Beginners Guide to Kendo and Iaido - d

Rating:
Summary: Definitive guide to the basics of kendo
Review: Excellent resource for the basics of kendo. One of the very few 'beginners' guides that you can fully learn the basics without access to a kendo school. I personally found it great help in brushing up the bits in my technique that I had 'forgotten' to worry about. Great to watch as well where it can be seen the Mr Wilson truly knows what he is doing and from a trained eye is exceptional in his movement and application.

I fully recommend this DVD to anyone who is thinking of starting the art or even the experts who sometimes need to go back to basics just to see how its really done!!

Rating:
Summary: Great for learning basic kendo technique
Review: Excellent resource for the basics of kendo. One of the very few `beginners' guides that you can fully learn the basics without access to a kendo school. I personally found it great help in brushing up the bits in my technique that I had `forgotten' to worry about. Great to watch as well where it can be seen the Mr Wilson truly knows what he is doing and from a trained eye is exceptional in his movement and application.

I fully recommend this DVD to anyone who is thinking of starting the art or even the experts who sometimes need to go back to basics just to see how its really done!!

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional thru-out
Review: I agree that Jim wilson is a Master of Kendo and I would add he is also a master in teaching on this dvd... he shows each move in an easily understandable way and although I have never tried kendo before I was able to start practicing most of the things he showed almost immediately. He teaches in a very easy step by step way and explains everything in detail... I really liked this dvd and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning some kendo moves...I also agree with the previous reviewer that this dvd does set new standards in both presentation and information available from dvd... my copy of the dvd was ok and so maybe the previous reviewer just had a bad copy... I have bought from this company before and I know they do have a no questions exhange policy ... so if he sends it back Im sure they will send him a better copy...

Rating:
Summary: Great for learning basic kendo technique
Review: I practice judo and like to dabble in other martial arts and so got Jim's Beginner's Guide to Karate and I feel it did exactly what it promised and gave a solid introduction to basic karate and because I liked that one I bought his dvd Beginner's Guide to Kendo and it does exactly the same thing. Jim is a real expert and his teaching style is very easy to follow and I have been able learn quite a lot of new moves . Highly recommended .

Rating:
Summary: Master of kendo
Review: Jim WIlson is a master of Kendo, and this can be clearly seen in this DVD. I personally enjoyed this DVD very much, and I think it is very much worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: Does everything it claims...
Review: Plus factor

I have only just got this dvd after having got the author's other title "Beginners Guide to Karate" some six months ago ..and decided to write a review on both at the same time ... I think the same thing applies to this one as to the other in that the author explains all the various cuts and moves in a very simple to learn way ....however he only works with the bokken and doesnt demonstrate in kendo armour .. a shame as it would have been very interesting to see this but everything about his teaching style is so good that I am willing to overlook this and I'll still give it 5 stars,

Negative factor

It was obviously filmed as video and transferred to dvd and hence lacks chapters .....it would be better with them but its still a worthwhile investment if you want to learn basic kendo moves ...

Rating:
Summary: Good content very very poor DVD quality
Review: Pros:

Good introductory video providing a broad overview of the area and delivers everything that is outlined on the box cover.

Lots of good demonstration of the movements.

Cons:

No chapters so there is no easy way to jump to specific portions of the video. It would have been good to organize the categories of movements so you can jump to the chapters and review them.

It would have been better if each motion could be repeated several times, one after another, so that you can watch first the arm movements, then the leg movements, then the two together. That's how I learned Tai Chi and Tai Chi sword. Instead you will need to use your DVD remote to zip back and forth. This is not particularly easy to do when you are holding a boken (unless they can build a DVD remote into the boken ;^) But of course the only real way to learn Kendo or any martial arts is to work with a sensai.

Audio quality is very very poor. This is particularly problematic when he utters Japanese terms and the audio has dropped out.

I have played this disk on my Xbox and at the 35-minute point the disk is completely unreadable.

I then played it on my laptop and it was viewable but audio was extremely stuttery.

So be warned that you may experience playback problems.

Rating:
Summary: Very knowledgable instructor; Terrible DVD quality
Review: While I must agree that it is obvious that Jim Wilson is a Master of Kendo, I must sadly not recommend this DVD. The sound is horrible. There are times when you can barely hear Mr. Wilson speaking, and in the introduction the sound comes and goes as if on a whim.

If you can find a VHS copy, I've been told that the quality is much better.

I sincerely hope that the producers of this DVD will fix the problems and re-release it; this has the potential of being a cornerstone teaching DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Very knowledgable instructor; Terrible DVD quality
Review: While I must agree that it is obvious that Jim Wilson is a Master of Kendo, I must sadly not recommend this DVD. The sound is horrible. There are times when you can barely hear Mr. Wilson speaking, and in the introduction the sound comes and goes as if on a whim.

If you can find a VHS copy, I've been told that the quality is much better.

I sincerely hope that the producers of this DVD will fix the problems and re-release it; this has the potential of being a cornerstone teaching DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional thru-out
Review: Yes I agree with the other reviewers that Jim Wilson is with out doubt a master of kendo but more importantly he is also a master teacher and in this dvd he explains everything in a clear concise and easily understandable way... I had never learned kendo or iado before and I was able to start using this dvd in a useful way almost immediately and I also agree that this way of teaching dvd's has set new standards. My copy of the dvd was great and I had no problem with the sound so maybe this was just a problem dvd ... I know this company has a no quibble exchange policy so if the previous reviewer sends it back they will exchange it ....Jon Fleury