Creating Opennings

[nodachi]

Well, I am slowly getting better. I still suck, but slowly getting better. So now in keiko with Sensei, they are not giving obvious opennings. As far as I can tell, they are like a wall now, whereas before they would give me clues to learn appropriate times to attack.

So... when we practice shiai, I can find opennings amongst the beginners and take advantage of those opportunities. However, when you do keiko or practice shiai with one of your Sensei or more advanced club members, who do not make mistakes or leave opennings for you...

How do you create opennings in your opponent so you can get good clean strikes without going through the whole "well I will strike you in such and such a way and then I know you will be able to block/counter/ strike back quicker so how will I follow that up to get the point" train of thought?

Sorry for the incoherent typing, still haven't gotten the oxygen back into my brain because I just got home from practice.

[Nishi]

I try and keep very still, and impose myself on my opponent(seme), and as soon as there is a break in kamae, i explode.If there is no break in kamae and my opponent is holding centre, i can usually turn this into a kote or kote/men. Otherwise i relax and stare into the eyes, kinda like the old west, i try to react just before i detect somthing....(does that make sense?):/

[Steve]

Sparring against somebody better than you equals one thing: YOU ARE GOING TO BE HIT AND LOSE. Once you accpt that, ask yourself this. Will you learn more by standing still waiting for a non-existent opening or by practicing your waza?

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Learn not to fear your opponents kamae, or their kensen. If you can actually do that, your fearlessness will make openings.

But, in the meantime, try some harai-waza or "hiraki-ashi waza". Both can change control of centre to you, which is the next phase of your Kendo. ie the reason why your seniors seem like "walls".

Or even more basic, just try some ni-dan or san-dan attack sequences: Kote-Men, Kote-Do, Men-Do, Tsuki-Men (if you're allowed), kote-men-do, etc.....

Hope that helps

[JSchmidt]

Seme and pressure.
Unfortunatly, it's hard to create pressure without either being extremly fast and/or having very good footwork...and it's directly connected to seme. In order to do seme properly, you need good footwork, pressure, combined with the right mentality. You need to be convinced that you are doing seme,with the intetion to hit the opponent.
I'm only just starting to get seme to 'work'. I mean, where the opponent is still trying to hold the center, but with my seme, I take complete control and can pretty much unhindered hit the opponent.
I'm now convinced that the main ingredient is footwork. You need to move in (And the move doesnt have to be very big) from the hips and immediatly be in a postion to cut.
I think it's one of the most difficult things in kendo.

Jakob

[alexpollijr]

One elder japanese sensei once told me that this dispute of seme is the enigma of a kendo bout. If you can understand it fully, you're well ahead

[Ares2907]

Steve, I have to disagree about the 'lose' part of your statement. Keiko with a more experienced kendoka will inevitably lead to you being hit, as to whether you lose, yes I know it's a semantic argument (much along the lines of the accursed 'play' thread), but I never feel like I 'lose' in keiko (shiai on the other hand is v. different). I have learned some of my most valuable lessons in kendo after receiving a pasting from a senior. It all depends on how you look at it, but I think the mindset you take into keiko has a big impact on what you take out of it.
As for 'how to create openings' - if you can do that to anyone at will, award yourself 8th dan now. Seme is the crux of the matter and I don't feel comfortable explaining how seme works. I still don't fully understand it myself.

[Tato]

Hello!

One of our sensei recomend me to use what he calls "shinai seme", wich is a different number of techniques like maki-waza, hari and harai-waza, suriage waza and otoshi waza.

I found all of those extremly difficult to perform, as I still have big trouble doing a "simple" kote...

So most of the jigeiko I just try to do the "simpler" waza, and a couple of times those. And I just know that most of my attack wont hit the target and that I'm going to recive a counter (debana, kaeshi whatever, etc, I'm slow and tend to stay at range more than neceseary, altougth I'm trying to change that).

Rei

[Steve]

Ares: I use the term "lose" loosely. When somebody is first starting kendo, they usually consider it "losing" if they get hit. Their mind set is still on winning/losing vs simple technique practice. When i said you will lose, it is simply to help change their mind set from "trying to win" (not get hit, and score "points") to a more relaxed "here's a great opportunity to practice my basics".

Long story short, i agree with you completely....semantics and all ;)

Getting pommeled by your seniors is one of THE BEST ways of learnig Kendo IMO. It'll plainly show your weaknesses, but will also help gauge your progress. You'll never forget the first time you land a "hit" on your sensei, or better yet winning an ippon shobu shiai against them.

