend session...and I bet you were watched (whether you knew it or not)from the time you walked in. Thats what I do when I am grading iaido students! And if I aint seen them before, I watch them even harder..
    Tim Hamilton

    Why are you reading this instead of being out training? No excuses accepted...

  11. #26
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    Whats the big deal about black belts and age, its the composure and attitude that counts;

    Meet kigurai, the martial hound dog
    Roar Ulvestad

  12. #27
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    Originally posted by Chidokan
    Charlie,
    the EXAM is for 3 minutes, the test is all weekend and the buildup to it....I'm guessing you took the grade at the end of a weekend session...and I bet you were watched (whether you knew it or not)from the time you walked in. Thats what I do when I am grading iaido students! And if I aint seen them before, I watch them even harder..
    *Gulp* No fooling! Now how did I pull that off? Must have been the bribes.
    We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular. Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula.

  13. #28
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    Originally posted by Chidokan
    the EXAM is for 3 minutes, the test is all weekend and the buildup to it....I'm guessing you took the grade at the end of a weekend session...and I bet you were watched (whether you knew it or not)from the time you walked in.
    Not the way it works here - the Western Canada gradings are held on a Saturday afternoon. You show up, register, line up in front of the judges for the bow-in and remarks, then the next they see you is when your turn is up. Kiri-kaeshi, two 2-minute rounds of jigeiko and then kata, and it's all over but the drinking. For the quite senior ranks, most of the judges know who you are but if you're coming from out of town for nidan or sandan, they evaluate your kendo based on at most 10 minutes of performance. That sounds like a wussy test compared to these all-day torture tests, but IMNSHO the pressure is even higher - you've got a very limited time to show what you can do, and if you botch it, see you next year.
    Neil Gendzwill
    Saskatoon Kendo Club

  14. #29
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    Default Re: 10 year old gets black belt in iaido

    I don't believe the Baileys......
    I mean look at the kid's sword...... it's way too long for him I think, how can he draw it prperly?!
    °oO Laurent Bianchin Oo°

  15. #30
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    the 8th dan test I saw in Kyoto was the same as yours.. on for ten minutes, and god help you if you blew it, you didnt come back for the second round of the test....
    Tim Hamilton

    Why are you reading this instead of being out training? No excuses accepted...

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