Comments for Weird strikes in shiai

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May 01, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Weird posture ippon
by: thomas

I think you should have ki-ken-tai ichi and zanshin to get ippon.

Straight lower back and right arm at the moment of impact.

Hope this "trend" changes fast.

Kendo-Guide.Com: Probably it won't change. But it does not mean we should all do that. So we keep following the kendo basics and polish up our kendo.
Nov 15, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		RE: Weird strikes in shiai
by: Olga

Thanks a lot! Very useful and informative answer and comment.

Kendo-Guide.Com: Good to hear that!
Nov 11, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		Weird strikes
by: Tanno

I have experience of some weird strikes, including the kote suburi with the following uppercut punching to my face.

If you check the youtube videos, you can see a lot of weird attacks, including the out-of-bounds kote, which doesn't hit the kote itself, but the opponent's shoulder. You should expect them even in your OWN shiai. And if you think like "wait...WAT?", I understand you, since it might not be your fault of experiencing this, but of the opponent's and of the referees'.

Take care...

Kendo-Guide.Com: Thank you for your comment!

Misjudges happen. And you may get or lose points by hitting or getting hit somewhere but the targets (kote, men, dō, tsuki). It is your fault.

Judges are trying to see everything happening in a shiai besides accurate hit on the targets such as who's in control of shiai, who's putting pressure when striking and so forth. It is more like this when competitors are fighting at higher level, such as 8-dan tournament. You see many “hits” but they do not get any points.

If you lost points by getting hit on your shoulder, it is because it looked like you gave such an impression to the judges.

In shiai, you should think about many things like your positioning, so judges can see your strikes. You have to know tendencies of judges such as what kind of strikes they are giving points to competitors and also strikes that they do not give points.

And most importantly, what do you do after you won by misjudges? You won but you did not hit a target in a way you should. For example, you hit your opponent's elbow but you got a point.

What if you thought your opponent should have deserved points and should have won the fight but luckily you won. What would you do?

You cannot go up to the judges and tell them what you think but you CAN go up to your opponent and apologize or tell your opponent how he/she should deserve the victory.

Isn't it the beauty of kendō? Isn't it what we learn in kendō? Showing respect and appreciation to others?

There are always reasons in our defeat. And it lays in ourselves not others. If we forget that, we will stop improving and get lost in the way of the sword.

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