Kote Men Do : Hachidan e no Ashisabaki: Exercise

Showing posts with label Exercise. Show all posts

Aug 8, 2009

#67: Penalty Game Ippon Shoubu Jigeiko

For those who are not familiar with the ippon shoubu bit in the title, it means one point deathmatch in a loose sense.

We have been doing this lately during training and I've found that it is a interesting exercise that kind of works for me every so often but I think I am also getting a better hang of.

How it works is quite simple. It is jigeiko, but you aim to score an ippon in the 30 second time limit that is given. This is the ippon part. The shoubu part is, its penalty, do or die. If you fail and your partner both fail to score, i.e. draw, then you do 10 hayasuburi each. If you scored, or they scored off you, then the loser has to do 20 hayasuburi each. The winner gets to relax.

It isn't a lot of penalty, but it is enough to drive some motivation to score that point. For most people, there is a lot of drawn matches. This is a problem because people are not confident in determining that their cuts are worth an ippon. For this exercise, not only is it about landing a good ippon cut, but also knowing what one should feel like, judging it so, as well as knowing when to give that ippon to your opponent.

For me, I've won, and lost, and drawn many of them, but when we do this ippon shoubu, I think I'm more mentally geared to to go for that do-or-die cut and put everything into it, even if it is two seconds before either I land that cut, or have one put onto me.

Good exercise.

Jun 3, 2009

#61: Advice from Networking

I am a member of a group called Kendo Business Professionals, as part of the LinkedIn website network (a professional networking site c.f. to social networking like Facebook).

As my recent problem regarding leg use (#57 here) I asked the question on a discussion at the group and this is the response I received from someone in the group.

From Geoff Salmon
Both problems would be best cured by lots of uchikomigeiko and kakarigeiko.

In addition try this excercise to fix both problems. Practice this with a partner and take turns as motodachi. Step into correct distance, (about 15 cms past the point of his shinai and change the weight between your feet from 50:50 to 70:30 left:right foot, make sure your left heel is lifted from the ground but not too much. Build up the pressure betwen the two of you and when motodachi feels the time is right, he should take a tiny step forward on the front foot and incline his head forward slightly. You should then instantly push off from the back foot and hit debana men. You should do this until it becomes second nature. To get more forward motion, vary this drill with alternate seme men attacks, stepping in from long distance and breaking your opponents centre then pushing off and hitting in one movement.

The other thing to remember is that counters have to be forward attacks too. Nuki, kaeshi, suriage waza etc only work if you make pressure, open your kamae to draw your opponent in and then make the oji waza in one movement

I think it's fantastic to be able to have these things, and yes, I am aware of places like Kendo World Forums etc (which I don't actually visit for some reason) to provide alternative advice and views on things.

This brings up a point though in our training in that we do not do much uchikomigeiko or kakarigeiko at all, not for a while actually, and this is also something that is needed for grading too. Perhaps it is something I should bring up with our training leaders at some point. I'll give it a go, though as for the exercise further described, I will probably just have to try it in jigeiko situations as "live" training.

Apr 16, 2009

#56: Experienced Observations

One of the senior members of the state and national team in NSW/Australia is Vivian Yung. She has her own Kendo blog, which contains the insights from her own journey. She recently won the Womens individual title at the 34th Australian Kendo Championships held in Adelaide over the Easter long weekend.

I found her review of the weekend, along with her observations, thoughts and summation of the exercises taught in the seminar to be very useful, so I have included a link to that specific post in her blog.

http://nintai.blogspot.com/2009/04/34akc-shomen-ni-rei.html

She will be competing at the World Championships in Brazil sometime this year, so please give her all of your support ^_^

Feb 7, 2009

#51: 2009 Picton Grading + Grading Considerations

Today was a pretty hot day with temperatures out in Liverpool about 35°C, and when I got home my room was a nice toasty 37°C with 21% relative humidity which made it bearable by not being so humid. I travelled down to Picton for grading, which was held at Picton High School, along with a carload of other grading hopefuls.

