Aidan's thoughts from his experience at the 2015 East Coast Tai Kai
Aidan is one of younger students at the dojo. He has a very broad sense of the world and has started in early 2013 coming in and out of practice due to his worldly travels and of course, college. He recently started kendo at Penn State but was excited to come down to Tai Kai. This was his experience.
"I find it very easy to forget that there are things outside of the sphere that I stand inside. It’s easy to let the fact that there are other styles outside of our own slip to the back of my mind, the fact there are strong opponents sharpening their skills a thousand miles away, and that these same opponents are great friends just waiting to be made. This doesn’t mean that I don’t practice, but I think that enough time goes by and some of the zeal fades a little bit being in the same environment. The 2015 East Coast Tai Kai was a most welcome reminder of the world outside my own.
Seeing all these swordsmen and swordswomen coming from all across the country, and some farther still, and gathering to train together in the art they love was inspirational, and seeing how hard they trained and how polished their skills were really motivated me to work harder on my own skills. Seeing all of the Sensei was also a great motivator, seeing the heights that they stand on really shows how long the path to mastery is, and it really makes me want to hit the ground running as hard and as fast as I can.
It also was a good reminder of the benefits of Swordsmanship beyond its practical use. During Hataya Sensei’s seminar on Gunto Soho, he elaborated on the difference between “Kenjutsu” and “Kendo” and how they came about, and I think that the atmosphere and people of the Tai Kai goes to show that through our pursuit of “jutsu,” or applicable technique, we inevitably follow “do,” or the path of improving ourselves as human beings. I feel very proud to be able to call everyone I met there a friend, and can only hope that I had as positive an impact on them as they all had on me. I definitely can’t wait to meet them again further on in our journey."
"I find it very easy to forget that there are things outside of the sphere that I stand inside. It’s easy to let the fact that there are other styles outside of our own slip to the back of my mind, the fact there are strong opponents sharpening their skills a thousand miles away, and that these same opponents are great friends just waiting to be made. This doesn’t mean that I don’t practice, but I think that enough time goes by and some of the zeal fades a little bit being in the same environment. The 2015 East Coast Tai Kai was a most welcome reminder of the world outside my own.
Seeing all these swordsmen and swordswomen coming from all across the country, and some farther still, and gathering to train together in the art they love was inspirational, and seeing how hard they trained and how polished their skills were really motivated me to work harder on my own skills. Seeing all of the Sensei was also a great motivator, seeing the heights that they stand on really shows how long the path to mastery is, and it really makes me want to hit the ground running as hard and as fast as I can.
It also was a good reminder of the benefits of Swordsmanship beyond its practical use. During Hataya Sensei’s seminar on Gunto Soho, he elaborated on the difference between “Kenjutsu” and “Kendo” and how they came about, and I think that the atmosphere and people of the Tai Kai goes to show that through our pursuit of “jutsu,” or applicable technique, we inevitably follow “do,” or the path of improving ourselves as human beings. I feel very proud to be able to call everyone I met there a friend, and can only hope that I had as positive an impact on them as they all had on me. I definitely can’t wait to meet them again further on in our journey."
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| Aidan strutting his stuff. |
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