Maai (間合;Distance)

Recently, I have been working on getting the correct distance, or the maai. Maai is the distance between the two opponents, and it is basically like the "shooting range" for guns.

However, not only the distance is important, the kamae also determines whether one is ready to jump forward or not, and whether one can jump far or close.

For example, if one were to strike debana-men, he must not jump too far because it would be slow, and also it is unnecessary since the opponent moves also forward. So, doing a successful debana-men should be aiming at "touching down" quickly with the right foot, in order to be faster than the opponent's men attack.

The separation between the two feet is also crucially important. At to-maai (far distance) and issoku-ittono-maai, the separation must be close to each other. To seme from to-maai, the left foot must draw towards the right foot quickly as the body advances forwards. However, to seme from issoku-ittono-maai ("one-cut-one-step" distance), the left foot should stay put, getting ready to strike at any moment.

It varies with the ability and the height of the person, of course. Generally speaking, when the opponent comes into the "shooting range", the left foot should not move, so that one can strike immediately when there is a chance.

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!!

Fumigomi practice

Last Saturday I went to the morning keiko (Asageiko) at the Taipei Japanese School again, where Kamiyama (上山) Sensei (7th Dan Kyoshi) heads the training.

After the keiko he gave very valuable advices on the correct fumigomi and the practice for it, which I will describe in the following.

Step 1: Take one large step forward with the right foot. One main point is that when the right foot makes contact with the floor, there is a sheer-like force going, not straight down, but forward-down as shown in the picture below.

Step 2: Quickly draw the left foot to the right one, and stand on the soles of the feet, so that the body is going slightly up.

Step 3: Repeat the exercise.

This is really the tip that I have been looking for to improve my men-strikes, for a long time. So I'm eager to share with you guys here! Hope it helps!

Cut right down

"Cut right down! Cut right down!" The instruction from Ho Sensei still echoes in my ears.. "Cut it like you want to split the opponent's head in half."

Many kenshi, especially young ones, tend to only tap the opponent when striking. I know this is not good, but sometimes I still do it without thinking.

More suburi is needed..

In the past few weeks I trained only once a week which is really terrible. However, there're something else also that needs my dedication also at the moment. Meanwhile, I will have to make sure that I split my opponent's head in half, well in my mind.

Sticky right foot is no good

• When stomping the right foot while doing kote-men, make sure the foot is not sticking to the floor. It should be agile enough to bounce up again quickly to take another step.
• When doing hiki-men, stomp the floor with the right foot while striking to gain the initial momentum backwards, and then use the sole of the feet to sprint back.
• When doing hiki-do, make sure the shinai hits on the side of the do sharply. And it's ok to go a little towards the left-back.
• when doing hiki-kote, make sure the distance is enough when striking.
• I ask Chang Sempai about how to execute small men-strike correctly. He said to push the left hand forwards, and make the left elbow straight. The right hand naturally becomes straight as well. The tsuba will be slightly below the shoulder if striking someone of the same height.
• Ho-Sensei told me to use my eyes more to observe my opponent and react accordingly. Also, I shouldn't let my emotion overcomes by senses, striking when there's no chance. (Hmm... I was thinking, there's no chance for me to hit him anyways...)

I'm sometimes wondering how much have I improved since I came back to Taiwan. Sensei and Sempais told me every now and then the same things on which I should improve.

Ho-Sensei asked a few people including me if we want to participate in team competition in the National Chung-Cheng Cup on 12-13th Dec. (Don't ask me why there're all called Chung-Cheng, the other name of the former president Chiang Kei-Shek. Anyways, this is the whole country whereas, the one I just participated was for Taipei and mostly northern counties.) I said yes right away, which was unlike me who always has to "think about it". And later he asked me if I want to fight also in the individuals. To that, I also answered quickly, "Maybe not." Thinking, "Jeez, this is the national tai-kai. What a mountain to climb!" But now I'm reconsidering, since I need to get as much shiai-experience as possible while I still could.

