How Mitori Keiko Works

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: Mitori Keiko which means learning from other people's practice and matches. Mitori keiko is one of the important practices in kendo because you are able to learn from other players' kendo. Today, I'm going to introduce three reasons why mitori keido is important to develop kendo.

1. Notice positive points

First, you can notice positive points of other players' kendo during mitori keiko. If you are a member of kendo clubs or dojo, there should be some other members who practice together every time. Every kendo is different person to person. Therefore, you have a opportunity to see positive points that each members have.

There are many points you should focus on during mitori keiko such as footwork, waza (men, kote, dou, etc), posture and so on. Through noticing these different positive points, you will be able to learn them from other players, and improve your own kendo. You should try these things in practice.

2. Notice negative points

Second, you also need to focus on negative points. Every players have both strength and weakness, so you can learn from negative points that the members have as well. The first thing you should do is seeking the negative points, and think about what kind of advice you should give to the person after that. 

Yow can advice the person directly during the practice surely, that should be helpful for the person, but the more important thing is you pay attention to this point. By giving the advice to yourself, your kendo is going to be improved faster because it is difficult to notice the negative points by yourself during practices. Therefore, noticing the negative points is also the important element of mitori keiko.

3. Use practice time efficiently

Third, mitori keiko enables you to use the practice time efficiently. When you practice kendo, you probably have a time that you take a break or you wait for your turn. If you don't think anything during the time, you will not improve at the time. However, you can get improved by watching other members' practice even if you actually don't practice.

This is importance because there will be a big difference between people who watch the practice carefully and people who don't. This is a slight difference at that time, but the difference is going to be bigger and bigger in the future. You should continue to make this small effort, and your kendo will be changing gradually.

Thanks for reading the blog post! Mitori keiko is very useful because you are able to see kendo from the different perspective. Watching kendo videos on YouTube is also one of the mitori keiko, so please try to learn a lot of things from other people.

If you have any questions, please ask me anytime. I'm happy to help you. And, if you have any requests for the blog posts, please let me know!

#kendo #剣道 #頑張れ剣道