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Shred Lord - Chronicles of a Modern Swordsman

KiKenTai of the arms

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shred_lord
, 16th February 2010 at 03:04 AM (1537 Views)
A thought that's currently knocking around my head goes as follows.

In order to cut, we must extend our arms. What is the timing of this extension.

It strike me there are four possibilities;

  1. The arms should be extending through the cut.
  2. The arms should hit maximum extension at the instant of contact.
  3. The arms should already be extended as the cut lands.
  4. It doesn't matter/You can mix it up.
Let start with option 1.

The arms should be extending through the cut.

I dislike this because it seems like a too simplistic approach to getting forward motion into the cut. A kind of obvious "pushing" that feels to me like it's weak.

We'll skip over option 2 for a moment and go to option 3.

The arms should already be extended as the cut lands.

It seems to me that this timing produces very a flat/dead feeling cut that lacks much of the dynamism evident in high level cutting.

Option 4.

It doesn't matter/You can mix it up.

As I discounted the points 1 and 3 I've effectively discounted this as well.

Which leaves me with the second option.

The arms should hit maximum extension at the instant of contact.

I like this. It seems to me that to have the arms hit maximum extension as an instant in time with the foot hitting to floor, wrists extending, etc.. would be the best way to have a powerful but dynamic cut.

Furthermore, while trying this out I've found it encourages me to do seme with my body, with little or no arm extension until I start my furikaburi. This feels more powerful than simply sticking my kensen out at my opponent face (as I'm otherwise apt to do).

Need to put lots of thought and sweat into this.

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Comments

  1. chidokan's Avatar
    you should also consider the shortest distance required to go from where you finished the last cut to where you intend to start the next one from...and how to do this..... This has the biggest effect on 'cutting time taken'. Consider the big circular sweeps for, say, gedan to down the back commonly used for warm ups. Compare that time to how long it takes you to do men from chudan as a direct line strike. Now put a cut from your men to his men into that. Finally work out the optimum cutting time. Then try and trim it... hahahaha!!!
  2. ben's Avatar
    Interesting question which I've often both wondered and sweated over.

    There's also the degree to which one chooses to bend one's elbows throughout the swing. Me, I'm a fairly straight kind of guy, who likes to keep his arws relatively straight and tucked in during all phases of the swing, but many people like to cock their elbows out and in to give their cut some extra snap. These people tend to have their tsuba almost grazing the top of the head as they swing back, whereas I like a lot of air between my head and my hands, furikaburi style.

    Option 3 sounds a lot like Itto Ryu style kirioroshi. If you watch Sasamori sensei's guys, you'll see this kind of swing.

    Overall I'm pretty much with you on number 2. Although I was always taught to extend the arms into aite's face with the swing out and up, so who knows?

    b
    Updated 21st February 2010 at 07:58 PM by ben (oops! just realised you're talking katate waza from jodan and I'm talking morote from chudan. oh well!)
  3. shred_lord's Avatar
    Ben: I'm actually talking about chudan waza; I'm in a chudan phase at the moment. I agree with the sentiment about cocking your elbows out... I try very hard not to do this because it makes my cutting feel sloppy.

    Back to the extention thing and a side effect on my seme... the more I work on this the more I like it. It makes my cutting solid and powerful, yet still flexible and dymanic (weird as that sounds). But the real dividends have gone to my seme...

    As I'm trying not to pre-extend my arms, a large portion of my seme is done with my arm still relaxed in their chudan position, the means I am doing seme primarily with my body. This seems to catch people off guard as I think a lot of people are looking to see some form of extension as a precursor to a cut. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to extend your arms forward as part of seme (my sensei teaches it thus) but by cutting it out I'm also cutting out something that is giving my technique away. Someday I may have reintroduce a certain amount of extention into my seme (metered out so that full extention still occurs with the cut landing), but for the moment I think I need to concentrate on seme with the body.