Fumi komi ashi and Te No Uchi

[junkyman]

Last night I practiced at San Fernando Dojo where Miyahara Sensei was teaching. It seems that he does not believe in either fumi komi ashi or te no uchi.

He told me "you can see I do my kendo a little bit different from everyone else- but I have been doing Kendo for 75 years so I must know something."

Ok, the te no uchi, or lack thereof makes a little sense. I have been taught to squeeze the shinai just before the moment of impact. Miyahara Sensei said that that will make it dificult to strike again quickly if you have to because you stiffen up when you squeeze. He advocates extending the shinai as far as you can reach and stopping the swing of the shinai with your left hand which causes the shinai to bounce a little instead of cutting. This slight bounce allows you to easily move into your next cut/attack if need be.

as far as the footwork goes he explained that when we do fumi komi ashi all our power goes downward- into the stomp of the foot. Instead he has his people do suri ashi when they cut because then you power is directed forward.

These theories are contrary to how I have been taught kendo, but he is 7 0r 8 dan and has been doing kendo for nearly 75 years and still does it VERY VERY well! Like he said, he must know something. Maybe he is right. In any case I am gonna give it a try and see if it works for me.

What do you all think about what he says?

[M.K. Kawai]

Look for this thread: "No fumikomi in kendo" by misterkurukuru.

Just type the title in the search option below and it take you there.

You can read what people posted about this topic.

MKK

[slidercrank]

Hmm, how to say this?

Often different senseis will describe the same thing differently. After a while, you will realize they are all basically saying the same thing.

Footwork: the key about cutting is the weight transfer. As your shinai cuts the men, the shinai is moving forward with the weight of your body behind it. Whether you bring the weight forward by suri-ashi or fumikomi is immaterial. The timing of your body's movement and the cut is the key here. Even if you use fumikomi, you should still endeavour to jump "forward," rather than "up and forward."

Tenouchi: I have heard from others the same thing Miyahara sensei said. My thougth is: how do you stop your left hand in the swing? Isn't that action akin to tenouchi as well? Also, as the shinai rotates forward, hits and the bounces off the men, isn't the right hand also doing the tenochi action? The shinai can't bounce, if your hand isn't tightening and relaxing the grip, aka, tenochi. So essentially, he's advocating doing the tenouchi a little differently, left hand before right hand, instead of simoultaneously. He might not call it tenouchi, but a pig is a pig.

Look at it this way, then his teachings aren't such a drastic departure from others.

Sometimes, it is said one shouldn't go to train at the other dojo, unless one has a solid understanding of basics. The reason is exactly this type of confusion that was brought onto you by different teachers' ways of doing and explaining things.

PS. My standard disclaimer: what I typed is my understanging of kendo at my current level. Any one higher-ranked than me, please correct if my understanding is faulty.

[JSchmidt]

Te no uchi:

Last month at the short seminar after the Canberra taikai, the teacher (I forgot his name, 7th dan), talked about experiements they'd done at some university. (I'm not 100% sure of the numbers following, but they underline the point).
Without tenouchi, the shinai would hit the men with a speed about 150-170km/h. With tenouchi, that speed increased to over 220km/h.

Jakob

[kendokamax]

witouht te no uchi it would hurt no?

[Inouye02]

hey junkyman, from 1971 thru 1976, i heard stomp your foot, pull yourself forward with your right foot , this from the same Sensei you went to , in 2002 at his dojo , he asked to listen , i hear nothing i say , exactly no fumikomi... he asks me why do i stomp so hard ..my answer was because you taught me that way many years ago..end of subject, he never asks me anymore..this is what we call the super slide waza ...