“Tsunagaru/tsunagaranai”

[Mulevel]

Recently during kendo shinsa evaluation I heard senseis said to some of the examiners “tsunagaranai”. Searching in the dictionary “tsunagaranai” means something like no link or no connection. Even though I more or less understand this word I do not understand how this concept applies to kendo. Can anybody elaborate a bit on this concept please?
Thank you
P.S. I apologize about my English.

[Mulevel]

“Tsunagaru/tsunagaranai”
Recently during kendo shinsa evaluation I heard senseis say to some of the examinees “tsunagaranai”. Searching in the dictionary “tsunagaranai” means something like no link or no connection. Even though I more or less understand this word I do not understand how this concept applies to kendo. Can anybody elaborate a bit on this concept please?
Thank you
P.S. I apologize about my English.

[turboyoshi]

You are supposed to form a connection with your partner/opponent and not just try to do your own kendo without taking into account the other's movement and reactions. I'm not sure I can explain it well since I'm still trying to learn how to do it myself but this is probably easier to see if you look at their kata. Some people do their steps of the kata without trying to gauge the timing and distance of their partner and match it. When you do this, you make both parts of the kata look wrong and even if you do the movements technically correct, you can still fail (and your partner as well.) However, even in the shiai portion you still have to be connected to your opponent but I think that connection is more subtle and difficult to develop there.

[rfoxmich]

An interesting way to put what turboyoshi is getting at is that kendo is communication and conversation. If you do you kendo by yourself without some communication/conversation with your opponent it gets empty.

Another way to put it is that when you do kendo you and your opponent should be cooperating to produce a work of art.
I am reminded of reading in George Plimpton's _Out_of_my_league_ the sensation that some pitchers have of an opposing batter hitting a home run off them. While they don't enjoy having it happen necessarily they have this appreciation of the beauty of the home run ball rising up into the air and sailing out into the stands..and while they hate losing they can't help but feel they've been a part of something wonderful.

[Alex]

Maybe they were talking about seme (applying pressure or assailing the opponent) not connecting with an actual strike.

[Toecutter]

We were taught similar to above but the emphasis was put on maintaining a connection to your partner in terms of distance. Meaning when hitting don't go through 30 feet, you should only have to step in once or twice after going through. Kind of like trying to maintain an invisible rope between the two, go too far and it snaps kind of thing. That sort of thing is usually covered before shinsa, we don't spend a lot of time on it but it is still emphasized during drills like kakari geiko. I'm probably butchering the explanation but roughly translated was how it was explained to me.

[Mulevel]

Thank you to all of you who took time to answer this question.
Jc

[Charlie]

Another way to put it is that when you do kendo you and your opponent should be cooperating to produce a work of art.
I am reminded of reading in George Plimpton's _Out_of_my_league_ the sensation that some pitchers have of an opposing batter hitting a home run off them. While they don't enjoy having it happen necessarily they have this appreciation of the beauty of the home run ball rising up into the air and sailing out into the stands..and while they hate losing they can't help but feel they've been a part of something wonderful.

That's excellent. Wow. When you get an ippon like that taken from you, you are prompted to say, "Arigato."