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Kendo-Guide.Com Newsletter, Issue #050 - You cannot strike me if...

It is May already! How are you doing? In this issue, I'd like to share something that I cannot get out of my mind.

You know many words from great senseis do not sink in when you hear or read first time.

The one you will read today is one of those words that we cannot get right away I think.

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What we have in this issue is shown below. Enjoy this Newsletter!

Table of Content

- Kendo Q & A -

- Kendo Work Shop -

- If the course of your shinai is right, you cannot strike me -

- Comments or Questions -

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- Kendo Q & A -

- Suburi in Seiza

- What to do in a first match

- Kendo and creativity

- The Kendo Environment.

- Bad Habit

- Jodan Etiquette: What to say when you take Jodan

- Is my Sensei rude?

- Snapping (left) achilles tendon

- Kendo Work Shop -

- Rigth Hand Katate-Men

- How to do taiatari properly, without hurting your wrists?

- Valid men vs not valid debana kote

- Katsugi

- Best way to practice maai?

- Basic Men Uchi

- Hiki Waza

- How to defeat Nito?

- If the course of your shinai is right, you cannot strike me -

These words, I cannot get out of my mind. I found these words in an article in Kendo Nippon magazine.

These words were given to Yosuke Yamanaka sensei (8-dan kyoshi) by Masao Komorizono sensei after a training session.

This is very deep.

It is so deep that we really have to think about it. If you get the meaning of the words right away, you understand the mental side of kendo.

If you don't, it is OK. These words are not for those who need to train physical side of kendo.

If you are 3-dan or 4-dan, you should start thinking about this though.

To be honest with you, I read that part more than twice. And I finally got it.

Simply it says

"you are trying to ‘hit' so you are not using your shinai to cut. If you use your shinai to cut, the shinai must stay in the course of cutting not hitting".

The sensei who got this advice also did not get the real meaning of the words right away.

But he says as he got older, he really started getting the meaning of the words.

There are many people who are engaged in scoring a point. To these people, the result is more important than the process.

But kendo values the process more than the result. That is why we talk about "seme" a lot, don't we?

It is true that if we concentrate more on "hitting" ignoring seme, we can hit a target more.

If you have ever done jigieko with beginners, you know what this is like.

They just strike you without thinking about seme. Nor they let you do your seme. As a result, they can hit you unexpectedly.

This is probably a closest experience we can have to the words given to Yamanaka sensei by Komorizono sensei.

What do you think?

- Comments or Questions -

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Thank you for reading the newsletter. See you in the next issue!

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