Right hand

[emitbrownne]

Ive seen people fence in Jodan and launch a men cut with only thier left hand... I was wondering :

a. is this is correct?or should the attack be with both hands?

b. Are there any attacks that are legal, which are launched from the right hand? :nervous:


Thanks for taking the time to read.. and hopefully answer another of my stoopid questions.

[Winter_Wolf]

Hello,
Well, our sensei has us do left hand only suburi if he thanks we're "clubbing w/ the right hand". So since the left hand is the power hand i'd guess yes, but i'll let someone w/ actual jodan knowledge reply now.
Thanks,
W.W.

[alexpollijr]

I'm not a Jodan player, but as far as I know even katate ( one-handed ) strikes from jodan are "propelled" by the right hand, then guided by the left hand alone. The right hand acts like a cradle for the shinai when it is in it's overhead position, and helps to launch the shinai towards it's target when a katate attack is made.

There are also morote ( two handed ) strikes from Jodan but these are not so frequent.

Then again, Tenken can tell you much more about it.

- Alexandre

[JSchmidt]

I guess you can legally cut with the right hand, but it would be harder to 'sell' to the judges. (Not counting Nito). It's discouraged as it most people would just end up clubbing, not cutting, if they just used right hand.
It's one of the reasons for doing jodan that you can cut one handed. You gain an extra 25-30 cms in reach by doing, which means that if you can control the distance, you can be within your cutting range, but the opponent can't hit you.
As Alex was saying, you do use the right hand to propel the shinai in jodan. I hold the shinai up with the left hand and the right hand is gripping it quite loose, with the thumb behind the shinai. As I bring the shinai down, I push (almost a flick with the right thumb) the shinai forward to gain extra speed. It's almost impossible to cut fast enough just using one hand.

Jakob

[emitbrownne]

It's discouraged as it most people would just end up clubbing, not cutting, if they just used right hand.

Why would people end up clubbing? Wouldnt they cut in a similar way to the way they would with thier left hand?

I'm not trying to be awkward... I genuinely do not know.. and have never even tried. :confused2

[hamish]

Most people seem to naturally put too much strength into right-handed attacks, so you should master that particular problem before trying it. But there is no reason why it shouldn't be recognised as a valid strike - as long as you have proper ki-ken-tai-itchi. If you watch some of the old pre-war footage, you'll see a lot of katate-waza with both left and right hands.

I've even seen gyaku-jodan, with right foot forward, and hands reversed - ie. right hand at the bottom of the tsuka (a-la Anakin Skywalker)

[Neil Gendzwill]

The normal strike from jodan is single-handed with the left hand. There's two main ways to do it - the most commonly taught is to start the technique by "throwing" it with the right hand and carrying through with the left. Another one which works better for me is to "load up" the cut with the left hand and hold it back with the right, so that the left hand grip is always under tension. Then just let go with the right and bring it down. Two handed techniques are also used. I suppose you could hit with single-handed with the right but I haven't seen it much. You're giving up reach there so the only reason to do it would be something tricky, like avoiding a kote attack by letting go of the left hand and then countering right-handed. Not that I'd ever try such a thing :)

Of course from gyaku-jodan (grip reversed) the common attack would bs single-handed with the right hand.