Is Kendo a legitimate form of self defense? An analysis of its practical skills

One of the common reasons why people join martial arts is to defend themselves. Simply put, this is probably the main reason for starting alongside general fitness. When it comes to Kendo, most people train for these two reasons. This brings us to the question, is Kendo a legitimate form of self-defense? The answer to this question mostly involves the exact scenario regarding defending yourself.

For instance, it’s wise to assume that most people use Kendo as a way to defend against long knives or bats. However, it may be less effective against smaller blades or weaponless fighting. With this said, we will analyze the various situations in which Kendo is relevant. This means that the self-defense aspect of Kendo is fluid and depends entirely on the situation and its variables. For those wanting to get their own Kendo stick, you can purchase two for under $30 here.

Kendo against long knives and bats/sticks

To clarify, by long knives, bats and sticks – we mean weapons that mimic the length of the shinai. Basically, these are real weapons that resemble the shinai and their size. This is what Kendo is meant to defend against and is mostly built for. For example, one of the first things that you learn inside a Kendo gym is to avoid being hit.

Like boxing, avoiding being hit is vital for your success. Not only for self-defense but also from a competition perspective you will be taught to avoid getting hit. Even though Kendo armor will mostly protect against injuries, you can still get hit at the wrong angle and hurt. This means from your own self-preservation you will learn to avoid getting hit with the shinai from early on.

With this said, Kendo is perfect to learn against attacks from long weapons. Whether you’re defending against a katana or baseball bat, you should be well versed in defending these kinds of weapons. If you’ve trained for a couple of years, at this point your footwork should be enough to avoid being hit. Even if you do get hit, by knowing Kendo you may minimize the number of strikes that you receive. Obviously, this can be the difference between life and death where a street confrontation is concerned.

Kendo against short knives and daggers

Whilst many weapon attacks will be done by weapons similar in size to the shinai, many attacks will also be done by smaller daggers and blades. Examples of this could be a kitchen knife or dagger. Because Kendo doesn’t train against smaller blades then you may have to re-think your defense whilst going against an aggressor with a small blade. One of the benefits of Kendo is distance management.

However, when the blade is smaller, this changes the equation. Whilst your footwork should still come in handy, one negative of going against a smaller blade is that it allows the opponent to close the distance. For instance, if they have a long weapon, it may be swung more like a shinai and also be slower due to being heavy. This differs from a small blade that may be jabbed from close range. Similarly, smaller blades are usually thrust which Kendo doesn’t really train against.

With this said, if Kendo practitioners are safer against larger weapons, then it’s only safe to assume they’d struggle more against smaller weapons. Sadly, a lot of street fights involve small blades due to the convenience of carrying them. This means Kendo may struggle more against a dagger in comparison to a cricket bat. It should still be noted though, that due to training Kendo you would still have a better chance of survival when compared to an untrained person.

Kendo in a fist fight

So far, we’ve entered each encounter from the angle that you are up against an armed attacker, whilst being unarmed yourself. Obviously, if you were both armed with the same weapon, then Kendo would give you a fantastic advantage. In this section, we will look at neither you nor the opponent using a weapon.

As Kendo is based around weapons, this confrontation would make your Kendo skills more redundant. Whilst you’d still have some advantages, the primary goal of Kendo is to replicate fighting with long-distance weapons. In short, new variables like kicks, takedowns, and clinches would have to be considered as grappling is common in fist fighting. Overall, Kendo would provide valuable in offering efficient footwork and avoiding long-range kicks and punches.

However, in all honesty, you may still lose to a good opponent. Other benefits of Kendo would be your overall physique, athleticism, and fitness. Of course, these won’t improve your technique of throwing a punch but will improve your chance of winning a street fight. Because of this, Kendo still offers benefits even without the use of weapons.

Kendo vs thrust strikes

One of the main issues in Kendo is that unlike fencing, it doesn’t use thrust strikes. These can be used in sparring with advanced practitioners, but most students will not use thrusts with the shinai. The reason for this is purely based on safety. As the Kendo armor is made to protect most areas, you can still get badly injured if a thrusting strike hits the right angle and hits your neck for instance. Because of this, Kendo mostly uses swinging strikes in various directions.

With this in mind, this is a glaring weakness of Kendo against weapons. Whilst it has obvious, general benefits – the problem is that you can still get hit with a thrust that you aren’t trained against defending. Generally, a lot of weapons are hit with a thrust as well as swung. This means it’s realistic to have to defend against thrusts, which Kendo rarely trains against. In brief, this would reduce the chance of Kendo being successful in terms of self-defense.

Final Thoughts

As seen, the above has a realistic analysis of how Kendo works in a self-defense setting. Overall it has clear benefits but also some flaws. For example, in terms of foot and head movement, it offers good protection and will train you well. Further, against long weapons, Kendo really comes into its own and you should be most comfortable against these. However, against smaller weapons in particular Kendo will struggle. This is due to the nature of how these weapons are struck and also due to Kendo rarely training against thrust strikes.

In conclusion, if you’re worried about weapons being used in a street fight then Kendo is an ideal form of self-defense but is not perfect. As most forms of martial arts do not offer weapon training, this gives Kendo an edge where defense is concerned. Having said this, if you really want to specify against weapons then cross-training with the likes of Silat may help to improve your overall game where self-defense against weapons are concerned.

For more information on Kendo, check out this book that explains its culture and historical origins.