Відео

What a dilemma😆 My suggestion would be to train in whatever budo works best for you - and maybe you could get your kendo 'fix' by doing kata more than bogu stuff? Thanks for your comment!

Not exactly sure who you mean, Markus...? But thanks for your comment :)

#flashbacks lol

Hype as much as you can! lol Thanks for the feedback and encouragement - please let me know if there are any topics in particular that might be useful :) Thanks heaps for your comment!

Thank you for watching! Please let me know what unique coaching issues you have in Uzbekistan, and I will do my best to tailor some content for you :)

Fair question :) My high school art teacher asked me a similar thing a *few* years ago. He said: "what good is kendo if you were mugged in a dark alleyway?" Although I didn't know how to respond at the time, I later quizzed a few higher grades on it and they suggested this: "Kendo teaches us how to stay out of the dark alleyway in the first place". In a practical sense, I think there are a number of benefits of doing kendo training that would help when you needed to defend yourself. From balance, to agility, to fitness, and from reading people's 'tells' to getting a better handle on timing...all these things are key in kendo and would no doubt be beneficial in other circumstances. But, ultimately, its not intended to be a self-defense martial art. Get stuck in and give it a go anyway, though - better than getting stuck in a dark alley!

@@KendoCoach thank you 💪

Thanks for stopping by, John 🤗 Sorry if it wasn't clear in the video, but this episode (and the channel overall) is about coaching. Dr Hall is an expert in his field of sport psychology, and the thinking was that his insights could help us to be better as kendo coaches. As you indicate, there's no substitute for getting on the floor and learning from a high ranking sensei! But to supplement this, we can also look at the ways other coaches in other sports engage with their learners. In simple terms, my mission is not to give "kendo advice." Rather, it is to provide *advice for kendo coaches*. (Of course, it takes a 'growth mindset' to see the potential of these insights, eh 😉) Thanks for taking the time to express your thoughts - it all helps the algorithm! 😀

Totally, and more than likely not necessary to separate them. The decision I made/talked about in this episode was based on safety, given the number of kids on the floor, and that there were some with and some without bogu. A family 'set' can be a real asset for a club. A bit easier to coach the younger member with the support of mum/dad, and there are opportunities to create some friendly competitions between child and parent. The flip side is that we lose more members in one hit if they decide to move on...! Thanks for leaving a comment :)

@@KendoCoach yes, saw the son chasing the mother last session. Very determined.

Thanks Lars :)

Thank you, Lars. So glad you found value in these musings! Its great to be able to share thoughts and research with the kendo community!

Sorry if it wasn't as clear as it could be! Basically, in my role as head coach I made the decision to separate the older kids from training with the younger kids. This meant big brothers/sisters didn't have the opportunity to train with siblings. Because I insisted on this approach (without consulting with the parents), a LOT of friction was created. This ultimately led to a split in the club (the kids class members started their own dojo). Like you say, though, its an important opportunity for reflection on what I could have done differently!

