Combination stroke - University 51

Combination stroke like Kote to Men, is very useful in some situation and increase ippon chance.

The following youtube video is from 2018 all Japan student kendo championship 1^st round. In this match, red player is Kamoi belongs to Kyoutosangyo Univ, and white player is Kurokawa belongs to Keio Univ.

At around 0:47, white player’s foot was reverse; left was front position and right was behind. It looked contradictory footwork, but it is also one technique.

Imagine when you hit hiki-waza (stroke of backward movement). If you place reverse position and you stepped in right foot as stroke, then it is easier to make momentum of backward movement than normal positioning. So some players prefer this position of foot in tsubazeriai attachment.

At 2:00, red player stroked Kote, while white player stroked Men. It was almost same timing, and in that case Men is more likely to win. And white player as expected, got ippon.

At 3:04, white player dodged red player’s Tsuki, and snapped Men. It was good timing. Red player barely escaped from this counterattack.

After white player got ippon, he changed strategy to focus on counterattack or combination stroke to respond to opponent player.

White player waited for red player’s mistake or time-up for his victory.

4:12 white player’s Men was also good aim and timing.

At 4:33, white player precisely stroked combination from Kote to Men and it outreached red player’s movement.

In the match, I felt red player less frequently tried combination stroke and white player could make more chances in that aspect.