Grading advice – the outcome

We just had the grading that I mentioned in my previous post and as with all examinations there were euphoric successes and disappointed failures. From my side of the judges table the most impressive part of the day was the attitude of everyone who took part. Those who passed did so with modesty and those who failed did so with the determination to train hard for the next opportunity.

Within the constraints of the time I had, I tried to give feedback to everyone who asked for it. But for those I missed here are some general points.

For ikkyu and shodan, everyone went for it. There was no problem with staged , ”you hit me then I hit you” performances that I mentioned in previous posts. The most common criticism from the panel was “incorrect cutting” which in most cases meant that the hands finished too low and the monouchi was at too steep an angle so that it hit the mengane rather than the top of the men. There were also a number of people who did not lift the shinai enough to hit correctly.` The remedy is more suburi and uchikomi geiko.

Nidan and sandan mostly failed on timing and opportunity. I am sure that many of the candidates had developed their technique to a pass level, but unless they were able to make or take the opportunity to make a clear strike, there was no way to show the judges that ability. To train for your next grading, think about the opportunities to strike, such as when your opponent initiates his attack or steps back. or visibly breathes in. Also consider ways to break his physical and mental kamae. Don’t just save these for jigeiko, incorporate them in your drill regime.

Yondan and Godan  – Seme and tame were what let many people down. You need to demonstrate that you are controlling your opponent throughout the tachiai. You need to break his or her centre and take your own ideal maai. If you can see an opening when you do this then immediately strike the target. If his kamae stops you from doing this then keep control and hold your breath in your abdomen until he starts to move, then strike. You can encourage him to do this by slightly moving the point of the shinai or slightly moving your front foot forwards. Or as Chiba sensei advised, just slightly bend your forward knee. Incorporate seme into your kihon drills.

For everyone, pass or fail, a little more kata practice would not be wasted.

So congratulations or gambatte kudasai, but please keep going.

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More grading exam tips.

We have one of UK kendo year’s biggest grading exams coming up next weekend at my own dojo, Mumeishi. This one goes up to 5^th dan there are nearly 90 candidates registered.

I have recently sat in on a number of practise grading sessions and whilst I have seen some good kendo there are a few errors that people fall into time after time. One of these seems to happen mainly with people taking ikkyu and shodan and is a reasonably new phenomenon. Candidates are taking turns in opening up and letting their opponent hit them, as if they were doing uchikomi-geiko.

The alternative seems to be that the two fighters use the limited time available to perform a series of ai-men, hitting each other at the same time. What the jury will actually be looking for is the ability to take or make the correct opportunity to attack as well as the ability to show correct basic technique.

Going up the grades, the big danger is attacking too much, particularly at times when no opportunity exists. Two or three successful attacks are all you need, especially if you are aiming for 4^th or 5^th dan. (Sueno sensei recently suggested that you need to hit 5 times to make 2 clear ippon). Show that you can break your opponent’s centre and take clear points.

Here are some points to keep in mind regardless of the grade you are aiming for:

• Be careful of your chakuso. Make sure that all your equipment is tied neatly and correctly. Watch the length of your men-himo and ensure that loops and descenders are of equal length.
• Make correct rei and sonkyo. You should take kamae at the same time as you make sonkyo not before or after.
• You must not attack when there is no opportunity and you must attack when there is.
• Commit 100 per cent to any attack you make. Ensure that your kiai is strong and that you make sae on hitting. Ensure too that your zanshin is present on every strike.
• If you miss, keep good posture as you move through after the attack. A missed point with good posture and kiai can be more impressive than a poorly executed hit.
• If kirikaeshi is part of your exam strike sharply and accurately and make sure that you do not cross your feet when you step backwards.
• Do not try techniques that you are not yet good at. Oji do is a good example. Few people do this well and many others try it in gradings. Even if it means relying solely on men, do only what you can do well.

