Jennifer - Kendo and Me

Jennifer - Kendo and Me

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During this year,  I learnt about the importance of kata, while I thought Kata was just something not important but annoying. In my mind, Kata is something very hard to memorize, but quite useless at the same time, because you can’t really use kata at any time, since it’s not a technique that you can learn from. But throughout this year, I noticed the importance of kata, that you can put it into practice and shiai. As well as kata is very important in mindset and grading. Other than kata, I improved my kendo skill. I focus on more and more detail when I am practicing, like when I am hitting people now, I hit them slow but correctly. 

Kendo wasn’t really my thing before, but after shiai and fighting (keiko) with other people, I started to feel the fun in kendo. I want to improve myself to become better and better, I want to win battles, I want to get higher grades. Every time I fight with someone, I am afraid that they might beat me, but when I am actually attacking, I stop thinking about whether they might hit me, or that they might win. I focus on the opportunity in front, like how can I win, or not lose. 

I like doing kendo because I can fight and get higher grades, unlike other sports, there are more than 1 way to win the game, that means there is a lot of space for me to try, and different ways suit different opponents. Every time I fight with different people, I have to find different ways to attack, which is very exciting for me because everyone isn’t the same. Also, I like doing kata because it’s like a story, every story/ kata is different, and the ending is different, so even it’s hard to memorize, when you act the story out, you can show people what happens in the kata, and the techniques in there. 

Kendo takes up a big part of my life, since it takes about half of my time in life. It links to my life, which mentally and physically. Sometimes when I am angry or sad, I use kendo as an opening for me to release stress. It is very interesting how kendo can make me calm down. And kendo helps me stay fit as well, even though it didn’t make me grow taller, my arms become very strong and I think I am quite healthy.

REASON ABOVE ARE WHY I LIKE KENDO,WHAT I ENJOY AND HOW IT LINK TO ME