Ozawa Sensei is visiting Taiwan in December. He will come with one 8th Dan and 2 other 7th Dan teachers. I'm glad that I can take them to Taipei Kendokan to see good kendo in Taiwan. I'm looking forward to it!

Concentrate with your eyes

Tomorrow is the Taipei Chung-Cheng Cup where I'll be fighting as a member of the under-30 team from Taipei Kendokan. In the past two weeks, due to my busy schedule I could only stay in Hsin-Chu and train with the university students. The downside is that it's hard to find a competative opponent to fight against especially in terms of speed and putting pressure. So that, everytime when I go back to Taipei Kendokan, it feels like I hadn't trained for a while.

Chang Sempai gave me some advices during waza-geiko:

• focus on using your eyes and not the feet nor the hands, to observe the opponent's movement and find the right moment to strike.
• stronger forward motion.

I found also that I tend to lean back a little when striking men. My cut is not strong enough and is easy to loose an ai-men facing a strong fighter. I should correct this mistake.

I hope tomorrow I will be in a good condition for the matches!

Much to improve

Yesterday was my second training at Taipei Kendokan. As expected, many people turned up on the Friday's session, and the good thing about this dojo is that, there are enough space and enough people to practise the whole evening without rest. After two hours of solid training, I could hardly walk straight.

I expressed my wish to the leading teacher Ming-Hua Ho Sensei (7th Dan who had been on the national team many times until 2006 WKC despite being almost 50 years old) that I would like to join the dojo. After the training I went to have some food and drink with him and other sempais. I felt much welcomed there.

There were plenty of advices from sempais and sensei:

• The left foot should not raise upwards during the men-strike. It should follow quickly up with the right foot.
• When striking kote, extend the arms forwards more, instead of making the kensen pointing vertically upwards.
• Got the same advice from another sempai to relax my right arm when striking men, so that I can extend the kensen forwards more. So it must be an obvious mistake..
• For doing small men-cuts, raise the hands until the right one is roughly at the level of the oppoent's tsuki tare, then flex the wrist to strike.
• Ho Sensei said my kendo became worst compared to last time when I was here !!! He said I had much stronger seme before (a few months ag0), but this time it was gone... It sounded like a sharp knife carving from my forehead straight-down to my testicles. But I know what he meant and it was true. It was partly because I was too tired already when fighting with him and I just wanted to do men-uchigomigeiko. However, on the positive side, he thinks I HAD seme. ;-) I need to work hard now.

Two Sempais, a male (Mr. Su) and a female (Ms. Hsieh), kendokas from the dojo who happened to be a married couple are selected to represent Taiwan in the World Kendo Championship this year. I was told that for the selection of the men's team, there were 63 candidates, all 3rd Dan above (which was a minimum requirement), and they must fight with each other until the final 7 or so winners. Imagine the number of matches they had to go through ... Anyways, I wish them luck!

The 200th blog entry and still going

Today I was practising my footwork after the men-strikes using the mindset I mentioned in the last entry, which helped a lot still. But one more problem was that my strikes weren't sharp enough after I became tired. I almost "gave up" at the moment when I launched forwards with my feet.

I should commit to every men-strike whole-heartedly and execute proper movements in jigeiko, instead of making half-way and mediocre strikes.

Don't leave the upper body behind

Only trained once a week in the past two weeks because the amount of stuff I needed to do at the moment. I'm happy that things outside the dojo are going in general quite well at the moment. This gives me a more positive feel when I come to the dojo as well. I remember last year during particularly stressful time, kendo was my meditation and my escape. Every time when I came to the dojo I felt like I was coming to take a massive dosage of paracetamol, and I took it willingly.

Stress brings good kendo. I think this was almost what Jindra told me last year as to why kendo in Japan is so beautiful. Because it is shaped by the stress in the society. Though it could be an exaggeration, there is however some sense in it. Apart from techniques, people search for the spirituality as well as the self-confidence in the dojo. These two elements naturally become the main emphasis in the adult kendo.

