Defense technique - University 6

Today, I am going to talk about defense technique.

The following video is a quarterfinal match of 2012 all Japan university student individual championship.

Red side Shutoku was 1^st grade Hosei University student and White side Ejima was 4^th grade Kanoya student.

Red player has good footwork, both before and after he got ippon, it was rare to find his movement completely stopped.

He also has good defensive technique as well as offence.

At 0:38, when he went clinching, he dodged opponent shinai leftward with his inner movement for avoiding backward stroke of opponent.

At 1:03, he received shinai together with his backward footwork.

At 1:34, he turned aside well as white player pushed him.

And when red player tried to make pressure to white, white player ward off the mark of opponent at 2:23

Before 2:49, red player seemed to do Tsuki.

But, this time white player already set his position of forward Men with good footwork, and it was too close for red player to hit Tsuki.

I think red player has rather impatient moment partly because white player has no careless points. His movement looked subtle sometimes, but I feel it very strategic.

In this match, it was difficult to find white player’s unguarded moment or weak point in this match. The most important factor is footwork in my opinion.