Bellevue Kendo is incredible. This is no black belt mill - you actually have to earn your advancement. Its run by Jeff Marsten (well known in Kendo) and his crew of senseis.If you want personal challenge and serious growth, or a place for your kids where they are driven and worked hard - this is it.What you get for the price is truly incredible - it must be subsidized by the city.

My son goes their. Fantastic old school sensais.

My sons attend the Bellevue Kendo Club and love it. Having trained martial arts in Japan, and in the U.S., I picked this dojo for my family. The head instructor, Marsten-sensei, created a community of at least fifteen 3rd to 6th-degree blackbelts, each good enough to open their own successful dojo. Instead, they choose to stay at The Bellevue Kendo Club. The students range from six-year-old children to seniors in their seventies and older. Marsten-senseis teams and individuals regularly win and/or place in the top five at the U.S. national championships. Several instructors at the Bellevue Kendo Club raised daughters to become kendo blackbelts. Additionally, several high-ranking blackbelts are women. As a result, women are both welcome and expected to achieve at the highest levels, and many are national champions. Yes, the Bellevue Kendo Club is crowded, but the beginner and intermediate students train in separate rooms with great instructors. Serious students also study on Monday and Thursday nights, with the same folks at the Highline and Sno-King dojo locations for smaller classes and more individualized attention. Marsten-sensei is careful to cultivate talent, as kendo practitioners, as teachers, and competition judges. He is strict on the outside but has a warm heart on the inside. We love Seattle, but The Bellevue Kendo Club alone would have made our family relocation worth the trip.

I began with the Bellevue Kendo Club back in January 2015. The classes/club meets on Friday evenings in an old beautifully remodeled WPA building from the 1930s. Moving through the Beginning class it became evident that I had to reteach my body how to move in different ways. Kendo is unlike other sports/activities I had ever done before. So much rests on correct form and etiquette. The instructors were helpful, critical, and encouraging. Moving to the Intermediate class it was clear that the drop out rate is high! Kendo is definitely not for everyone. Kendo is also about self-development and discipline. It is expected that you learn quickly but you arent punished if you dont. The reward? Bogu or armor. Moving in Bogu takes some getting used to, especially now that you are getting hit. And, it gets hot. Also, this is the where students are asked to push themselves to improve as best as they can, otherwise you will get hit, A LOT. The expectation is that you learn by watching/listening (which can be difficult with a men or helmet on) and then practicing. The sensei provide feedback and encouragement, along with a dose of drill sergeant reality - which sometimes is a good thing.Kendo is difficult. Learning to retrain your body, figuring out the terminology, understanding the etiquette, and generally feeling like you are always behind everyone else (because as a newbie you are!) is all part of the process. Not only is it physically demanding, but also mentally. This is the real challenge of it all, to constantly push yourself to be better. I have found other members, regardless of rank, to be friendly, helpful and encouraging.

Classes are through the Bellevue Parks, this Kendo school is great when you start out. Small classes, good instruction, good facilities.It degrades pretty quickly as you take the intermediate and then advanced classes. Simply put the organization and discipline of the later classes most closely resembles a middle school girls basketball practice. There are so many people and so much noise that its impossible to know whats going on. While I respected Marsten Sensei and the other instructors it was clear they had accepted that classes of this size were going to be a disorganized mess and pretty much just stopped trying to fight it.While some kouhai were helpful and did their best to make things orderly others were decidedly unhelpful or were as confused by what was happening as the new students.I really enjoyed practicing the sport but I like discipline in my martial arts classes and this dojo does not provide that. I personally dont know how youd keep a class of 100 students orderly...I just know this isnt it. These instructors are probably excellent in smaller class-size situations.