S. Sensei, Kendo Hachi Dan joined practice at Michi no Ko yesterday, this was the first time in the dojos 40 year existance for a Hachi Dan sensei to join practice. He was invited by Abe Sensei to help some of our dojo members prepare for their grading examinations. 

Good luck guys!

Sensei took us through some kihon practice for one hour before jigeiko for one hour.

Sensei began the session with Kirikaeshi, pointing out mistakes and important points after each set.

Kiai, you must kiai fully during kirikaeshi, kiai from your tanden, (stomach, lower lung, abdominal breathing)

1. Kiai from to-ma (long distance) YAAAA,
2. Step into issokuito no maai (one step one strike distance) strike men MENNN
3. Make taiatari, and when your motodachi steps back to distance, begin your alternating men strikes. 

S. Sensei pointed out that we must breath from our lower lungs during kirikaeshi, and that we must not breath between each cut.
We should clearly kiai for each cut, MEN, MEN, MEN, MEN etc, and not just one continuous kiai. This does not mean that we take breaths between each strike, with one breath, we make the 9 separate kiai for each cut.
If we breath between cuts, we will be breathing into the top of our lungs, breathing like this will tighten the chest and upper body, causing out shoulders to become stiff and stopping us from doing a smooth kirikaeshi.
By keeping our breath in our tanden, we will maintain relaxed shoulders and be able to cut faster and with larger swings of the shinai.

S. Sensei also told us to ensure that the left hand was fully raised to a point at least one fist above our forehead,  do not swing the left had out in front and the use the right hand only to turn the shinai. This will become habit when striking men and will leave your kote unprotected.

After practicing kirikaeshi we move on to uchikomigeiko, practicing men, kote, kote-men and oji waza.

For each of the standard attacks, men, kote and kote-men, Sensei had us begin from kensen to kensen (sword tip to sword tip) from here make your forward motion beginning with a slight movement of the right foot (this movement will become important for oji waza later) from here make a regular attacking step into issoku itto no maai and strike with a large cut 3 times and with a small cut 3 times.

Senseis main points were
Men - Seme to the centre, take chushin and then attack, do not to let the sword raise after striking men, cut to the centre of the opponent and push through with zanshin.

Kote - check the opponents kamae, press your shinai against his to take the centre, if they resist and try to take back the centre this is your opening. Cut kote extremely small, barely raising the shinai tip.

Kote-men - when striking kote men, ensure that your foot work is correct for each step, fumikomi followed by hikitsuke (stamping followed by the drawning up of the left foot), make each strike solid, with powerful fumikomi. Do not make too large a cut for kote, and do not let the shinai raise after striking men.

For all of the above it is important not to let your head and hands lead the strike, take the correct distance before striking and cut with your body, using your hips to push forward and keep your body upright.

 We the practiced Oji waza. Firstly sensei reminded us of the small step we used while doing the standard attacks. If we use this small step to invite our opponent to attack it gives us the advantage of setting the timing for their attack.

Even during waza keiko there should be a feeling of pressure from both sides, make the situation real. Both sides should want to cut 100%, omoikiri!

Make seme with your opponent checking his kamae, push your right foot forwards slightly, your opponent should feel that you are about to cut and should react by trying to attack first, the moment your opponent begins to move, when you see change in their posture, or the slight movement as the set them selves to push forwards, is the moment to strike. Do not wait for them to begin cutting.

We started with debanna kote. Push your right foot forwards to invite your opponent, as they are beginning to move to try strike men, strike kote. You are already moving forwards, so your cut will land first.

Sensei stressed that we must strike kote from above, do not try to cut from below. Making striking from above a habit, will help with suriage and kaeshi waza in the future.

We followed debanna kote with kaeshi do.

Again make seme with your opponent, when the pressure builds, step forwards with the right foot to invite them to attack, as they begin to cut men raise your shinai in front of you, arms extended, once your catch the shinai you should quickly and sharply make kaeshi do using your wrists.
Strike diagonally down against your opponents dou, moving diagonally forwards to your right.
Move just enough to avoid the opponents men strike and pass by their shoulder. 

Ai kote kote-men.

Again make seme with your opponent and build the pressure between you. Step forwards slightly inviting your opponent to attack. As he begins to move, strike kote followed by men. your kote should land firmly taking his attack out of the centre, your men strike should be followed by pushing through with zanshin.

Make fumikomi on the kote strike by stamping the right foot only, strike men with fumikomi and hikitsuke (stamping and drawing up the left foot) from here push through your opponent. Since your opponent is moving towards you, you should take smaller steps. (some sensei teach this waza by having you fumikomi twice on the spot, Sekiyama Sensei had us take very small steps forwards)

Again attack the kote from above and make a solid fumikomi, followed by a solid fumikomi for men.

