Aldqueiroz made an interesting comment on my recent post on refereeing, “Article 12”. In essence he said that if a player dodges or moves the angle of his head to avoid a legitimate strike, then the strike should (at least in spirit) count as ippon. As I mentioned in my brief reply, I have heard this from senior sensei at various seminars, but never seen it applied in major shiai. Nor have I been instructed to take these unfair misses into account when refereeing. The rule that the correct part of the shinai should strike the correct part of the bogu invariably stands.
Dodging is just one element of the behaviour demonstrated by kenshi who are afraid to lose. Blocking strikes to the men with the shinai above the head or using more normal blocks without the intention of responding are other examples of the same behaviour.
I have frequently heard members of various dojo and kendo associations say that they practice “traditional kendo” by which they mean that they face their opponent in the spirit of “life or death”, “kill or be killed”, with no compromise made to winning or losing shiai. I know some kenshi who will not take part in shiai because the feel that the focus beating their opponent will detract from their shugyo.
To turn this argument on its head, shiai is the nearest experience we can have in kendo to a life or death situation, that is of course unless you are a psychopath. The challenge is having the strength of mind to face your opponent with the correct posture and attitude. This is often summed up in Japanese as “utte hansei utarete kanshya”, (reflection on hitting, gratitude on being hit).
That some people will try to bend the rules does not detract from the fact that the ZNKR constantly reinforces the message that “The concept of kendo is to discipline the human character through the application of the principles of the katana”. This is evident through most of the official instruction material and some of the questions in the Japanese Kyoshi exam.
Kendo has gone through numerous changess, from the art of war, to a zen discipline to a form of entertainment and as it stands today an educational sport that is meant to aid physical, mental and moral development. Whether it was always viewed as wrong to duck, I couldn’t say, but if we were back in the sengoku period and someone was running at me with three foot of razor sharp sword, I might be tempted to move my head to the side.
I think some of the feeling it is wrong to tilt you head to avoid ippon is that in a real swordfight you would just get hit in the neck instead. Also when pulling your arms down to avoid do-ippon, unless you are wearing armour the sword would just go trough your arms and into your body.
Several thoughts on this:
– for some reason when you dodge your head, the shinai won’t come crushing on your shoulder anyway. I guess the regular strikes are quite “shallow” to cut you through the ribs down to the waist. It’s vexing, of course, but you just didn’t hit the proper target
– same in tsuki – we could argue that a thrust to your torso would kill you all the same (that is if the blade passes between the ribs or crushes them, after all in western foil fencing the valid area is the whole torso, front and back), yet only throat is a valid striking area
– kendo is a sport, not a real fight (no offence intended, I remember the word ‘sport’ used in Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe for knightly tournament with sharp weapons!) – a sport with conventions. The conventions are here for a purpose – to enforce the theory of kendo fight into practise, and teach you to hit accurately, at the very least. Of course the inclusion of legs as a valid area would change the way of fencing. Still, this is a modern sport based on tradition, not HEMA. Those who don’t like it – shinai is longer than katana and weighs only a half of it – so lightnig fast successive strikes we see with shinai are also quite unreal. We just have to accept it as the best compromise between safety and reality
– what I do not like though, is when jodan players cover their right do with the forearm after striking, so that they don’t receive a valid strike! This seems more shameful to me (hey, let’s cover my tsuki-dare with my fist, sort of), yet it is often taught (!) to jodan kenshi. But what can we do about it? This is clearly using a hole in the rules in a ‘clever’ way. I’ve even seen a kenshi complain about a do scored against him (“hey.. I had my arm there… this is unjust”)… Talk about a real fight. I just smiled.
The same debate arises regularly in Sumo about Henka, dodging an opponent at the tachiai instead of crashing straight on into him, seen by some as a shameful evasion, by some as a clever tactic against a heavier or faster opponent. As in kendo, it is a legitimate move, and you have to learn to factor it in your own tactics, i.e. accept that sometimes it will play against you, learn to detect it and try to hit a correct yuko-datotsu nevertheless.
Complaining that your opponent didn’t play fair is a poor excuse for not achieving your goals …
I’m only a low dan and I’m not as good at Kendo as I would like but would it be possible to compare this dodge movement with the head as a nuki technique that has been made with incorrect posture?
I mean: at the second kendo kata you must dodge the kote strike moving the body and the hands.
During a combat, sometimes you must dodge a kote strike only moving your hands up fast. Would that be correct?
I suppose that moving the whole body with the right shisei would be better than only moving the hands or the head but, maybe, while we are learning how to execute a perfect nuki waza we could dodge a men strike moving only the head.
