Reddit mentions of Kendo: A Comprehensive Guide to Japanese Swordsmanship

Just wanted to add I'm turning 44 this week and just started kendo in October of last year. So I sure hope you aren't too old!

Honestly you are super young man. While there will be youth that are starting as well, you're at the age where you have some maturity and can probably apply yourself with more focus. The sensei that ran the seminar I just went to over the weekend is 70 years old and still going. So just imagine you have over 50 years of kendo ahead of you.

A couple of resources I found that are really helpful:

http://suffolkkendo.co.uk/KendoTrainingHandbook(rev5).pdf

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4805312319/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Enjoy!

My favorite

It makes the least assumptions of the kendo books I've read. However you may find you won't get a lot out of books until you're further along in your kendo career, especially if you don't speak japanese. So many terms to learn and things you can't really process just yet. I bought a bunch of books early on and it wasn't until a couple years in that lots of it really started making sense.

[Kendo: A Comprehensive Guide to Japanese Swordsmanship by Geoff Salmon] (https://www.amazon.com/Kendo-Comprehensive-Guide-Japanese-Swordsmanship/dp/4805312319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521676294&sr=8-1&keywords=kendo+a+comprehensive+guide+to+japanese+swordsmanship)
Very interesting and informative book. Covers everything from proper etiquette to wazas to how to put on bogu. My sensei gave me a copy.

I started kendo about three months ago, so I can tell you where I'm at:

Footwork, footwork, footwork. Every week most of the time is spent on footwork and yet I still don't feel confident about it. I know I'm improving because my sensei said so, but I feel like I have a long way to go before I can even begin to feel confident in it. Ki-ken-tai-ichi is still not there for me.

At my dojo we had shinai from the very first day, and we practice swinging in each class as well. The first few weeks were men-focused, but we moved on to kote, and dou most recently. Dou is taking some time to learn to do properly.

My stamina has definitely improved, and I notice a bigger improvement if I practice several times throughout the week rather than just at class. Now I can actually make it to the end of class without feeling like I'm going to pass out! Initially, however, it was definitely a struggle. Just after the half hour warm-up I would be completely exhausted.

I still wear work-out clothes (no hakama/keikogi yet) and own no bogu. However, my sensei did start encouraging people to buy their own bokken just last week.

Early on, I bought this book to help me learn all the terminology. I highly recommend it - it has helped me immensely.

He has also recently released a book (Kendo - A Comprehensive Guide to Japanese Swordsmanship) that has a lot more diagrams like that in it.