BEING a beginner the Cornell Kendo Club is TOUGH!   Just ask anybody who was a beginner here and survived.  We define beginners here as complete novices having had less than one full semester of training.  During this time, we develop your basic kendo technique, and your physical stamina and strength to the degree as is necessary to practice kendo in a compentant manner.  We believe that we have one of the more rigorous traning curriculum for beginners in a collegiate setting than anywhere else.  One student once said to one of our instructors "you're tougher than the drill sergents I had in the army!"

However, it is worth it.  It is difficult to train people to be competant kenshi outside of a dojo environment because of the time commitment required that college students usually do not devote.  We do require that you attend most of our twice a week practices, otherwise we will drop you from our beginner class.  This is to maintain the pace of the class, and class cohesiveness.  Our beginner classes usually start out being EXTREMELY large but are generally whittled down to about 10 survivors. 

Due to the toughness of our training, our beginners end up being competant intermediates who can participate in collegiate level competition and are also brought closer together by their experiences.

New novice students are only accepted in the beginning of the Fall semester.  To join, you need only bring a pair of sweat pants, a t-shirt and purchase a wooden sword called a "shinai" which we have avalable for around $25.

If you make it to being an "intermediate" you can either purchase a set of armor "bogu" or we MAY be able to loan you one from the club.