We present here a glossary of the Kendama language. You must have noticed that Kendama and its community of players have their own dialect that beginners often have trouble deciphering. In this article we explain to you what the words specific to this universe mean. Many of them are Anglicisms. We will first start by dissecting the words that concern the object and then those of the game.
Glossary specific to the object of Kendama
KEN: it's the handle
TAMA: it's about the ball
SWORD: this is the vertical part of the KEN, which crosses the SARADO, it includes the BASECUP and the SPIKE
SARADO: this is the horizontal part of the KEN which includes the two cups
CUP: these are cups
BIG CUP: this is the big cup of the SARADO
SMALL CUP: this is the small cup of the SARADO
BASECUP: this is the cup under the KEN
BASECUP HOLE: this is the hole of this cup, allows to better distribute the masses of the KEN in the center of it, offering better rotations and better LUNAR
SPIKE: this is the tip of the SWORD
STRING: this is the string
BEARING: this is the bearing (it replaces the bead on most models now and allows the string to be free and increases the playing experience)
HOLE: this is the hole in the TAMA where the SPIKE is placed
BEVEL: this is the bevel of the hole of the TAMA (this is the part that we lick to reinforce the grip for the STALLS)
CLEAR: this is the varnish (ex: Cushion clear)
NATTY: it's a TAMA without varnish
SHAPE: this is the shape of the KEN, each brand has one or more shapes of KEN depending on the collections, the years, etc.
RINGSTALL: this is the ring on the bottom of the SWORD
SCOPELINE: it is a question of differentiating the zone close to the hole of the TAMA using a visual delimitation, either using a painting or an engraving
TOPSCOPE: this is a visual delimitation on the top of the TAMA in order to better identify when the ball is rotating for example
HALFSPLIT: this is a type of design on the TAMA, when the ball is half of one color and half of another for example
STRIPE: this is a band that delimits an area on the TAMA, most of the time centered, allowing better TRACKING
Game-specific glossary
KEN GRIP: this is the grip when you hold the KEN vertically in your hand to play, this is the classic playing position
SARA GRIP: this is the grip when you hold the KEN horizontally in your hand
TAMA GRIP: this is the grip when you hold the TAMA in your hand, to do LIGHTHOUSEs for example
TRACKING: which means following, we talk about TRACKING when we talk about following the HOLE of the TAMA during a figure
TAMA CONTROL: which means that we control the rotation of the hole when juggling for example
TRICKS: this is a trick that you want to do or that you have done
COMBO: this is a sequence of TRICKS
TRY HARD: this is an English expression to say that you have to work hard to achieve the figure you want to achieve
STALLS: these are figures of precarious balance such as the BIRD or the STILT
BIRD: it is a question of putting the TAMA in balance on the edge of one of the CUP of the SARADO
STILT: it is a BIRD but inverted, when you hold the TAMA in your hand
LUNAR: it's about putting the KEN in balance on the TAMA with the big CUP
JUGGLE: this is a juggling figure with KEN and TAMA
There are of course hundreds of figures and we cannot detail them all here. For this we refer you to the page TUTORIALS of the site which allows you to discover and TRY HARD a whole set of TRICKS 🙂