SWEAT IN THE CITY – Before I took a kendo class, I decided I would probably be brilliant at it and probably compete in the Olympics at it (don’t drag me down with all your ‘oh, but it’s not even an Olympic sport’ comments). You see, I have a teeny tiny obsession with mediaeval warriors, so I just assumed that would translate smoothly into Japanese sword fighting. Even before class I wasn’t panicking about having to learn Japanese and how I’d afford all the gear.
Kendo, meaning ‘way of the sword’, had everything I wanted in a martial art; a bamboo sword (shanai), a really beautiful and cool-looking costume (budoku), little chance of ruining my face, lots of tradition (it dates back 1,200 years) and a film star sensei.
Yes, that’s right, my teacher was Vithaya Pansringarm (Pu) who plays Chang in Only God Forgives. He’s been practicing kendo for 28 years and has a select few clients he teaches – mainly security professionals who need to be seriously badass.
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Pu started by counting us through some dynamic stretches to warm us up. Seeing as I can’t speak Japanese, we counted to eight in English for each stretch. Next, he showed me how we sit for meditation and how we bow to each other before (and after) class. I can’t tell you how much I love the ritual of martial arts, so I was already in my element.
Before I could start hitting imaginary heads and chopping off imaginary hands with my bamboo shenai, I had to learn how to hold it. Pu has a brilliant way of explaining everything, telling me to place my right hand at the very base of the shenai and to barely touch the shenai with my right hand, as if I were holding an egg.
Once I’d got to grips with the shenai, it was time to move. Moving in kendo involves a sort of gliding shuffle movement. You keep the right foot light while the left foot does the moving. When Pu did it, it looked as though he was floating. When I did it, I looked a little like I’d injured my left leg and was dragging it behind me. Never mind, I have a few years before the Olympics to fix that.
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Moving whilst holding the shenai led to the inevitable step of being able to strike with the shenai. Pu talked me through three simple sequences which we repeated about twenty times each, which involved moving and striking my imaginary opponent on the head. In kendo, there are four targets; the head (men), throat (tsuki), sides of the torso (do) and the wrists (kote). When you strike, you must yell out the name of the part you are striking exactly when you hit it, so Pu had me practise yelling ‘MEEEEEEEEEEEEEN’ and ‘KOTEEEEEEEEEEEE’ as loud as my tiny voice could manage. It must have been fairly loud, because the tiny ballet dancers who’d just finished class in the next studio came to poke their heads over the glass in the door to see what was going on. I felt kind of cool standing there with a (bamboo) sword raised above my head.
Learning the basics wasn’t exhausting like a good gym session, but it did require a lot of skill to remember everything – to pull the shenai right up over your head before you hit, to move your leg and arm at the same time, to keep your arm straight when you struck your opponent, etc
I had a few problems remembering the basic choreography, but other than that, Pu said I was a natural, which made me extremely smug and happy. Without a doubt, this is the most fun class I’ve taken for the Sweat in the City series so far. And of course you can catch me on TV in 2016 when I’ll take the gold in Rio.
Due to his acting demands, Pu runs very limited private classes.
Rising Star Dance Studio
Thonglor
Fifty Fifth Plaza Building (3rd Floor)
