The following rule changes will probably not impact your kendo training any time soon nor in the near future. However, implementation of them in competition for young Japanese kenshi ensures that there will be a stylistic change in the kendo leaders of the future and it is also strongly hints at what the kendo leaders of today see as bad style.

The changes have been in discussion and trial over quite a while here in Japan (implementation was decided in May 2009, and I have personally seen the rules been applied in shiai), but it is only from this month (October 2009) where competitiors will get a hansoku rather than a warning, i.e. the rules go into full implementation.

Lets look at a simple definition of the new rules:

- from a correct tsubazeria you have 10 seconds to either attempt a strike, or break off. Not doing so will result in a penalty (hansoku);

- if you chose to break off from tsubazeria you must do so to a distance where your shinai (kensaki) are not touching

- if you are trying to break off from tzubazeria yet start attacking, taking jodan, or doing something other than attempting to break to the distance above then you will be penalised (hansoku)

An emphasis on “correct tsubazeria”

One of the major points in the literature and training seminars concerning this is that tsubazeria must be “correctly” done. That is, both competitors must work to not allow their hands to float up, ensure their posture is correct, and their shinai must be on the omote (right) side of their opponents. Incorrect tsubazeria will earn you a hansoku.

Although pushing and the placement of the shinai on your opponents shoulder are not covered in these new rules, both are already considered bad form and could land you with a penalty.

Ura tzubazeria?

If your shinai goes to the ura (left) side, then you won’t be penalised as long as you make an effort to move it back.Also, breaking off whilst your shinai on the ura side generally won’t result in a penalty unless it is continually done by a particular competitior.

What if an attack is launched at the very moment one of the competitors chooses to break off?

In this instance the decision to award a successful strike is left to the shinpan. However, it must be from the point (or pretty much so) where the competitors kote are touching. If an attack is launched when one competitor has already moved back somewhat, then that would be a penalty.

Why were these changes made?

This is relatively easy question to answer: kendo absolutely prefers a positive, forward attacking style, especially the younger you are. However, many youth competitions in recent times have seen an amazing amount of hikiwaza being scored, sometimes drastically more than a normal men-uchi. There are a few issues tied into this:

- negative kendo: many kenshi simply blocking (sometimes both competitiors at the same time) and closing into tsubazeria is against the preferred postitve/attacking style of kendo and is seen as incredibly negative (I would go as far to say its even ugly) and has drawn criticism from many corners;

- blatant time wasting: its obvious that many competitors close into tsubazeria deliberately in order to time waste. With the new 10 second rule combined with the fact that if one person chooses to break off then the other can’t stall, the amount of time they can use up becomes limited;

- increase in hikiwaza specialists: obviously its not a bad thing to have a speciality technique but – as a school kendo coach myself – I’d rather train my students to favour more positive, attacking waza.

What happened to “wakare” ?

If the competitors are in correct tsubazeria and they both have the will to strike, yet do not do so nor attempt to break off within 10 seconds, then the chushin must chose either to award a hansoku to both kenshi, or call wakare, though they are warned not to use this option “simply.”

My personal feeling is that shinpan will be more likely to call wakare at the beginning of a match but – if the competitors keep going back to tsubazeria again and again – the chance of getting hansoku will increase drastically.

In summary

The impact these changes will have should become clearer in time, but hopefully it will promote a more forward attacking, positive style, rather than the long tsubazeria and hikiwaza-centric competition we see a lot of nowadays.

I think the rules are somewhat vague (kendo rules are like that anyway!) and it may take sometime before individual shinpan become comfy with them. In the general kendo population itself there are many stylstic variations of tsubazeria and how to attack/break off from it, and it follows that the shinpan themselves have a lot of opinion (hangups even!) in the matter.

I said in the beginning that these rule changes probably won’t affect you, and this is true. However, I do believe that what is spelled out by these changes are simple hallmarks of good kendo anyway, and although most kenshi tend to disfavour hikiwaza as their kendo matures, or at least use it in a more rational manner, I think its worthwhile keeping these points in mind while we are practising (and teaching), competition orientated or not.

Sources

大阪高体連審判講習会資料 (Osaka high school kendo association referee seminar materials)
第１８回全国高等学校剣道選抜大会総評 (18th All Japan high school senbatsu competition report)
剣窓, H21・5月 (All Japan Kendo Federation newsletter “Kenso,” May 2009 )

So, once again, there are 3 more years before the next WKC, which gives us all a new target to work towards.

