Today we had an internal competition at the club. The purpose was to give a little bit of practice and feedback for those entering the next competition next weekend, and those going to Uni Games a few days after that, as well as selecting the kyu and dan team members for the events.
I wasn't too fussed about it because I wasn't going to be competing in either of those competitions, but I like to play in the internal competitions because our coach provides comments/feedback to how our kendo is in such situations, at a competition, he may not get to see all the matches, or may be focussed on his own etc.
Since I won the last internal competition, I had first choice of who I wanted in my first round pool. We only had fourteen competitors, and five pools since it is normally a three person pool. This meant one of the pools would be short, and I was given the option of either getting a first round bye and one other pool being loaded with four, or having a two person pool. I opted for the two person round since I wanted a warmup anyway if I got to the next round. I picked someone that I knew I should have won against but wasn't a beginner.
Match wise, the shiai went to expectations, I didn't make too many bad cuts or decisions in it, and I scored both ippon cuts as men cuts. The comments that came back was that my cuts are good and can score points, but our coach said he wanted to hear a longer zanshin kiai. So instead of menya~, draw it out with more spirit to menya~~~~~~~! type of thing. It can be the difference between no point, or a point because the shimpans (refs) look for confidence in the cut.
So I was into the semi's. The winner of the other pool that was linked to mine is quite an advanced player. He is excellent and his kendo is clean, wonderful and as someone told me today they could fall in love with his kendo if it was a person. It is exceptionally good. I normally would get walloped by him I think, but today I felt that I played quite well. I had no expectations of defeating him, but I still gave it my best attempt, as you should of course. He won with two debana kote cuts. The thing about it though is that neither of those cuts actually hit my kote. It was explained to both of us after the shiai, that in a competition, sometimes shimpans can not see the cut clearly, but rely upon the sound of the cut. Even if it misses the kote, you can still generate with kiai and fumikomi the right sound, and hitting the tsuba or arm (like it was the case with me today), with everything else in place, they can score points from it.
Hmm, well, I knew that, so I wasn't upset at it. What I was told as feedback though from my second match was that I was beginning my cuts too far out. As I recently mentioned in my kendo blog, the usualy distance is within chikama. I was starting from itto mai and lifting to cut, which is kind of half small cut, half kihon men cut. This generates a *massive* kote opening for anyone with good speed and timing to cut, which, they did. He told me that what I need to work on is, moving from itto mai into chikama very strongly, and applying tension/pressure to the opponent, so they will feel I am about to attack, and then push into the distance closer than chikama before making the cut. In regards to what I said about being too close, closer than Chikama, it is the wrong distance to *stay* in, but it apparently is the right distance to move into *as* you make the attack. This prevents them from doing debana attacks, but they can still step backwards or block. You learn something when you play competitions if someone is watching.
Observations on other people. Not enough zanshin on lots of them. Make the cut, a little kiai, where is the zanshin~!!!!!! And the other comment is there is a lot of scrappy play. Pushing around maliciously is not good kendo, and depending on the shimpans you can get hansoku for it. Other things include grabbing your shinai, which is a no-no, you must get the shimpan to check your shinai since you might do something to it, and also correct tsubazeriai position too. A lot of people play very rough kendo in terms of throwing cuts/hits without openings or opportunities. It is a persona preference and opinion, but for me, that is not good kendo. How the person that beat me plays is, it is clean, crisp, calculated and I believe he will go very far with his kendo.
Back to improving myself ^_^
I wasn't too fussed about it because I wasn't going to be competing in either of those competitions, but I like to play in the internal competitions because our coach provides comments/feedback to how our kendo is in such situations, at a competition, he may not get to see all the matches, or may be focussed on his own etc.
Since I won the last internal competition, I had first choice of who I wanted in my first round pool. We only had fourteen competitors, and five pools since it is normally a three person pool. This meant one of the pools would be short, and I was given the option of either getting a first round bye and one other pool being loaded with four, or having a two person pool. I opted for the two person round since I wanted a warmup anyway if I got to the next round. I picked someone that I knew I should have won against but wasn't a beginner.
Match wise, the shiai went to expectations, I didn't make too many bad cuts or decisions in it, and I scored both ippon cuts as men cuts. The comments that came back was that my cuts are good and can score points, but our coach said he wanted to hear a longer zanshin kiai. So instead of menya~, draw it out with more spirit to menya~~~~~~~! type of thing. It can be the difference between no point, or a point because the shimpans (refs) look for confidence in the cut.
So I was into the semi's. The winner of the other pool that was linked to mine is quite an advanced player. He is excellent and his kendo is clean, wonderful and as someone told me today they could fall in love with his kendo if it was a person. It is exceptionally good. I normally would get walloped by him I think, but today I felt that I played quite well. I had no expectations of defeating him, but I still gave it my best attempt, as you should of course. He won with two debana kote cuts. The thing about it though is that neither of those cuts actually hit my kote. It was explained to both of us after the shiai, that in a competition, sometimes shimpans can not see the cut clearly, but rely upon the sound of the cut. Even if it misses the kote, you can still generate with kiai and fumikomi the right sound, and hitting the tsuba or arm (like it was the case with me today), with everything else in place, they can score points from it.
Hmm, well, I knew that, so I wasn't upset at it. What I was told as feedback though from my second match was that I was beginning my cuts too far out. As I recently mentioned in my kendo blog, the usualy distance is within chikama. I was starting from itto mai and lifting to cut, which is kind of half small cut, half kihon men cut. This generates a *massive* kote opening for anyone with good speed and timing to cut, which, they did. He told me that what I need to work on is, moving from itto mai into chikama very strongly, and applying tension/pressure to the opponent, so they will feel I am about to attack, and then push into the distance closer than chikama before making the cut. In regards to what I said about being too close, closer than Chikama, it is the wrong distance to *stay* in, but it apparently is the right distance to move into *as* you make the attack. This prevents them from doing debana attacks, but they can still step backwards or block. You learn something when you play competitions if someone is watching.
Observations on other people. Not enough zanshin on lots of them. Make the cut, a little kiai, where is the zanshin~!!!!!! And the other comment is there is a lot of scrappy play. Pushing around maliciously is not good kendo, and depending on the shimpans you can get hansoku for it. Other things include grabbing your shinai, which is a no-no, you must get the shimpan to check your shinai since you might do something to it, and also correct tsubazeriai position too. A lot of people play very rough kendo in terms of throwing cuts/hits without openings or opportunities. It is a persona preference and opinion, but for me, that is not good kendo. How the person that beat me plays is, it is clean, crisp, calculated and I believe he will go very far with his kendo.
Back to improving myself ^_^
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