Ippon

Following the 15WKC referee’s seminar in Japan and the Paris Taikai and in preparation for the WKC, I am in the process of crystallising my thoughts on what is and what isn’t ippon. As with any other element of high level kendo, be it scoring the point yourself or validating the successful strike made by [...]

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The Nito kodachi conundrum

I was happily browsing through the new Official Guide for Kendo Instruction; nodding sagely at the explanations of things I knew, when I reached the section on yuko datotsu. Having refereed internationally on many occasions and attended all the regional referee training courses, I like to think that I have a fairly clear idea of [...]

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Why referees don’t like hiki dou

Helton asked for my thoughts on why it is so hard to score ippon from hiki dou. Wearing my referees hat (or blazer), I would say that of course every case is different, but more often than not it is because few hiki dou have sufficient sae or snap to justify ippon. If that is [...]

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The importance of hikitsuke

 I was asked to give some advice on performance at shiai training in preparation for this weekend’s London cup. I won’t say at which dojo or on which day this took place, otherwise I might give away the secrets of their shiai preparation.  During most of the shiai, the one single element that made the [...]

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Sports kendo versus shugyo

I was gratified by the high level of feedback to the article on “The Aim of Kendo” by Matsumoto sensei. I know that many of the people that commented are active shiai participants.  This bolstered my view that an understanding of kendo philosophy is a natural bedfellow for hard training and ambition to do well [...]

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Three things that I didn’t know about kendo shiai

I spent last weekend in Brussels for the European Referees Seminar. This event is always a good opportunity to catch-up with old kendo friends from across the European Zone and to practise refereeing in a more analytical way than is possible at “live” events. This year the seminar was led by Matsunaga sensei supported by Nishide and Nakata sensei. [...]

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Keiko and Shiai – are they related?

Theoretically, good kendo is good kendo and there should be no difference between the attitude and the technique displayed in keiko or shiai. Every keiko should be approached with sincerity and the objective of taking shodachi, (first point).  You would therefore assume that shiai kendo at every level would look like the competitors’ everyday keiko [...]

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Training for Shiai

Tomorrow is the day of the British Open Championship and during the past few weeks several people have asked me about the best way of training for shiai. Other than the answer that ” it is too late” if you are asking now, I am not sure if there is any training that is solely [...]

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