Hello 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: Oji-waza, which is one of the kendo techniques that you attack against an opponent's attacks such as men-kaeshi-dou and kote-kaeshi-men. Many people can do shikake-waza which you are hitting first, but you should learn more developed skills for oji-waza.
Today, I'm going to introduce 3 tips that help you do oji-waza well. For oji-waza, you are required to see your opponent very carefully in order to attack against the opponent's attacks in the right way. I hope these tips are helpful for you to improve oji-waza techniques.
1. Preparation for attacks
The first thing you need to do is preparation for opponent's attacks. For oji-waza, you generally predict the opponent's attacks and make waza against them, but the opponent might move differently from your expectation. In case it happens, you should prepare for dealing with different patterns, meaning you can make oji-waza, you can protect, you can go back and so on. There are many difference cases in kendo.
However, it might be difficult to prepare for many cases at first. The easist way to respond to any opponent's movement is two things. First, you do ouji-waza if your opponent's attacks match your expectation. Second, you can protect if your opponent's attacks or movement don't match your expectation. With these two simple ways, you don't need to worry about each opponent's movement.
2. Invitation technique
The next thing is invitation technique which means you should make your opponent attack. For oji-waza, you should avoid waiting for an opponent's waza because it is going to be late and you get hit in the worst case. Instead, you try to make your opponent want to hit, and you can make oji-waza very easily. Invitation techniue is a word that I made now, and it is called "sasou" or "sasoi" in Japanese which are used many times when they are talking about oji-waza.
Generally speaking, the basic way to make an opponent hit is coming close a little bit to the opponent from the usual distance (issoku-ittou-no-maai) because the distance is easy for the opponent to start hitting. This is going to be a great chance for oji-waza. If your opponent hit as your expectation, you will be able to make ouji-waza perfectly.
3. Small movement
Finally, small movement is the other tip for make oji-waza effectively. It means you should make smaller step for oji-waza than shikake-waza because an opponent also comes forward at the same time. If you step largely, the distance is too close to hit correctly.
How much you should step forward is determeined by how much distance you have between an opponent. It really depends on opponent's swing size and movement speed. If the distance will be close, you should make a small step. On the other hand, if it is a little bit far, you can make a big step to the opponent. You are required to make a quick decision how much you should go forward, and you can train the technique in practcice.
Thank you for reading this blog post! Oji-waza is the difficult technique for sure, but also it is a useful technique in kendo matches. Please remember the three tips in order to improve oji-waza! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me questions anytime you want. I'm happy to help you.
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