Men cut timing (cut or foot, which comes first?)

Someone mentioned they were taught as "cut & land at the same time" which is the standard teaching mantra, it's everywhere even in textbooks.



I've spotted a Japanese article which is kinda moaning about the fact that there's a discrepancy between the existing teaching mantra and the actual cut by experienced players.


Ideal basic Men cut (L-foot remains on the floor at the impact).

It is not wrong to *be able to* sync cut and land, but (and this is a big BUT) teach beginners in this way could cost them a lot.

Initially I was also taught to "sync" cutting & landing, but recently I was given an alternative theory that there's no benefit in syncing landing & cutting.

Contrary to the widely-accepted teaching method, the experienced players' cut usually reach the opponent before the foot touches the floor. It is required in order to benefit from the momentum of the person & shinai as one travelling object - a bit more scientific take there.

Teach beginners to sync the cutting and landing would - due to their limited ability - resulted in their foot landing before the cut, what then follows is that the beginners ended up re-learning the timing as they make progress.

It seems redundant at best and not conducive if they failed to adjust to the correct order later on. Even if they are trying to re-learn, it's always harder to go against the habit than to adjust the existing habit to tone it down.

While ability to sync cut & land is all well and good, teaching beginners with conventional "sync" method could lead them into the wrong habits which could haunt the rest of their kendo lifespan.

If the foundation is questionable, building up skills on top of it would still have the same effect, the amount of hours, sweat and the range of techniques you can perform doesn't *override* the issue stemming from the habits you learnt at an early stage.

Unless you come clean and do something about it, the dead albatross will be around your neck indefinitely.

This is why leaning correct kendo is very important.

Given the risk of gaining the wrong habit by trying to sync cut & land, the exaggerated "cut then land" method is better as it's hard to gain bad habits like the R-foot landing before the cut reaches the target.

[Photos borrowed from Nara Photo-Studio Dojo]

12-15yr group

 

6-12yr group

 6-12yr group

6-12yr group

 12-15yr group

Photos at a local competition in Nov 2011 Nara Japan.