How do you gauge one's level of kendama play? When can you say you are beginner/intermediate/advanced? The JKA has its testing levels (Kyu, Jun-Shodan, and Dan), but western kendama play is a lot more subjective. I'd like to hear peoples' opinions on this.
Very interesting question. I can do Dan level 1 pretty much everytime at this point and I still would not consider myself an advanced player. I am a solid intermediate but the"advanced" level is almost progressing faster than I am improving. And also I think Western players lean more towards freestyle play. I would say I am super innovative when it comes to freestyle play but can not hit a lot of technical tricks.
Same! I'm more of a freestyle guy who loves string flow, but I can't match up if you need me to do tech stuff like stalls and complex balance trick combos. Also ditto on the game advancing more than you can progress. The pros of yesterday are the intermediate levels of today, and once juggle to big cup was an innovation but now it's just something that people who can't juggle to spike do.
Before when i first started, I would gauge my skill level based on what tricks I could do and how easy and consistent they were based on KUSA’s and Sweet’s tutorial videos on YouTube (the old ones in Sweets case). Now it has definitely become a bit more difficult to place myself in a definitive skill level. At MKO I competed in Intermediate, but I have hit tricks that could be and have been in previous and other comp’s Advanced and Open trick lists.
I think CONSISTENCY has to be one part of skill level ranking. I've been creating a 3 tiered with 3 levels in each tier testing system that would allow people to accurately gauge their levels in "modern" kendama. Each level is progressively more difficult. And only a very few players would be able to achieve the top ranking currently and I suspect for many years to come. I'd love to see a NAKA (North American Kendama Association) formed [not for profit] that would have testers etc to implement the testing. I think people would really enjoy chasing these new levels.
Sounds awesome! Would love to see that in practice! Given how fast kendama play is progressing in the west, would the tables have to be updated every few years? I imagine it that way cause the game has gotten so much harder since the OG days.
I'm going to call myself an intermediate level player until I win an intermediate level speed ladder.. Consistency is key, but consistency under pressure is something just as important.
Here’s how I see it. I love seeing someone who is just as good in person as they are in clips. That is honestly the majority of how I think. It’s also cool to see someone be good at a wide variety of tricks! Lunar, stalls, kenflip, lighthouse, you get my point. Not just a couple things. Also if you’re a good competition that’s just the icing on the cake. Basically I really just like seeing a person kill it in person. That’s the best thing ever
I'm quite unsure about this but maybe years of experience playing could be a factor. But if that's the case then im gonna be quite irrelevant. i've been playing for more than 2 years now (reaching 3rd few months from now...) & my skill is equivalent to a 4-6 month prodigy player/s, basically anyone who are really good from months playing is what i can measure myself. Now take Liad as an example. People said it has been past 1 year since he started but he can really slay & be toe to toe with any pro... Now it's pretty much INVESTMENT on him whether be time or equiptment, the skill will flourish. So for me maybe a good formula to assest one's level is time investment * physical investment/years played... XD this formula is just a reference & it's really inaccurate for me to create this but i think this could make the a good possible measure. for me comps is just a resume material to a player & consistency is just the factor to consider in the phisical investment aloted by a player
well you, @Nick Gallagher, absolutely exemplify that philosophy. You slay on video and perform big in comps. Your finals performance in MKO was insane btw.