furikaeshi

[etherknot]

This area is kinda sleepy so...

How does one do furikaeshi exactly? My book gives pretty poor instruction on how to. It looks like blocking from gedan. I know the objective is to get it over your head and switch hand position up-there so you can finish with a strike but I don't seem to be able to get it past that gedan type of block cause I know it's just all wrong.

And that I am trying to figure this out on my own isn't helping too much either. :)

[hamish]

Firstly, its not a block, its purpose is to change hands and also to confuse your opponent, as they don't know if you're going to hit high or low.

Its a very flowing movement, so any kind of photo breakdown doesn't do it justice at all.

The trick is to keep it as close to the sides of your body as possible, and use the front hand as the pivot. Slide the back hand up to the front as soon as possible, and make sure the index finger of the bottom hand hits the index finger of the front hand (so the other fingers of the front hand are on top of the bottom hand.)

Also, you need to be square on to the front as soon as possible, so make sure you twist the back foot so its pointing forward.

I don't know if that's made any more sense, or confused things more, but give it a go.

Hamish

[gill]

Hi Ethernot,

I had huge problems with furikaeshi (I say had - have is probably more exact, but I only get to practice once every couple of months!)

One piece of advice which was given to me was that the starting movement is a bit like the shidachi side of the 4th kendo kata. For me that at least got me going in the right direction, and I worked on it from there. (This of course is only useful if you know the 4th kendo kata???)

Good luck!!!

Gill :D

[etherknot]

Well well! I finally got to learn (more like go: uhhh!? alot) furikaeshi tonight. It's so odd! I can do it alright left foot dominate but if I am on right foot dominate it's all what the! I keep breaking my right hand on it's movement during right foot dom. It's so weird. So I eventually started getting it correct and then the left foot dom. side got all messed up.
It's just so weird!

[etherknot]

Just as a follow up...

I am finally getting furikaeshi. My problem I found out was that I wasn't stepping far enough causing the ha to often get stuck on the floor or I wasn't bringing it close enough to my head. After I discovered this I taught myself to move dang it. And sure enough it now works. I just need to make it more smooth now.

Just for future referance for those also having problems with it. :)

[Nagi David]

Last November I followed a seminar with Fukuda sensei and was surprised about one think concerning Furikaeshi. Your feet should not move before your strike goes down. I mean you should not do any step before going down with the Naginata.

You have to twist your body front, bringing the Naginata strait over your head, change hand position and only when you go down from there, do your step. Practice this with san bo me.

Unfortunately this example is not perfect because as you can see, this guy is moving to early, but it can give you a better idea :



http://www.ifrance.com/naginata/demos/sm_6.gif