Steady kendo (Mitokiryo) - Highschool 26

Today, I am introducing 2018 Gyokuryuki tournament. Gyokuryuki is very famous all domestic high school team tournament in Fukuoka at summer. As previously introduced (https://www.learnkendo.com/2018/10/the-gyokuryuki-kendo-tournament.html), elimination style is adopted in here; A player keeps winning can continue until one is beaten by opponent player.

So sometimes, all players forced to match (from Senpo to Taisho) by only one player of opponent team. This is likely to happen especially if one side of team is much weaker than opponent team player.

The following youtube video is 5^th round of tournament. Red team is Mitokiryo and player’s name is Natsumeda (4^th player out of 5: Fukusho). White side is Meiho team, known as strong in Oita prefecture. They were 3^rd player (Chuken), so had one lead over red team.

Let’s check what happened.

(Before starting this video, red player got ippon advantage.)

At 0:55, white player approached swiftly and stroked Men. Red player also counterattack Men immediately. It looked almost equal exchange.

(From 2:20, versus Fukusho match starts.)

At 3:46 red player hit Do. It was so nice hit because it was a moment white player completely became unguarded and impossible to react. With keeping proper posture only makes it possible to attack precisely in such a difficult timing.

Again, red player stroked Do at similar timing (5:23) and this time it became ippon.

(From 6:50, versus Taisho match starts.)

Another good point of Red player is strong defense. Even after he hit (like 7:41, 8:11, 8:22 and 8:47), he never allows enough counterattack of opponent player, because his footwork and shinai handling is skillful.

So, white player faced difficulty finding chances to hit. But, before 10:35 red player consumed much without showing enough intention to attack, so he was given one foul play.

At 11:07, white player’s Men was good timing. But including this hit, white player failed to get ippons after that until end and match finished with red side victory.

The strongest point of this red player might be steady physical to keep appropriate posture at any time.