Is this school legit?

[Ken Morgan]

Blah - got sick last weekend. Be at the JCCC on thursday.

I'll be emailing kim for the wooden equipment shortly as well!

The KSR school downtown has practices exactly on my squash nights - which means I can only get to one a week (the one night is on/off at the racket club).

Thanks again everyone for your input. More updates as they happen, ill be referring to this thread often as I learn more... alot of info in here!

Jmyrm

I may be at the JCCC for Sunday's practice. Let me know if you order any weapons, and I can pop them down.

 

[Jmyrm]

missed you today Ken, a bit slow getting the equipment but should have it all ordered by next week.

Jmyrm

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

The whole argument that just because a school is old it is effective has to be a classic logical fallicy. Things do get lost in translation, and after centuries, there is a lot of translation.

Here is a question to ask, how do any of these schools do in sparring? Instead of hiding behind the reputation of someone who lived in the 15th century, how do the current students do against a live opponent?

That is why schools like Nami-ryu started by James Williams are so much superior to anything that tries to cling to tradition.

Late on this one, but I have to say, near as I can tell, Nami ryu is kata based, like pretty much every other kenjutsu ryu and does not have sparring, at least not as kendo does. Not to mention that James Williams goes to a great deal of trouble to connect himself with centuries old classical tradition, at least on his website.

While I do not consider an art created in the 20th/21st century to be automatically devoid of merit, nor does recent creation guarantee it to be more practical or even practical at all.

In short, the age of an art is no indicator of its effectiveness or practicality. Though to be fair, martial systems that have no real value to them tend to be forgotten and fade away with time and the passing of the founder. Those that have value are more likely to be maintained after the founder's death. Extant arts with fifteenth century foundations have passed this test.

Also note that I said value. Value includes but is not limited to effectiveness in a particular setting. Sport taekwondo may not have value as a self defense art, but it has great value as an olympic sport. Boxing is of little value on the battlefield but is of great value as a sport. Kendo has great value in its sportive aspect and in aspects of personal development and self improvement, even though it does not approximate a battlefield art.

Daniel