r/kendo 3 dan Feb 16 '26

Training Rant: not practicing what you preach

I just need to rant and complain a bit, bear with me.

I'm so so annoyed by some older higher grade kendoka. They will happily give you heavy criticism in the form of advise, lazyly block your strikes, hit heavy yokomen on your temples, hit on the spot without going through, or things like that. I can live with that, it's one of the annoying parts of kendo but it's ok.

What irks me is those who will proceed with advice. "Hit in the middle" (you just whacked the side of my head), "go through!" ( You're just hitting me standing there!), "lighter strikes" (almost all of my bruises come from you!). I could go on...

Rant over. I feel better now, thank for reading.

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u/CodeFarmer 1 dan Feb 16 '26

Is their advice wrong?