Might have already put in my two cents on this, but I'm of the school of thought that beginners should start out as much as possible with a barebones JKA kendama. I believe starting with such builds better foundational kendama skills, like learning how to adjust the ken while it's on lighthouse with proper wrist and knee movement, and developing hole control without the need for tracking, among others. People who use new gen kendamas, no matter how sticky the paint, how good the tracking, or how big the cups, need these skills as well. New gen kendamas also develop these skills; they also have the plus of getting new players stoked on the game quicker, which translates to more players at least in the short run. While this may be true, I am of the opinion that new gen kendamas are launchpads that should help a player with a solid foundation achieve higher levels of play. P.S. as an additional thought, I like to think that a beginner who started on a TK16 will have an infinitely easier time adjusting to a Sweets Prime than vice versa (again, not impossible, just harder).
Just had a thought on this, relating it to golf clubs (I used to play a LOT, but just played my first round in 3-4 years a couple weeks ago): When a beginner starts playing golf, almost nobody would recommend they buy an oldschool set of blade irons. Rather, the newer style of giant-soled cavity-backs are MUCH easier to hit, and will probably be a much more rewarding experience. Would someone become a better player if they learned using blades right from the start? Thats tough to say. Will more players stick with it if they can get a more rewarding first experience? Likely. (not a perfect analogy, as the harder-to-hit blade irons allow the player more control to sculpt flight paths, spin, etc, and a JKA dama doesn't have this advantage over a newgen dama. But just some food for thought)
In addition to my comments early on in this thread I probably come at this a bit differently than some. A lot of my time with kendama is actually teaching people to play who have never even seen a kendama. When I'm doing that I like to have a bunch of different types of kendama to use depending on the skill and mindset of the person or what tricks we're working on. If you have someone showing you how to play it's quite a bit different than learning on your own since it's interactive; you can't get that from a video. It's easier to work through difficulties and find the right fit if there's someone there with a sack of different kendama to try out and explain the features of each. It was like that for me when I was playing tennis and had the club "pro" work with me to get the right racket, string tension, and grip. Pretty much everything comes with qualifiers; the answer is almost always a definite "it depends." Since there are hundreds of tricks that don't rely on the coefficient of friction I usually find weight and size of the cups along with the price (particularly here in the Philippines) to be criterion used to help people find their best fit (more so than paint). With the advent of the Taisei I've found a giant cup kendama that doesn't have the bulk of jumbo but lets people work on their "targeting." The jumbo is good for folks who need to dial in their strength issues. JKA models still offer very good quality and pricing that help get people into kendama. There's also the cachet of the JKA seal and their "unreadable" characters; a fair number of people really dig that as well. Additionally most of the JKA models have the toughest paint on the market and for a lot of first time buyers that's a big deal. Even now the TK16s and their ilk also have their place as a fine-grained hone for trick skills so I regularly recommend that all serious players have at least one JKA model in their collection; whether it's their first kendama or not depends. tl;dr Recommend the best tool for the job, it's not always the same for everyone.
I agree man! I started with a Kaleb Kendama all yellow with a smiley face on it. That wasn’t very good for anything but learning cup juggles and also the cups on those kens are very small like tribute has. My second Kendama was a Sweets Prime (yes I’m a newer player). And once I got that nice Sweets Prime big cups and the appeal of the stickers and engravings made me go all out for Sweets! I learned after several orders that I did like pro clear paint, but once I got a Cush clear I asked myself why did I not start with one of these?! I seen the exclusive MKO Kendamas with the wrist band rubber piece around the middle of the Tama and those look like they’d be amazing to use for learning g lunar sand just keeping that Tama on the cups in general. But I have yet to find a Kendama for sale with these rubber wrist bands around the Tamas. I am looking for one to buy right now. My nephew is getting into Kendama and all he said is he wanted something purple so all he cared about at first was color. So this is a big point to be made here as Kendamas are evolving. And the first thing most people go for is what someone they look up to use or just heat appeals to them being the colors more than anything else. If I could start over I would have started with a Cush Clear Prime. Once I got into Tama tricks my Prime Pro Clear paint had already been too slick to land anything more advanced on. I’m still transferring to Tama grip tricks so this is why I’m now buying Cushion tamas and looking for a wrist band Tama to learn these Tama grip tricks easier.
I'm late for this thread but hell yea, it's kinda weird. Ozora for beginner? after almost two years of playing, i found that ozora is made for PROs! why? it's definitely not for beginners. the paint is not sticky, the bevel is narrow, the cups size are regular (not bigger), no axe/underbird lock shape. with that shape, a beginner will find it's difficult to play kendama. i think bigger cups and sticky paints are more beginner friendly. but in other side, I'm not against the "ozora for beginners" this is definitely a good way to hone new goats! if you can trip loon flip on ozora, trip loon flip on slaydawg is nothing for you
My first Kendama was the Ozora Galaxy. I had no idea what i was buying and it looked good. Learning on an Ozora definitely taught me patience and perseverance. It made me learn the fundamentals first, which are often overlooked by new players today, and taught me to approach tricks I find difficult at a slower pace, rather than expecting to achieve it instantly and getting frustrated when I don't succeed. As a first Kendama, as long as it's got 3 cups, a ball and a spike...you can't go wrong.
i tried with that weird old traditional shape, the first picture. it was fine tho. i could lace some lighty and 1turn aiplane anyway, this one slays too, trust me i landed inward loon, yank, airplane, around the world, but no whirly and i recomend @Kendama London to watch this
I think in the modern age where everything can be had at the touch of a button, kids and adults alike are more impatient for results. So, the best kendama for a new player is something with bigger cups and sticky sticky paint. Western kendama company's have known this for a while so...$$$
Have y'all heard of the Hajimete no Kendama? I think it's a good kendama for little kids to start out on! It's slightly smaller than the standard, and it is a good and reliable JKA-certified kendama. http://goenkendama.com/shop/gentosha/gentosha-hajimete-no-kendama/ Note: "Hajimete no Kendama" actually translates to "My first kendama" in Japanese.
The seal on the Gentosha Hajimete no Kendama is a JKA Suishō (recommended) which is good for testing up to Jun-shodan level. It's about 30% smaller than normal. This pic is the older seal. If you can find them the Shokendama from the makers of the Shinfuji is interesting too. The cups are the same as a regular kendama but the ball is smaller by a good bit.