Although as a team Great Britain performed excellently in Brazil, and we were massively complimented by many of our fellow competitors, I personally left the tournament with the feeling that I could have done better.

I watched some footage of my shiai, and compared it to footage of myself at the previous WKC for comparison. There is no doubt that I am a far better player now than I was in Taipei, especially from a technical point of view. However, there was clearly ‘something’ about the ‘old’ me that was missing this time round… This wasn’t something ‘physical’, as I am both technically better and faster than I was 3 years ago. Nor is it ageing as, much to the surprise of many, I am still a mere 26. This ‘something’ is something in my mental game.

So I began to do some research.

I put on a DVD that came free with an old issue of Kendo Nippon, which contains a documentary about ‘Mental Training’ for Kendo. This was a very educational documentary, and many of the points raised appeared to be very relevant. Firstly, the sensei tells his students the concept of ‘self image’ is incredibly important. Much to my disappointment he was not to go on to offer out Kendo-specific fashion tips, rather he was referring to the image one holds of one’s skill. He said although it is important not to be overtly-arrogant, you must not constantly think to yourself ‘I am terrible!!’ – Basically you must believe in yourself if you want to ‘win’.

Later on in the documentary a practice shiai is shown. Here the point that is highlighted is the concept of having a ‘focus point’. This was the real gem! The footage showed 2 students engaging in shiai, and reasonably quickly the red player receives a beautiful men-uchi. The commentary then informs us that the red player’s ‘focus point’ is the Japanese flag. In that it means, when he looks upon or thinks about the ‘Hi no Maru’ he becomes ‘inspired’ or ‘motivated’. As the two players re-set to their starting positions, the viewer can clearly see the red player take a glance towards his beloved flag, which is hanging in the dojo. As soon as the shushin calls ‘nihonme!’ he fights with a renewed vigour and soon after comes back with a fantastic debana-men.

This got me thinking. Is this what separates the ‘good’ from the ‘great’? The ‘winners’ from the ‘some times winners’?

Soon after, I watched the now infamous National Geographic documentary entitled ‘Kendo’s Gruelling Challenge’ (I am sure you know the one). In this documentary, Mr Ishida talks about the time he claimed victory in the All Japan Kendo Championships. He goes on to speak about how it was the tragic thought of his dying son which gave him the ‘strength’ to achieve victory. This was his ‘focus point’.

Next I watched another documentary, which featured a player who had learnt Kendo and become very successful, despite being without his right arm. He admits himself, that if he had both of his arms, he would probably have never become as strong as he has…

I have come to realise the importance of this ‘mental’ aspect of Kendo. We often ponder on the ‘mental’ concepts, such as ‘Fudoshin’, ‘Mushin’ or ‘Heijoshin’. However, I think these are somewhat different concepts to what I am talking about here. I currently don’t know a Japanese idiom which expresses this… though I am sure there are many.

The conclusion I came to is that one must put oneself under intense pressure to ‘win’. It is often considered a bad attitude to have in Kendo, but if one does not desire victory, how can we accurately carryout sutemi, and therefore successfully achieve true ippon? Sutemi, in the context of Kendo, is to ‘sacrifice’ everything in a single moment, in order to successfully perform a ‘perfect’ strike. However, unless you really, really want to make the strike successfully, what can you be said to be actually ‘sacrificing’? If you aren’t’ putting anything ‘on the line’, then you can’t expect for your attempted strikes to truly ‘pay off’.

Perhaps in order to be successful, not only in shiai, but in all of our attempts to make Ippon, we need to find within ourselves our ‘focus point’. We must find our motivation for wanting to make that single strike belong to us, and not to our opponent.

Since returning from Brazil I have thought a lot about these points during my practice, and I think I have found my ‘focus point’, or at least I am getting close to it. I won’t tell you what it is, at least not here, but I am sure you have one of your own to put to good use…

This was a question that was asked in an interview with Iho Kiyotsugu hanshi in 1993.

This is his reply to the above question.

The reason that kendo has changed is because of the changes in the shiai rules. These changes have made shiai both better and worse at the same time. When I was a student (before the war), there were no lines marking the competition area, no time limits, and only 2 judges (omote and ura shinpan). I wonder if the rules today have become too restrictive.

I think the biggest problem lies in how we time a competition. Once the time of the closing ceremony has been decided – which is something that usually happens first – this basically decides the length of individual shiai. From that stemmed the introduction of the hantei [where judges decide on a winner without a point being scored. Used exclusively with children]. Back in the day, there was no ippon-shobu. The shiai went on until one of the kenshi got 2 points.

