Often colleges may have some type of kendo. Also, you can learn how to use a bokken in an Aikido class. There are other arts that use these too.
But trying to learn by yourself you are only fooling yourself into believe you are doing things correctly. It is an art to using the weapon correctly. Strikes are difficult to learn even though they look easy. You will never get it right without an instructor.
I know this only because I have been taught to use it. Seeing other do it it looks simple. It is simple once you have made all of the correction to your bad technique. It is more than that just making a cut. The weapon makes the cut and not you.
It's difficult wanting to learn a martial art when there are no teachers in the area. It really is a challenge trying to do your best without anyone being able to correct you when you make mistakes. I strongly encourage you to keep searching for a teacher - maybe if there are no kendo schools you can ask around martial arts clubs if they know anywhere that's no advertised on the internet? I met some kendoka through my karate and taekwondo clubs.
Shinai are safer for practice, but it can sometimes be easy to forget that you're holding a representation of a sword. Cutting and striking are two different movements. Please be safe and learn good habits from a real teacher if you can rather than spending years of dedicated effort practicing errors!
Shinai
A shinai actually has some "give" to it, while the bokken is made from more solid kinds of wood than the shinai and it hurts a lot more when it strikes a person. Obviously you need to wear kendo gear when you train, but the shinai is more appropriate for sparring than bokken are.
I'm not being mean when I say this. I'm saying this as nice as possible. But honestly, how much do you really think you can teach your son, when you yourself aren't even sure what equipment you need?
You want to learn Kendo, that's fine. But teaching your son? That's dishonest.
From a martial arts perspective when I take on a student, I am more than happy they are willing to learn. Don't you think I owe it to them to be at least able to promise them good instruction? If you can't promise that to someone, then what you doing? You're being dishonest. You're promising to teach them something you can't teach them.
Now the fact this is your son? That's even worst. I was trained by my mom most my life. And now that I'm older, if I found out that she really couldn't promise me good teaching because she learned from... I don't even know where, I think I would lose a lot of respect for her.
A shinai unless you want to kill or maim your son for life.
If I'm not mistaken, a shinai is much safer.
There are no kendo schools in my area, so I decided to lean myself, and teach my son. I bought two shinai learned three basic strikes, and we started working on doing these strikes today. As I do more research I'm seeing that most people start training with a bokken, and not the shinai. Should I buy broken, and train with those or is it accepted to train with just a shinai, and I can just continue training with what I have?
