Taking center

[davehale]

Its been some time now and in my effort in holding and taking center one thought has arised. I will hold my kamae and center and when my opponent moves in to strike they sometimes impale themselves on my shinai. I'm not sticking my shinai out or pushing forward, just holding my kamae. Is this acceptable? Not to say I want to rely on holding my kamae, but there are some students who are faster than me and this is my first/quickest reaction. I am wondering if they think I'm attempting tsuki, I'm not, or does "impaling" happen at times?

[turboyoshi]

Its been some time now and in my effort in holding and taking center one thought has arised. I will hold my kamae and center and when my opponent moves in to strike they sometimes impale themselves on my shinai. I'm not sticking my shinai out or pushing forward, just holding my kamae. Is this acceptable?

Yep. You won't get any points for it but it shows that the aite did not have control of center when he attacked. So, he attacked at the wrong time, or failed to even try and take center or something. It happens. It would be more ideal for you to you focus on making your first reaction to attack rather than just holding center, but that takes time and lots of practice. At any rate, there's nothing wrong with what you're doing, it's his own fault if he impales himself.

[Scott H]

As someone who has done other martial arts styles as well, I understand your desire to hold on to what you've studied for so many years previous, but the truth is that you will have to empty your Karate cup when doing Kendo. Hard to do, but it will happen eventually.

It's good that you're concentrating on controlling the center and such, but don't get distracted, better to work on making a good Men cut first.

[DigitalDowntown]

It's good that you're concentrating on controlling the center and such, but don't get distracted, better to work on making a good Men cut first.

To expand on this, I think Scott (and others) are reminding you to be on the offensive most of the time. Don't of course get sloppy and just pound away, but you shouldn't get wrapped up in doing too much defense or counter attacks. I understand that you may fight with more advanced tactics during kumite, but you wouldn't be teach a beginning karateka advanced waza before he could execute a solid straight punch and front kick from a balanced, stable stance.

At this point in your kendo, you need to focus your efforts into forward motion with big clean movements. It's great that you can now take center, but don't just take it and hold it, take it and strike!

[rainmaker]

I guess it doesn't really matter if you just holding dead center.. Question is what are you doing when you are in the center. Either mentally or physically, you had to do something. Mainly pressure you opponents. You hold center and try to break your opponent's center. Not just standing still, dead center, doing noting.

[davehale]

I have been learning to strike as soon as I feel I have center but learning distance with the shinai has been tricky. When my mind is in sparring mode it still has karate equipped and my distance naturally moves to punching distance. This usually results in an unintentional tsuki to the mengane as I'm raising the shinai to strike men. I know this is my "taking center" thread but if there are any exercises you folks do outside of class to help with distance you can share, I'd appreciate it.

[JSchmidt]

I have been learning to strike as soon as I feel I have center but learning distance with the shinai has been tricky. When my mind is in sparring mode it still has karate equipped and my distance naturally moves to punching distance. This usually results in an unintentional tsuki to the mengane as I'm raising the shinai to strike men. I know this is my "taking center" thread but if there are any exercises you folks do outside of class to help with distance you can share, I'd appreciate it.

No exercises as such, other than to leave the excess luggage at home. If you are 'naturally moving to punching distance' in kendo class, then you aren't focusing on the basics of kendo. Sure, you can practice the correct cutting distance at home, but this sounds like a mental lapse.

[Bokushingu]

I have been learning to strike as soon as I feel I have center but learning distance with the shinai has been tricky. When my mind is in sparring mode it still has karate equipped and my distance naturally moves to punching distance. This usually results in an unintentional tsuki to the mengane as I'm raising the shinai to strike men. I know this is my "taking center" thread but if there are any exercises you folks do outside of class to help with distance you can share, I'd appreciate it.

coming form 10 years of boxing, i had simular problem. you have to just work through it & recondition your distance to that of Kendo.

