It is quite common in the rush to get to the “bashing people on the head” bit of kendo to overlook one of the most important parts of kendo; breathing.

Method

In kendo the method of breathing is to fill the tanden, a grapefruit sized area in the front half of your gut halfway between your pubic bone and your navel, in line with your hara.
You should breath in quickly through you nose and down into your gut. Your chest should not expand at all. If you are wearing your Bogu you should feel your lower abdomen pushing hard against the confines of your tare.
Exhale slowly through your mouth. You gut should stay hard and expanded. Exhale until you are empty and the cycle will restart naturally.
This is commonly referred to as abdominal breathing.

Mokuso

This is the obvious place to start you breathing.
The feeling is of projecting your gut through the circle you make with your hands which, incidentally, should be in front of the tanden.
Your breathing here is a continuous cycle.

Keiko

During keiko the method of breathing is to inhale at toi-maai and lock the breath down into the tanden with a loud kiai using as little air as possible to produce as louder kiai as possible.
Then move into cutting distance. You should not exhale here. Cut and kiai using most of your remaining breath.
You should have enough breath remaining to make an additional attack.

Kiai

Kiai should feel as if it is being pushed up out of your gut.

Breath Management

A point to consider; If two Kendoka of equal skill are locked into issoku-ito-no-maai (the distance of the one step cut) with neither able to either cut or escape to toi-maai (long distance). The one who has to breathe first will lose.

Today I'll explore to concept and practice of keiko.

To Learn from the Past

For a definition of the word “keiko”, Ozawa Hiroshi writes;

Types of Keiko

I will be concentrating on Jigeiko in this entry. But first let's take moment to mention a few other equally important form of keiko.

• Kihon-geiko is the practice of fundamental kendo through repetition. This includes Suburi.
• Waza-geiko is similar to kihon-geiko, but concentrating techniques for opening a target or counter attacking.
• Kata-geiko is the practice of Nihon Kendo no Kata.
• Uchikomigeiko is a continuous cutting kihon-geiko.
• Kakarigeiko is a continuous cutting waza-geiko.
• Shiai-geiko is competition practice.
• Enjin-geiko is winner-stays-on matches.
• Mitori-geiko practice through observation of others.

Jigeiko

What is Jigeiko?

Jigieko is the opportunity to apply what you have learnt in a realistic way. Your partner is no longer a static and compliant target wait for you to perform you intended technique at you leisure. Instead, while you are trying you hardest to perform an attack, they should also be doing the same.
It is important that jigeiko is not approach in a sterilised, I cut then you cut then I cut then you cut, fashion. Jigeiko should be livelier. Remember that jigeiko is a replacement for actual life and death combat.
However, while jigieko may be a battle, it is not a competition! You must approach jigieko without any fear of being struck. It does not matter how many times you are struck in a jigeiko or how many of your strikes are successful. There is a common saying in Kendo that “we learn by being cut”.
It is sometimes the case that one may spend many sessions without making a successful attack in jigeiko. This is normal, especially at the lower levels.

How to approach Jigeiko

On the subject of your approach to jigeiko, Honda Sotaro writes;

And also;

You should also remember that keiko means to learn from the past, this includes the things you have been taught that night. It is very easy to to fall back on what you aleady know you can do. This may provide satisfaction in the short term, but will eventually make it difficult for you to progress.

Goals

Finally, it is important for you to formulate goals for each session. One night you may decide; "Tonight I will be fearless" another it may be; "I will concentrate on bring my left leg up quickly". It is important for every person to take responsibility for their own improvement to a certain degree.

References

Ozawa Hiroshi, "Essence of Training (Keiko) on Japanese Culture", Kendo Acadamy Press, 2005
Honda Sotaro, “Attitudes to Ji-geiko”, http://kendo.org.uk/articles/attitudes-to-ji-geiko/

 I thought I’d kick-start my Blog page with some thoughts aimed mainly at beginners.

Approach to Practice

When you come to practice, do so with the earnest intent of becoming better. What I mean by this is that it is very easy to meander though lessons waiting for improvement to magically manifest itself. If only it were so easy! Improvement comes primarily through three activities. Listening, Trying to do it Right and Being Courageous

Listening

When someone is teaching (either you directly or the whole group) please concentrate on what they are saying. Try not to become absorbed in you own thing. We are all guilty of this sometimes.

Trying to do it Right

When you first start, there will be a large gap between what you tell your body to do and what it decides to do. This is fine; everyone goes though this and can remember what it is like. Mainly because we are still going though it, the gap just gets smaller.
We can see that you are trying; so do not worry.
Conversely, we can see when you are not trying.
Although you should not concentrate so hard that actions become stilted as you check each movement nor should you be lackadaisical about things.

Being Courageous

It is all too easy to become a shrinking violet and stand mutely when asked if anybody has questions, or hang around on the sidelines during enjin-geiko. Part of improving at kendo means improving at putting yourself forward. If you approach a match in an apologetic manner, you will lose. Therefore you should train yourself to at every opportunity at coming forward and being counted. Even if you are not in armour you should have the courage to go into enjin-geiko and do some passing men cuts. This is part of what we mean by Spiritual Development.

Bogu

When you receive your bogu and have either been shown have to put it on in the club, or followed a guide in a book (like this one), then please practise in your own time! It sounds simple but I have seen many beginners struggle in front of a class when practise at home would have saved them.
Sit down with in the evenings and don your bogu 4 or 5 times in a relaxed manner. As you get better you can watch TV at the same time (this will also teach you to do it with you eyes forward). Time yourself. You will improve far more rapidly than someone who is only practising once a week (i.e. only at the Dojo). You should be able to tie you men in less than two minutes (including putting on your tenugui). If you neglect to practise at home you will be the one holding things up in the dojo.

DIY

I often tell people to do or not do something, and then reassure them with the phrase “It’s ok, you won’t know unless I tell you”. For all that this is true, it also isn’t!
Nowadays, there is a wealth of information regarding Kendo and other Japanese arts available, both printed and online. As a teacher it is certainly my job to give you the information you need, but there is nothing stopping you from reading up on Kendo for yourself. If you do not have at least one book on Kendo then you should seriously ask yourself why not! I personally own Ozawa Sensei’s “KENDO: The Definitive Guide” and Budden Sensei’s “Looking at a Far Mountain: A Study of Kendo Kata” and, after 5 years of kendo, I regularly re-read these text’s and gain new insights into kendo every time I do. I can also highly recommend Salmon Sensei’s Blog.
Looking at a Far Mountain is a really excellent example of why these resources are useful. This book contains footwork diagrams like this one from the first kata;

These can be followed, book in hand, at home. Once you have the footwork of the kata memorised, everything else in kata becomes so much easier. I personally followed this book like a bible in my first two years of Kendo, reading it once or time a week, until I was happy that I’d nailing the footwork of the kata.

Anyway

I hope these thoughts are useful to you in some form.