(You should pursue the correct way of hitting so that it becomes possible to concentrate all your physical force into one strike*) When you make the strike the distribution of weight between your left and right legs will change to 40:60. Make maximum use of the power and flexibility of your wrists and use the integral power of your waist, back, shoulders and arms. At this point, the right hand, which so far has not been used to apply force is given the work of hitting together with the left hand, making use of the right elbow to indicate direction. You should strike at the same time as you draw the left foot towards the right foot. It is important that you raise the right hand with the feeling of squeezing in which will protect your kote against counter attack as you raise your hand. At this point the right hand is acting as support to the left and it is wrong to apply force with the right hand in order to raise the shinai. This action will cause your right shoulder to draw back. The left hand is then raised with the right hand following in a natural movement in line with the path of the shinai.
Step within easy reach of your opponent, without changing the position of your hands. Now the tension behind the left knee moves to a point of about 6cm above the back of the left knee and tension is applied to a slightly lesser degree to the same point above the right knee, the left hip can then be pushed forward. Now with the motion of stepping out from the left ankle, you should push your right foot forward. The toes of the left foot which have so far pointed slightly to the left should point straight ahead.
This will redistribute the weight 50:50 to the back and front of the left sole.
The left heel which is now raised, should be slightly lowered. By raising the left heel from the floor, the distribution of weight becomes 70:30 between the left and right leg and 70:30 between the front and back of the sole of the left foot. The toes should touch the ground in the way that is called, “a cat walking” * as if a very thin sheet of paper is placed between the toes and the ground. The left foot should touch the floor at the point between the ball of the foot and the plantar arch and the heel. The thumb of the right hand should point forward almost at a horizontal angle. The left forearm should be at 45 degree angle to the ground and the thumb of the left hand should point to a spot about 30 – 40 cm in front of the big toe of your right foot. Translated into English by Yamamoto Hisami Kyoshi 7dan Recorded in Japanese by Sakagami Takashi, Kyoshi 6 dan In the light of some very interesting comments on ashi-sabaki following last week’s post, I wanted to take some thoughts on footwork from Matsumoto sensei’s teachings. However, the way he explained the whole process of kendo movement makes it almost impossible to separate the actions of different parts of the body, so I have taken the liberty of re-posting some lecture notes which I first posted in 2009. I have shown the text relating to foot movement in blue, but as you can see, these instructions are an integral part of of describing how the whole body should move.Ī lecture by Matsumoto Toshio Hanshi 9 th Danĭelivered on March 6 th 1980 at the 44 th Meeting of
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