Of course, one should must accept then the consequences of losing the kamae, the balance and the right posture.
To keep it practical, however way you dodge (i.e. get out of the way) a strike, you are not hit, so it’s ok. Same with blocking without counter-strike (riposte). You achieve the goal – you’re unhurt and can continue the fight. Fall backward, if it saves you. It may leave you in a bad posture, or it would be more convenient to counterstrike but… in a fight not everything is ideally staged so that photo of your posture can make it to the front page of Kendo World magazine 😉 Standing upright and receiving a cut to head because it is “correct kendo”, or avoiding simple blocks without riposte for the same reason, is nonsense from the practical point of view. It just happens to work at the lower technical level. Often a kenshi with lower technical level can win the fight (better tactics, destroying the opponents game, in-fighting)… that is the fun of it. I have once seen a guy defeated by a low grade kenshi, angry and vexed, because he was defeated by “ugly kendo”. C’mon, just hit and avoid getting hit (according to rules), that’s the first practical rule we should not forget. We should be able to deal with all kinds of opponents.
What I don’t like is covering the valid strike areas on purpose. That makes no practical sense (except using the blind spot in the rules).
Beside our colleague Martin has already replied to you very well, let me comment this too. To dodge from a strike of your opponent is ok, if correctly done (as like in 1st, 2nd, 4th and 7th Kendo-gata!), keeping your posture upright; move your arms up or down to avoid a strike is fully valid too! The wrong way is to tilt your head or your torso in a way your opponent doesn’t hit valid targets (as Martin said, exploring a ‘hole’ in the rules…), that might not be done!, that’s a wrong, ugly way (I prefer to not name it ‘Kendo’ ! 😛 ).
Further, reacting to your opponent attack by just dodging or blocking with your shinai isn’t wrong… but it’s incomplete! You won’t win any match by just evading be hit! Indeed, once your opponent’s attack was ‘neutralized’ you must counter-attack immediately! That very moment when your opponent technique ‘had faded’ is an opportunity to not be lost! I am myself trying right now to develop this correct counter-attack ‘reflex’, because the most of times, when acting as motodachi for my junior colleagues, I tend to just block their attacks, and that isn’t enough for someone who’s aspiring to achieve a higher grade! 🙂
I’m happy that my former comment had raised this discussion! And even happier for having the opportunity to make contact and exchange experiences about Kendo (and other matters) with Kenshi from the whole world! As per the motto of the Dojo where I begun to practice: ” Kōken Chiyū (交剣知友)” : ‘crossing swords, knowing friendship’! (there’s also the famous motto ‘Kōken Chiai – 交剣知愛 : ‘crossing swords, knowing love’ !) I hope I have opportunities in a near future to pay visits to the Dojos of my new friends! And, whenever you come to Rio de Janeiro / Brazil, be my guests to train with us! 🙂
I understand that the current rules establish an objective criteria for considering a strike effective or not (more or less like football rules about how much the ball must pass the line into the goal to be valid); it would be too much subjective to consider as valid a strike which didn’t hit the due target because the competitor dodged his /her head or bended his/her body avoiding the strike, or blocked the strike with an ‘invalid’ part of his/her body (somehow ‘using’ the rules to deny the point to his/her opponent…) Indeed, if the fight be done with sharp blades, the strikes should be equally fatal, but such result wouldn’t come from the very technique of the competitor who delivered the strike! Further, I remember an explanation from Kokushikan’s Yano Sensei about such misconducting: he said that “it would be much more desirable to keep correct posture and ‘receive’ the strike than tilting/bending own body to avoid opponent’s attack” ! One still can draw the whole body to avoid opponent’s strike (抜き技– nuki-waza!) but it must be done always keeping correct shisei!
Kind regards!
My take is that if the other guy ducked and dodged then I did not have proper opportunity. But the flip side of that is I also think their kendo is poorly developed because if they had the awareness and time to duck, they could have instead executed a proper waza. That’s the part I try to apply to myself to keep my kendo progressing and refrain from making the habit of breaking posture only to avoid giving up yuko datotsu.
Of course there are people who never maintain proper posture when they attack, especially kote. All in an attempt to get around somebody’s kamae and lesson the chance ot getting hit themselves, and they often still find success. The line is difficult, and the only ones who can move it are shimpan.
If we took “someone running at me with three foot of razor sharp sword” as the basis for kendo, it would not be kendo. People would either fight tooth and nail like a cornered animal or run away. Kendo is limited to very few datotsu-bui specifically to avoid that. It’s what allows kendo to become a continuously refining mental game rather than a brawl,. And the only way to make self-improvement, the purpose of kendo, is to face it straight on and use kendo waza rather than physical contortion.