If you are taking this or any other grading next week, do not attempt to make major changes to your kendo. Do the best you can with what you already have and keep these few tips in mind. Oh, and good luck on the day!

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Learning from failure

Fresh from yet another seminar and grading examination yesterday, I was asked for feedback by a number of people who passed. My apologies for not providing this, but I feel it is more important to use the time available between signing menjo and taking the long drive home to explain to the candidates who were not successful what they need to change to pass next time.

It is of course disappointing to fail an examination, but it is not an uncommon occurrence in kendo. The higher you move up the grade ladder the lower the pass rate. However the difficulty of passing certain grades is not common to everyone and different people reach there “wall” at different points. I have known people to get stuck an 4^th dan for 14 attempts and then pass 5^th 6^th and 7^th dan exams first time.

I am only too familiar with the moment when successful candidate numbers are posted on the wall and yours is not there. Reactions can range from resentment at the panel being so strict to self-recrimination for getting it wrong yet again. The healthiest response is to think “what can I learn from this and what can I add to my training  to ensure that I pass next time”.

To be fair, most people ask the question and go away with the determination to change, but often the normal routine gets in the way and they fall back into their old training schedule and old habits. Unfortunately hours in the dojo alone are not going to change anything if they are not spent wisely. As some self-help guru or another said “the more you do of what you do, the more you get of what you have got”.

The first thing to do is to make sure you understand the examiners’ feedback. Ask for clarification if you are at all in doubt. Consult your instructor on what you need to bring to your practice to overcome the challenge you are facing. Make sure you get the chance to train with people who are of your own level and above. If this means travelling, then make plans to do it. Start as soon as possible. As in the case of the seminar I just attended, we try our hardest to show people what to do to improve their kendo. Unfortunately learning new skills the day before a grading exam seldom helps. You need to do at least three months of consistent training to make something an integral part of your kendo behaviour.

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Making opportunity

Even though I am due to take my first non-kendo break of the year next week. It feels like summer is over and we are back up and running with the autumn kendo schedule. As part of this I sat on the panel for the UK’s only annual grading to 5^th dan on Saturday.

We were lucky enough to have Sumi sensei head the panel which consisted of another hachidan, Tashiro sensei, and 4 7^th dan examiners. Although we don’t look at each other’s marks, when the result papers came back in time for the kata section; it looked like our votes where almost unanimous. Unfortunately cut-off time for the hall booking did not allow us to give feedback to the many people who asked for it, but for the people trying for third dan and above that I spoke to and the those that I overheard the other panellists advise, the cause of failure was almost identical – the lack of seme.

To vastly oversimplify, the requirement for Ikyu and shodan in kendo exams is to be able to demonstrate good technique with strong spirit and good posture. Nidan should do this with more understanding of timing and opportunity plus the ability to demonstrate renzoku waza. As we climb the grading ladder from there, the focus increases on the importance of making and taking the opportunity to strike. This is often slightly mystically explained along the lines of “you must strike when you see an opportunity and you must not strike when there is no opportunity”.

Unfortunately in kendo, like most other facets of life, opportunities do not just happen; you have to make them. The way we do this is with seme, either pushing through your opponents guard with your own stronger physical and mental kamae, or by creating and breaking your own pressure to draw him into distance with hikidasu. By doing so, we proactively create the chance to strike.

This is half the battle. The other half is being able to launch yourself to strike as soon as you make the opportunity. To make this happen, your left foot must be continually drawn up to the correct position with a feeling of pressure in the ball of the foot and tension at the back of the left knee. Your posture must be perpendicular with just a slight inclination forward, so that you can move smoothly forward as you push with your left foot. As you do so, you simply raise the shinai and strike the target in a timing of one.

If your balance or footwork is incorrect then you will have to adjust your posture before you strike, by then your opponent will have recovered his defence and the moment will have passed.

If you passed on Saturday my warmest congratulations, if you didn’t it’s time to do some more work on seme and attack.

