Over the past two weeks I subjected students at our dojo to one of the most challenging things in kendo. I asked them to watch videos of themselves doing kendo basics. Ooooh – scary!!
Watching yourself doing basics is often an eye-opener. Thought your ki-ken-tai was bang-on? Distance was right? Hits were on target? Seeing your flaws is not always comfortable.
Mark Twain said “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” I agree. Being able to see your kendo is incredibly valuable.
I often remind my students that I can’t make their kendo any better. Hopefully I do a good job of showing them how it’s done. I can then suggest ways their kendo can be improved when I observe their technique. For all the things I can do, I suspect there are more improvements made when students watch their videos and reflect on the things they need to improve. The video and self-reflection that follows can be a better teacher and motivator than me.
To all my students who got their videos over the past couple of weeks, I hope you enjoyed the process and “gained more than you pained”. If you’re lucky, it’ll be repeated. If not, perhaps I’ll read you some of my poetry and ask you to tell me what you think of it…