[rfoxmich]

Self awareness. For a while you're just going to get pounded while you over-think and re-think where you are and where you should be...however in the long run it will be worth it because you'll be attacking from the proper maai.
As far as exercises go.. when you do kihon uchi (basic cutting practice), work on intentionally cutting from as far out as possible. Discover by experimentation how far away from your aite you can be and still strike with reasonable posture. At this point in your development, if you complete each practice feeling wow, I was in great posture for each strike...you didn't do this exercise. You have not really explored your distance until you've gone from too far.
In jigeiko... I would concentrate more on exploring this distance thing than worrying too much about holding center. The idea of jigeiko is not just winning but a chance to explore and practice your kendo in a free-form situation. When you discover that you 'naturally' gravitate to punching distance...mentally say 'oops' go to tsuba zeriai rather than striking and form an agreement with your aite to reset at kojin no maai or even further..with a self resolution that you will attack next time well before you get that close.

I have been learning to strike as soon as I feel I have center but learning distance with the shinai has been tricky. When my mind is in sparring mode it still has karate equipped and my distance naturally moves to punching distance. This usually results in an unintentional tsuki to the mengane as I'm raising the shinai to strike men. I know this is my "taking center" thread but if there are any exercises you folks do outside of class to help with distance you can share, I'd appreciate it.

[sarge127]

Ok for awhile i've been having a bit of a problem and im afraid it will be a bad habit soon... so, what exactly is center? is it shinai tip pointed at opponents throat? or is it my tip aligned with my neck? How do i know if i have center because i've been told i have really terrible center.

[jjcruiser]

Ok for awhile i've been having a bit of a problem and im afraid it will be a bad habit soon... so, what exactly is center? is it shinai tip pointed at opponents throat? or is it my tip aligned with my neck? How do i know if i have center because i've been told i have really terrible center.

There are a lot of specifics that might depend a little bit on your sensei from what I'm learning, but generally, you want your shinai in the middle of your body, your hands low near your belly, and the kensen generally pointed somewhere (depending on who you ask) between the opponent's throat and eye. But this kind of description is 1% as efficient as just showing it to you in your dojo and "generally" doesn't cut it, so just ask your sensei. Without us being able to see you it's hard to tell what is meant by "terrible center."

[hl1978]

Ok for awhile i've been having a bit of a problem and im afraid it will be a bad habit soon... so, what exactly is center? is it shinai tip pointed at opponents throat? or is it my tip aligned with my neck? How do i know if i have center because i've been told i have really terrible center.

Initially, being able to pressure with the kensaki at the throat or mune level so that your opponent would impale themselves on it is a good start to understanding what it is. If you have control of this center line, the opponent can only cut you off this center line, by cutting on an angle or stepping off line. Given that in kendo we predominately cut with our left hand in the middle of the body, having control of this line greatly reduces the number of attacks due to how linear kendo is. If two people simultanesouly attack and one has the center and the other doesn't the person who is on the center line should succeed, while the other person wont make contact with the other's men, but will likely instead make contact with aite's shinai.

When I run class, I try and make sure that people have the opportunity to straddle a line while preforming basic waza with a partner. I find it helps them to see if they are stepping off line or cutting off line.

When one gets a bit more advanced, they learn that the angle of the kensen doesn't inherently dictate wether you have (or have given up the center). That is to say the kensaki needs not to be "on line" to pressure and opponent and have control of the center (though it is way easier to do so if you are). One can easily test this by placing the left hand off the middle of the body in chudan and contrast it with the left hand in the middle but right hand off line and try and deflect an incoming attack without moving the hands on or off line. This is one way in which one can bait an attack by seemingly giving up the center without having actually given it up.

You can also give it up by pulling back with the right hand when doing small waza.

Further as one gets more advanced they can realize that by being able to have more control over their body weight they can have control of the center without being on the center line either.

[hl1978]

Eh I meant to say in my first paragraph that an opponent can only beat you if you have center by any one or more of being faster than you, forcing you to react, using waza, stepping offline or cutting offline or having significantly more reach than you (like if its a 4ft tall kid vs a 6'2" man) or taking it away from you through the above.

Center can also refer to your center of balance/center of mass. You can connect to your opponents and force them to move in all sorts of different ways, but that is not talked about as much in kendo as in other martial arts.