2013-02-24 21:49:00
My wife, ladies and gentlemen! My dear wife just helped me figure out one of my biggest failings in kendo!
Countless times I have been told by various teachers that I double-step or step through when jumping in for a strike. I keep getting warned about it, but I've never conciously felt it happen. Sure I was aware that I keep shuffling my feet to find footing for the lunge, but I've never felt the "step through with left" happening. Until last night during the big training, when I think I felt it happen at the back of my head.
But that's not the big succes here. No, that's my wife's analysis of the same situation!
Watching me do kihon practice, she noticed that my whole body teeters to the right when I'm about to lunge. It happens especially when I start leaning in for the lunge. And then, when I lunge, she sees me pull left up to the right foot (or past it!) after which I actually jump.
And the answer is!.... *drumroll* Weight distribution!!!
I keep my weight too much on the front leg and then I only increase that when I start leaning in for the lunge. Earlier, I learned that back-front should be 60-40 at rest. In my case it's probably reversed: back-front is 40-60. Then it gets worse when I lunge, going to 20-80! THAT'S WRONG! How can I jump from the left foot, when all my weight is on the right?! That's right, I cannot! Which is why I instintively doublestep/overstep, to get the weight back on the left foot.
I'm so grateful that she saw through that! This really gives me clear details to work with.
kilala.nl tags: kendo, sports, awesome,
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Posted by Thomas
Hmmm.... Interesting materials Zi. The thing is that the 60-40 back-front distribution was also taught at the Summer Seminar last year. And while I agree with you that the center of gravity should be leaning forwards, how are you going to slide the right leg if the weight is pushing on it?
I think you're referring to center of gravity, while I'm talking simply about which foot carries the weight. Again, I fully agree on the center of gravity.
Hmmm.... This warrants a lot of further investigation! :)
Posted by Z
"how are you going to slide the right leg if the weight is pushing on it?"
Simply by using the muscles in your leg to pull your leg up while sliding forward. In order to do this correctly you will have to find a balance between pulling up and sliding forward. But you will get used to it eventually.
The perfect case would be where friction due to the normal force of your body at the contact area between your front foot and the floor reaches zero and there is no vertical movement of your front foot. When this happens the friction force of your back foot is also increased considerably.
You will find forward motion is virtually instant and effortless when doing this. (And the further back your back leg is the faster the movement forward but the less range you will have.)
Posted by Z
As for the CoG thing, remember that formula distance1 * force1 = distance2 * force2?
If you distribute your weight toward the back you have to lean backward in order to actually get that majority distribution on your back leg. If you want to go forward while you have distributed your weight towards the back, you will first have to bring it to the front -before- you will be able to move at all, needless to say, this takes up a -lot- of time. Enough for your opponent to deeply engrave your head with his bloody signature.
Having said that, it can be possible to have a larger distribution of weight towards the back, but this means that your feet are very close together so that the time it takes to move your CoG towards the front of your kamae is a matter of moving your shinai slightly forward.
But from what I understand of your case, you have to do a lot more than just move your shinai a little forward. This could mean your feet are too far apart (or rather, your back leg is too far behind), or you are leaning too far to the back when you want to do a lunge. Both cases result in falling short when doing the lunge regardless.
It seems to me you are having more trouble with the placement of your back leg or how much you bent it, since you say you need to pull up your back leg before the lunge.
Posted by Thomas
Hmmm... So that would contradict what we thought to have discovered last night. Only one thing to do: practice, practice, practice. And really pay attention to what the hell is happening down there.
Posted by Z
I actually think you're not that far off, but maybe you just asssociated it with something else. Leaning onto your front leg will also result in a lunge that will fall too short you see, you want to focus on projecting your body forward and not pushing yourself off which is a focus towards the rear. I think this might sound really strange but maybe you understand what I'm saying?
The observations everybody made about you are probably all correct. It's just that your solution might be off.
Posted by Z
As for which exercises you should do to improve your lunge, i think oikomi-geiko and uchikomi would be very helpful.
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2013-02-24 23:10:00
Posted by Z
hmmmm... are you really sure your weight should be distributed towards the back? The very reason you want it towards the front is so you don't have to force your body into the lunge because it's already halfway there.
The weight distribution towards the front is actually described in both eastern and western medieval manuscripts of martial techniques as being good practice.
A renaissance European example of 2 standard stances (and other very advanced techniques in the background):
http://www.thearma.org/pdf/jmgsx12.jpg
(out of a mansucript on fencing from the time when longsword combat was at the peak of its sophistication. The guy on the left does the "von/vom tag" and the one on the right the "alber" or "pflug" depending on who you're asking. Those stances look familiar eh? Maybe you can guess why?)
Also wanted to give a Japanese medieval manuscript example, but it's kind of hard to find any plates at all on the subject it seems.
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One thing you could do to improve your lunge is not to overstretch your back leg while in rest (which seems to be the case as you say you need to pull up your back leg towards your front leg). You need some springiness in it in order to be able to perform the lunge at all.
What could happen if you distribute it towards the back is that your lunge will be directed more upward than forward (this is demonstrated quite handsomely in the game of QWOP, if your CoG is nearer towards the back leg, or even behind it, your avatar will launch into space or fall on the back of its head. Contrary to when you have it nearer toward the front leg, in which case it will go forward).
QWOP:
http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html
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So bottomline, do not put the majority of your weight on your back leg, it makes you slower in all cases related to kendo, unless you want to go backwards which should not be the case. There are very few situations where you would put the weight on your back leg and I don't believe any of them should occur while you're still trying to fully grasp the basics of kendo.