elbow..

[bullet08]

just started practicing kendo at a new dojo. i haven't been to kendo dojo in last 7 yrs. back then i was told when i do suburi or any cut or what not, i need to open up my elbow to clear the men. now i'm being told, that's bad form. since it's new dojo, and new sensei, i would listen and do what i was told. but just out of curiosity.. do you open up your elbow to clear the men? for me at least, opening will allow better wrist movement at the cut "wringing the towel'?

[taganahan]

do you open up your elbow to clear the men?

is your head trying to hide behind your arms? your elbows should be at the side, well maybe somewhere near the temple, but not in front of your face.

~taganahan

[bullet08]

that would be what i would think.. my arm shouldn't cover my field of vision.. i'll go and ask again on next practice.

[Neil Gendzwill]

You'll get differing advice on this point. From chudan, your arms should have a natural bend to them, your elbows should not be locked. Just holding your fist a little below your navel and with arm and shoulders relaxed, that's about the bend. When you raise your shinai, we normally say to just keep the same relation between elbows, shoulders, hands and shinai. In other words, the only thing that changes is that your shoulders rotate.

Some instructors will say you should spread your elbows a little at the top, some say you should spread them quite a bit. When the cut comes down and your arms straighten out, you get snap in the cut. Wider elbows means more snap, but the tradeoff is the raise isn't quite so natural.

What is clearly wrong (to me anyways) is raising with arms already straight. It's unnatural, slow and you get no snap out of it.

Hope that was helpful...

[bullet08]

bit of back ground..

i like kendo a lot.. i mean.. i love the art. i have done number of different martial arts, but nothing is as.. exciting as kendo. and when i do something i get into it hard.

back 7 years ago, i used to drive 3 hrs to get to the dojo every sunday, and i loved it. during the time i was practicing kendo at that dojo, i used to do 1000 cuts in the morning and 1000 cuts at night.

only problem is, now my body is more or less programmed into doing the cut with my elbow wide apart with strong 'snap' at the end of the cut.

but, being a good student that i am, i want to correct my cut per the new dojo. only issue is, now doing 1000 cuts cause some issue with my elbow and shoulder. it feels really wrong. and suburi doesn't flow as nicely as it used to be. and i really don't want to offend the sensei.

student should come to a dojo with blank mind..

[Hinokuni]

By conciously making a position with them you are forcing them to work more than they have to. I think the key here is to keep your elbows relaxed.

When well used - i.e. relaxed - your elbows should add to the snap of tenouchi.

If you return to your suburi regime you should gradually find them relaxing more and more and your strikes becoming less arkward.

[Hai_hai]

just started practicing kendo at a new dojo. i haven't been to kendo dojo in last 7 yrs. back then i was told when i do suburi or any cut or what not, i need to open up my elbow to clear the men. now i'm being told, that's bad form. since it's new dojo, and new sensei, i would listen and do what i was told. but just out of curiosity.. do you open up your elbow to clear the men? for me at least, opening will allow better wrist movement at the cut "wringing the towel'?

Without seeing you, it is difficult to tell what you are talking. My elbows do not move outward. There is no need to clear the men. At the top of a big men uchi, my arms are in front of my body and my hands are in front of my men (back of my left hand a fist length away from the top of my forehead). If I need to clear the men, I have swung too far back.