One sub at a time! 😆

Thanks heaps for your comment and questions :) a) Good goals vs. bad goals Personally, I think that instead of looking at goals as either good or bad, we could look at them as more or less effective towards a particular outcome. By way of example, one thing we hear a lot from our students (and ourselves, for that matter) is that "I want to pass my next grade". This is perfectly normal to want to aspire to, but (from experience) its less effective than giving thought to what the specific milestones would be required along the way - particularly those that are in our control. For instance, to pass 1st dan, we could aim to break it down like this: 'To *put myself in the best position to pass my shodan* within the next 6 months, I will dedicate 10 hours per week to focused training. This will include 4 hours of technical skill practice, 3 hours of sparring, and 3 hours of physical conditioning. I will also allocate 1 hour per week to reviewing and analyzing past sparring sessions to identify and work on areas of improvement (and ask my sempai/sensei for feedback where possible). Progress will be measured monthly through feedback sessions with my coach and self-assessment against a pre-defined set of technical and strategic competencies.' There is a bit here, but it is likely to be more effective because it is: Specific (clearly outlines the key activities - technical skill practice, sparring, physical conditioning, and review sessions); Measurable (sets a weekly time commitment and a method for tracking progress); Achievable (challenging yet achievable); Relevant (directly aligns with the ambition to pass shodan); and Time-bound (sets a clear deadline of 6 months to achieve this goal). #SMARTgoals. Honestly, ChatGPT can be used as a very useful tool when it comes to doing this - I actually pulled this goal from GPT and just made a couple of tweaks for the purpose of an example. An additional note, I really think that a mindset of **putting myself in the best position to xyz** is a better approach than coupling success with a pass/fail, win/loss. Let's concentrate on the bits that we do control - ua-cam.com/video/KTvWOd0IvGU/v-deo.htmlsi=fxSiqEmbbTfGRhqb. b) Motivating students beyond shodan Can be tricky, eh. On the one hand, we can encourage students to pursue competition to stay motivated, but this wont be for everyone (although its still super important to step onto the shiai-jo from time to time regardless). I am finding more and more people (secretly) interested in learning more about kata - I say secretly because they aren't often given the opportunity to get stuck in, so aren't really sure if focusing on kata will actually help them in the long run. Kata can be made really interesting when we engage with the stories and the underlying theatrics behind each one (especially the first 3 kata). Once an older student (a 'late starter' as Masahiro Imafuji @kendoguide calls it) achieves a couple of grades, working on perfecting kata can be a very rewarding part of their ongoing training. It can also help to set people up with leadership roles within their dojo ('a culture of give and take: ua-cam.com/video/Te7zlwpw5OE/v-deo.htmlsi=knlAWRXtWxRchVf6) with the idea that their experiences in the club/on the floor so far can be super useful for newcomers to the club. This doesn't need to be over the top, but many people join a club/sport to challenge themselves AND feel as if they are contributing back to their/a community. We can harness this as a way to motivate people as far as they are comfortable doing so (and with the necessary support provided). For example, pair coaching ('reciprocal coaching'), leading warm ups, coming up with training and/or social activities, etc. Beyond things like this, I have found that more conversations about kendo being a long game is always good. 'The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and kendo is one big elephant!' So structuring trainings in a way that people can chip away at small personal 'work ons' (i.e. footwork related, timing related, speed related, etc) is an approach that can make the grind a bit more enjoyable. I'll do a video on this one day soon, but here's a good way to do this: Essentially you get people to work in small groups (i.e. 3's or 5's). Each person clearly states *what* they are working on today, *why* this is important to them/their kendo, *how* they want to work on it/*how* the others in their little group can support them with this work on today. Then, send them away to work in this small group for a period of time. Let them talk to each other, provide feedback to each other, change their focus as needed, trial, reflect, repeat. As a coach, you simply make yourself available to every group by 'floating' around, and they can ask you for your opinion if/when needed (or not at all!). This is often my 'go to' approach, because it allows people to work on things that are relevant to them - training content becomes 'bespoke' not 'blanket'...because the reality is that everyone is at different stages. It takes some people a bit of time to get used to the Q&A between each other and/or not being told what to do by the coach. But stick with it, because once they grow conformable talking and thinking about their specific strengths and work ons, motivation and progress soars! c) Feedback Excellent question! TBH, I think it is effective to provide both - direct feedback (i.e. push) and questioning (i.e. pull). The key is to balance these across people, activities and trainings. Coaches tend to get stuck in the same set of behaviours. Students get used to these, and progress/learning occurs at a certain rate accordingly. If we were open to experimenting with different approaches of giving feedback (and give it sufficient time to take effect), more pennies may just begin to drop for more people. Its worthwhile experimenting at the very least. Please check out this episode on questioning - ua-cam.com/video/mTvUuVjgF2w/v-deo.htmlsi=xfzuKpI9QEa1a__h; and this one on providing analogies as a useful way to frame feedback - ua-cam.com/video/X7AI-jD6UlA/v-deo.htmlsi=K5io6z-QwCos6yNu. Thanks again for stopping by :) I hope this all helps somewhat!

@@KendoCoach Apologies for a late reply on this. Needed to take some time to really think it through - a lot of really good advice in here. Had to think about how to apply things from both the video and your input here to our dojo this year and I think I've come up with some ideas - and people seem to be excited to give things a try as well! The advice on goal setting is really golden. Helped me to reframe my own mindset for goals. Thanks for all your advice - you have some really useful advice to share. It's much appreciated!

@@spartannell Good luck!

Thank you and my pleasure :) Hopefully these videos help people to learn from/avoid the same mistakes!

