About this blog..

This is a blog that I started in April 2006, just after I first put on my bogu (kendo armour). It collects the advices given by more experienced kendo practitioners as well as those from my own experiences. Both technical and the mental aspects of kendo are written in the blog. I hope someone will find them useful or interesting at least!

Monday, February 28, 2011

Improving debana-men

Two weeks of Chinese New Year break arrived timely for me to catch up some sleep. But in the end, I guess most of you would feel the same, was that I couldn't wait to get to the dojo.

Gradually I am exploring the finer details of kendo. It feels like a natural progression that in order to improve I must understand these details. Like seme and timing, with their associated footworks.

For example, when fighting against fast and powerful kendokas, I tend to not hitting straight because I am too afraid of being hit with a debana-men. The advices I got were:
  • I need to see and feel when the opponent is going attack. Just before that moment, strike immediately to win the debana-men. The right foot should be ready to jump forwards at any moment, meaning that the left foot should be staying put on the ground.
  • If the opponent has strong seme and takes the centre, then I must take it back with my shinai. Otherwise, striking when the opponent has the centre is a sure suicide.
Striking kote and kote-men:
  • One tip to hit on the kote without looking at it is to make the kote strike long the line going through the opponents right eye.