KENDOJIDAI 2013.10
This is the first time Koda Kunihide, Kyoshi 8th Dan and professor of Tsukuba University, does a full instruction series for Kendo Jidai. Harada Satoru, Takanabe Susumu and Murayama Chinatsu are all accomplished fighters who graduated from Tsukuba University. You can take the same instructions they received right here, right now!
- Part 1: Basic movement
- Part 2: Shikake-Men
- Part 3: Shikake-Kote
- Part 4: Oji-waza against Men
- Part 5: Oji-waza against Kote
- Part 6: Keiko methods
Control the center with your left hand and follow through on your strikes
To learn proper Men-strikes, it is important to use the entire body and perform large techniques. We need to aim for strikes which stay true to Kikentai-icchi and when focusing on running our lower body into the opponent, we should be able to strike in a straight line without moving up and down. When the intent to strike is too strong or the Maai is miscalculated, your posture will collapse, so be careful.
Shikake-men is an applicative technique and requires to be struck small and sharp. However, when the focus lies too much on striking small, the strikes end up merely touching the target and won’t grant an Ippon even if they land. This will not be valued in examinations either. Therefore, even small strikes must have power and should be followed through with.
When swinging up the Shinai, try to maintain your posture as when in Kamae. When you change your posture, you will signal to your opponent that you are initiating a technique. Try to not let your posture be disturbed.
The rest of this article is only available for Kendo Jidai International subscribers!