vs Jodan

[bob]

When facing jodan you must face your enemy face on. Start to circle to your left and at a good moment you must blast the tsuki now you must do this hard and with conviction even if you hit him or her in the shoulder. As you going for your tsuki you are putting your kote out of range so dont forget to move your men to the side.

[Steve]

Curious as to why you say to circle to the left? From my (limited) experience this opens your kote, and brings you into the perfect position to be hit via a right-handed Katate waza from the jodan player. Or perhaps even a gyaku-do?

I think the best strategy is to be forwardly aggressive. Try to get in close, ruining the jodan maai. Draw an attack out of the jodan player, then perform suriage or kaeshi waza.

[JSchmidt]

Moving to the left opens up your kote. Always move to the right.
I prefer (both in and against Jodan), when people play just outside or just in range. It makes for nicer kendo. Moving in close, just gets messy, as you are just ruining the jodan kamae, without being able to really do anything.
As Steve said..try to draw an attack and use suriage/kaeshi waza.
Also, feinting for the left kote and going for the right will keep the jodan player on his guard.

" so dont forget to move your men to the side."

And don't complain when you get hit on the ear!. It might be suitable for shiai, but certainly not for any other geiko.

Jakob

[Steve]

Agreed. Ducking will only get you a concussion.... or worse. A girl in our club got a concussion one time and it wasn't pretty. Her speech centre of the brain is the area that was hit. After she recieved the hit, she could only stutter when evershe tried to talk .... for three days!

[gill]

For anyone interested in Gyuaku-Do, there is actually a thread discussing it elsewhere in the forum.

I find men-taiatari-men against jodan rather fun, as it shocks the hell out of them, and you get a nice clean cut at the men

G

[nodachi]

Pardon this random and maybe stupid question, but what happens if you respond to Jodan with Jodan?

Enlighten me, I am no where near playing with Jodan or other kamae besides Chudan, but I was just curious...

[JSchmidt]

If you are not used to playing jodan, it's most likely a bad idea
I've found that even with my limited jodan-experience (6 months), when non-jodan players takes jodan, I will have an easy time.
I tend to try to make them cut kote and then responds with a men-cut...and as both my kote's will move away from their original position, they will miss and I wont.

Jakob

[Neil Gendzwill]

I muck with jodan from time to time. My sensei was reading an article in a book or magazine or something which described an interesting technical point I've found to be true. When facing jodan from chudan, be aware of the arc your opponent's left arm makes. Your kensen should be pointing somewhere along that arc, usually at his kote. If your kensen moves inside his arms, he has an opportunity for kote. If it moves outside, he has a chance at men. The jodan player is going to try to get your kensen moving, ideally he'd like you to commit to movement in or outside that line, because while you're commited he has his chance.