The final waza was degashira men (debanna men)

Like all of the waza before, make seme with your opponent, when the pressure has built between you step forward slightly with the right foot, as the opponent begins to move, attack men by pushing forwad into the opponent strike men firmly and do not raise your hands. Push through your opponents centre and take zanshin.

Sensei said it was important not to raise your hands keep them down and avoid bouncing off your opponent and spinning in another direction, instead push through your opponent.

We then practiced the above 4 waza as a set. Before each cut make seme, after passing your opponent, turn and quickly take kamae, make seme again and step forwards to invite the next attack.

After this was a 5 minute break followed by jigeiko. I practiced with the 4 sensei in attendance and really enjoyed the keiko. At the end of practice we did kakarigeiko against Sekiyama Sensei and Abe Sensei (of Michi no Ko) Sekiyama Sensei was really tough on the older kenshi!

It was a great practice and it was nice to have such a high level sensei join us at the dojo. I look forward to his next visit!

Some thoughts on the movement of the right foot to invite your opponent.

"Step forward slightly with the right foot, as the opponent begins to move, attack men by pushing forward.."

Ive been thought this movement before by Sensei and Sempai alike. When I say the above its important to point out that its not just as black and white as that.You must make seme and build pressure to a point where both sides really want to cut,  its this pressure that we use to make the opponent attack in our timing. When I say step forward with the right foot, it is a tiny step, just pushing your toes out in front. The timing between this movement and the full attack is what makes it work. Some times you push forwards slightly and in almost the same instant continue with the full attack, others you push forwards, pause slightly, and then attack.

This timing is difficult to learn and is what I'm struggling with and trying my hardest with at the moment.

As I've said before and have been told again recently at keiko, having a good motodachi is really very important for kendo practice.

If you have a motodachi who is just going to blindly strike men when they feel like it, then your practicing your reaction speed more than your seme.
Our dojos sempai pointed out last week that during oji waza practice, motodachi should be waiting for your signals to begin their attack, this way you are practicing seme, and how to make your opponent react to your actions, rather than how to quickly react to theirs. Motodachi should also make sure not to attack when your seme is weak so that you always try to make the situation real.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Thank you
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One of the weakest points in my kendo is hiki waza. I rarely use them in keiko, mostly because I feel my dojo is too small to be zipping around in all directions and also because I rarely get the chance to practice them.

I had a period of success with hiki waza after returning to Ireland from training in Japan in 2010. While practicing at a friends university I got the chance to practice a lot of hiki waza and took that practice back home with me. I used it during classes at my home dojo and found that my hiki waza improved greatly in both keiko and shiai (scoring 3 times with hiki waza at Mumeishi 3's in London)

Now I find myself instead on the end of hiki strikes from sempai, who with years of practice from their school days are able to spot my weakness. (I also get it a lot from current students who are just blindingly quick from there!)

So my current goal is to improve this aspect!

Ive done a small bit of translation from a kendo book (not perfect, but I understand the gist of it fairly well)

つばぜり合いになった瞬間は

At the moment of making taubazeriai,

意外にフッと気がぬけるものなのだ

Surprisingly puff/let out our breath and "let our "Ki" (spirit/energy) fall away" / let ourselves relax

この一瞬をねらえば、引き技もきまりやすくなる。

If you aim for this instant, hiki waza will also become habitually easy

So to sum it up in my understanding.

At the moment of making tsubazeriai, we surprisingly relax, lose focus, release our breath and our concentration. If we aim to attack in this moment then hiki waza will also (like other waza) come naturally.

I've certainly been guilty of letting my attacks fall off upon reaching tsubazeriai. After launching an attack at an opponent and finding that there was infact no opening, or that they have blocked, I would switch off and just reset, lowering my kamae and stepping back to try again. I've cut that out now, but I still see many people doing it.
If you do this in keiko. You will do it in shiai when we get tired our bad habbits come out. Someone will spot it and they will take their opportunity.

So with this in mind I will try to avoid loosing concentration during tsubazeriai, to keep up my attacking spirit and to attack at the moment my opponent relaxes or begins to change his movements.

I hope you enjoyed reading. Please feel free to comment. Especially on the translation! Explanations on grammar points that I have got wrong or how to string sentences together properly, would be greatly appreciated!

Photo of original text below.



From 強くなる剣道入れ入門 (Kendo Manual)



I asked a Senpai to take some photos of my Kamae last night.

I'm not sure the left hand is in the position Yanai Sensei wanted it. But if I push it any lower it feels unnatural and too forced.

With the hands at that height I can still keep a relaxed grip on the tsuka, any lower and the angle of my grip changes, my wrist becomes more twisted and the muscles in my forearm tense and the whole arm stiffens.

I have kind of stumpy arms so I think this is an ok height!

I'll ask Sensei to correct it next time I see him.