” Kendo is limited to very few datotsu-bui specifically to avoid that ‘ (‘people filghting tooth and nail like a cornered animal or running away’ from athree foot sharp blade…! :)) — it’s interesting to think how Kendo competition would be if more dadotsu-bui were allowed, e.g., both shins (using the proper protective garment — ‘sune-ate’ — like in naginata-do) or the neck, or furtehr, teh down-side of both wrists; for sure the way we fight would be quite different, with different kamae ( ‘gedan no kamae’, ‘waki-gamae’ should become “effective” ?!…)
Perhaps! 🙂
I don’t know… I am personally way more critical toward competition.
Although I really like the getting together aspect of it, and the strength of spirit that most Kenshi display, the form problem is in my opinion a real issue.
In my opinion, the main problem is that yuko datotsu is not properly enforced. And the rules say all the right things, and when you go to a referee seminar you will generally hear all the right things as well… But then you watch competitions and you quickly realize that what is being taught and what really happens is really different.
I will take the example of Kote. Most players do not want to leave their head exposed as they attack Kote. Therefore they twist their body in all sorts of weird ways as they attack. As a result, their opponent can rarely counter attack (suriage, nuki Men) as the only target left is, well their oponents back…
And that is a problem because:
– The lost of proper posture should make the ippon invalid. In addition the incorrect posture results 99% of the time in a very wrong Assuji, that again should make the ippon invalid…
– Many of the beautiful Odji waza that comes from a proper Kendo, become often irrelevant…
– Avoiding Men by showing your back to your opponent is really silly (just like the right arm protecting Do…)
It all comes down to Yuko datotsu. If we want to preserve the quality and beauty of Kendo as it was given to us, we need to be more intrensigeant with what constitute ippon. Because in the end, players will do what works, and if referees stop raising their flags on sashi men, or on weird twisted Kote, then they will start striking properly again.
And it is especially important in a generation that puts so much focus on competition, and end up doing “shiai kendo” 24/7
I heard that an old Sensei – I don’t know who exactly – doesn’t like the watch current Kendo competitions in Japan, just because the most of scored points are taken in a way he personally doesn’t consider as yūkō datotsu!… Strikes too ‘shallow’, and/or not followed by a proper stance…
Unfortunately, such things are a consequence of using shinai ; of course the bamboo sword doesn’t cut, and that’s why it is minimally safe to practising fight with it (while strikes made with wooden swords can be quite dangerous too…) But, at the same time, practising with the shinai can lead to a feeling of just ‘hit’ be enough… It’s a “limitation” of the technology we use to ‘emulate’ real swords fights! Using shinai or any other kind of practising sword (no ‘cutting able’) and a protective armour, we will never experience the REAL feeling of ‘life or death’… But we can get very close to it! 😉
In the example of players who do not want to leave their head exposed as they attack kote, and twist their bodies or turn back in a way to deny a counter-attack to a ‘valid’ area; again, they are ‘thinking’ in terms of just ‘hit’ the opponent and avoid been hit in a valid area. They don’t consider that a yūkō datotsu at kote “means a strike which , if made with a real sword, would sever off the forearm of the opponent!”, so he/she might not mind about a counter-attack from him/her, but instead keep awareness to deliver new strikes, which can be done only with correct shisei and kamae ! 🙂
Further, in a recent seminar with Roberto Kishikawa Sensei, 8th Dan, on last November, in São Carlos, Brazil, he made a very interesting statement : “why we use bōgu?… Of course we use bōgu to protect ourselves from the strikes of our opponents’ shinai. Therefore, we SHOULD TRUST our bōgu to protect us and ‘accept’ that the opponent can ‘hit’ and, eventually, make yūkō datotsu if he/she performs such strike accordingly to the requirements! ” (Kishikawa Sensei’s words were, more or less, like this).
I believe that these thoughts can lead to future revisions of match regulations in ways that reflect more precisely the conditions for yūkō datotsu (maybe in a broader way, extending datotsu-bui to include the forehead area covered by men-gane, in those situations when the player raises his face to avoid been hit at valid men-buton area), and/or consider refereeing rules that desencourage those “competition vices”, like dodging the head or tilt the body to avoid been hit at datotsu-bui ‘only’, etc.
Anyway, I’m sure that practising Kendō will continue be challenging, and fun! And always an excellent way to meet people of many virtues, from whom I can learn a lot and be honoured for having them as my friends! 🙂
Kind regards!
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