Border of safe and danger - University 45

The following youtube video is from 2017 all Japan Kendo championship 5^th round. Red player is Hoshiko belongs to Tsukuba Univ, and white player is Obata belongs to Osakafuritsu Univ.

Red player in the match is very good at telling border between safe and danger. So, he dodges precisely and also hit precisely his convenient timing.

This white player is also strong and competitive, it looks difficult to find unguarded place to hit easily.

First 2 minutes, they sounded out each other by attachment. First, red player hit good hiki-Do at 2:00.

At 2:30, they looked hit Kote-Men at the same time, but red player reacted a moment earlier. So it became ippon. His snap was strong and produced effective hit with small swing.

After he got ippon, he came to show strong defense by positioning and sharp insight. If they had distance, white player is taller and might have more chances to hit.

At 3:31, red player killed the space by hitting sharp Kote. I think this is not only the purpose of getting ippon but for decreasing unnecessary risk of being hit from distance.

At 3:45, he stroked hiki-Kote by utilizing opponent positioning change. Though it didn’t touch Kote, timing was good.

At 4:18, he utilized white player’s force and hit hiki-Men.