Shiai used to be a lot more fun as well. During competition, once guy would fly in at full speed, hit men, and his power would carry him into the spectator area. The other guy would chase him into the area and keep attacking. The referee would be yelling ‘Stop! Stop! Oi, can’t you bloody well hear me!!” There were still even scenes after the war where the referee would yell “Kote-ari!” and both kenshi would say “No, no, that was never a kote!” Of-course we can’t let things be completely unregulated, can we.

Kenshi used to enter shiai lighter hearted. If you don’t enjoy shiai, you won’t be able to continue if for a long time, right? At that time the TV, radio, newspaper journalists were a lot more interested than today, and when they did come you had to look like you were enjoying it. This is one of the reasons I think 3 shinpan are unnecessary. A third person gets in the way of the spectators and also [due to the more-regulated manner in which referees have to move] it makes seeing waza/ippon more difficult.

One other thing is that kenshi have also become technically more advanced: they have got faster and their strikes have become lighter. This makes it more difficult for referees to spot an ippon. You often see such things as one referee raising a red flag and the other white.

The reason strikes are fast is that the shinai are too light. Years ago people used various lengths and weights of shinai, but now both length and weight are defined. People nowadays, however, have a different body type than those before and just after the war [in Japan your average person has become stronger and taller], so we should have a shinai length and weight that matches their proportions. We must do some fundamental research into this area. However, there are many things we have to consider on this point before we can put it into practise, including even the shinai manufacturers themselves.

Note

As always, please remember that these translation is done by a non-professional. Any and all mistakes are my own.

Source
剣道必勝講座：実践に弱いのはなぜか。伊保清次。２００７年発行。

Photograph By Gillian Reade

This weekend saw the biggest ever gathering of kendoka ever in Ireland 100 kendoka coming from clubs from Ireland, UK, Belgium, France, Poland, USA and Italy.
The weekend began for almost everyone with a 7 hour seminar with Yanai Sensei 7th Dan on Friday morning. We began by going back to basics and learning how to correctly cut men (from 4th Kyu to 5th Dan). Its crazy how many aspects you forget as you “progress” in kendo. We moved on to putting this together with fumikomi and worked it all into kihon and up to nidan waza. We touched on some shikake waza and oji waza and then took a break for lunch. After luch we were divided into grade groupings and spent a few hours on Kata. Fresh from kata we did some shiai / refereeing practice and finished with a massive gigeiko about 6ish.

Friday night saw the stragglers arriving and there was a 2 hour session to welcome them with even more gigeiko. After that there was one or two beers to be had and then off to bed for the next days competition.

The taikai began with one representative from each team fighting in  a “team individual” taikai. This was a fantastic event with exceptional kendo throughout.
Next up was an impromptu ladies taikai, with Ireland fighting off Europe’s best to claim the title.

After a short lunch it was business time, the main event. There were 8 pools with 4 teams (3 on each team) in each and only one going thru. This ensured every team stepped up from the outset! Competition was tough with every player fighting for every single ippons we realised that the winners of each pool would most likely come down to how many ippons were scored.
My team, Cork 1, breached our pool but went out in the quarters to a strong Edinburgh team.
But with several teams at their disposal Dublin 4 went on to destroy Rennes in the Semi’s and annihilate Oxford 1 in the Finals with 6 clear ippons.

This was the first time and Irish team has ever won the Irish Goodwill Taikai, and a great result for Irish kendo.

After a late sayonara with an Irish Trad Band (and many Irish songs sung by non Irish) most retired to get some rest before the gradings and keiko the following morning.
Well done to all who graded and thanks to all who came to the Taikai see ye next year in Cork.

RESULTS

Individual Taikai

1st HANANO Takeshi (OXFORD 1)
2nd THOMPSON Alan (MUMEISHI)
3rd ISHI Tomo (OXFORD 2)
3rd TAYLOR Mick (NORTHUMBRIA UNI 1)

Ladies Taikai

1st FUJII Miyako (TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN KENDO CLUB)
2nd VOKATA Teresa (EDINBURGH UNI 1)
3rd MATTSSON Geraldina (OXFORD 3)
3rd DOSSETT Rowena (OXFORD 2)

Team Taikai

1st DUBLIN 4
2nd OXFORD 1
3rd RENNES 1
3rd EDINBURGH UNI 4

Fighting Spirit