Kote-Men speed...

[samurai999]

So, in order to be fast with Kote-men, you have two options with your footstep;

1) Left leg stay, two steps with right foot. Not recommended for beginners but I once heard it is okay depending on distance..

2) Hop with both leg (short hopping) for kote and bigger step for Men..

Am I right ????

Yes, but I'd personally recommend 2.

Tim

[Kingofmyrrh]

That sounds fine, although I'm not too keen on the term 'hopping' it should be standard kendo fumikomi.
I personally believe that you need both versions - if you try aigotemen against someone speedy you're far more likely to succeed, both in terms of speed and maai, with the first version. However, version 2 is most definitely the 'basic' version, and practicing it lots will open the way to other techniques such us kote do, tsuki men, and more freeform renzoku waza.

[Paburo]

again... i've been told by ALL of my sensei hopping is for rabbits. bunny kendo. lol

they stress that you should at least keep one foot on the ground at all times, always. for stability, for reaction capabilities, for speed, for balance, etc. it makes a lot of sense to me.

not to mention, hopping visually looks terrible...

i personally do no. 1 option... if i have to speed up to the maximum.

but i think this is shiai waza. correct waza should be one step, one attack.

[Hisham]

I jump with both feet like in haya-suburi when I hit kote... so my left feet is right behind and ready for the men.

There's no jumping in haya-suburi , at least as i was thought.
As kote-men is concerned, my reflex was pretty much to go for the "competitive" kote-men as Neil put it, the thing is i didn't know it was described so, i do see how moving the left foot two times can be more beneficial to footwork though.

[HandsomeWarrior]

again... i've been told by ALL of my sensei hopping is for rabbits. bunny kendo. lol

they stress that you should at least keep one foot on the ground at all times, always. for stability, for reaction capabilities, for speed, for balance, etc. it makes a lot of sense to me.

not to mention, hopping visually looks terrible...

i personally do no. 1 option... if i have to speed up to the maximum.

but i think this is shiai waza. correct waza should be one step, one attack.

Heeey Paburo, you forgot to mention about your sideways, right-arm driven "competitive" kote

Apart from that I totally share his opinion on not jumping at all, but I´m biased...we train at the same dojo...

[rainmaker]

Yeah, maybe I should...

No email Matsuda sensei or reply to the SJkendo yahoogroups thingy if you still have it. Maybe he can give you some hints through email.. or did you sever your link completely???

Tim

[Miravil]

I try not to do hopping, it is quite dangerous unless you are really fast. I've seen a kendoka keiko with a sensei, he likes to do the hopping when he did kote-men or any ni dan waza. The sensei was observing and when that guy go for his kote-men again, sensei did taiatari on his second hop and sent that guy flying and hit the ground hard. Ouchh....!

[Koki]

Gosh, It's not jumping per se.

I just move both feet at the same time. My body is not lifted high off the ground. We are talking about a very small hop with a distance of about or less than a foot. And after that, make a big step for men.

Why don't you guys try it out instead of saying "oh.. hoping is strictly prohibited"? Who prohibited? The IKF?

In theory, theory is just like practice. But in practice, it s a big difference! So don't try to analyze it too much!

[The great I AM]

In theory, theory is just like practice. But in practice, it s a big difference! So don't try to analyze it too much!

Dagnamit, as true as a very true thing said by a truthsayer!

[Hisham]

Dagnamit, as true as a very true thing said by a truthsayer!

Ain't that the truth.

[Paburo]

about hopping. i never said it was prohibited. just not encouraged by sensei. and if they dont, i dont personally understand why nonsensei do encourage it. but beg your pardon if that offended anyone.

and hey, if bending your body, bunny kendo, and all that stuff floats your boat... none prohibited of course. not by IKF rules at least. its about personal prefference in this case.

So don't try to analyze it too much!

and what is it we're doing here if not analyzing? and sharing different views on the fast kote-men waza...?

if analyzing is so wrong how about we close the thread and the forum altogether

Heeey Paburo, you forgot to mention about your sideways, right-arm driven "competitive" kote

handsomemyasswarrior, stop being envious if i beat the crap out of you in the dojo/shiai with that even crappiest kote. that comment is totally offtopic here, you moron

[HandsomeWarrior]

moron´s my surname

And after reading this forums quite a lot...this isn´t off-topic at all...

but yeah, you´re right....yours is the crappiest kote =p


As for the hopping, from my unexperience, I would say the center of gravity seems something really important into the whole kendo thing and in my mind it explains most of the footwork and body position being the way it is. Thus,...my shiai-jo is a NO jumping zone (just like Space Quest 2)...

[ratdeau]

What's very cool with Kendo is that you can do what you want as long it produce an ippon. Everybody can developp his own technique for a better attack.
For me, as I'm very tall (196cm) I can do kote men without moving my left foot between kote and men. Smaller people would move their left foot after men, just to reach the right distance for launching a men attack, beginners would move their left foot completely to regain a standard kamae as the motodachi move back opening men.
A really important point is left hand's shimerru. A good hand position really help for the speed.

[Anjin-san]

Warning to those that 'hop'. I kind of inadvertantly picked this up for kote men a few months ago. Your posture goes very bad on landing the kote, and there's also the aforementioned split second in mid air that could make for an ugly tai-atari.

I made it work for a while, but it wasn't pretty.

It's a very bad habit and since changing my kamae/footwork to have my feet more parallel and my posture straight as much as possible, I can't get my kote-men as fast as before and find myself lapsing back into hopping when I get tired or frustrated. This throws my footwork and kamae out of the window...

For that reason, I find this thread EXTREMELY helpful right now. Thanks all!

[Kmav]

Dont worry about your speed right now. Worry about the form of your kote-men. Speed comes with practice and proper form.