We were working on men suriage men and men suriage kote and people seem to have a degree of difficulty with both. I touched on this in an earlier broader post on oji waza, but there seem to be a number of problems with timing and distance that stop people from mastering these useful techniques.
If we look at men suriage men, my view is that the technique can be completed successfully without stepping back or to the side. If your timing and distance are correct, you can just push off from your left foot as your opponent makes his attack, lift your shinai up as his comes down and just deflect his blow with the shape of your shinai before striking men. Keep in mind that suriage translates as “sliding lift” and is not harai waza. The key factors to success are:
- You have to keep the point of your shinai forward.
- You must not anticipate your opponents attack, but you should relax and wait till it is nearly complete.
- Distance must be correct, so that the suriage is made by the monouchi touching the monouchi.
- Your opponent must attack correctly, lifting and cutting down in a single movement and maintaining the centre line. (If this is not possible, then a good alternative kihon drill is to make your opponent attack tsuki and respond with suriage men).
- Just use gentle pressure to slide your shinai up against his. Do not put power into your right hand. Some sensei suggest making a “D” shaped movement to deflect the shinai. I think that this is overkill and requires too much right hand pressure. A simple slide upward should be enough.
Once you have made a successful strike, you should continue forward, through your opponents centre line, maintaining zanshin and turning when you are in safe distance.
For suriage against kote, there are some marked changes. First you need to move your left foot out diagonally whilst pushing your left hand forward and turning your right wrist anticlockwise. This makes the suriage sharper and into more of a blocking motion. Kote is closer to your opponent than men, so your suriage should be made closer to your tsuba. Although this is a “harder” technique than men suriage men, again do not be tempted to use too much right hand power.
Hi Geoff,
I think you’ll enjoy this short clip of Eiga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FcQQ3PTRpc
Geoff sensei,
You have an incredible knack of taking something that is very difficult to explain and making it seem so simple. In doing so, you help to make the practice of the technique considerably easier.
Thanks as always.
Nick
[…] Now, suriage men is apparently a very difficult technique for kyu-grade students, but it doesn’t hurt to get introduced. Kris-fukushou suggested the D/C-shaped movement that is also mentioned by Salmon-sensei in the linked article. And as Salmon-sensei points out, most of us were having lots of issues with both the movements and the timing. In my case I feel way too slow and I have it in my mind suriage men is a two-stage movement, while it should be more of a single arc where you deflect and strike from the deflect position. […]