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Oct 09, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		You're never too old
by: Frank

Hi RFox,

I started Kendo 2 years ago with an age of 48 in the normal beginner class. First time was very hard for me - because of problems with my left tendon. I simply overburden it. So was one of my first main lessens that I have to learn - to be patient with myself.

I spoke with my sensai(s) before the lessens starts over me problem e.g. that I'm not able to jump only on the left leg the gym up and down - so the say that I can do normal kendo footwork instead.

Then I try to do this jumping exercise as much as possible - and a little more but I stop overdoing and do normal footwork instead.

Now is my fitness better - I lost some weight but not so much as expected. But the part of fat in my body is down from 23% to 17% and it goes on.

All in all - I feel much better and have a lot of fun to play kendo and I learned a lot over me.

Frank

Kendo-Guide.Com: Thank you for sharing your story! That is great! Step by step is the key to kendō. Well to anything but especially to kendō. Keep up the good work!
Oct 06, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		kendo for older people
by: Anonymous

We have members which you described as old but they do very well. Once you know and have the basics of kendo, you will develop your own Kendo.

I instructed them on certain wazas to use against ones who are fast.

Kendo-Guide.Com: Thank you for sharing! Nice to instruct waza to use against fast and powerful ones!
Oct 02, 2015
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starstarstarstarstar 		Older slower people (like me).
by: RFox

This was a great question.

I think kendo can be very rewarding regardless of the age you are when you start. As older guys we have to understand that it takes us a bit longer to recover from practice. We won't be as quick as the young guys, but we do tend to be a bit savvier than them.
Kendo is for life. My opinion is that if you approach it as for life and for your life it does not matter how old you are when you start. If you approach it from the point of view of beating people in matches or practice, you may be disappointed or not depending on whether or not you can use your judgement and discernment to defeat your partner rather than your speed or power.
I just turned 58 and I have a couple of stories to tell about this from trips to Japan.
The first story: Many years ago (over 30) I visited a friend in Nagasaki and during that visit I had the opportunity to watch a Nagasaki area promotion test.
As I watched I saw that one of the people challenging ni-dan looked quite a bit older than the rest (most Japanese kenshi challenge for ni-dan when they are in High School or even earlier).
I introduced myself and asked about his story. He told me that he had started kendo when his son entered High School because he wanted to have an activity that his son (who did kendo) and he could share. At the time he started he was 48 years old, and was enjoying himself very much.
About 19 years ago I spent a summer as an invited faculty member at Osaka University. During that time one of the places I practiced regularly was the Shudokan dojo in the Osaka castle park.
The first time I went there, as usual I was asked all the questions; why was I (non-Japanese) doing kendo, what was my rank, how long...etc. etc. During this Q/A one of the older members grilling me said they were san-dan. Since he was rather old to be san-dan I asked him about his story.
He told me that he had always wanted to practice kendo but was never able to find the time to start. Therefore, at the age of 65, when he retired, he started practicing kendo as a beginner.

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