A physical journey
Taiso (Warm-up and prevention of injuries)
Taiso is the set of warm up exercises prior to the kendo practice. The main purpose of taiso is to stretch the various muscles, tendons, ligaments and loosen the joints which will all be used during your kendo training session.
Taiso usually begins with large movements of the body such as jumping, swinging the arms, rotating the trunk and more. It then progresses to smaller movements such as manipulating wrist, knee, ankle and neck joints.
These warm–ups are essential in order to prevent injury and damage to your body. Usually the taiso period is built into the formal beginning of a class, but it vary depending on the dojo you train in. You are strongly advised to do your own pre-training warm ups regardless. Kendo is an extremely physical and demanding activity and you only have one body – look after it!
Posture and kamae
Correct posture when standing, kneeling, sitting, walking or cutting is absolutely vital to your Kendo and cannot be over emphasised. Each posture or position you are taught must be practised constantly so that it becomes your natural way of holding your body.
The first and most important kamae is the Chudan no kamae ( centre kamae ). The feet are approximately one walking step apart with the left foot to the rear and left heel approximately 2 cm off the ground. The right foot is forward with the heel approximately 2 mm off the ground. Both feet should point to the front as though you were following parallel railway tracks.The legs should be slightly bent with your weight in the centre. The feeling should be as if your legs are a spring ready to push you forwards to attack.
The shinai is held with the end of the tsuka cradled in the palm of the left hand and the right hand grasping the handle lightly just below the tsuba. There should be about 5 – 7cm between the hara and the left hand. The top of the shinai is pointed towards the opponent’s left eye and should be at throat level. The entire arms, except the fingers holding the shinai should be relaxed. This position is sometimes called “holding 4 eggs”, where you imagine you are lightly holding an egg under each armpit, another between your do ( at hara level ) and the end of the shinai handle and another between the tsuba and the “V” formed by the thumb and index finger of the right hand.
The head should be held erect with the chin tucked in. This will help to correct bad posture. You should look towards your opponent as if you were looking through him at a mountain in the distance. This allows you to view your opponent and immediate surroundings without focusing on one particular part of his body.
Breathe smoothly and naturally from the hara. This will give you more stability and will keep you relaxed and able to quickly react when required.
In Jodan no kamae the left foot is forwards, the right is to the rear and the shinai is held above the head at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the right and tilting backwards 45 degrees. The left hand is about one fist distance above the forehead.
In Gedan no kamae the shinai is lowered from chudan to a point where the tip is approximately 20cm above the floor.
In Hasso no kamae the position of the feet is the same as for Jodan no kamae. The shinai is held with the tsuba about one fist away from the cheek, level with the mouth. The angle and tilt is the same as for jodan no kamae.
In Waki no kamae the right foot moves back from chudan so that the left foot becomes the forward foot. The shinai is brought up over the right shoulder and down behind the body so that it cannot be seen by the opponent. Both hands will be near the right hip with the tip down about 20cm off the floor.
Ashi Sabaki (Basic footwork)
Okuri ashi
This is the most basic footwork in Kendo. It consists of sliding the front foot, toes first, forwards about 40cm and the bringing the back foot up behind to the basic standing position (Chudan no kamae). This foot movement can then either be repeated or it may lead into another type of footwork. Okuri ashi can also be done backwards with the back foot moving first, followed up by the front foot.
Ayumi ashi
This movement is very similar to normal walking except that both feet slide just above the surface of the floor. It is used to move forwards or backwards swiftly and smoothly.
Tsugi ashi
From the chudan position push off from the back foot and move forward quickly about a metre. The front foot makes contact with the floor first quickly followed up the back foot. You should finish in the chudan no kamae position you started from. This footwork is usually used when attacking.
Hiraki ashi
This footwork is used when stepping to the left or right. Whilst you remain essentially in the chudan no kamae position, your foot position will be reversed when you have finished your step to the left i.e. your right foot will be behind your left.
Maai (Distance from the opponent)
The distance you maintain between yourself and your opponent is vitally important both for protection and to enable correct cutting. The various maai will be described to you in your training and they are: To maai, Issoku itto no maai, Chika maai. The most commonly used maai is Issoku itto no maai (one step one cut).
Suburi (Basic cutting without an opponent)
Suburi is basic cutting practice and involves such cuts as joge bure, naname fure, shomen suburi, zengo suburi, sayu men suburi, haya suburi, sayu men suburi using hiraki ashi footwork and men suburi from sonkyo. Suburi practice is fundamental to your Kendo and you cannot ever progress without continuing suburi practice. You will also find that practicing suburi at home, in your garden or anywhere you like will help you improve your kendo very quickly. You must always keep in mind: posture, good kamae, footwork and big cuts.
Kihon (Basic cutting with an opponent)
Kihon includes basic attacking techniques often involving an opponent and is absolutely fundamental to our Kendo training. Beauty in Kendo comes from our kihon training – without kihon there can be no beauty in Kendo.
Kihon involves countless repetitions of basic attacking and cutting techniques during which we strive to improve our basics, the posture, the footwork, the cut, the kiai and much more. Whilst kihon can sometimes appear repetitive and boring, it is only through dedication to this phase of our training that we can make any significant progress.
Senseis will get to know you and they will adapt your training to your needs to ensure your constant improvement. Follow their advices and try your best every time. The secret of improvement is not only into repetition, it is mainly in trying our best at every cut. Dedicate yourself to each movement and always try to make the next cut better than the last one.
Looking further
Shiai (Competition)
A shiai is a Kendo match for which there are rules and regulations, and the result of which is decided by referees. Shiai is sometimes looked upon as the “sport” component of Kendo. The objective is to win the first 2 points out of a 3 point match by striking the opponent with correct technique, appropriate energy and posture.
Shiai jo ( competition area )
The Shiai jo is a rectangle of any combination of 9 metres to 11 metres I.e 9 x 9; 9 x 10; 9 x 11; 10 x 10; 10 x 11; 11 x 11. The centre of the area is marked and it is from this point that the fighting starts.
Refereeing
For each match, there are 3 referees -A Shu shin (chief referee), and 2 Fuku-shin (sub referees)- who decide on the awarding of points and penalties on a majority decision basis.
It is also usual to have a Tokei gakari (timekeeper) for formal shiai to ensure that the fight does not go too long. Special rules apply when in “extra time”, so correct timekeeping is very important.
Each referee has two flags; one red and one white. The Kendoists will normally have a coloured ribbon tied to their do himo; either red or white. By raising the appropriate flag, the referees will indicate the Kendoist to whom a point or penalty is awarded. Other frequent uses of the flags you will see are:
- Both raised above the head, meaning to stop fighting – the Shu-shin will call “Yame” to the Kendoists.
- Flags crossed over ( red over white ) and the arms held down, meaning the referee doing this did not see a point.
- Flags waved in a crossing movement which indicates that the referee disagrees with the decision of the other referees regarding a point.
Yuko datotsu ( valid points )
A point is scored when 2 or 3 of the referees hold up the same coloured flag to award a point. The point may also be given if only one referee indicates the point and the others indicate they could not see what happened. Points are awarded for a correct cut using proper posture, footwork, kiai, fumi-komi and if the cut is followed by good zanshin. The cut must also have been made using correct timing (Ki - ken-tai-no-uchi).