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I have found an interesting artcle about Takanabe senshu at “世界選手権・団体戦 日本が初めての敗北 3つの教訓、再び日本代表へ” . It is about how he overcame his loss and became even stronger. I would like to share what he learned from his loss.

 

A Necessary Evil. Losing is Just Like It.

No one likes losing but what Takanabe senshu learned from his loss at WKC brought him 2 victories (in a row) of All Japan Kendo Champ and the victories of the team and individual tournaments of the WKC that he fought as the Taisho of the team.

Of course, he struggled. He did not want to fight anymore after he lost in his first WKC. He failed his 6-dan exam. Nothing good happened after his loss.

But he worked on 3 things after his loss.

• Lacking techniques to get a valid cut
• Strategies when fighting as a team
• Lacking analysis of opponents

Lacking techniques to get a valid cut

Takanabe senshu is famous for his lighting men strike. It only take 0.10 second for him to strike a men once he sets himself to launch his men cut.

But he said, he relied on only his men strike. He needed more varieties of strikes to get a valid cut.

You might have notice that he executes more kote and tsuki strikes in his recent matches. And his tsuki is really impressive.

So he gained more varieties of techniques for him to get a valid cut.

Strategies when fighting as a team

Even though we fight individually even in a team fight in kendo, each person has their own role. It is not about you, it is about the team.

So even if you want to win, if it is OK for you to draw, you do not have to win. What that means is there is a difference between what you want and what you need to do.

He was a position of jiho (the second person to fight) in this WKC and the first person or senpo won his fight. And according to him, he did not have to fright to win because all he had to do was to keep the momentum for the team.

But he went for his own victory. He tried to win and as a result, he lost.

This lost stopped the momentum of the team.

Lacking analysis of opponents

He thought his main and true enemy was Korea. He did study about the players of Korea but not of the other countries. As a result, Japan lost to America.

This is when America and Korea fought at the final and Korea became the world champ.

Every single player at the world champs train hard. No doubt about it. But they study their opponents a lot. Sun Tzu says, “if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles (From wikiquote)“. He did not know about his opponent.

What can we learn from this

Kendo is not about winning and losing. Have you heard this before? It was necessary for him to lose. Without this loss, he is not who he is now. After he lost, he did not quit. Of course, he was in the dark. He did not know what he shroud do. But he realised the 3 things and worked on it.

• Realisation of own weaknesses
• Working on them to overcome
• Staying humble

This is a process to improve.

Kendo is not about winning and losing.

It is about a process of self-development. Winning and losing are only a result and more importantly they are also a part of the process.

I received a Kendo Nippon magazine, Issue No. 468, the featured article is, “Improving Shinpan Skills”. Shinpan means referee if you are new to the term.

The article was written based on interviewing Masatake Sumi sensei (8-dan). So some explanations are subjective to Sumi sensei’s view on how shinpan should be.

The image is from p.27 in Kendo Nippon Issue No. 468. This is, I think, to talk about a men strike that was seen as a point in the last All Japan Championship. You can see the video from “Concerns for the Future of Kendo”

Like I mentioned, the speed of strikes in kendo has become amazingly fast. It is nearly impossible to actually “see” the direction of the shinai of a competitor. So Sumi sensei is explaining using a bokuto, that you should see the “posture” of a competitor when executing a cut.

We know which part of the shinai we should strike with, correct? The part is called, monouchi”. We’ve got to start from there to know what kind of posture a competitor should have because you need a certain distance to strike properly with monouchi. And the shinai for adults is a lot longer than the bokuto. That means you need more space to strike “properly” with the monouchi.

Sumi sensei also mentions the “reaction” time of referees. He calls it the “timing disease” because the referees tend to “respond” to cuts too quickly. What is “too quickly”? They tend to give a point as soon as a  valid cut is made (or at least they thought it is valid). So there is no time to check the posture of a competitor and zanshin either.

“We need to have a moment to review the elements of the strike that the competitor has just executed”, he continues. “As a result, it looks like that the referee looks delayed to make his decision compared to the other two if the other referees gave the competitor a point right away. But it is just reviewing the elements of his/her strike”. I could not agree more. Otherwise, kendo would become a real hitting game.

Shinpan is really hard to do. If you have experience in that area, you can agree with that. That is why we really need to LEARN and STUDY to “judge” the right strikes.

How do We Solve This? Introducing a video judgement?

I understand the argument of “it should not be valid if you do not ‘hit’ a target with the monouchi”. I do understand. However,  we have the other elements to consider as well. There are three referees at a shiaijo (the are of a match) watching not only who hits whom but also whose doing what and how. They are FEELING the energy between the competitors. That is a huge difference between the referees and audiences who also can watch a replay.

So introducing a video judgement in kendo won’t solve this problem and we should not introduce it because then it really become a “hitting” game.

An Obvious Win Without Hitting

Think about Kata No. 3 of Tachi and even Kodachi. Shitachi does not execute a cut on uchitachi but it is obvious who wins. This is a ultimate victory because you do not kill or hurt anyone. However, this is not a point in shiai. If you do that and your opponent hits you, your opponent gets a point 🙂 Then why am I bringing this up?

Those katas are teaching us not to hurt others and also how to suppress our opponent. There is a process to put your opponent to the corner and at the end you stop your opponent from fighting you.

In kendo, this is probably the main part than actual “hitting” part. This is only my personal view. That is why there is a story that a 9-dan sensei admitted his loss by just being taken his center by the other 9-dan sensei.

We see the process that leads to an execution of a technique very important. This is something we should not forget in kendo. If we consider a situation (what’s going on) before, during and after a strike as a part of requirements of a valid cut, many so called misjudges can be explained.

I agree that we must “strike a target” for a valid cut but I also want to keep the idea of Kata No.3 in the kendo match as well. Who is putting more pressure on whom. This is really hard to tell unless we read people’s mind. And we cannot (I cannot, at least) so we must rely on the experience on shinpan.

A valid cut is just a mere hit any way.

“充実した気勢、適正な姿勢をもって、竹刀の打突部で打突部位を刃筋正しく打突し、残心あるものとする”

The valid cut must be performed with

• a fulfilling kisei (the momentum of the internal energy or the vigorous internal energy) and
• a proper posture, and
• the correct target must be struck with the correct part of the shinai with the correct angle of the blade and
• is followed by zanshin.

 

My asthma attacked last night. For the last few years it attacked me around Christmas Day so I thought I was ok for the last one.

The asthma was waiting for me off guard. It was one of the most severe attacks for the last 5, 6 years.

I’ll keep updating when I get better and have access to my computer.

Sorry for the inconvenience.