One shiai occurrence

by Olga
(Ukraine)

Recently I watched one championship among kyu holders, judges were 1-2 dan holders.

I noticed that hiki techniques and do was not counted at all. (Though I notice some really good hiki strikes.)

So after championship some participants told me…

“I try to strike men but since my low level I do that slowly and my opponent has time to block. And kote is not my strong technique. What was I supposed to do??”

So it turned out that do and hiki were useless, men too slow and kote is not succeeded. :) What had that person do except trying more and more? Thanks in advance!

Answer: Thank you for your post. First of all, shinpaning is very hard especially if competitors are kyu level. And if shinpan are 1-2 dan holders, things get really hard!

Hiki waza is hard for inexperienced shinpan to judge. So I cannot blame shinpan for that.

You must remember that competitors also have to know who are doing shinpan. If shinpan are 1-3 dan holders and not having much shiai experience, then you should not execute hiki waza much because of the consequence mentioned above.

In addition, you must know where you are in the shiai-jo (match area). You must execute your techniques where shinpan can see well.

I know shinpan have to move around so shinpan can see clearly. But again if you want to win, you must calculate how things around you affect your victory.

Thus, once you notice that your shinpan does not give you points on hiki waza, then you should stop using them.

If your shinpan are inexperienced in shinpaning, you must make sure that your cuts are clear to them. I understand that the participants have the above-mentioned weaknesses but they must be overcome.

I believe, under the circumstance the shiai held, everyone fought in the same conditions, right? Their opponents probably did not get points by striking hiki waza or do. So that means everyone was doing shiai under the same conditions.

If their strikes are slow, maybe they have to keep striking until they hit a target. If they keep striking, they’ll hit a target eventually.

What we learned as youngster in Japan is “don’t quit until you get a target”.

At the different level, how to shinpan is different. Shinpaning for kyu level and dan level should be different. Shinpaning for All Japan Kendō Champ is different from 8-dan shiai.

So we should perform what we can do and do our best. Then if we lose, that is a result of the time we did the shiai. We will be different in one year and there will not be the same result.

The people who talked to you knew their weaknesses so they should work on them. That’s all. Please tell them that they should not worry about what they could not do at a moment of their life. They will be able to improve themselves because now they know their weaknesses very well.

Hope this helps.

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