I receive many questions about kendo. Sometime they are about how to persuade their parents because they are worried about their children getting hurt. Sometimes they're about their health issues and sometimes they are about technical issues.
A "left handed" issue is one of the most frequently asked questions. They really want to switch their hand positions so they can have their left hand close to the hand guard or tsuba. What do you think about this?
I have heard that there were some people back in old days who held their shiai with their hand positions switched. And there probably is nothing wrong with it except this hand switched stance was seen as "off the right way" technique. So basically it was frowned upon.
If you think about how Japanese sword works, you can see why the hand-switched stance is problematic. Somehow they decided to carry their sword on the left waist. In order for them to draw out their sword, they have to draw out the sword with the right hand.
Just like driving cars, they had their own traffic regulations. One of them was that samurai would walk on the left. You know why? So their swards wouldn't touch each other. And they could protect their sword. Plus it would be easy to cut people who would come from the right hand side. Historically and culturally, it is important for us to follow how we carry our sword, right?
Now after you draw your sword you may be able to switch your hand positions. It is possible. I saw some sensei did that too.
Some senseis take jodan with the right hand at the end of the handle or tsuka and the left hand close to the tsuba. It is called Migi Morote Jodan. What we see usually it is called Hidari Morote Jodan. Migi means "right" and Hidari means "left". Morote means both hands.
So in kendo, there are a lot of stances. We have nito as well. In nito we have two types of nito, sei-nito (long sword in the right hand) and gyaku-nito (long sword in the right hand).
Kendo has many possibilities. The longer you practice, the better you get and the more possibilities you will have in kendo. So I cannot say you can't do this you can't do that. But what I can say is that
"Learn the Basics, and Then When You Get Better Try Whatever You Want to Try".
It strongly depends on how you look at kendo. If you want to hit people and take advantage of whatever you have such as being left-handed, your focus is a "hitting" part of kendo. If so, soon you will quit because you will find it quite difficult to hit people as you want. You will get frustrated. It doesn't matter if you are left-handed or right-handed. Simply it is very difficult to hit people as you want.
The right-handed people are having a difficulty because they tend to control their right hand too much. As a result, they develop bad habits. This probes that the right handed does not do any good in kendo.
Focus on Yourself
Rather you should focus on how to deal with yourself while learning kendo. You should learn how to enjoy learning kendo so you don't get frustrated. And you have to learn how to control yourself when you get frustrated in kendo. And it will be much easier for you to solve problems in kendo.
If you concentrate on this, you can improve your kendo and you can work on your personality as well. And also you will get a full benefit out of kendo.
If you are a beginner I can promise you if you keep doing kendo you will have a lot of fun. And probably other dan-holders can tell you that too. If you are thinking to quit kendo because it is not fun anymore, focus on yourself rather than hitting others or getting hit by others. Focus on how you can control your emotions. Focus on how you can control your body better. You will have more fun that way because now you are improving yourself.
Hope this helps.
