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It must be hard to keep your composure when a bamboo sword comes crashing down on your head.
Key points:
- Kendo fighters score points for striking an opponent's head, wrists or torso
- Competitors say it gives them a 'cultivated spirit' and develops the human character
- The sport has a high attrition rate, with only a handful of newcomers staying each year
But it is a central demand of kendo — a martial art based on Japanese samurai swordplay — that competitors must do just that.
Show even a flicker of doubt and your opponent will punish you.
"You don't want to think too much," said Thomas Mendelovits, a member of the Victoria kendo team who attended the recent National Championships in Perth.
"So, when you're out there, you're not distracted by thinking if your opponent's strong or weak, or if they have certain good techniques that you're worried about.
"If you're too twitchy, you know, they'll pick you off."
Fighters score points by striking cleanly and purposefully to the head, wrists, torso — or in rare and spectacular attempts, with a thrust to the throat.
The competitor who scores two points first, or who has the most points after five minutes, wins the bout.
Swords and a blood-curdling war cry
Fighters are heavily armoured, but Mr Mendelovits still has deep, blue-green bruises on his forearms from the stinging shots he has suffered from the bamboo sword, called a shinai.
But he said, along with the bruises, kendo also gave its participants a cultivated spirit.
"The whole point of kendo is to develop the human character," said Victorian kendo team coach Kenji Sugimoto.
"That is our aim. Winning and losing is only a part of that.
"Without the spiritual part of it, you'll never be a good kendo player."
In battle, this spiritual determination manifests as a vigorous shout, which can be a shock to those unaccustomed to the visceral impact of kendo combat.
In many instances, it is akin to a blood-curdling war cry.
"Firstly, you shout to intimidate your opponent," Mr Sugimoto said.
"But it's also to raise your own spirit at the same time.
"It's a physical way to show our heightened spirit … our unwavering strength."
For many, kendo is more than just fitness
The national championships have both individual and team events, contested by male and female representatives from the states and territories, all packed into one gymnasium — which is usually filled with a combination of sweat and shrieks of combat.
For many, kendo is more than just a way to keep fit with a bit of friendly competition thrown in — it is a way of life.
"It's something I think about a lot," Mr Mendelovits said.
"What's the difference between doing kendo three times a week compared to doing table tennis three times a week?
"The whole apparatus of kendo is to cultivate yourself, so I think it's also about the idea of continuous improvement."
Asked whether kendo cultivated the spiritually-disciplined, or if the spiritually-disciplined were simply drawn to kendo, Mr Sugimoto said it was unclear.
"This is a really interesting topic," he said.
"A lot of kendo participants are stoic, and they're earnest, and they respect each other, and they work hard.
"Is it because of kendo, or is it because they were already that way inclined?"
Mr Sugimoto said a kendo seventh-dan — the second-highest kendo rank a practitioner can reach — was conducting research into the question right now.
But what Mr Sugimoto said he did know was how few newcomers found they had what it took to stick with the martial art.
"The attrition rate of a beginner's course … we'd have 50 people at the start of the year, and we'd be lucky to have two of three remaining by the end of the year," he said.
When the shinai comes crashing down, it takes a unique spirit to shake off the blow and keep fighting.
Topics: sport, martial-arts, community-and-society, sports-organisations, perth-6000, wa
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