Be more explosive

Today at the mawari-keiko session, Ho sensei asked me to stand in the motodachi position for the first time. After a few fights, Ho sensei came to tell me that I should try to use more waza and execute every technique thoroughly and correctly, even fighting with junior players.

When fighting with Yi-Chen (5th Dan), I had a big problem being able to hit him, which had happened also with some other people before. When he steped in to chikma (close distance), he turned his shinai pointing to his right, in sort of a half-blocking position. I knew I could not reach his men because he can block and even do a kaeshi-do. Kote was also protected because of the angle of his shinai. The only target opened was do, which was hard to hit also because the distance was very close. But I did get his do once.

On the good side, I started to analyze more and more the opponent's movements, and try to develop a strategy against them.

I need to make my attacks more explosive.

Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year everyone!!

I've been to every training in the past month. Not for any particular reason, just because I enjoyed it. There have also been a few realizations of my own kendo lately.

• When cutting: One thing particularly important is that, raising the shinai higher and strike down brings more power to the cut. This way I don't loose ai-men easily.

• More successes at nuki-do and kaeshi-do: Timing is critical. And to have the correct timing, one should seme until the opponent launches the attack. I found that smooth and slow seme works the best. For example, sliding the shinai forwards against the opponent's just a couple of inches from the issoku-ito-no-maai distance, if the opponent raise the shinai to strike, then execute the kaeshi-men. If the opponent shows no movement, then back out and seme in again.

• Kamae: If I have a good kamae then I become confident with myself. Maybe it's the reverse, I don't know. But for sure to check for is if I am holding my kamae correctly, and build up the pressure against my opponent from there.

• Kote-men moments: The moment to execute kote-men is rather interesting. Very often the kote gives the opponent a signal to defend and then he blocks the men. The solution one is, to have a blitzing fast kote-men technique, but then the opponent is still be able to block. I think the best way to solve this is to catch the right time for kote-men. One of these moments is when his kensen is low, especially when he is about to attack (debana moment).

• Concentration: There is a common problem to everyone, and that is the temporary black-out of mind. If this happens one basically falls into any trap set up by his opponent. Fake-men then striking kote is one of the most effective tricks. So concentrate!!