What goes in your mind during a shiai

**kuwaiti-kendoka** · 23rd February 2005, 06:28 PM

I was wondering what happens to anyone during a shiai? Do you tell yourself

A- This guy is never gonna beat.......it will never happen

B- Oh this shiai is so damn hard for me to when

C-...................

It is you guys to tell me what is C

and one more things is a shiai like coming near death or something or is it a normal thing ?

**tamaki** · 23rd February 2005, 07:57 PM

c.Aaah!you bas*****! this wasnt a do,this was my bra!
d.(after wrong and painful hit).Aaah!you ll not do this again!men!(tricking to raise his hands up)douuuu!

i dont know why,but everytime i get hit by someone of my grade i get really mad.if the hit is painful and wrong,i get crazy.

one time somebody hit me at the back of my head so strong that i cried inside the men.but i became so angry with this that my performance really improved then.

e.(after 6 jigeiko) I am gonna fall right now.my arms will fall,the guy is gonna hit me now,its unfair, he s a giant 3 heads taller than me.oh f*** he hit me.i must remember my sensei's words 'always try for one more hit' .so,"douuu"!ok,i gave my best,i am gonna fall ,now i can be the guys dummy doll.why the f*** these guys never get tired??everybody sleep enough?oh Sh** this was not kote , this was my bone!

basically most of the time i swear,secretly

**Andoru** · 23rd February 2005, 08:54 PM

What goes in my mind during shiai...I think of:

- maintaining posture and kamae
- showing strong spirit and presence "kigurai"
- probing for weakness
- not showing openings
- moving my feet
- not trying to think too much.

**Charlie** · 23rd February 2005, 10:11 PM

Stream of consciousness: pressure, seme, push, where's the opening, where's the weakness, create the weakness, open him up ATTACK TAI ATARI pressure pressure pressure HIKI WAZA, back to maai, pressure, pressure, where's the opening, create the opening, seme seme seme ATTACK.....

**goh** · 23rd February 2005, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by kuwaiti-kendoka

What goes in your mind during a shiai?

war is hell

**joekc6nlx** · 23rd February 2005, 10:37 PM

Attack, don't give my opponent an opportunity to score a point. Keep the pressure on, ignore any pain I might feel.

I've got to kill this guy or else he'll kill me.

Attack! Attack! Attack!

**nodachi** · 23rd February 2005, 11:37 PM

The biggest things I try to remind myself of are to calm down and zanshin. Calm down thoughts aren't contradicting the attacking mindset though, I need to tell myself that so I can react quickly and attack strongly when I choose. If I am not calm, I feel all jumpy and my technique gets crappy and I am not calm enough to see good opportunities to attack when they are there. Zanshin thoughts are always good because sometimes a half crappy strike will get a point if the zanshin is good, but with bad zanshin, nothing will score ippon.

**kuzu70** · 24th February 2005, 12:30 AM

I try not to think too much and to calm down. When I start to think too much, I lose focus of the match itself.

**mushinman** · 24th February 2005, 02:55 AM

Dance with the date you brought--fundamentals. So many people seem to forget basics and the shiai turns into a slugfest or wrestling match. Fundamental kendo looks good and makes the job easy for the shinpan.

**nalogg** · 1st March 2005, 02:47 AM

one thought:

-when... will... the... hurting... stop?

**Hisham** · 1st March 2005, 06:39 AM

Try to focus on "myself"

**Lloromannic** · 1st March 2005, 08:41 AM

Last week we had shiai practice for the tourney on Saturday. I could only go to one practice so i only got 3 matches in. The result were satisfactory, 2 wins and one tie. The tie being with a much higher graded sensei (who was pretty obviously not trying his best).

The first win was against someone who was in the reserve for the winning Mexico City team but due to work hasn't been able to practice much. Since he was rusty and I am a lowly yonkyu it was a nice display of hard tai atari and ineffective attacks. I'm just short of 6 feet and weigh around 210 pounds but every time we clashed (which was often) I was almost lifted up by his body. His fearsome kiai and aggresive mindset made me somewhat cautious and in my mind I kept saying "Focus on the openings" and "Keep attacking" time and time again so that when I finally saw one I couldn't hit it because I was too busy focusing on seeing it or just attacking. Eventually I calmed down and the moment I calmed down I could hit a nice Kote which got me the win.

The second match was against someone roughly my level but physically faster. While we were waiting for our turn I saw him jumping and stretching like a maniac, I was about to do the same when th bogu salesman knocked me on the men and told me to clam down, that as soon as I had calmed down on the previous match I had won. So I just breathed in deeply and waited for my match staying calm. Sure enough, as soon as the match started the other person let out a mighty kiai and launched forward to hit men. Since I was calm I could see when he stated to move and hit him with degote. All flags go up. We go back to the centre and we start again. After some forelay he starts to go for kote and I hit nuki-men. End of match.

What I think I mean is that being calm (but aware and aggressive) is very important. In order to get calm I reccomend listening to Belle and Sebastian before a shiai.

**Infinity** · 1st March 2005, 05:29 PM

generally 'oh crap...'

**kuzu70** · 3rd March 2005, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by Lloromannic

The result were satisfactory, 2 wins and one tie. The tie being with a much higher graded sensei (who was pretty obviously not trying his best).

Good job, dude! Sounds like you kicked some @$$!

**Pokie** · 3rd March 2005, 09:35 AM

to think of nothing is like looking through a clear water to catch a fish right infront of you..to think of things..like "if i hit him, he might counter etc etc" is like looking through hazy water...u know fish is there, but you cannot see it..so you cannot catch it.