Shiai in grading

[elfboy]

Since I'm not at the point where I should be asking this with concern but more out of sheer curiosity, I was wondering how the shiai fits into the grading process. Assuming that there can only be one winner, what if the person going for X grade loses? What if they don't even manage to hit anything? What then, do the judges check out zanshin or other aspects of a kendoka's preformance over winning/losing/scoring? This may have been asked before but somehow, it just seems odd that your entire grading process could be shot down by how you do in a shiai. Or then again, maybe not.

[JSchmidt]

Since I'm not at the point where I should be asking this with concern but more out of sheer curiosity, I was wondering how the shiai fits into the grading process. Assuming that there can only be one winner, what if the person going for X grade loses? What if they don't even manage to hit anything? What then, do the judges check out zanshin or other aspects of a kendoka's preformance over winning/losing/scoring? This may have been asked before but somehow, it just seems odd that your entire grading process could be shot down by how you do in a shiai. Or then again, maybe not.

It's not shiai per se (I forget the correct expression), but about showing your kendo. Who loses or who wins, is largely irrelevant.
Each level has it's own requirements and it's about showing that you can fullfill those, not about scoring (or recieving) points

Jakob

[Neil Gendzwill]

It's not shiai per se (I forget the correct expression), but about showing your kendo. Who loses or who wins, is largely irrelevant.
Each level has it's own requirements and it's about showing that you can fullfill those, not about scoring (or recieving) points

Jakob is exactly right. We usually just call it jigeiko.

[Kendoka]

Jakob is exactly right. We usually just call it jigeiko.

For Dan levels, you do shia, you have to demonstrate your kendo ability and get at least one cut and it needs to be a good one.

Doesn't matter who wins tho.

Richard

[Neil Gendzwill]

For Dan levels, you do shia, you have to demonstrate your kendo ability and get at least one cut and it needs to be a good one.
Yeah, didn't want to confuse the poor fellow. At his level he just needs to worry about doing nice basics and showing a lot of spirit.


Doesn't matter who wins tho.
Well.... at upper levels who gets the first point is very important. Also if you lose both matches you're in trouble. By "lose" I mean not be the guy who controls the match. Plus again you can "win" and not pass if the kendo you're showing isn't what they're looking for at that level.

They're gauging you against the other guy at upper levels much more so than shodan. For shodan I don't even really need to see keiko - kirikaeshi is good enough.