Hitting the ground

[sputnikk]

Hi all!
Well, the title says it all, I guess. I have seen this abomination (?) on more and more videos found around the net. It seems that some kendo players try to accentuate their strikes in order to be awarded with an Ippon. I have seen players hitting the ground after Kote and Do strikes, and also after Tsuki.
If the shinai is a representation of a real sword, then it would be a bad idea to hit the ground, woulden't it? And in addition - a sword should be treated with a lot more respect than to have it bounce from the ground every now and then. Finally, It's not very polite to strike the dirty ground with a sword that later on will be used to strike at your apponent. Dirty ground -> dirty sword -> dirty apponent. Not polite at all.
What is your opinion? If you don't like this behaviour, join me in the crusade against shinai-to-the-ground!

BTW, check these (http://www.kendo-in-action.com/gallery/video.htm) videos... Horrible!

[Hisham]

I think we already discussed this subject, i don't remember the name of the thread though. IMHO it is a bad habit.

[Optomitrist]

I have been told that some people hit the ground to realign the staves in their shinai after a huge strike. That kind of makes sense, but to do it all the time means its more habitual.

And yes there was a huge thread about this a while ago.

[Kendonator]

Hi!

I think it's ok, but only in hiki-do and tsuki.
I sometimes hit hiki-do with the style that has the shinai
moving from do down to floor, no problem with that.
Tsuki, especially katate-tsuki, well, I have seen videos
but no way I'm on the level needed to do that :)

[tango]

It's not something I do incredibly often (hitting the ground), but frankly, I don't think I've hit something so perfectly hard as to cause my shinai staves to become "misaligned". Actually, I kind of have a hard time trying to picture just what that means.

When I've done, it seems to have been when I find the shinai in my left hand only and I bounce it off the floor to quickly get back into kamae. Is this good? No, I don't think so.. it's mostly just laziness on my part.. or it comes from doing some katate waza (normally katate tsuki) and I'm so tired as to feel unable to quickly get everything realigned by just using brute, one-handed strength to get it there. Does this mean there was something wrong with my katate technique as to put me into the position of "forcing" myself to bounce it off the floor to get back in position? I dunno.. maybe.

don't know if this makes any sense to anyone else.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Hitting the ground to me epitomizes nanken (false sword, tournament-y) kendo.

[tango]

I bet if AJKF made a new rule that hitting the ground automatically negated ippon, that would put a stop to it all the way around!!!

[samurai999]

takahashi (taisho for the Japan team) did that in the 2000 worlds team finals. He did degote on his opponent, then tapped the ground.

Tim

[samurai999]

I bet if AJKF made a new rule that hitting the ground automatically negated ippon, that would put a stop to it all the way around!!!

perhaps. If shimpan did follow rules to the letter.

Tim

[T.Lee]

BTW, check these (http://www.kendo-in-action.com/gallery/video.htm) videos... Horrible!

you go ahead and do your "kendo". i dont know you, and it doesnt seem like you know anyone in those videos, but im going to assume you are in no place to judge anyone else's kendo, specifically those of world competition level.

[samurai999]

Well tapping the ground is frowned upon by most "OG" sensei, but some of the younger sensei concentrate more on the hit. Of course like I said before and in other threads, shimpan have a very important role in this. If the rule is put into the book concerning tapping the ground and the shimpan don't enforce it, bad habits like this will resurface anyways. Shimpan are sensei as well and giving a point for a bad habit or bad form is like them saying its ok to do that. It is almost like an encouragement for lack of a better phrase.

Tim

[Neil Gendzwill]

Maybe the OP is referring to the infamous Eiga tsuki to ground that is in that collection of vids - that didn't look like a habit to me, more just where it ended up when he pulled out. I'm still undecided because that was such a great hit. When I think of bad ground hits I usually think of those sloppy doh where the guy just lets it slide off the side and down - I hate those.

BTW the other vid there of Raymond vs Eiga in 2000 is a hoot to watch. One thing I note is that Eiga's kamae is always good, whereas Matthew gets a little awkward from time to time.

[Ignatz]

BTW, check these (http://www.kendo-in-action.com/gallery/video.htm) videos... Horrible!

My friend, the day I get knocked down and hit a beautiful kote from my knees,before the flags go up, is the day I start telling people that I might be good at this kendo thing.