Pictures

Description

Kendo Coaching Tips and Drills is the culmination of years worth of study, experimentation, coaching, writing, and of-course lots and lots (and lots) of keiko.

The book – unlike any other available in the English language – primarily aims to be a coaching aid for new-mid level teachers, or for those who aim to teach in the near future. Its also a very useful reference for less-experienced kendo practitioners, and provides more experienced instructors with new ideas.

The 76 page book – in beautiful A4 magazine and digital formats – is packed with lots of fundamental kendo teaching tips and tricks, as well as illustrated by high resolution photographs taken in Japan.

Check out the contents on the right and click the FULL PREVIEW AND PURCHASE button on this page to skim through the book before buying. Take time to have a look at the excerpts, pictures, and video on this page as well.

If you have any specific questions, queries, or feedback, feel free to contact the author here.

Readers

Taken from the chapter Basic Movement

Foundation men

Normal kendo training starts with men cutting, but what I would like to introduce here is that fundamentally, ideal kote and men strikes are identical in as far as body mechanics go. In the midst of keiko or shiai its normal that our bodies assume different shapes, even the highest graded or the top young guns do this; but ideally this isn’t our goal: we want not only accurate and precise kendo, but beautiful kendo as well.

The training method introduced here involves heavy focus on body mechanics using kote, then taking the exact same points and applying them to men. Men, therefore, is simply a natural extension of kote. Why choose kote as the basis and not men then? My rationale is:

A. the height of kote makes it easier to strike;
B. because you are looking down onto the kote you can easily
check if you are cutting straight and with the correct hasuji (cutting trajectory) or not. Its also its easier for the motodachi to check for you;
C. because kote is closer than men, any tendency to break your posture and overreach for the target it reduced;
D. many people raise their chin up on men strikes (especially small ones). Paying attention to it here will help emphasise the point later;
E. due to the height of the target it’s easier to get the image of cutting down into the ground than it is with men, which most people bounce off and up from;
F. it’s easier to focus on and explain the use and extension of the wrists in kote cuts;
G. with the extra distance involved in a men cut, many people pull their left foot up past their right foot when going into strike;

Now, with all the points mentioned in the kote section, and with the rationale above, let’s look at some men exercises.

Taken from the More Advanced Basics chapter

General points on HARAI waza

The following points apply to harai waza in general.

1) There are two types of footwork:

kote-men type: fumikomi on the harai and on each strike (e.g. harai men would have 2 stamps, harai gote-men would have 3). This movement is identical to other renzoku techniques we have discussed before so this method should be emphasised for the less experienced and for people who lack strength in their stamp or wrists.

floating harai type: you only stamp on the strikes, i.e. the harai happens while your foot is in the air (e.g. harai men would have a single stamp, and harai-gote-men would have 2). Due to timing differences and the need for a stronger wrist action, this is the more advanced method.

2) True harai requires understanding of shinogi use. The shinogi is the side part of a katana, and is the hardest part of the blade. Its use is commonly emphasised in various koryu, or old sword schools. The shinai is of-course round and has no real shinogi. However, the same mechanism of using the wrist must be applied in order to execute a solid harai.

3) Omote and ura harai. Although there are various directions for executing harai, here I want to look at only the orthodox and commonly used variety: harai-otoshi (omote) and harai-age (ura).
Harai otoshi is the action of smacking the opponents shinai down to the left utilising your shinais left shinogi; harai age is where you go under your opponents shinai to the left and smack their shinai up diagonally to the right using your right shinogi.

4) Harai deeply. You should aim to harai your opponents shinai quite deeply, going further than the nakayui (the exact position depends on the balance of your opponents shinai). A shallow harai at the tip of your opponents shinai is generally useless as the tip will quickly return to the position you tried to get it away from.

5) Be fast. The time between harai and strike must be as fast as you can. If you wait, the opponents shinai will come back in line.

6) Motodachi. In general the receivers kamae strength should vary depending on the ability of the kakarite. However, too weak a kamae, or simply allowing your shinai to be knocked away with absolutely no resistance, does not help the kakarite learn the correct mechanisms for the harai. This point should be considered deeply.

Lets look at the two actual techniques now.

Author bio

The book was written by yours-truly, kenshi247 editor George. I have been studying kendo for almost 20 years now and been involved in coaching since 2000, when I took over the day-to-day running of Edinburgh kendo club. Straight after taking part in the 12th World Kendo Championships (2003) I moved to Japan… where I still am, almost 10 years later.

Since 2008 I have been the sole kendo coach of a large high-school kendo club in central Osaka, where I coach 6-days a week, all year-round. I am almost certainly the only official non-Japanese kendo coach in Japan. As well as this, I also established Eikenkai, the only foreign-run keikokai in the country with a permanent dojo.

This book is based on my own experiences as a kendo student in Japan, studying under top-level sensei on a regular basis, as well as the day-to-day coaching experience mentioned above. I hope you enjoy the book!!!