Commentary by Simon Larsen Kikuchi opens with his off centre tactic like we saw in his last match however Takizawa obviously has trained against this and uses some pretty great footwork to start the final step first. Halfway through what looks like a normal step it turns into a full strike. You can see he keeps... Continue Reading →

Commentary by Simon Larsen I don't know enough about the grading rules for tankendo but surely an 8th dan has to be reasonably old. Usually when you see the matches with a decent rank discrepancy the higher rank person uses less energy and relies on technique and experience. Not Kikuchi! He can bounce around like... Continue Reading →

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 →