Yesterday's training was one of those in which I suddenly understand something. This time was to do with men-strike (how surprising..). I put my weight, especially my upper body, more towards the front at the instant of the striking. This make my strike faster and more explosive. Before I tried too much to bring my hip forward, and ha.. the result was that I brought only the hip. My upper body was behind. Of course, if the upper body is leaning too much forward, it's not good either. It's a very delicate tipping point. For me, I need to be more consistent. If I do it once, I need to do it the every next time. This is my goal.

Apart from the body, my left fist sometimes goes slightly over to the right of my centerline during men-strike. This is very bad, as my opponent can easily win during ai-men. 

On a completely different story, there have been over 10,000 visits to this blog! Thanks for continuing to come back. When I started writing this blog I never thought or worried if there'd be anyone viewing, as it's just like thinking out loud for me. It makes me happy that some people find it helpful, and over the past couple years I have got some nice emails from some of you. Thank you!

Shyugyo 3

Yesterday evening I had a very good training, in which I had jigeikos with Kuroda-san (first time seeing him in Tokyo), Ozawa's son, Gibbo (the British Champion), and Yasuko. Kuroda plays very beautiful kendo, not the competitive type, but the type that everyone in Japan considers as beautiful and as the ultimate goal. This is mainly due to having a very good posture. Ozawa-san has blitzing fast attacks. His kote-men fumikomis are virtually indistinguishable from each other. He could use keishi-men to avoid the shinai which I put in the centre line, and struck
my men beautifully. Yasuko was also difficult to fight though I could defend better then when I was fighting with the others. Gibbo does a more active kendo. He doesn't put as much pressure as the other people I have fought with in this dojo, but he sees the openings and seizes the moment.

I had many valuable advices from them, especially form Kuroda-san who corrected many fundamental mistakes I make on men-uchi.

The advice from Kuroda:

• Use more kote-men in jigeiko

About my men-uchi:

• Don't use fumikomi. Just let the gravity to do the job. If take a larger and faster step then it sounds naturally louder.
• My hip was not even while striking. The left side is lagging behind.
• My right wrist is turing the wrong way while doing the tenouchi. The inner side of the wrist should not be facing downwards.
• The left-right weight ratios of the feet, and hand grip are 7-3.
  

From Yasuko:

• My kote timing is good but it's a shame that I tend to go backwards.

From Gibbo:

• I ran into his kensen many times. I should try to take the centre. ``The solutions are there, and you just have to find it''.
  

This training really made the whole week worthwhile. I'm starting to find mistakes I make and things that I have to improve on. It's one of the main purposes of being here.

Training with Tatsuro 1

We practiced yesterday with Tatsuro, a Waseda University student who already visited us once earlier this year. We did the usual kihon-geiko until the last 30-40 minutes, when we did jigeiko.

During kihon-geiko, we did a couple of round of butsukari-geiko (two consecutive sets of men-taitari-hiki-men/kote/do, and finishing with a men-uchi). I was lucky enough to did this with Tatsuro. He corrected me that I should never move as a motodachi when the kakarite execute taitari. The lower abdomen should be pushed forward, and be brought to clash with the opponent. It's one thing training with the others and another thing training with him. It felt like being hit by a bull. So I had to almost exaggerate (from our normal standard here) my movement in order to stop him properly. I tried it again and it worked.

I also practiced sashi-men with him. What stood out from his men-strike is the forward movement of his hip and abdomen. The moment that he seme'd and launched his strike, it felt like he was "falling" forwards onto me. The power and the speed was tremendous.

I was extremely tired towards the end of the jigeiko. Maybe because I trained only once a week in the past month due to various reasons.

Tatsuro gave me some advice after the jigeiko:

• He noticed that when he seme'd I tended to back out. He told me to have patience and seme back.
• The distance between the left feet of both players should be kept the same most of the time. The right feet, however, moves forwards or backwards during seme.
• I pointed out that when he retrieved while I attacked, I tried to do rezoku-waza with men, but I couldn't keep my momentum up. He said the left arm is important, and I should do more katate-men. One should also strike with the hip.
• He said, in kendo, the body is relaxed, and the hip is very important.

