How to break opponent's Kamae?

[NHH]

I usually keiko with an opponent who has very strong kamae. Every time I go men, he grasping his shinai by all the power. Very difficult to enter, I had to back out. I often deadlocked, it is difficult to hit. He wait for me to tired and go men. My problem is how to break his kamae. Spirit, focus, ok. But I also need technical advice on break kamae. Can you help me?

[Fudo-Shin]

There are far more qualified people to answer here than I but I currently pay close attention to my kuzushi and footwork during seme to open aite's kamae. I personally alternate between pushing back against aite's kensen and being soft depending on what I need to do to fight for center. If aite really pushes back strongly on your kensen from omote, it opens a good chance to attack his/her kote, but beware. Kote is usually best followed by men (kote-men) in my opinion anyway and sometimes guards against oji waza if your kote attack was not so good.

For me, my uchima is about where my kensen will meet my opponent's, from there only one step is needed to cut. If I feel that my opponent will back up and/or employ oji waza, I step slightly further into uchima before attacking, of course this is case-by-case. I'm far from being an expert. Try not to lift shinai until you are well on the way to men, this way you can deflect aite's shinai as you attack (kuzushi) if aite holds center and you can also keep center if he/she attacks at the same time.

One thing you definitely don't want to do is back out as it just invites aite to attack, once you start moving forward for your attack, keep moving forward even if it is unsuccessful.

Hope this helps, of course practice makes perfect and there's not much to be learnt by words alone.

I hope my english is not too confusing for you.

BTW - welcome to Kendo World Forums.

[Fudo-Shin]

To add to that, my understanding of kuzushi is not just pushing aite's shinai to the side but also slightly over the top of aite's shinai on the way to men. If you kind of gently point your kensen towards aite's right kote as you step in and almost ride over the top of aite's shinai just before you lift your shinai to cut men. Subtlety is important here, as with most things when trying to take center.

[Taylor]

Stab him... HARD.

[Cailin Coilleac]

@ Taylor: I take it you mean that he should go for tsuki?

[Taylor]

Well yea its a bonus if you hit the tsuki, haha.

[Anime12478]

As you probably already realized, you can't always just go straight in for any target and hope that the hit lands. It's okay for you to do in the beginning, and it might be the proper thing to do as you work on your basic technique depending on your current experience level but there's more that needs to be done when you advance. If the person has a kamae that doesn't move, then techniques like maki-waza or harai-waza could work. Then there's also nuki-waza, suriage-waza, kaeshi-waza and uchiotoshi-waza that can be used against the person that is attacking. Those tend to work best when you know they will attack a certain target through noticing their patterns or pressuring them to go for a target that you dictate. If you've only been doing Kendo for a little while, then it would be best to work on making your attacks more efficient and increasing your explosiveness by reducing your start-up time.

Through all of this though, the key is to be threatening to the other person. Just standing there won't make the person feel compelled to respond. But once you get into their personal space and give them the threat that an attack is imminent (which is different from simply faking), then a whole bunch of openings

[Neil Gendzwill]

Every time I go men, he grasping his shinai by all the power.

If he is using a lot of power holding his shinai, try pushing it to one side or the other. If he tries to hold centre with power when you do that, slip under his kensen to the other side. He will be offline from using so much power. Of course when you start pushing that way, you have to be prepared for him to do the same thing. But it's one thing you can try.

[tango]

To paraphrase Sotaro Honda-sensei of the UK: "'How to break the opponent's center' is the most fundamental question in kendo."

To the original poster (NHH), you may find this article very informative:
http://kendo.org.uk/articles/tactics-in-kendo/

[sarge127]

A tsuki would be devastating, just thinking about it... I learned many things by watching people in bogu with strong kamae... But i'd like to try my strategies when i get bogo, try'em out on the Dan* Students. xD no chance there.

[jjcruiser]

To paraphrase Sotaro Honda-sensei of the UK: "'How to break the opponent's center' is the most fundamental question in kendo."
To the original poster (NHH), you may find this article very informative:
http://kendo.org.uk/articles/tactics-in-kendo/

This is the portion I think Tango sensei is talking about (and I was glad for the excuse to re-read the whole series, thanks!):

What is recommended for Kyu grade holders in Ji-geiko with their seniors is to try to kill their opponents Shinai before striking. This means that you do not just attack straight but try to deflect the tip of the seniors Shinai by using Osae-waza (pushing the opponents Shinai down) and Harai-waza before striking (knocking the opponents Shinai from right to left, from the left to right, from the lower right to the upper left, from the lower left to the upper right, from the upper right to the lower left or from the upper left to the lower right) (see also Japanese-English Dictionary of Kendo, pp. 30-31). Of course, it does not mean that you can definitely score on your seniors if you use these. You will still be blocked by them. At this stage however, starting to learn “how to break the opponents centre” which is the most basic and important tactic in Kendo, is quite important no matter how simple it is. This simple tactic of “breaking the opponents centre” develops into more complicated and effective ones as you develop your footwork, Fumikiri, Fumikomi, speed and Te-no-uchi (I will explain this in detail later). As I described in “Attitudes to Ji-geiko Part 2 (BKA online news Issue #12 June 2004)”, Kyu grade holders should focus mainly on developing Shikake-waza. It is important not to be afraid of being dodged and counter attacked, and not to stop attacking in the middle of your action, but to try to complete your attack. In this article, I would like to suggest the use of “Osae-waza” and “Harai-waza” in your Ji-geiko (and of course you need to practice these in Waza-geiko as well).

[hl1978]

What is meant by strong kamae?

The opponents shinai can't be moved offline? (stiff kamae?)
The opponents shinai always sticks to my shinai?

The first one is relatively easy to break. The second is not easy to break.

Anyways the key to success is getting more energy via weight, momentum etc into your shinai.

[jjcruiser]

The opponents shinai always sticks to my shinai?

LOVE this. Going to think about it for the next few weeks.

[JSchmidt]

Anyways the key to success is getting more energy via weight, momentum etc into your shinai.

No, that most definitely isn't the key. There's many answers to this, but that one isn't it .

There is an awful lot of 'depends' attached to this. What's your level? The opponents? Is he just stiff-arming it or is he actively defending the center (and then stiff-arming it when you attacks).

Basic starting points could be using kote-men or harai-men. Osae-men if you have a half-decent small/medium men-cut. Tsuki is fraught with etiquette issues, but is another useful tool.
Improving footwork is usually step one.

Regardless, all of those guys can be hit when they try to hit you. The more stiff-armed they are, the easier they usually are to pick off when they try to attack.

[Bokushingu]

also try to invite! they are open when they begin an attack. Study Datotsu no Kikai. (watch Kendo kata)