Better Jigeiko Practice

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: Jigeiko. Jigeiko is a shiai (kendo match) style practice that both players fight each other. Generally, many kendoka practice jigeiko in the last part of the practice because this is more advanced practice compared to basic attacks. Some people don't know how they should practice jigeiko because they might have a few opportunities to join the actual kendo matches. Today, I'm going to show you three tips for better jigeiko practice.

1. Get chances right

First, you should make sure whether you have a chance to attack every time. Some people hit immidiately when they are in the distance they are able to hit, but they actually don't think whether there is a chance each time. If you don't have any chance there, you should not attack immidiately and you should make a chance first. Unless you consider that you have a opportunity to attack, you could not get a point from an opponent.

There are some different perspectives of jigeiko. For example, some masters teach you that you should try to hit as proactively as possible. I partially agree with the idea, but we still need to get chances right since jigeiko is a preparation for actual matches, and not just a practice. For better jigeiko, you should determine that it is a chnace or not each time.

2. Protect opponent's attacks

Second, you can protect opponent's attacks if you have a risk to get hit. This is very similar to the first point, but you don't need to hit every time an opponent comes to hit. Although jigeiko is one of the practices, it doesn't mean you should attack as much as possible. Protecting is important as well as hitting because you can avoid getting hit by protecting opponents' attacks.

Basically, you tend to get hit if you attack after noticing opponent's attacks. Therefore, you should prevent from getting hit by protrcting attacks when you have a risk. This is an important strategy to keep winning many matches, so you want to learn how you protect attacks as well as how you hit.

3. Pay attention to physical strength

Third, you need to be careful about your physical strength during jigeiko practice. Once you are exhausted during jigeiko, you cannot make great seme or powerful attacks. It often happens in actual kendo matches, and you give a chance to an opponent because of being tired.

Therefore, you also need to focus on how you fight against an opponent even in jigeiko practice. For example, you can try not to hit and focus on protecting for a while in order to repair your strength. Even though this strategy is a little advanced, it must be useful in actual matches.

Thanks for reading this blog post! Jigeiko is a good preparation for kendo matches, so please learn how to fight against an opponent in jigeiko practice! If you have any questions, please ask me. Also, you can give me a comment if you have any requests of the blog posts!

#kendo #剣道 #頑張れ剣道