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Is 3rd dan the new 4th dan?

I am lucky enough to travel regularly for kendo and have been a panellist for or assisted with grading examinations in a number of countries over the past few years. During this time I have noticed that it is generally becoming more difficult to pass 3^rd dan.

In the past it was often enough for a candidate to show correct waza and good posture to pass this grade. In some ways it was seen as a more polished version of 2^nd dan.  Now, I feel that it is becoming the watershed that 4^th dan used to be.

An experience that I have not had for quite a few years is to watch a prefectural grading in Japan, but I have been told by a number of senior sensei that the bar has been raised there too. Japanese grading panels now look for sharpness (sae) of strikes and for the ability to make opportunities through seme (breaking your opponent’s centre) or hikidasu (pulling him in), for third dan candidates in the way they looked at 4^th dan in the past.

Although  purely conjecture on my part,  I imagine that this is a reflection of the fact that since 9^th dan was discontinued, the kodansha grades of 8^th, 7^th and 6^th dan have become more difficult to attain and slowly but surely there has been a trickle-down effect on the grades below.

Third dan seems to be particularly in the firing line, because 4^th dan was traditionally seen as the point where strong kihaku (strength of spirit), seme and hikidasu were required to augment the technique learned up to that stage.  These elements now seem to be required for 3^rd dan too.

Third dan candidates still need the basics of good cutting technique, posture and ki ken tai-itchi, but must now demonstrate the ability to control and dominate the opponent and to make sharp effective attacks at the right time.

Show the examiners that you mean business by ensuring that you are tuned into your opponent from the time you step into the shinsa-jo. Engage your partner’s attention and keep eye contact from the moment you start to bow. Then take three confident steps into simultaneous sonkyo before standing-up together. Allow the time to read each other and show strong kiai before an attack is made.

To prepare you should ensure that you work on creating correct opportunities in jigeiko and by including seme and hikidasu in your basic uchikomi drills. If you are able to combine good basic kendo with the ability to control your opponent at this stage, you should have a great foundation for the rest of your kendo career.

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Fighting spirit in grading examinations

I just got back from a weekend kendo seminar and grading examination.  As well as kihon and kata practice we had two keiko sessions where I was impressed by the fighting spirit of most of the people who trained with me.

At the conclusion of the seminar I advised the candidates for the subsequent exam to just relax and display their best kendo; which many managed to do, but in some cases minus the element of fighting spirit. What we saw instead were what appeared to be nicely choreographed displays of technique with clear opportunities being taken in turn with little or no resistance.

Grading panellists are looking for positive evidence of candidates’ ability to demonstrate all the key elements of kendo: correct cutting, good posture, hand and foot coordination, timing, the ability to make and react to opportunities and of course fighting spirit. These elements are required in varied quantities in line with the grade being taken, but at any level, you need to show that you are there to fight.

By fighting spirit I do not mean raw aggression, the feeling I am trying to describe is more like ability to keep a reservoir of energy centred in your abdomen so that you are constantly ready to step in and take the initiative and when you see the target to explode into action. At its best it is a combination mental attitude and correct breathing technique that allows you to commit 100 percent to an attack; win or lose.

At the early stages of our kendo careers it is difficult to rationalise applying pressure to our opponent whilst at the same time relaxing, but it gets easier to achieve the more kihon training we do. We can accelerate progress by actively developing the right attitude. By this I mean that even in the most basic drills you should try to make “mind contact” with your opponent and to always think about how you set up each technique by making your opponent move. This leads us into the concept of sen, sen sen no sen and go no sen, but whilst this is not difficult to understand on an intellectual level, the physical ability to make and take opportunity is one of the most difficult ongoing parts of our kendo training and can only be achieved through constant correct training.

So if you failed on this or a recent occasion don’t be discouraged, get back to the dojo, relax your shoulders, take a big breath, centre your energy and get back to kihon training with lots of confidence and controlled aggression.