As one sensei I've met has said and I quote: "Right now, you suck! A month from now, you won't suck as much as you do now .... but you'll still suck!"

[Stoldark]

Hello to all~
to learn seme it is important to know about hara-gei. Once you have good control of hara gei, you will definitely have a killing seme which is also well known as a "living blade".

I believe you guys must be talking about debana waza then. Try it as most of the senseis recommend us to attain mastery of this technique. Debana is the basic yet the hardest to achieve mastery.

[kendokamax]

Originally posted by Steve

As one sensei I've met has said and I quote: "Right now, you suck! A month from now, you won't suck as much as you do now .... but you'll still suck!"


eh thats not very nice....to say to someone

[stevemcgee99]

OO- sometimes the truth hurts! Especially when you've been kidding yourself!

About attitute, I like to figure that I will lose, and to accept it, and move on anyway. If I'm resigned to not have anything to "gain", I'll focus on myself and executing the best technique I can. I ca learn a lot by "losing". I could also e lucky and "win", as in russian roulette- lessons aren't necessarily accurate there!

And, I DO suck! How could I not? And how could I not still suck with only a month of practice?

I watched sensei pracice keiko with some students last night- he just did whatever he wanted. Talk about creating openings! I'm sure that ability came with no less than YEARS of serious practice!

[kendokamax]

I dont like these stupid blind venerations towards every sensei just because they are sensei of whatever rank.

Some of them are amazing human being and have extreme competence in kendo, but they are still the same as everyone of us...human being that can also get their ass kicked by someone else. They just need to find that someone else...and some of them dont want to find it...If they see someone better than them they will just start to (sorry) kiss their asses. I'm not saying every sensei are like that, but I have met some.

The way I see kendo and anything else in life is that whoever you are, whatever you accomplished there is someone out there with more talent than you. Being sure of that, I tell myself to try to do the best I can, more than anyone I know.


Respect is important, but respect without opening your eye to see how good someone is really is..thats dangerous and that's what create mcdojo..

eh sorry that really has nothing to do with this thread....if someone wants to reply to this should make a new thread..

oh and creating openning in kendo....is tough, being just a new shodan i realize some stuff i was doing when being a mudansha that wont get me anywhere in the next tournament. geez i need more practice time for next taikai...

[kendokamax]

one other thing, if some amateur sensei(not the police freaks from japan!) were telling me "you suck!", i would just think in my head....:"ya whatever I will become better than you one day."

either by skill (less probable) or just because i'm still alive and you are not (dont know many people who can live 125 years..even senseis).

I still cant imagine someone saying that to someone else...it's too arrogant!

[stevemcgee99]

Kendokamax: Was my comment about the sensei behind your wanting to post how you "don't like these stupid venerations"?

[kendokamax]

thats partly right, but it's not directly because of that post. More because of the attitude of some kenshi I have met from different dojo.

but doesnt mean you cant be impressed by what your sensei and senpai can do in kendo. Just that sometimes people lack of critisisme(spell?) towards someone's kendo , even more when they are high ranking.



..where is the spell checker?

[Neil Gendzwill]

What makes you think you have the background to criticise anybody's kendo, other than if they're being obviously too rough/obnoxious? I find I only understand the kendo I'm aspiring to one rank up, and very vaguely 2 ranks up. Beyond that, I haven't a clue and I wouldn't presume to judge.

[Steve]

The whole "suck" comment is kinda rough, but thats how this particualr sensei teaches. I guess you could classify him as a "militant sensei". But, it works. Also he has the title "Sensei" and all the knowledge / experience / respect that accompanies it. If he says you suck, you accept it and then thank him.

Just as a tengent, he seems to be a nice guy and is very funny. I wish i knew him better.

[stinkyKote]

heh... I think I know who you guys are talking about it...quite frankly I appreciate it when a sensei tells me I'm bad or lousy at a certain thing, and perhaps I appreciate it even more when he doesn't try to be diplomatic about it, because on balance, when you finally do get the 'oh, that wasn't bad', or 'you did that well', you know you earned it--

hmmm... off tangent again ... advice on making openings? ask me again in five to ten years...

[kendokamax]

Originally posted by Neil Gendzwill
What makes you think you have the background to criticise anybody's kendo, other than if they're being obviously too rough/obnoxious? I find I only understand the kendo I'm aspiring to one rank up, and very vaguely 2 ranks up. Beyond that, I haven't a clue and I wouldn't presume to judge.

