On Sunday after the Dublin Open we ran a kendo seminar. It took the form that most people would recognise, with lots of work on basics in the morning and moving on to more technical waza practice after lunch. I taught suriage men as part of a series of oji techniques. As you may have seen in previous posts , my view on suriage waza is simple – You create the opportunity, slide up the shinai and cut down in one movement and without moving back or to the side, go forward to your opponents centre as you finish the attack.
After spending some time practising this, Henrik, one of the senior Dublin members, asked the question, “what happens when you try this and you have 150kg of Noel bearing down on you”. Now to be fair to Noel, he does not really way 150kg, but he is significantly bigger than Henrik. Rather than just explain, I demonstrated how it would work against Noel. As expected, he came forward strongly for shikake men, but stopped when my technique hit. I was able to finish my attack going forward, without moving from the centre line.
The logic is simple. As long as your distance is correct, you keep your point forward and stick to raising the shinai and hitting in one continuous movement, the strength of your attack will break your opponent’s forward motion. One other tip to bear in mind is that if your opponent is coming forward, you can use their movement, so you do not have to step in as deeply as for shikake waza.
So, problem solved, but then thinking about it after I realise that many people are reluctant to commit to aim for their opponents centre in a spirit of sutemi (sacrifice), whether they are initiating shikake or oji waza. This is particularly true for smaller people, who may fear injury from a collision with a bigger person.
If this is a concern, I have two suggestions. Firstly, seme – If you truly break your opponents’ centre, they have nothing left to hit you with. Secondly learn correct taiatari. If you keep your weight down and your hands low, you should be able survive clashes with opponents of any size. I can’t guarantee that you will not be the one who bounces back, but you can do it with strong posture and balance, safely ready to make the next attack.
Hi Geoff,
another fantastic post. I feel that I would gain a great deal of benefit from attending a seminar where the focus is on correct waza. We do cover a certain amount of it in my regular practice, but focus much more on footwork and fundamentals (which are naturally, the most important for everyone).
Also, given the practice is usually only 2-3 hours, it doesn’t leave a lot of time to really absorb a technique as much as possible and build muscle memory.
Do you hold seminars regularly? or do you know of seminars that will focus on waza that are coming up in the near future? (is this something that Chiba sensei also covers in depth?)
Nick
I usually teach on 2 or three BKA seminars per year. The last one was in May at Wachett. I also do three or four trips per year to teach abroad. The next BKA seminar is with Chiba sensei followed by the Stoke seminar on July 16th, which unfortunately I will not be attending.
Chiba sensei tends to change the content of his seminars on a regular basis, but usually deals with waza and their application in depth.