Kendo

Here I am after 10 years returning to the wonderful sport Kendo.  For those of you who don't know, its a martial art that is based off of the sword play of the Samurai of Japan.

But before you get excited, kendo does not look like this and you will not see anything even remotely close to the Tom Cruise movie the last Samurai.

(*Small Rant* I'm so glad I had the dignity to put an actual picture of Samurai warriors up here instead of something from the last Samurai.  Sorry Ken Watanabe, I think you are the coolest, but I can't get over the fact that Tom Cruise had to become a Samurai of all people and that this movie was in fact filmed in New Zealand and NOT Japan.  This made that movie a lot less cool and therefore merits no pictures on this particular blog)

Instead, Kendo today looks like this:

So they may not use real katanas (the traditional Japanese sword) but come on, it looks cool doesn't it?  I mean look at that bogu (armor)!  They also wear these protective mask/helmets (men) that also makes them pretty intimidating.  If that wasn't enough, it is required that they yell, no not say, yell exactly what it is they are going to hit. I have found that when guys ki-ai (yell) it makes them sound very angry, not to mention a little scary.  As you can see, although kendo is not as, I guess romantic as its roots suggest, it still is an awesome sport.  Gnarly on the arms, let me tell you!

Anyway, I mostly wanted to talk about the concept of the Ki-ai or the yell of kendo.  Its not unique to kendo as it is also done in karate and I think in Aikido as well.  I'm not entirely sure of the function in karate but I imagine it would be similar to the function in Kendo, that of controlling your breathing.  On a more metaphoric note the ki-ai, as I was just told tonight, is also a representation of your spirit.  When you are fighting you are supposed to demonstrate your skill of the sword, your discipline and your spirit.  This is the reason I'm assuming that in the katas of kendo you will nearly always see yelling at the opponent.

Its funny because as simple as it is to yell I think its one of the most difficult parts of kendo that I have encountered thus far.  When I first started at 10 years old I didn't get far enough to learn the proper ki-ais that the other members were doing and so now that I'm not at all used to the concept of the ki-ai.  It shouldn't be so hard, all I have to do is open my mouth, reach deep inside myself and let out a fearsome roar.  Unfortunately every time I have tried to do this I get tongue-tied.  All the noise deep inside me that wants to show itself is being held back by a brick wall it seems.  Its not like it is not there either, I know I have it but for some reason there is a mental block preventing me from making the belly roar ki-ai that would make even a black belt in kendo shudder.

Over the past couple of months I've been under a great deal of stress and that stress built up a lot of anger and frustration.  Usually what I do to cope with this is to exercise a lot and listen to angry music.  When I'm the most upset I listen to Linkin Park because for some reason their music just matches what I'm feeling completely.  Their lyrics resonate with my anger and frustration and Chester Bennington (lead singer) has THE BEST scream ever.  Its so good in my opinion that I wished that thats how I would sound when I yelled.

Letting Chester scream for me was a good way to vent my anger.  I

When I've actually screamed myself I feel like I sound like this:

As you can imagine this is also why I've given a bit of resistance at Kendo practice towards doing the ki-ai with a technique.  I realize its important and its a good skill to practice correct breathing.  But if the Ki-ai is a representation of the spirit, then whatever my voice box is able to procure is not going to be adequate enough.  I have a disproportionate amount of spirit to vocal capabilities I guess.

Hopefully with practice I may find it within myself to remove the mental block I have against roaring.  I'm not sure how though since its not exactly socially acceptable, and I don't like drawing attention to myself.  There is also the argument of intimidating your opponent, but to me, just giving them a murderous stare would be enough.  I suppose this is all part of being a beginner at kendo, so hopefully I'll get better as time goes on.