Today we share the story of a brand new Dojo that only had 3 classes before a lockdown was put into place. The Roninkai Kendo Club is situated in Denmark, where they had a lockdown from March until the 15^th of April. In fact, they only had 3 Keiko before they had to close for a while. After that, they were only allowed to practice outdoors, using the Sensei’s backyard until August. “Being in Denmark, our biggest concern was rain. Every week we would have to check the weather. We thankfully never ended up having to cancel and only trained in drizzle a single time.” They were able to focus on beginner training during those months.

On August 15^th they were able to practice indoors, following the AJKF guidelines and keeping the Dojo doors open for fresh air. At that time, Denmark didn’t even required masks, but they used them anyway. Later on, with their second wave of Covid, the country had to change the rules and by the end of October they had a 10 person limit on gatherings. Because of that rule, the Dojo added another day of practice to ensure everyone was able to participate in at least one Keiko per week.

Their training focus was unaffected by the pandemic. Roninkai houses people of different skill levels, age groups and learning curves, so their curriculum is taught in a spiral, with each Keiko focusing on something specific (such as ma-ai or moving from the pelvis) and then they circle back again every few months. “There is always something new to learn or understand on a deeper level.”

According to the Dojo members, masks were rough in the beginning. “Danes do not like covering their faces, it was actually made illegal to do so in public about 6 months before the pandemic.” As it turns out, masks became a requirement on the subway the week they moved to practicing indoors again, so the use of masks wasn’t a hard sell. “However, Tenugui masks are not particularly comfortable. They’re hot, awkward and cumbersome, especially under a Men. People started transitioning to other types of mask and when I found a comfortable one, I encouraged everyone to start experimenting with which mask was best for them. Now no one uses Tenugui masks anymore.”

“The other issue was that they seem to slightly impede oxygen intake. Nothing that would affect you normally, but when you’re trying to do 200 Haya Suburi, even a 10% decrease in how much you can suck in at once feels like a big deal. Also, as the Japanese kendo federation stated, if you have a flat nose, you don’t get a good tent under there and the oxygen intake problem is a lot worse. We’ve adjusted.”

Unfortunately, as with most of the world right now, they are into another lockdown there. They really thought about going back to outdoor practice, which is still legal, but the winter temperatures and weather are not encouraging. Hopefully, things will open back up in January and, in the meantime, people have been training at home. “I’m working on the first Danish language Kendo handbook and trying to chat online with Kendoka from other Dojo. If we can’t visit physically, no reason not to do some virtual kendo socialising!”

As the year is almost over, let’s all hope for better times in 2021 and that we can all go back to the Dojo soon. And, when we get back to travelling again and end up in Denmark, give a shout out to the Roninkai Kendo Club.

A Happy New Year from all the Nine Circles team!