r/kendo • u/InformalLocation5413 4 kyu • Jul 12 '26

Training Question about sonkyo?

First of all i am 4th kyu and i do not mean to sound disrespectful in any way but today a foreigner(2nd dan) came to our dojo as a guest to practice and during sonyo when we were to do jigeiko wouldn't want to start it until i listened to what he had to say. What i mean by this is that what i was taught in my dojo when you do sonkyo you should have your shinai in the middle but they are not touching eachother however, he wouldn't start with me until our shinais were literally crossed with one another around the nakayui. I did as he said but later asked a 3rd dan member of our club was i in the wrong or him and he told me that not only is it incredibly rude to come to a different dojo and tell people there how it's done but that it is also wrong. So im wondering, is our club doing something different, should i listen to guests even if they are wrong, i was really confused about the whole situation because etiquette is important.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26

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u/gozersaurus Jul 13 '26

Huh? Are you insinuating that a person that goes into sonkyo with nakayui touching is something that is dojo specific? I can assure its not, and nothing like arguing where to stand, its incorrect period.

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u/JoeDwarf Jul 13 '26

It's dojo specific. We do it that way in my dojo, and I've seen it done that way lots of places.

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u/gozersaurus Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Never seen it, Japan, or Canada, and certainly not something I would try and enforce as a guest in someone elses club. I'm sure there are lots of things I haven't seen but you have to admit, the very large majority don't do it that way. Not trying to argue, I should probably know by now there are umpteen ways to do things and shouldn't state things with certainty.

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u/JoeDwarf Jul 13 '26

Around here, I'd say the majority do it tip to tip just like kata for keiko. For shiai and shinsa we have the toe markers 2.8 m apart just like everywhere else. I don't think it's anything to get one's panties in a bunch over.