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Your kirikaeshi says a lot about you.

I have written on several occasions about the benefits to be gained from practicing kirikaeshi.  This time I wanted to share some thoughts on just how much kirikaeshi can tell others about your kendo.

I got home last night after the Watchet kendo seminar and grading. In the past in the UK, it was only necessary to include kirikaeshi in grading exams up to third dan.  Now to align with other European kendo countries, its inclusion has been extended to 4^th dan  examinations.  With this in mind we did some work on kirikaeshi over the weekend and then as a grading panellist I watched 3 hours of it on Sunday, so as you can imagine, the topic is fresh in my mind.

It really is a very good indicator of an individual’s overall kendo level.  A demonstration of kirikaeshi is not affected by the relative strength of your opponent, it is a simple showcase for your kendo basics. It gives examiners a clear view of your ability to cut correctly with tenouchi, your footwork and ki- ken- tai-itchi and the strength of your kiai.

When as an examiner you watch kirikaeshi the first thing you notice is whether or not the candidate is demonstrating “full spirit”. A big kiai and the ability to make successive strikes in one breath will immediately get the panel on side. It is also easy to see whether the attacker is making correct cuts to the target. For yoko men this should be a a 45 degree angle to the temple and the right arm should be extended and the left hand should remain in the centre of his or her dou mune.

Many kendoka get into the habit of aiming at the opponent’s shinai rather than really trying to hit the target. When they are practising in their own dojo, they should get motodachi to receive the strike as close as possible to their men to encourage a correct cutting action and hasuji. It is also obvious if correct distance is being kept. This is usually a good indicator of someone’s ability to control their footwork.

One question I was asked several times over the weekend was whether tai-atari should be included in kirikaeshi in gradings. There are various schools of thought, but the simple answer is include it if you have to and don’t if you don’t. For instance if motodachi offers strong resistance, make tai-atari, if he goes back after your first strike, then there is no need.

Of course there are other elements of kendo such as timing, opportunity, seme and the understanding of riai that are not visible in kirikaeshi, which is why we go on to a jigeiko demonstration, but kirikaeshi certainly gives the panel a quick overview of a candidates level of competence with kendo’s fundamentals.

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When to start wearing bogu?

Courtesy of eBay

We have scheduled a kyu grading at my local dojo for this coming Thursday and we were discussing the format. My preference is that candidates who are taking their first kendo examination should be allowed to demonstrate basic technique without the pressure of fighting for opportunities against an opponent, or being constrained by wearing men and kote. The requirement would be for them to deliver kirikaeshi and a pre-arranged sequence of kihon attacks against an armoured motodachi.  Another option or possible addition is the inclusion of the “Bokuto ni yoru Kendo Kihon Keiko-ho” or Training Method for Fundamental Technique with Bokuto.

My rationale is that it is difficult enough to learn correct technique and footwork without the added complication of understanding an opponent’s timing, particularly if he or she is equally new to kendo. There is also a danger that when new kendoka are told to “fight” there is a temptation to block or move to avoid being hit, whereas if they are in the role of kakarite, they can concentrate on correct technique and posture.

Grading examinations really are the “tip of the iceberg”.  There is an often quoted urban myth that pre-war, adult beginners in some Japanese dojo were left to practice suburi in a quiet corner for at least a year and then admitted to the dan ranks. In the present day UK, it is more likely that you will get to wear bogu after your 6 or 8 week beginners’ course.

Wearing men and kote too can be more challenging than experienced kenshi realise. Of course using these essential pieces of kendo kit eventually becomes second nature, but I have seen several instances of beginners quitting because the feeling of being blinkered by a men or being hit on the head felt so unnatural. On the other hand some brave individuals, who start kendo with the image of the armoured samurai, ready to do battle from day one in mind, find it hard to be patient while they are learning the basics.

