Pain even after wearing kote

[Setakun]

hi guys,

I have been practicing in kote for nearly a week, but whenever it's my turn to recieve other's kote-uchi, my wrists always got hurt( not real hurt but REALLY REALLY painful and bruises) after their strikes. There is one time which i couldn't even hold up my shinai in chudan position.

I am just wondering whether it is normal to feel the pain everytime while people go for kote or not...

[Bleda]

yes, yes it is. I practice 4 times a week and have pretty permanent lumps there now lol. you may want to invest in a kote pad though.

[Taek]

I wear 1.5 bu kote and an additional protector inside but it's still hurts depends on who hits. I found it helps little bit if you rotate your wirst inwards before the strike so the shinai lands on the flatter (top) part of your wrist. Also, I bend my kote down to create a bit of gap between my wrist and kote....
My current wrist protector is from a kendo shop but I used to wear a wrist protector (for tennis or baseball players...) from a normal sports store and it works quite well.

[moetl]

hi,

yup, it hurts ;_; it's quite an awful pain IMO. i use those wrist protectors for tennis and it works really well! no pain anymore =)

[louisvandalen]

Ask your opponent to use less force when doing kote or kick him in the nuts after practice. Both will work.

[LNGUYEN]

The wrist is not support to be hit, I think the valid strike is about an inch into the arm from the wrist. Is that correct?

[shank`]

funny thing, yesterday somebody had the same problem, during kendo.
our sensei said you have to fold your wrist a little bit so it wouldnt be in "one piece" (like arm and wrist in 1 line).

[junkyman]

I don't like wrist protectors because I figure that pain is a good incentive to learn how to avoid getting hit in the kote.

[Curtis]

Bruises and severe pain for kote should not be a normal part of practice ( there are other bruises that you cannot get away from though). If the person is hitting correctly and you are receiving correctly there should be little or no pain.

If they are hitting too hard without proper shibori try asking them to ease up if you can. For your part a good set of kote will make a big difference. Add a pad or supporter underneath if need be. When receiving do not open up widely for them to hit. If the hit is across the kote at the wrist joint there is almost no protection. Opening up wide will expose this area. At the moment of the strike tighten your grip with shibori, the ringing in action of the wrists and grip and it will lessen the effects of the strike.

Sometimes when I am receiving for my beginning students I wear a special right kote I bought in Japan that has an extra pad inside. It saves my wrist when working with the beginners.

[samurai999]

Are you receiving the kote on the side of your wrist? That would hurt. Try turning your wrist so that the shinai hits "both bones" instead of just one.

Tim

[Hai_hai]

hi guys,

I have been practicing in kote for nearly a week, but whenever it's my turn to recieve other's kote-uchi, my wrists always got hurt( not real hurt but REALLY REALLY painful and bruises) after their strikes. There is one time which i couldn't even hold up my shinai in chudan position.

I am just wondering whether it is normal to feel the pain everytime while people go for kote or not...

For me, the area between the flexible area between the cuff and the fist parts is the worst because there is hardly any padding. It's just a couple pieces of leather, silk thread decoration and whatever thin amount of padding they could use. The most padded area is the back of the hand. Hits to the cuff hurt if the other person hits it hard.

[Akasha]

I don't like wrist protectors because I figure that pain is a good incentive to learn how to avoid getting hit in the kote.
I agree with that principle when it comes to actually fencing.

But, what about when you are practising and receiving kote, you can be hit on it many many times with no option to 'avoid getting hit'?

I wear a cheap kote protector that I picked up at the WKC in Glasgow. It takes away some of the sting, that I find can sometimes happen, but keeps you awake enough to not want to get hit there if you can help it.

[moetl]

Are you receiving the kote on the side of your wrist? That would hurt. Try turning your wrist so that the shinai hits "both bones" instead of just one.

Timi'm curious - wouldn't that mess up your grip? is this an approved method, thaught by senseis or your own experience?

regards,
martina

[mingshi]

____O

or

\
\
O

... where the strokes is the kote and O is you hand...

If you open kote horizontally like the first figure, you are more likely to get hurt.

If you do it more like version 2, apart from less pain, you can reduce the exposed target area as well... ;)

[moetl]

sorry mingshi,
i don't get the drawing... :confused: could you please back it up with words? please describe from which point of view this drawing is viewed..

[regularyojimbo]

the circle is your right hand, the view is in plan that is to say looking down from above.

[Halcyon]

i used to get wicked bruises on my wrists when i first started kendo, especially on the boney protrusion that's line with the thumb.

what i later figured out, after much painful trial and error, was that i wasn't turning my wrists inward enough when gripping my shinai. you should be gripping your shinai like a katana or bokken, with the fleshy part of the base of the thumb entirely OVER the top of the shinai. this has a couple of important effects.

1. it helps with good solid tenouchi during a strike, and 2. it rotates the wrist so that if you get hit on your kote, it's the outer portion of the wrist (the flat part in line with the top of your hand) that gets whacked.

[Hai_hai]

i used to get wicked bruises on my wrists when i first started kendo, especially on the boney protrusion that's line with the thumb.

what i later figured out, after much painful trial and error, was that i wasn't turning my wrists inward enough when gripping my shinai. you should be gripping your shinai like a katana or bokken, with the fleshy part of the base of the thumb entirely OVER the top of the shinai. this has a couple of important effects.

1. it helps with good solid tenouchi during a strike, and 2. it rotates the wrist so that if you get hit on your kote, it's the outer portion of the wrist (the flat part in line with the top of your hand) that gets whacked.

Much like ballet footwork, it's a very unnatural position, or at least the right hand is in my opinion.
Grip position is regularly covered in Kendo Jidai. It's like, you didn't get it a couple of issues ago? Well, we are going to show it to you again but from a different author's viewpoint.

[DanDan]

pressure = force/area of application
so allowing the shinai to hit a larger area should reduce the pain...right? i'm sorry for being such a nerd...just learned this in science last wk...heheh

[Serenity]

Kote strikes are very painful, especially when some of the sempais have a hard kote strikes, it hurts even more. :dead: But there is nothing much we can do: rotating the wrist should help, but it still hurts. My right hand is a little bit swollen from the yesterdays training and I mustn’t touch the top of my hand, because it damn painfully. :hurt: (I hope I will got use to it!:ermm: )

I have heard a story about one Japanese sensei (I don´t know if that is thuth), who were specialized on kote strikes. During his competition career his kote strikes where so powerful that he broke a few opponents wrists. That’s really scary. :spchless:


Serenity :wink:



P.S. After a hard kendo practise everything hurt: head, neck, back, wrist, hands and the colony of blisters everywhere (hands & feet), but this is kendo and I like it! :D

[Andoru]

I wear 1.5 bu kote and an additional protector inside but it's still hurts depends on who hits.
Heh heh Taek I know exactly whom you're talking about. Sometimes I wonder if they do tenouchi at all.

[Hotei]

Has anyone tried the new Koei kote? It's supposedly a miracle material that redistributes the blows. I'm a little skeptical, but I'd love to hear from someone with first-hand knowledge.