Stephan told me after the jigeiko:

• My seme leading up to the men-strike is not enough. I have to hold the centre while bringing my shinai up.

Tonight there's the last training with Tatsuro before he goes back to Japan.

In shape again

Yesterday, I went to the training after my neck recovered from the shock last week. I led the training at the university's club, as both Georg and Stephan are away at the moment along with most of the more experienced kenshi, because of this, the event at the Baltic sea. Surprisingly, 7 people still came to the training, among which 5 had bogus. So we could do some decent training.

I emphasised at the beginning and the end of the training that the basic requirements for doing good kendo are perhaps the fighting spirit and body posture.

After some rounds of suburi, we started with 4-5 rounds of kirikaeshi. I stressed the breathing and its importance. This was pointed out by Ozawa sensei in last year's seminar in Prague. I repeat here again:

• Kirikaeshi: (1) men-strike, (2) breath, then 4 sayu-men forwards and 5 backwards, then men-strike, (3) pause and breath again (4) repeat (2) and (3).

Like jogging, when one breathe systematically, he can run for longer.

Then we did more kihon. But this time I asked very one to start from toma, where they should kiai and move their feet, before taking one step forwards to take the centerline with the tip of the shinai, and strike. After the strike, they should push their body diagonally to the left of the opponent to go through.

Then we did like this for kote, kote-men (motodachi stay still), and kote-men-men (motodachi take one step backwards after each strike). I emphasised that distance and footwork are the key points in these exercises. At the kote-men it is a common mistake to take too large a step at the kote-strike, so that the men-strike is too close to the motodachi. At the kote-men-men, the point is that because the motodachi is going backwards, one must draw his left foot quickly forwards to prepare for the next strike, at the same time maintaining a good posture.

I'm glad to see they take kendo seriously with lots of intention to improve themselves. It's very important to train yourself as well as to think of exercises to do so. I'm glad to see two of them stayed after the training to do even more exercises themselves. They obviously care about their own kendo.

Sashi-men 刺し面

The benefit of knowing Chinese is that I can read about 70-80 % Japanese text. Sashi-men, 刺し面 in Japanese, is what we normally refer to as the "small men cut". In Japanese Kanji, the first character "刺" means to fence. The phase, therefore, literally translates to "fencing the head". We can understand from it that, the motion should resemble fencing as opposed to swinging.

At the core

My graduate study is approaching towards the end, and, in order to ensure that I work hard enough to finish it on time, training will be kept at maximum twice a week. If every training goes well, this would not be too bad, though I can probably more or less only try to make my existing techniques more proficient. Not a bad situation. As there are still plenty of space for improvement.

Yesterday, about 14 kenshis with armours turned up. The kendo population in Dresden has really been climbing steadily in the past 1.5 years. When I started around that time, only a handful of people with bogu would turn up at each training. Once a few more beginners advanced enough to wear the bogu, a few with bogu would drop out. So the population had always somewhat maintained at an equilibrium.

So why has it grown so much in the past year? Well, I attribute it to the fact that we now have a handful of kendo fanatics, regular practitioners, whose will to improve their kendo is so strong that it surpasses the desire to engage in other activities. This tight circle of people makes up the core on which the Dresden kendo community builds. As they make effort to improve themselves, the rest feels the passion radiated from them, and sees a reason to learn more and to train hard.

Who belongs to this core of kenshi? Well, you know who you are.

So back to the training itself. Because all of us had bogus, we could concentrate on waza. After 10 mins of warm up, we did 30 mins of kihon and debana-kote. Then 30 mins of jigeiko.

When doing jigeiko with beginners, I practiced debana-men and uchiotoshi-men. With more advanced players I used more renzoku-waza. I still find it hard to make my left foot follow up quickly enough, especially when I am tired. But how fast the follow-on strikes can be executed depends largely on if the left foot is close enough to the right one. Other notes are:

• remember when executing sashi-men, the initial motion resembles tsuki to secure the centerline, and at the same to prevent debana-kote.
  
