Commentary by Simon Larsen
In training leading up to this tournament Hisatsune sensei had stressed two things to me. Firstly that shaking the tanken up and down for no reason was a good way to give your opponent a sense of your timing. Secondly that standing still let your opponent choose the distance to fight from.
Initially both of those things are what Takizawa did and Kunishige was very close to scoring. The first strike connected but slid a little.
When Takizawa made the attack for kote he dropped his tanken very low afterwards which gave the opening for Kunishige to score.
Immediately on restarting for the second point Takizawa stopped shaking his tanken and took control of the distance with constant small steps forward. Kunishige at 01:31 starts moving backwards to take back control of the distance but without maintaining posture and at 01:49 this becomes his undoing. He is unable to launch his attack strongly and Takizawa takes the point with a solid string of attacks at 01:52. Note after each attack how Takizawa steps back but has his rear foot planted wide and solid before his centre of gravity finishes moving back. This is how he is able to immediately launch his next attack.
Following this Takizawa maintained the same control of the distance and wins on judges decision.
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