as we had the honor of hosting the All German Kendo Championship here in Berlin 2 weeks ago, I had the chance to see some rather good kenshi in action.
A lot of good fights have been fought, and seeing the German national team is also a good inspiration.
As an icing for the cake, we had visitors from Japan, 2 hachi-dan sensei and about 30 students from Osaka, with which we had about half an hour of ji-geiko.
An amazing opportunity by the way.
Even if both of them, the Japanese guys and the German national team members showed a high level of skill, there is this fine and distinctive difference between the Japanese and the European kendo.
At best, kendo -should- look the same everywhere on earth, and I think the higher the dan grades get, the more even it looks. But there are not that many nana-dan here in Germany to compare with Japanese sensei.
Anyhow,
I´m still trying to figure out why exactly the Eurokendo looks sort of different than the Japankendo.
But what I can conclude so far is the stiffness.
European kenshi are stiff.
Mostly our arms are the main point, too me.
We use too much strength to achieve a proper tenouchi. If I´m watching the japanese kenshi, or take a look at Chiba-Sensei on youtube, there is this distinctive looseness japanese kenshi have.
Not meant in a bad way, as if they would slack of.
I´ts more that you can feel the inner tension, as if they are tensed up like a spring, combined with a relaxed body which will only tense up at the moment of impact.
This always amazes me over and over again and gives me something I´m trying to achieve.
Inner core tension, outer relaxation....
I´m still trying to figure out why exactly the Eurokendo looks sort of different than the Japankendo.
But what I can conclude so far is the stiffness.
European kenshi are stiff.
Mostly our arms are the main point, too me.
We use too much strength to achieve a proper tenouchi. If I´m watching the japanese kenshi, or take a look at Chiba-Sensei on youtube, there is this distinctive looseness japanese kenshi have.
Not meant in a bad way, as if they would slack of.
I´ts more that you can feel the inner tension, as if they are tensed up like a spring, combined with a relaxed body which will only tense up at the moment of impact.
This always amazes me over and over again and gives me something I´m trying to achieve.
Inner core tension, outer relaxation....
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