A 12-week plan for adult beginners in Hong Kong

Read the etiquette page. Write to one or two dojos from the directory and ask to watch. On the day: arrive early, bow, stay quiet, and do not film. If you are invited to try footwork, sports clothes and indoor shoes are enough. Buy a shinai only when someone at the dojo tells you the length. Do not buy bogu.

When you decide to continue, ask what to wear. Many clubs start with a keikogi and a hakama after a few visits, not on day one. Suburi and okuri-ashi are the homework. Ten correct swings beat a hundred fast ones. Keep two sessions a week if three is impossible.

Men and kote in the air, then with a motodachi if the sensei allows, still often without your own bogu. Learn one kiai. Watch a class in bogu so the distance makes sense. If you are invited to borrow armour, return it dry. This is not the week to order a full set from overseas.

Wear bogu when invited. The first ji-geiko is not a match to win. Each cut should still have zanshin. Watch one local taikai from the side if your dojo suggests it. Ikkyu is a later conversation, measured in months of attendance, not in this twelfth week. The association notice, not this plan, says when you may sit an exam.