Having been injured, and slightly frustrated with how things were going, and then also not enjoying my Kendo as much as I would have liked to lately, I was a bit apprehensive on if I would be successful in passing Ni-kyu (2nd kyu) today, and while yesterday in regular Friday training we went through the basics, I was still a bit iffy in regards to the stamina issue. There was a seminar today that covered what we needed to know, and it was taken by Takashi Itakura Sensei, and Martino Ellero. We went through the important parts of our attire, equipment, kirikaeshi, uchigomikeiko, kakarigeiko and then jigeiko. For those who were doing Ikkyu (1st kyu), they also went and had five minutes practice of kata. The candidates for ikkyu and nikyu were lumped together because our requirements were virtually the same with the exception of kata.

The pointers for attire/equipment:

Uniform: The colour must not be faded. The colour should be white or the dark navy brown. If you have discoloured or badly faded uniform, you can be failed.
Uniform: Do not show chest. The gi should be closed up.
Uniform: Make sure there are no creases or folds on the back of the gi, and all the folds are visible in the hakama.
Uniform:Clean any stains off the uniform before grading such as salt stains.
Uniform:Pull the hakama firmly down onto the hips so that it looks proper incase it has ridden up while sitting in seiza and putting tare/dou on.
Shinai: Make sure the nakayui leather is tied at approximately 1/4 of the entire shinai lenght from the sakigawa.
Shinai: Make sure that the tsuru and nakayui is neat and appropriately cut to length and not sticking out bits.
Shinai: Make sure that the tsuba is as far flush up to the tsuka as possible with no gap visible if possible.
Shinai: If you use a carbon shinai, you must also be careful more than normal to ensure that the sakigawa is not damaged.
Bogu: Men himo the right length and when tied, the loops/tails match.
Bogu: Men himo flat and together on the sides of the men when tied.
Bogu: Dou himo tied firmly (front and back), and knots tucked away.
Bogu: Tare knot hidden.

For kirikaeshi:

Take your time, accuracy, good posture, good kendo is more important than rushing it.
Stop at each stage of kirikaeshi briefly to make the best effort.
One kiai if possible for sayumen cuts, if you chose to use kiai of men men men, make it flowing, so MenMenMen instead of Men Men Men.
Zanshin of the cut finishes after you turn around from the last kihon men cut with kiai.
As motodachi for kirikaeshi, receive the cuts properly with your shinai to allow your shidachi to give their best kendo.

For uchigomigeiko:

Pause and wait until you are ready to make the cut before making the cut. Rushing will not produce your best and most accurate cut.
Turn around quickly at proper distance (ittomai or chikama at closest) to enable your motodachi to open once you are ready.
Slow down and show your intent of cut, determination and confidence of cut.

For kakarigeiko:

You do not always have to hit the motodachi's shinai away from center to create attackable openings. If you control center, suriyashi footwork into distance automatically creates an opening.
Take your time to make good cuts, rushing does not help.
Turn around at right distance to make a cut from where you turn
Zanshin that you meant to make that cut from the opening

For jigeiko:

With the limited time frame, do not spam cuts. Make good cuts that show your kendo.
Do not block unless it is an obviously bad cut that has been thrown.
Work together as a team to both show your kendo
In a one minute jigeiko, making five good cuts is all you need.

Commonality between them:

All is that you should be using kihon cuts.
Kiai strongly to show your determination and confidence.
Work with your partner. If you know their skill level, you can do ni-dan or san-dan waza (kote men, kote dou, men me/kote men dou etc) for uchigomigeiko. If they wish to use it in kakarigeiko and you can see it, work with them to allow it to happen.
Take your time with every cut. Set up the cut so you can show ultimately your best kendo.

I think that with all of that being delivered to us in the space of just under an hour, and also getting rotational practice for those exercises was very good for me. With the heat, we took it easy somewhat and only had half the time for the seminar than was planned, which turned out to be not such a bad thing at all.