• keep the center of weight lower so that it's easy to launch forward to attack. But still need to try to maintain the posture.

Stephan's feedback from jigeiko:

• In seme and kamae, keep the right arm relaxed while the left fist stays in the centerline. Do not push the shinai too hard.
• For debana-kote don't think about avoiding the attack before the strike. Otherwise the posture would be broken.
  

Forward thrust

Yesterday, my men-strike somehow just clicked. I tried to thrust my hip forwards with the left leg, faster than before. The results is a faster and stronger men cut.

I arrived the dojo 40 mins before the session while the iaido had not finished. At the corner of the dojo I did 500+ suburi, and backwards - forwards footwork in chudan to practice seme.

Maybe because of the 30mins exercise, I was already a bit tired at the beginning of the kendo session. Nevertheless, my goal was still to give it all. And I did just that.

3 x kirikaeshi, 3 x men-hiki-men-men-hiki-kote-men-hiki-do, (then the same exercise but with kote-men), 2 x men-hiki-men-men (motodachi) - debana-kote, 2 x 5 techniques against men.

In the hiki-waza combo (I forgot the name for it), there should not be any pause between each strike. I also paid extra effort into the zanshin of the hiki-men, namely, holding the shinai high above my head with arms almost straight, to really show the spirit.

I didn't turn around fast enough for debana-kote as my men got hit most of the time.

I continued to give it all in the 15 mins of jigeiko, and kept on striking men with the epiphany I described at the beginning. It worked wonder. I thought also very little because I was tired. My body took over the control.

I tried also the osae-waza, which is the pressing technique. For me the best is pressing with the ura (right) side of the shinai. There are three main points:

1. pressing at the middle of the opponent's shinai.
2. pressing and striking is one movement.
3. the arc drawn by the kensen should be as small as possible so that the strike can be make as quickly as possible.

In the last round of jigeiko I fought with Stephan, which was a very enjoyable fight even though I lost the ippon-shyobu. I struck men but at the same time he launched kote-men. Both the kote and the men hit the target. I was so tired that I didn't spend enough effort on seme. With a kote-men it's hard to defend, but if one apply seme (pressure) in the course leading to the strike, it is much hard for to opponent to be ready for striking. Perhaps one can also say that applying seme is a form of defence without explicitly covering one's open targets.

I was completely knackered after the training. What a good feeling!

Cut too light

After a week of absence in the dojo due to work I attended the training on Friday. The session was short and started late due to the late arrival of the people who did Iaido. It's a bit of waste of my time to be honest. Coming on time and just sitting there and wait. But, that's how life goes sometimes.

After the kihon, we did debana-waza, hiki-waza, kakarigeiko, and finally jigeiko.

• My sashi-men is not strong enough. I hit too lightly.
• I realised afterwards that at jigeiko my performance was too monotonic, which made it predictable for more experienced players. Especially, it made me prone to debana-waza.
• need to work on hiki-men.

Next Saturday is the International Berlin Kyu-level Tournament, which Stephan tried to persuade me to attend. I'm tempted, but also unsure about whether I should give so much time to kendo at the moment when I'm trying to finish my thesis. But I'm going to try. This means that I'll have to train at least 3 times next week.

More tsuki!

Today we practised tsuki. The method from what I understood is the following:

first as though going for the men, then lower the shinai to fence the tsuki-tare. Keep the upper body straight.Left foot follows in the right foot.

We practised also do- and kaeshi-do strikes. The strength of my do-strike has improved a lot since a month ago.

At the end we did jigeiko for about 20 mins. Here the things I learned from it:

• Don't turn before striking the kote. Step straight in.
• Try to use oji-waza more instead of using the defensive tsuki when the opponent comes.
• Don't be discouraged by men-strike being blocked. I should do more and improve the speed of my men-strike.