You dont need any background to criticise....I prefer making an opinion on someone's kendo then to find out later that I was wrong or maybe not.. I try to understand/analize kendo and I think so far it helped me a lot in my progress. That is one of the biggest problem we had in Quebec, people unable to try to analyze or critise someone's kendo with higher rank...So everyone was feeling ok with mediocrity...


About the sensei telling you that you suck, if it's in a joke context ,I guess it can be ok.. ...like of course I wont be too good I have been doing kendo only for 2 years....and you 35 years....

[Neil Gendzwill]

Originally posted by kendokamax
You dont need any background to criticise....

You sure do in my book. For example, we had one new student say that we were holding the shinai wrong because he'd read go rin no sho and "that wasn't the way musashi did it". Extreme example, but the fact is that if you don't have the background, you may think you know what you're talking about but really you don't.

Now if it's a matter of abuse or general teaching style or politics or whatever, then criticise away - but there you have some context for your criticism.

I have been doing kendo only for 2 years....and you 35 years....

I'm not *that* old - it'll be 20 years this fall.

[mingshi]

You dont need any background to criticise....

That depends on what kind of background and criticism that is. The more you get used to a senpai's timing, strength and weaknesses, the more tactics you can develop against them. Then the gap between you and them can be narrowed down.

Of course. 2 ranks up for me are people with 3 more experiences. 2 ranks up for Mr Genzwill is 10 years. But still, nobody is perfect. If there is a senpai where you cannot find any mistakes in him, he should be winning all their way.

Back in that day when I got a comment from a 6th Dan, "Your footwork sucks! Where did you learn that from?"... I was so depressed. Later on I discovered that a 8th Dan Sensei was in town. He spent a session with all senior grades, sorting out their footwork and Kihon... Including that 6th Dan. Shame.

Now, who is the one who said "Wushu in my book isn't martial arts"??

"the fact is that if you don't have the background, you may think you know what you're talking about but really you don't"

Wake up.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Criticism is not the same thing as finding weaknesses in a senior's defence. But let's just say that it is: what makes you think you've found a weakness? The fact that you were able to hit him? News flash: he may be letting you because you're doing something he wants. Good teachers are always just a little bit better than the student.

Here's a story - one of my sensei's pupils came to visit after a 5 year absence. After practice, he said "sensei, you've gotten a lot better". The reply was "I haven't changed much - you've gotten better".

Of course if you're talking about people of ikkyu or shodan or whatever, there's not much difference and sure you'll find a lot of stuff to criticise. But if you're talking about criticising sensei (by which I mean rokudan and up) then it's a different kettle of fish.

I still stand by my statement about wushu, if you accept my definition of wushu as the acrobatic competition Peking opera kind of stuff. If you use the broader term where wushu means the same as kungfu or budo, then of course not.

[alexpollijr]

I stand with Neil on this one.

I believe that you have to know what you're talking about to criticise. If you can't do better, then one should keep your thoughts to himself. In fact, I believe that one should think and criticise his own technique instead of thinking and criticising their seniors ' technique.

As for narrowing the gap between you and your senior, as Mingshi wrote, that is only half truth to me. The senior's task is to practice with the junior in a manner that can develop his technique (hikitate geiko). He'll only use his full power against someone who's equal or superior, even if sometimes he doesn't notice that. At least I think so ;)

But, err.. have we rambled the thread again? Oh, not again :rolleyes:

[kendokamax]

well...
I never said that you have to say out loud that this particular sensei's kendo is not that good etc etc.. I'm just saying that people need to be aware that not every sensei are good just because they have roku or nana dan. People whatever the rank are good at kendo or they are not... whatever the skills/talent they are all doing kendo...so only for that I should be respectfull to them...for me it's as simple as that.

If I want to make an opinion on someone's kendo pleazzzze dont try to brainwash me with that "your shodan you dont know anything". I have eyes and a brain too and I'm not afraid of being wrong on my judgement about something or someone.

But In my case i'm talking about a go-dan sensei....who's kendo is horrible and make everyone in his club doing something that is far from being kendo. As for goes roku dan and nana dan kendoka...ya it's pretty rare to see bad ones.

[supernils]

Back to the original topic

To stir somebodys kamae up you need to apply pressure.
To make aite feel your pressure you need to feel it yourself.
Then follow you pressure and move forward.
Aite will open up... somewhere.
And pressure goes for openings.

You can compare this to: To know how to make someone happy you have to look to yourself, what would make you happy?

[Charlie]

/*Charlie ponders this, starts to say something, doesn't, scratches his chin instead, thinking, "Yesss... good point."*/