Customer Reviews

Beginners Guide to Kendo and Iaido - d

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Hmmm ... where to begin. While the author may be a successful martial artist, it is painfully obvious from watching this video that he has NO knowledge of kendo at all, and very little of iaido. The movements and techniques that he espouses as correct are so sloppy as to be almost unrecognizeable. His movements and precision are laughable. Combine this with the terrible quality of the video, and it wasn't even good enough to enjoy for its comedic value, although I did laugh out loud several times.

Definitely a waste of time and money for anyone that is truly interested in the Japanese sword arts.

Pros:

Good introductory video providing a broad overview of the area and delivers everything that is outlined on the box cover.

Lots of good demonstration of the movements.

Cons:

No chapters so there is no easy way to jump to specific portions of the video. It would have been good to organize the categories of movements so you can jump to the chapters and review them.

It would have been better if each motion could be repeated several times, one after another, so that you can watch first the arm movements, then the leg movements, then the two together. That's how I learned Tai Chi and Tai Chi sword. Instead you will need to use your DVD remote to zip back and forth. This is not particularly easy to do when you are holding a boken (unless they can build a DVD remote into the boken ;^) But of course the only real way to learn Kendo or any martial arts is to work with a sensai.

Audio quality is very very poor. This is particularly problematic when he utters Japanese terms and the audio has dropped out.

I have played this disk on my Xbox and at the 35-minute point the disk is completely unreadable.

I then played it on my laptop and it was viewable but audio was extremely stuttery.

So be warned that you may experience playback problems.

While I can't speak for his skill in other martial arts, I know for a fact that this man knows next to nothing about kendo. His technique is sloppy at best and all of his movements are laughable. He may have had some training but it is obvious that, at the most, he attended a handful of practices, thought he "mastered" kendo, and decided to produce this film and make money off of it. Please, do yourself a favor and do not waste your time on this man or this DVD.

Although I have not seen this video in it's entirety, I have seen excerpts of Mr. Wilson's "kendo". It's obvious for any knowledgeable person that he has had little or no formal training in kendo. This is my opinion based on 25 years of practicing kendo.

If you must have training videos, e-bogu sells some that are made by Taro Ariga, a well-known international competitor. But really I'd recommend you find a dojo if kendo interests you.

Just by looking at the cover, I can tell that this person knows nothing about kendo. If this is for beginners, then he shouldn't even be bothering with joudan no kamae. Besides, it's all wrong. When you hold a bokken, the left hand doesn't grip the end of the handle. Basic joudan no kamae is done with the body essentially square to the opponent. His right hand is in a useless position. His left hand is too far from his forehead. It is also too low; his hand is blocking part of his field of view. In basic kendo, both hands are supposed to grip the sword evenly. You control the swing of the sword with your pinkies and the ring fingers. Because his right shoulder is so far back, his right hand is gripping with his index and middle fingers. If I attack from the direction of the camera, he'll have to shift his body around so he can use both hands to swing. Or he'll have to try a kata te waza, which is not a beginner's waza. And I can tell you right now, he would miss. His left wrist would turn out, and his blade would veer off to my right.

Don't waste your time with this. You can't really learn much from a video without real, personal instruction. Until just recently, all the sanctioned kendo dojo in the U.S. were non-profit organizations. I don't know why it changed. But in any case, the really good sensei are volunteers. So, the fees are very minimal. If you're really determined to learn correct kendo, you'll find a sensei who will teach in Japanese. Kendo is not something you master in a year. Even people who have been doing it for 20 years are called beginners. Just my opinion.

After studying kendo and iaido for nearly a decade with non-profit dojos from Massachusetts, DC, Maryland and Virgina, I have never seen this type of kendo from any of the teachers I've have the fortune enough to learn from. This video is difficult to appreciate since it does not represent anything that I have been taught. There are more enough free short kendo videos on the Internet to gain some appreciation of the art. Anthony Bourdain's video at [...] demonstrates a better representation of the art that I know then the type of Kendo that this person professes to understand. However one comment, I have never known any sensei to call themselves a master of kendo. I think I read somewhere that the Japanese refer to a teacher as a master of any art form, only after they're dead.

While I must agree that it is obvious that Jim Wilson is a Master of Kendo, I must sadly not recommend this DVD. The sound is horrible. There are times when you can barely hear Mr. Wilson speaking, and in the introduction the sound comes and goes as if on a whim.

If you can find a VHS copy, I've been told that the quality is much better.

I sincerely hope that the producers of this DVD will fix the problems and re-release it; this has the potential of being a cornerstone teaching DVD.

I practice judo and like to dabble in other martial arts and so got Jim's Beginner's Guide to Karate and I feel it did exactly what it promised and gave a solid introduction to basic karate and because I liked that one I bought his dvd Beginner's Guide to Kendo and it does exactly the same thing. Jim is a real expert and his teaching style is very easy to follow and I have been able learn quite a lot of new moves . Highly recommended .

Plus factor

I have only just got this dvd after having got the author's other title "Beginners Guide to Karate" some six months ago ..and decided to write a review on both at the same time ... I think the same thing applies to this one as to the other in that the author explains all the various cuts and moves in a very simple to learn way ....however he only works with the bokken and doesnt demonstrate in kendo armour .. a shame as it would have been very interesting to see this but everything about his teaching style is so good that I am willing to overlook this and I'll still give it 5 stars,

Negative factor

It was obviously filmed as video and transferred to dvd and hence lacks chapters .....it would be better with them but its still a worthwhile investment if you want to learn basic kendo moves ...

I agree that Jim wilson is a Master of Kendo and I would add he is also a master in teaching on this dvd... he shows each move in an easily understandable way and although I have never tried kendo before I was able to start practicing most of the things he showed almost immediately. He teaches in a very easy step by step way and explains everything in detail... I really liked this dvd and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning some kendo moves...I also agree with the previous reviewer that this dvd does set new standards in both presentation and information available from dvd... my copy of the dvd was ok and so maybe the previous reviewer just had a bad copy... I have bought from this company before and I know they do have a no questions exhange policy ... so if he sends it back Im sure they will send him a better copy...sorry about double writing a review but I thought the first one never got thru.