When it came to the actual grading, I was still a bit nervous, but with kirikaeshi first up, I let it just happen, taking time with the cuts and making the cuts solid with continous kiai as best I could. The uchigomigeiko and kakarigeiko went reasonably I thought and then we had jigeiko at the end.

I was also a little apprehensive of that, as the two people I had to play were also from my club. The odd one out was someone who I had also graded with at Founders Cup weekend in 2008. Anyway, with my first jigeiko opponent, everything was fine, we started off with an aiyuchimen cut before cutting at each other with kihon cuts (which felt really weird considering that we normally practice jigeiko with small cuts), and then with the second person, I had height advantage, but it wasn't that great an advantage because they could move faster and had excellent timing. I missed three kihon kote cuts but I don't think it mattered because I showed my intent and determination for the cut, regardless if they moved away with timing for me to cut air.

The waiting wasn't too bad afterwards as everyone had some lunch and chilled out, and then we lined up to wait for the results to be read out. Almost everyone passed except for the Dan levels where it is a bit different. All four of us in nikyu passed so that was great.

I'm quite happy with the result since I've trained three or four times since I've injured my wrist back in November last year, and I think I did okay. The next grading if I am still in the country is at Founders Cup in August, and I will now have to start learning my kata for ipponme to sanbonme. I already know the first two, but I am not a hundred percent certain about the third, but I have now plenty of time to get that done.

^_^

Jan 28, 2009

#48: Utilizing Small Spaces

Oct 28, 2008

#40: DIY Kendo Dummy

Since I am still quite poor in terms of financial freedom, I am unable to purchase a kendo practice dummy for my personal use at home. Though, if I had the money, I would probably still not purchase it for the lack of proper space and storage...

So, I present to you, the urban poor man's Kendo Dummy.

What you need is:

1) 30x375mL Coca-Cola Can box, in as mint condition as possible, preferably with cans removed.
2) Two standard size cereal boxes, preferably with cereal removed.
3) Packing tape, the fat width kind, or Duct/Gaff tape if you have it for maximum grip.

4) A paving brick or heavyish object that will fit inside a standard cereal box flat.

5) A milk crate of some description.

6) A Bankstown City Council General Waster Wheelie Bin. This may be substituted with your own local council bin, or other object of the appropriate height. If your bins are higher or lower, then you may need to find appropriately sized cardboard boxes and/or remove the use of the crate as required.

Stick the boxes together like so in the picture below. Insert the paving brick for weight and stability purposes. Your base unit is ready to roll. Click on the image for the full size if you need to read the green text.

For me, having the base unit on top of the wheelie bin was too low for my own men cut height, though it was suitable to represent some of the shorter persons in our club. I found by adding the milk crate, the height was perfect for me.

By turning the base unit sideways without the crate, the Coca-Cola box was a natural height for a kote cut, and having the paving brick in the other box which was not being hit meant that I ran no risk of damaging the shinai. Just ensure the weighted box is firmly on the wheelie bin lid.

The use of this practical and cheap Kendo dummy is that when you make the cut, you can practice your power and tenouchi. As the cut lands, it will collapse the boxes in slightly and you can see how deep your cut is, and how effective/controlled your tenouchi is. If you have poor control and tenouchi, your cut will crumple the boxes quite severely, where as if you do not have enough power and depth of cut, you will not crumple the boxes enough. If you feel inclined, you can draw a men on the box to see how far your cut goes.

The cardboard from the Coca-Cola box is slightly reinforced to take the weight of the cans, so it can stand a bit of punishment, while the other boxes can also be easy pushed back into shape or replaced when needs be. Store the base unit out of wet conditions for best use life. You can use this to practice your basic suburi without straight forward zanshin movement, as well as basic hiki-waza practice. Once I figure out how to attach a dou cut segment, I'll be sure to let you all know.

I know it looks very ghetto, but it seems to be effective, and your cuts will make noise on box contact. Soft cuts are not as loud sounding as hard cuts. Oh, and you will have to judge maai from not shinai distances but actual body distance, which I think is also quite useful.