So good to hear that these videos are reaching coaches in other martial arts, too! We all share similar challenges (and successes) because, at the end of the day, we don't coach sports/martial arts, we coach people! Please let me know if there are any areas in particular that would help to unpack further. Thanks for your support on this channel!

Awesome to hear this! Being innovative in kendo can be tricky, but this is such an effective way to engage people at all ages and stages of kendo. Great stuff!

Thank you! Please check out my other videos, especially in the 'Keep'm coming back' playlist. I'll do my best to share what I've learned 😌 We all have ups and downs in community clubs, so hang in there 👍😊

Happy to share! Please PM me on Facebook (or ResearchGate if you're on there 👍)

Cheers Hiro 🙏🙏

Copy that 👌 Talking about safeguarding and the line between violence and harsh training are important for us in kendo, eh. I'll get to work on this 👍

Thanks mate! 😊 Appreciate the feedback 🙏

I might get there one day 😆

Thanks James. How do you get into our 'comfortable zone'? For me, even though I'm not usually a 'numbers guy', I tend to aim for "3% nervous". If I have just a tiny amount of butterflies in my tummy before stepping onto the floor, I know from experience that this is just enough to keep me alert without tensing up.

@@KendoCoach, hmmm, that’s a more difficult distinction! For me I don’t think it is a particular amount of anything as it differs each day for me - which is probably why I use the term comfortable more than anything else! As I know I’m likely to be tired, or not be having a perfect day, I try to just feel ‘comfortable’ in whatever way I can. So when I took my 6Dan grading and I was getting REALLY nervous just before going on, I tried focussing on remembering why I was there and why I was taking the grading and what it meant to me to try and feel more comfortable.

@@jamesogle598 Awesome, mate. Its amazing how we all develop out own 'thing', eh!

Great to know! Thanks for watching :)

ua-cam.com/video/0TDlxX3PWlc/v-deo.html

Awesome summary! achieve

Love this comment! I have started making some notes for a script and will post a link here once this is ready :) For now, though, I think there is a solid argument for the balance to fall on the side of the 'good cop' - especially with wellbeing being a more prominent concept nowadays. That's not to say that a little bit of a pushing/bad cop will damage wellbeing - after all, building resilience is key to wellbeing. However, without having a good deal of trust between the 'pushee' and the 'pusher', there is always the potential for things to turn ugly. As someone who was pushed (a lot) in my younger years in the dojo, I think that this trust is key when taking on the 'bad cop' role. In all cases, though, I would start with a coaching approach that aims to build people up, before (figuratively or literally) pushing them down. Thanks heaps for this suggestion - I'll get to work!

Especially for you: ua-cam.com/video/NvzUeU-GWtc/v-deo.html Thanks for the content idea - I hope this helps :)

@@KendoCoach just finished watching.. really appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts!

Coming soon :)

ua-cam.com/video/0TDlxX3PWlc/v-deo.html

Owww, grudge match in Memphis 🤔🤣

100% agree, Danna! Its so good that lots of people see the potential of new (contemporary) ways of coaching and leading in the dojo...But, like most things, change like this will take time, eh. Like you say, we need to find that balance. Thank you for your comment 🙇🙇

Thanks heaps for this feedback, Daniel! You are so right - I might never get the viral video that many content creators hope for, but it makes a massive difference to have you all push me along like this. More to come...soon :)

quick...but could be quicker ;) Almost ready to upload the next one(s)!

ua-cam.com/video/0TDlxX3PWlc/v-deo.html

Reading my mind ;) Working on the next ones!

ua-cam.com/video/0TDlxX3PWlc/v-deo.html

...and many more to come (eventually!) ;)

Awesome to have this feedback, thank you! The 'growth mindset' has so many applications for us in the dojo, and its really great to hear that you have been able to see application for your younger students, too. I love your sensei's words about reflection and gratitude, by the way :)

Thank you!

@@KendoCoach ...are you (still?) in japan? ...you need to come visit us in memphis!

@@melange28 I am based in New Zealand. I would love to make a trip to Memphis one day! Coaching Seminar, anyone? ;)

@@KendoCoach we would absolutely love to have you anytime!

Thanks so much, Eric :)

Awesome. @KendoShow has some amazing content, for sure. Please link it here if you find it for us :)

Much appreciated feedback, mate ♥

Thank you for the feedback! Really glad you found this, too ;)