"Chudan-no kamae" is the very fundamental of kendo. No waza or strike would be effective unless it comes from a proper kamae. One should therefore work on their kamae first and foremost.
Kamae needs a spirit to it. The properly structured kamae without the spirit does not intimidate the opponent. Imagine yourself being a sprinter, crouching in front of the starting line in a 100-meter track competition. You are ready to jump-start in an instance you hear a gun shot. It is this mental/physical status that you want to be in when you take your kamae. Be ready, alert, and focused. Ideally, you should be able to feel all the nerves of your body ready to react to the opponent's movements.
Always take the center with your shinai. It is the lifeline for both you and your opponent. Taking the center allows you to strike your opponent in the shorter distance and to defend from the opponent's strikes with your kensen. As can be seen from the matches between advanced players, they continuously struggle with each other to take the center before they initiate their strikes. They are well aware of the tremendous advantages of dominating the center both in offense and defense.
From the proper "chudan-no-kamae", you would like to strike as fast as you possibly can. In kendo, those who can strike fast get a point, holding other factors equal. The following three lessons teach you how to strike fast;
While the speed of your strike is important, that alone is not enough to gain a point from your opponent. Two important concepts in making a strike are "iro" and "sute". "Iro" refers to the precursor of your strike. "Sute" literally means abandon or throw away, but in the context of kendo, it refers to the fearless mindset in which you give your full strength and spirit to your strike and do not worry about the outcome of it.
Imagine that your opponent tells you that he/she is about to strike you. No matter how fast he/she is, it should be easy to block his/her strike and to even counter-attack him/her. In reality, of course, your opponent is wise enough not to tell his intentions. But there are ways to tell your intentions other than verbally.
Think about your own strike for a second. When you play with a more advanced player, you should sometimes wonder how easy it looks when he/she blocks your strikes and moves on to counter-attacks. The reason is not so much about the speed of your strike but the "signs" you give out prior to your strike. Without you knowing consciously, you are showing some precursors to your strike and thus telling your intentions. This is called "iro (色)", and the less "iro" you have, the less predictable your strike is and the better off you are.
What constitutes "iro" varies across individuals. It could be a shinai movement or unnatural body/head movement. You may want to have somebody videotape yourself and see what signs you are giving out and what you need to correct for. Or you may simply ask your opponents. Experienced/Advanced players are skillful in detecting these "iro" and hence anticipating the opponent's strike. This allows them to effectively conduct a counter-attack.
When you are deciding whether to strike or not, you often think too much about the outcome of your action. Even when you are about to strike, you tend to worry too much about a case of failure. This is a bad habit because it slows both your decision making and your strike. Once you are determined, you should give your 100% to the strike without worrying about failure. It is the mindset of "Now I am going to give my best shot, and you can do whatever you want with it". You just throw your body into your opponent and thus the word "sute (捨)".
A men strike is the most important. If you master a men strike, it is easy for you to learn kote and do strikes. For this reason, people usually spend most of the time on practicing men strikes.
In a free keiko or match, it is not easy to strike a men as in practice. Why is that? Because the opponent will try his/her best to defend himself. The question is, what can you do to strike a men in a free keiko/match?
First, you have to know your distance. If you initiate a strike from too far, your shinai will not reach your opponent. If you come too close to the opponent before you strike, he/she will be able to hit you first. Hence, you have to know the exact distance from which you can optimally strike a men. In the midst of the struggle to take a center with your shinai, you should be able to sense your optimal distance.
Once you know your optimal distance, next thing you should do is to learn to be decisive and courageous. Opportunities come and go instantaneously. The instance you are in that distance, you should seize the moment. If you ever wonder whether to strike or not, even for one hundredth of a second, the opportunity will go away. Your opponent will either capitalize the opportunity instead or step backward/forward to avoid the distance of your favor. Hence, the moment you are in the optimal distance, you should have initiated a strike. It takes courage for an instant decision making. Courage takes a lot of practice.
Also, if the opponent is well aware that you are about to come to men, he/she will easily block your strike. As in volleyball where a setter distributes the ball so that the opposing side cannot tell which striker they should defend, you should make it unknown to your opponent where you are coming next. The followings are a very short list of techniques to bewilder your opponent:
You shouldn't simply try to strike kote. Attacking kote is dangerous because you have to lower your body a little bit. When the strike is unsuccessful, you are very vulnerable to the opponent's counter-strikes.
You should strike a kote just as you would strike a men. Since a kote is closer to you and looks like an easy target, you might think that you don't have to reach as far, step as much, or strike as firmly. It is wrong. If you don't reach and step far enough, your strike will not be as effective. Even worse, if you miss it, you would expose your men wide open. Kote is not an easy target to strike because the opponent can move his hands much more quickly than his/her men or do. The same principle as in men strikes applies to kote strikes.
