#hansoku

[blackmawashi]

January 2016, Day 14, Takarafuji v Goeido.

Goeido’s woes continue. He’s already got a losing record. He continues to bounce around from kadoban to kachi-koshi to kadoban and back again. And today against Takarafuji he gets his fingers caught up in Takarafuji’s hair and automatically loses due to the foul. You can pull on the back of the head, but you can’t pull the hair. Doesn’t matter if it’s intentional or not. Goeido drops to 4-10.

[kendopath]

Disengagement

First of all Congratulations to Nishimura for winning the All Japan Kendo Championship! WOW - An awesome performance! 

I post this because its a great example of disengagement and Hansoku in Katsumi's quarterfinal match. This is a very high pressure match. VERY intense. As the match drug out  - no points were scored. Then as the round time was running out - Katsumi scores men. In the next several interactions his Kamae, became defensive and he backed up – nearly all the way out of the court. Clearly he was eating up time, and blocking and not as engaged as he was prior to the ippon. This went on for a few interactions - then the judges call Gogi…and award Katsumi with Hansoku for stalling/retreating. 

Sensei has often talked about this happening. That Hansoku will be awarded for disengagement, stalling and eating up time. In order to respect your opponent, you must not retreat. You must fight with the same passion until the end of the match. 

I think we all have shifted into the stalling mind-set when we are leading in the points, and time is close….you can feel it.

Its important to remain engaged.