Buying bogu too early in your kendo career can be as punitive financially as it is in terms of technique development.  eBay and the kendo message boards regularly have used bogu for sale and I am sure that there is much more stashed in cupboards and attics against the slim chance of the owner starting again.

I am interested in your views on when we should start wearing bogu. Should we get the basics right first, or is it better to at least have a taste of keiko in armour during the early stages of our kendo careers?

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“Passing 6th and 7th dan”

I was recently asked about my thoughts on what was required to pass the 6^th and 7^th dan grading examinations. Over the years I have heard various theories. One of my favourites was from a successful Japanese candidate for 6^th dan, who explained that throughout your tachiai you should have the feeling that you are writing the hiragana character “no” の with a writing brush held between your buttocks.

In the EKF’s grading guidelines we get the slightly less fun but arguably more relevant interpretation as follows:

Like many of the guidelines for passing grading examinations, the meaning becomes clear once you have reached the required level, but appears as if it is designed to confuse those preparing for the next stage.

To the best of my understanding, “Jiri “ or “Jiri itchi” means the unity of technique and theory, so you not only need to deploy successful techniques, but you also need to look like you know why you are deploying them. To put it another way, you should do nothing that has no purpose.

Techniques should correspond with real opportunities to strike, but whereas with 4^th and 5^th dan the focus is on breaking through the centre with seme, you now need to add the more subtle principle of “hikidasu”, or pulling your opponent in, so that you can respond with debana waza or ojiwaza.

Many people are given over simplistic advice, such as “wait 30 seconds, give a loud kiai and make two good attacks”. This sounds ideal, but it is perhaps too simple a way of saying that as you stand from sonkyo you must make strong mind contact with your opponent and then strive to make opportunities to attack. If you can only make one strike in the brief time available, so be it. On the other hand, if you make or are given 20 clear opportunities to strike you must take advantage of them. The rule is don’t attack when there is no opportunity, but do when there is.

This should be overlaid on all the things you had to get right for the previous gradings – correct footwork, posture, kamae, tenouchi etc. and of course don’t drop the writing brush.

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Key points for grading examinations

I was asked by the British Kendo Association’s new grading officer to suggest some questions for the written exam that forms part of all UK grading examinations.

I won’t reveal my suggestions, just in case they want to surprise you with them at your next grading, but the exercise made me think about the essential qualities for each grade. Obviously the written questions reflect the points that the panel are looking for in the jitsugi and kata sections, but your answers confirm whether or not you understand the theory as well.

Remember that the qualities for each grade are incremental. When you take the examination for second dan, you need to maintain all the qualities you demonstrated for first dan, plus the new elements that are unique to second dan. Most country organisations  have a list of the requirements for each grade on their web-site and the FIK and EKF sites have the FIK guidelines, so if you are preparing for an examination make sure you read them. The points that I have listed are those that stand out to me as essential for each grade, but this is just my personal view.

• Ikkyu – The first official grade and hopefully the one that you will build on as part of a long and successful kendo career. You have been working hard to build correct kihon, but my “must have” is good reigi, demonstrating correct ritsu-rei and sonkyo . Your chakuso, or the way you wear your equipment and hold the shinai should also be correct.
• Shodan- This is where we look more critically at your technique, so you need to have developed strong spirit and correct posture and kamae and be able to strike accurately with ki-ken-tai-itchi.
• Nidan – Fluidity of movement and footwork should now be added, so we are looking at your ability to deliver nidan waza.
• Sandan – This is where you have to show that you really understand distance, timing and opportunity. The beginning stage of seme is something you should strive to demonstrate.
• Yondan – “Seme and tame”. You need to show that you can break your opponents centre and use debana and oji waza.
• Godan – “More seme and tame” but this time going further to show that you can dominate with the strength of your kigamae and to pull your opponent in for oji waza.
• Rokudan and Nanadan – For these it is about demonstrating the understanding of riai or the rationale for each technique.
• Hachidan – I am still thinking about that one.

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