Team Building Kendo Japanese Sword Art For 10 (Wellington)

After a pre–meeting with your event organiser, we will start to design the content of your Kendo team building experience. Kendo is a form of swordsmanship and one of the oldest martial arts dating back to 15th Century feudal Japan. Back then, the art of Kendo was practiced by the Samurai – a warrior class who administered Japan on behalf of the Shogun or local ruling class. Traditionally, the Shinai was a real sword but as the tradition has moved away from being an art of war to sportsmanship it has been scaled down from metal to bamboo. Teams are given instructions in the principles of Shinai etiquette – respect the weapon and build a bond with it. Next, teams are taught the basics of attack and defence. They learn some fancy footwork techniques before getting into the fun stuff – the strokes. Groups then pair off and practice wielding our weapons under the watchful eye of our Master as he instructs us to ‘men’ (attack to top of head), ‘kote’ (right wrist) ‘ito’ (to body). The aim is not to hit our partner, but to throw them off balance. The pinnacle moment is when each member is given the chance to be challenged to a one-on-one battle with our Kendo Master. It’s not too physically challenging, but requires absolute focus and is a lot of fun! After the experience, teams will undertake a de-briefing session. This helps teams understand how to embrace some of the principles of Kendo back in the office and our personal lives and reminds us that the essence of the art is about focus, commitment and follow-through.