Commentary by Simon Larsen Attacking from Geidan straight to nodo. Exciting start by Takizawa! Geidan is risky and so is nodo but Matsura was slow off the starting line and it almost worked. None of the judges even twitched their flags though and I think that jukendo / tankendo judges love to award shou ippon... Continue Reading →
Match 67: Quarter Final 4: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
Commentary by Simon Larsen I like matches where the competitors are both happy to get a little physical, especially when they are larger fellows. Unfortunately I think many larger people don't get to train being physical much as the damage you can do to smaller people is something you have to keep in mind, especially... Continue Reading →
Match 66: Quarter Final 3: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
Commentary by Simon Larsen When shodan goes up against 6th dan you often get an interesting match. Shodan are often younger and super fast but 6th dan often have better senses of oportunity. Kikuchi tests the reaction of his opponent with a fake for kote. I have seen a few people use this and stolen... Continue Reading →
Match 65: Quarter Final 2: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
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... Continue Reading →
Match 64: Quarter Final 1: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
Commentary by Simon Larsen Quarter Finals Time! ALSOK are a security company and they are usually one of the stronger teams. Matsuura starts to go for men, as soon as he has drawn Kojima into blocking the men Matsuura reverses and strikes do. As Kojima comes back down from the blocking position he loses centre... Continue Reading →
Kata: Ju tai Tan 1
Mokuju: Take a defensive geidan (aimed more at the opponents back knee rather than their front knee). 3 steps in. See the opponent thinking of doing something. Strike them. Zanshin. Lower the mokuju. Return to centre. 5 steps back. Tanken: Slightly delayed behind the mokuju taking geidan make a small covering of their kamae. 3... Continue Reading →
Match 33: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
Commentary by Simon Larsen I am not a judge, these are just my ideas watching the match. Baptiste is a big fan of Setei and uses a technique where if the initial do strike doesn't succeed he moves into a setei attack. I like this technique a lot (but can't do it) and think if... Continue Reading →
Match 09: Mens Individual: 17th All Japan Tankendo Championships
Commentary by Simon Larsen This year Hisatsune sensei had given me the goal of getting out of the first round and I went into this shiai hoping to do well. Recently our training with Hisatsune sensei has been progressing and I felt that my big weakness was slowly being corrected. I started exactly as I... Continue Reading →
Kata Demonstration
The last day of the Poland seminar happened to be the day Poland’s largest charity, Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy, has its annual fundraising event. The dojo we were training at had an open day and asked us to do a demonstration of Jukendo. When demonstrating kata to people that don't know the art I like... Continue Reading →
Almost Okay…but – Chokutotsu
The group of people in this video were at the Belgium 2018 seminar and for many this was their first day with a mokuju. So this is not a criticism of them but rather these suggestions will hopefully aid the viewer in watching their own videos and deciding what needs to be fixed and maybe... Continue Reading →