The stronger your attack is toward the men, the more effective your kote strike becomes. This is because the opponent tries to block your men strike with his/her shinai and in the process he/she raises his/her hands and thus exposes his/her kote from the protection of the shinai and tsuba. That is the opportunity for a kote strike you want to create. On the contrary, if the opponent's shinai is at the center and the kensen remains low, then a kote strike wouldn't result ina good outcome and often becomes a prey for counter-attacks.
Suppose a baseball pitcher can throw an excellent curve ball. If he throws a curve ball in a completely different way from when he throws a fast ball, one can still hit the ball, based on an accurate prediction of the throw. Similarly, if your kote strike is done in a completely different form from men strike, no matter how fast your kote strike is, your opponent will still be able to predict the strike and block it. You cannot strike men and kote in exactly identical motions and they are bound to depart from each other. What you can do is to lag the moment of departure as behind as possible so that the opponent cannot tell which strike it is until the very last moment.
As stated in the previous chapter, do-strike is risky because you have to lower your body--even riskier than kote-strike. When your kote-strike is unsuccessful, you can continue the offense by going for men or do and therby avoid the opponent's counter-strikes. On the contrary, after your do-strike fails, you cannot easily get the composure together and go for a men or kote.
What makes a do-strike even more difficult is the fact that the opponent's do is already guarded in the chudan-no-kamae while his men or kotes are open. The success rate of a do-strike, for this reason, is usually quite low.
In order to strike a do, you have to put a tremendous pressure to your opponent's state of mind and make him/her raise his/her arms. Unless you do that and make his/her do open, you will never be able to strike the already protected place. To do so, you have to fake a men-strike in a rather big gesture. Then, half way through the men-strike, you turn your wrists around and switch to the do-strike.
Being able to strike the opponent's do gives you a variety of offense that he/she has to defend against. In the baseball metaphor, a pitcher is better off if he can throw many kinds: a straight fast ball, slider, curve, split-finger, sinker, etc. Despite the success rate being low, this is why you should make an effort to learn a do-strike.
To avoid a counter-attack, you should throw your body into your opponent's. Once the opponent blocks your do-strike, you are very vulnerable to his/her strike. Do not stop when the strike ended unsuccessfully; attack your opponent with your body and don't give him/her any space and distance to strike you. If this body contact makes the opponent unstable on his feet, then you may be able to continue the offense.
When you strike a do, you have to swing the shinai diagonally as if the tip of the shinai drew a half circle. At the impact, the back of your right hand should face upward to the roof while that of your left hand face downward to the floor.This hands' movement is called "te-wo-kaesu" (turn the hands around). Imagin cutting a body with a real sword. Unless you turn your hands around, the blade does not face the body and thus cannot make a cut. In a match, judges won't give you a point for a do-strike unless you properly do this hand movement.
Tsuki is even more difficult than do. It's very rare that you see a tsuki being a point in a match. The followings are the reasons why; firstly, the size of the place where you can thrust a tsuki (tsuki-dare) is very small. In addition, one has an instinct of avoiding a thrust to his/her weakest spot, throat, which makes a successful thrust difficult. Finally, the tsuki-dare is furthest to reach with the shinai and kotes blocking it.
Despite the challenge, you should thrive to master the tsuki-thrust. There are only four places you can strike and you shouldn't limit the number. Variety is important.
Humans are instinctively afraid to be thrusted on their throat. It's one of the weakest spots of the human body. If you attack the opponent's tsuki-dare, you can greatly disturb his/her state of mind, which sometimes leads to an improper kamae. This psychological effect can give you a tremendous advantage when you subsequently attack the opponent.
Tsuki-thrust is the most effective for the following opponents: those whose kensen is off the center, those who have a low kensen, and those who take jodan or nito (two swords).
There are two kinds of tsuki-thrust: katate-tsuki (one handed thrust) and morote-tsuki (both handed). When the opponent is close to you, you can do a morote-tsuki and when he/she is relatively far, then you should thrust with one hand. If the opponent takes a jodan or nito, you should usually opt for katate-tsuki because he/she can usually hit your men faster than you can thrust him/her.
Tsuki practice is unpleasant for both sides: attacking or receiving. For the fear of hurting the opponent, you are inclined to reserve the strength in practice. If you cannot thrust with full strength and intensity, however, the practice is no good.
To practice a tsuki-thrust, use the wall of the dojo first. Draw a circle at the height of your throat, and try to thrust the spot over and over again. If you do this for 10 minutes everyday for a year, you will be a master of tsuki-thrust.
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by Kotaro Yoshida