Beautiful Men - Highschool 11

I am introducing Kanagawa high school preliminary tournament in 2014. In each prefecture, 2 players are entitled to go all Japan high school championship. So they were already entitled to join all japan high school championship.

Tanamoto is a superb player whose Men was like Jumping literally. For me, it is most beautiful Men.

White side is Tanamoto from Toukaisagami high school and red side is Nakayama from Kamakuragakuen high school. The following is from the youtube video.

White player showed his strong suit from the beginning, most beautiful Men.

In this match however, red player was good at pressuring white player. So, sometimes white player had to clinch for defense.

4:29 red player’s Kote was maybe because he predicted white player came Men and Kote was for counter hit.

In this match, both players used their footwork very nicely and it made the match interesting. (Otherwise soon one side would win a match).

Another interesting point in both players was the difference how to hold shinai handle. Red player set space between both hands narrower, but white players hold edge of handle, so it became larger the space.

In general, it is said if space between hands,

Narrower: merit attacking distant place

Wider: merit for counter or manage closer handling

6:50, white player showed Men again. 7:20 he also jumped Men, with rapidly rounding shinai before stroke. It had effect deluding opponent.

At 7:25, he stroked Kote. Kote or Do become more effective if a player has strong Men, because opponent player pays attention to Men and therefore it is easier to be careless for protecting Kote or Do. Here, although Kote was not ippon, his Kote was unguarded and likely to be hit.

Red player’s Do at 8:01 was good aim. Strong Kote or Do makes Men easier vise versa above mentioned.

At 9:13, white player decided sharp Men. At the moment, red player wasn’t able to react properly and Men became ippon.

His technique was charismatic and enchanted audiences in 2014!