As you should know, I’m a real big advocate of the koto style shinai.  I prefer it for its balance and handling. You should also know that I usually prefer a slightly heavier shinai (530 – 550 grams) for greater control.  Lately though, I’ve been playing around with lighter, dobari style shinais as they’ve been cheaply available to me.

With this in mind, I was looking over Jeff Chen’s table at a recent taikai, not really looking to buy, when he suggested I test drive a new shinai for him.  Out of the box came a dobari shinai with a good, stout tsuka.  He put it in my hand, and I nearly dropped it… 700 grams he told me.  How could I refuse trying out this monster?

My initial impression was that this is a really heavy shinai… I had to pay attention to what I was doing to avoid injury.  Once I got used to it, I was very pleasantly surprised with the level of control I had with it.  I think this is a really good shinai for training.  It wore me out fast and I really felt my muscles working while using it.  For those of you with thick strong arms, this is a good all around shinai.  For the rest of us, I would use this for training, but not necessarily for taikai, as fully committing to a strike with this shinai could create strain in your muscles and joints… avoiding this strain could create hesitation.  Really though, this concern is mainly for jodan players.  The weight of this shinai makes it a great cross over for chudan.