Warm-up Exercises

[olaf]

Good evening fellas - out of curiosity, what is the standard warm-up procedure at your dojo? I am interested in the suburi-oriented part, not so much the stretching exercises.

From my travels I have observed that many dojos actually have radically different warm-up routines - everything from suburi-till-you-drop, running around the dojo (dangerous in hakama!), standing still for 10 min. practicing kamae, etc...

What would you say is "appropriate" for a good warm-up routine - what things to focus on - and how long should it take?

Please discuss...

[alexpollijr]

Hi there olaf

usually we do:

men, kote, do and tsuki, sankyudo (1- raise shinai/prepare, 2- step forward andstrike, 3-back one step to chudan), about thirty times each. (you'll see, 30 is our khaballistic number)

zenshin-kotae shomen suburi (back and forth straight men) 30 times, 2 times.
zenshin-kotae sayuumen (back and forth yoko men), as above
zenshin-kotae-hikai/sakai (back and forth shomen, sideways yokomen), as above
hiraki men (hiraki footwork with yoko men)
katate suburi, both hands, as above.
Haya (choyaku) shomen suburi, as above
Haya (choyaku) sayuumen suburi, as above

then kirikaeshi throughout the dojo one time (about 30 or so strikes), and ten or so bouts of traditional kirikaeshi. Then we put men and practice waza, kihon uchi, uchikomi geiko, kakari geiko, shiai geiko and at last gokaku geiko. This all sums up to two hours, approx.

Beginners (without kendogu) do all the above before men tsuke and then they practice kihon uchi throughly.

This is an interesting subject

[wabbit]

Olaf,

There's a suggested list of stretching exercises on our dojo's website.

http://www.hizen.org

click the 'The Dojo' button on the right hand side, then follow the 'stretching' link.

[KhawMengLee]

Hmmnnn...

Usually...

Joge Buri- 30 times/cuts back and forth
Joge Buri (sideways)- 30 times

Shomen- 30 times
Sayu men(is that right...as in Kirikaesh hits)- 30 times

Haya Suburi (kote and shomen combo)- 50 times

Haya Suburi (shomen)- 50 times

at this point I am dead.

On a birthday its 10 Haya Suburi cuts per year...eg if you are 24 it equals 240 cuts.

If the Sensei is not happy with the kiai then we do a countoff...first person counts to ten then next then next. There are about 14 people in our dojo so its about 140 Haya Suburi.


By this time I am dead and buried...god I am sooo unfit...errr

Meng

[cklin]

Jogeburi 10X

Shomen 30-50X (depending on what the captain feels like)

Katate suburi 30X (left hand only)

Sayuumen 30X

Watawari suburi 50X (like a horse-stance, going up and down at the knees), 50X (stationary horse-stance)
-AND/OR-
Choyaku suburi 100X (sometimes 2 sets of 50X)

Shinkonkyu (breathing exercise) 4X

Then, after seiretsu, etc., 5X kirikaeshi

[olaf]

alexpollijr: how long does your warm-up sequence take? It seems awfully long...

[alexpollijr]

About 40 minutes, usually. It can go as short has half and hour and as long as a full hour.

Most shushinsha are already dropping dead at that point :D
But they have an easy time later on making a line to practice uchikomi with sensei.

Yudansha would form pairs to practice kihon uchi, waza and various keiko until sensei leaves the beginners and makes we fight him one by one, that's the tough part. The rest is candy.

[Steve]

Warm up
10 minutes footwork
15-20 minutes stretching

Suburi (those marked with a star are done every class)
1) Joge suburi (20) *
2) Namame buri (20) *
3) Naname buri w/Hiraki Ashi (20)
4) San Dan suburi (10 each to men, sayu-men, kote, do) *
5) Ni dan Suburi (30 Shomen, 15 kote, 15 Do) *
6) Ichi dan (10 each target) *
7) Jumping Suburi (30 men, kote, do) *
8) One handed Ni dan suburi (Men only, 20-50)
9) Fumi Komi (men, kote, do 10 each, Kote-Men 10)

Uchi gomi
Men *
Kote *
do *
Kote-Men *
Kote-Do *
Kote-Men-Do *
Tsuki
Tsuki-Men
Kote-Men-HikiMen

By this time (~1 hour) we have our five minute break, and put some bogu on to do partener drills.

Steve.

[olaf]

Fellas:

Meng - how does one do a "kote-men combo" hayasuburi?
Steve - what exactly does "naname buri" involve? And can you explain the nidan-, sandan suburi in a little more detail?

I personally like cklin's warm-up routine best :)

[cklin]

Olaf: Thanks, but that routine is not my invention -- we learned it from the Keio University kendo team. It is preceded, of course, by stretching exercises.

It takes about 15-20 mins to do. I find that it is just enough to loosen/warm people up and not so tiring as to detract from the rest of keiko. Also, since there are always beginners in my club, it is good b/c it is a realistic challenge for them.

[KhawMengLee]

Olaf:(possibly Olaf the Viking?)

Kote-Men Haya Suburi=exactly like normal Haya suburi but the first cut is kote then the next is Men, then back to kote, etc.

Olaf, wouldn't it be cool if you could get Viking longswords(those big bloody things) in shinai form? heh, a Do cut would send the opponent into the rafters...

Meng

[olaf]

Meng: a 20-foot claymore, you mean? Yes, like the one Mel Gibson uses in Braveheart, except much, much larger. (nobody seems to realize that claymores aren't as small as they were depicted in the movie) Personally, I'd use it for tsuki.

[lewis]

Meng and Olaf,

I have done a lot of two-handed sword study. Here's the japanese version: http://emjnet.history.ohio-state.edu/598/samurai/final/Pictures/Sword%20Big.htm

Having practiced a bit lately with a 5.5 ft. sword, it is easy to see why there were ryuha in japan that said "an inch gives the hand advantage" (as reported by musashi in [U'five rings/U]).

[Confound]

Originally posted by lewis

Having practiced a bit lately with a 5.5 ft. sword, it is easy to see why there were ryuha in japan that said "an inch gives the hand advantage" (as reported by musashi in [U'five rings/U]).

Olaf, do you use that in Kendou?! Can you perhaps tell me a little more about this?

c

[olaf]

Confound: I wouldn't know about using a 5.5ft sword in kendo. That was Lewis' post. :)

[Confound]

whoops. these things happen on 2 hours sleep. my apologies. I'm getting sloppy in my old age.

c

[Hyaku]

I did use a 4 shaku shinai at one time related to Oishi Shinkage ryu. However this Ryu dates back to before there were decided areas to attack. There are a lot of tsuki-waza.

My own sword is a 3.8. Thats and overall length of 5ft 8

http://www.bunbun.ne.jp/~sword/Nkage2.html

Stretching exercise for this are somewhat different to Kendo as a very long low stance is required generating hip power.

Hyaku

[hyouriittai]

Wow! I've never seen iai with, what appears in the picture to be, a n/odachi.