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.
