Some interesting waza!

Last night I practiced with the junior Highschool group again.

It was really good and I feel a lot ether after it!

First up was kirikaeshi, normal and then 50 cuts.

After that we did a weird version! Alot of the time people do kirikaeshi at that speed their arms end up extended and the cuts come from the wrists and elbows in stead if being big swings. Onuki Sensei made the point that sometimes your hands come over your head and the cut is not correct or sloppy.

So! We did it with our elbows tucked it at the do! Not stuck rigidly but they were kept down! So it was just an exercise using the forearms!
It made a difference to my men cut later in the practice.

We did about 5 sets of 30!!

We then did a lot of waza focusing around one type of seme or invitation

Kakrite steps in to distance, bends the left knee (and right a little) and almost drops it. Pushing the left hip forward at the same time. It really let's you burst forward when done properly. (Onuki Senseis demonstration was excellent) basically we used that move to invite the aite into attacking.

We did men, kote, aikote-men, (plus adding hiki men to the last two), kaeshi do, kote kaeshi kote, kote kaeshi kote-men, and kaeshi men!

The idea as always is that you make that movement with the intention of cutting. You don't wait, you step in with reason, hold/tame, and go when they flinch!

It works pretty well, though mine was pretty sloppy!

I got a few nice aikote men though! I need work more on the follow up hiki men. I think that kind of technique would really stand to me in Europe, a lot of people (myself included) would be caught out by it, as we tend to stop after forward attacks, I've tried to eliminate this from my kendo, but it's hard ne!

The most interesting was the kaeshi kote.

You step in, make the invitation, when aite comes for kote, you move your kensen to the right and catch the cut.

At this point Onuki Sensei made a point about tame, he repeated that word a few times! You catch the cut, tame/hold/pause and then cut the kote.

Obviously it has to be fast, but there was a definate mention of tame, and a clear pause when he demonstrated it. Also watching the stronger students it was clear they were pausing.

The kote zanshin can be backwards or forwards. (this is jhs stuff, so it's very shiai aimed btw!!)

After making the kaeshi you step diagonally to the left to make the kote.

Kote-men is similar but obviously a lot harder!! It made it easier going backwards if the aite tries to follow through on the kote, that way when you go back after you hit , they follow which makes the men easier to hit! Forwards is pretty tough as the kote and men have to be done so close to the target!

Last was kaeshi men. It was a lot like suriage though, but he defiantly said kaeshi!

The main idea was not to raise the arms too high. I don't think his hands came much above his chin. You turn your shinai slightly to the right, catch the aites men cut and with your fore arms and wrists, snap off a men cut.
The main point is that you shouldn't raise your arms too high. I don't know if it is "kaeshi men" as most people know it, but that's what he said!

Anyway. I'm on a break in school. Just thought I'd throw that out there real quick.

Thanks

Edit. I wrote this on my phone. So dont mind the spelling mistakes!

I think apple purposely made the new iPhones change things to incorrect spellings anyway. The cunts.