Hi everyone!
Thank you for reading the following blog post! I'm Kota Suzuki from Japan. I've been practicing kendo since I was seven years old in Japan－I am currently 3rd Dan. Right now, I am studying abroad in the United States and regularly practice at the university kendo club here.
Today's topic: Nuki-Dou which is one of the common oji-waza (defensive techniques) against men strike. Nuki-dou is sometimes very difficult to strike accurately, so some kendoka might have difficulty in doing it well. Today, I'm going to explain the three important points of nuki-dou in this article.
1. Invite men strike
The first point is that you should invite an opponent's men strike. This is important for every kind of oji-waza (defensive techniques). If you wait for an opponent's attacks, you will be late and you cannot hit oji-waza correctly. For better nuki-dou, you need to invite men strike from an opponent first, and then you target dou right after an opponent starts to hit men. Generally, you should step forward a bit to let an opponent think it is a chance, and then you target dou at that time.
2. Start to hit in the correct timing
The second point is that you should start to strike dou when an opponent starts to strike men. We have kaeshi-dou which is another oji-waza against men strike, but those two are different in terms of the timing you strike. For kaeshi-dou, you protect men, and then you strike dou after that. On the other hand, you need to strike nuki-dou when an opponent strikes men. Therefore, you should be ready for the men strike in order not to be late at the timing.
3. Don't be afraid of men strike
Some people are afraid of men strike from an opponent, so they tend not to look at opponent's dou when they hit. However, you are likely to miss nuki-dou if you escape from an opponent even when you have a chance to get a point. It is important to strike dou in front of you because it leads to the high accuracy of nuki-dou.
If you would like to learn more about nuki-dou, you can watch a video about nuki-dou on my youtube channel. I have added English subtitles, so I hope many of you are able to enjoy watching it!
Thanks for reading this blog post! Nuki-dou is one of the useful waza in actual kendo matches as well as dan promotion tests, so please remember the three points that I introduced today in the usual keiko. If you have any questions, please ask me anytime and I'm happy to help you.
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