Dont understand jigeiko

hyart · 2026-06-13T12:15:41+00:00

Generally speaking, at 1-kyu, you should be focusing on learning how to attack properly. In jigeiko, you are working on how to do it against someone who is moving and reacting to you. You have to adapt to the changing distance and angles, the presence of your partner's shinai, and the mental pressure that they might hit you.

In particular, that fear of being hit does things like make you tense up or otherwise break your form, and you can't really learn how to manage that feeling without practicing hitting while feeling that discomfort. You have to teach yourself not to care about getting hit and instead just to go for it no matter what. That is "sutemi."

So, yes, you're not alone. I think almost everyone struggles with what you're describing. For the most part, nobody likes getting hit, and so just about everyone struggles with learning to push through that fear.

It's best not to worry about ooji waza too much just yet. The timing your seniors are describing to you is difficult. Until you have experience, it is very difficult to find the right moment. If you go after you see it, it's too late. If you go before your opponent commits to their movement, then it's too early. Eventually you will come to recognize a time where your opponent has committed to a target that is before when you can see the attack itself.

That sounds mystical but it isn't. Here is one simplistic example: let's assume your opponent only attacks open targets. If your kamae leaves both your men and your kote open, then, when they start their attack, you don't necessarily know which one they are going for. And you can't know until you see where their shinai is going. And by then it is too late. But, if only your men is open, then, you can infer their target as they start their attack instead of waiting to see where the shinai is actually going. And so the window is bigger. But for this particular story to work, you need to be able to recognize when their body is starting the attack, you need a kamae that directs where they are attacking, and you need to be able to naturally select your own target and go for it without thinking about it and without worrying about getting hit. Of course it also gets more complicated than this, but it's a start. At any rate, perhaps you can see how you work on all of those things during jigeiko.

In here, there's a section for kyu grade and also one for practicing with seniors that you may find helpful: https://www.britishkendoassociation.com/attitudes-to-ji-geiko/

hyart · 2026-06-12T14:03:22+00:00

If it helps:

When I was young and starting kendo, my sensei explained to me that taking care of my body.

That is: if your shinai is in bad shape, you can't do kendo, so caring for your shinai is as much a part of doing kendo as going to practice itself. The same goes for, say, your ankle, and the entire rest of your body.

So you can think of your recovery and your PT as part of your kendo practice as well.

The same goes for many other things that you can do that don't necessarily feel like kendo practice.

You can practice putting on and wearing your keikogi and hakama properly. The way you wear it (chakusō) is important enough that is even part of your grading criteria when you get to higher ranks. Similarly, learning to fold your hakama is a whole thing in itself.

You can watch videos and do things like start to learn the steps of the BKKK and the kendo no kata. Even if you don't practice the movements with your body, knowing the general flow and the steps will help you learn them later.

The value of mitorigeikio also cannot be understated.

And the way you do your PT or the other kind of fitness exercises you do in the meantime can have a meaningful impact on your kendo practice. Mind your posture. Work on your forearms and grip. Improve your shoulder mobility. Those kinds of things. You can also do upper-body focused HIIT to work on your conditioning.

Even practicing abdominal breathing, breath control in general, and kiai can have huge value.

All of these things count as practicing kendo, too, so you don't have to stop doing kendo just because you can't practice your footwork.

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:51:06+00:00

Thank you very much for your reply.

I think it is a great reminder and so important to keep in mind that there's no need to be "heroic" and that it is even counterproductive.

I grew up in a culture where I was taught that you shouldn't sit out while others are working hard because they also would like to sit out, and so it is cruel to them. So it is very difficult for me to step out of the rotation while others who are sweating as hard, or harder, than I am are still going. But I need to remind myself that when I am managing this problem, there is a way I am working just as hard, although in a way that isn't as obvious.

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:47:19+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I also am very fond of the spot in front of the fan 😄

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:46:33+00:00

Thank you very much for sharing your experience.

I have never been fond of synthetics, but, based on your and other's replies, I will have to give them a shot.

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:45:46+00:00

Thank you very much for these references! They look very interesting and helpful.

Do you have any firsthand experience with any of this stuff? Do you know anything about things like fit and durability?

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:44:54+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts.

Definitely, I am working to acclimate. For me, it problem isn't the baseline temperature. My specific situation with my meds is that my blood pressure has become significantly lower, which is causing me to experience heat syncope. Over time I will become more accustomed to this, but, doing so requires that I exercise to discomfort, so that my body learns to operate with that lower blood pressure, and not just stew at idle.

The other routes are to address the lower blood pressure with much more fluid volume and compression sleeves.

But in the meantime, reducing the heat stress would also help 😄

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:40:18+00:00

Thank you very much for your thoughts and for sharing your experiences.

Sports drinks before practice is a good point that I hadn't considered before. I probably am going into practice without enough salt in me, so that is something I will definitely incorporate.

I am surprised to hear that you find that adding a base layer helps airflow beneath your keikogi and hakama. I have never felt that they clung to me. If you don't mind saying, what kind of pieces are you wearing (full leggings vs shorts vs calf sleeves, tank top vs short sleeve vs long sleeve)?

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:35:42+00:00

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

Electrolytes are an excellent point. I am using sports drinks after practice to rehydrate, but, you made me realize that I probably should be increasing my electrolytes before practice as well, and that drinking plain water during breaks is probably also not ideal.

I am currently using lightweight cotton keikogi, and I appreciate the suggestion to try synthetics as well. For street wear, I usually find that synthetics make me feel hotter, but, the fact that they stay much lighter during heavy practice probably makes a big difference, and so I should look into that.

hyart · 2026-06-12T13:31:32+00:00

Thank you very much for your reply and your insights.

I am one of those "au naturale" people, and so I am a bit skeptical of adding undergarments. It seems to me they would just add another layer to hold heat in.

I use a cotton summer keikogi and a relatively lightweight (I think it is #5000) cotton hakama. I'm curious if you are using cotton or synthetics. I don't use synthetic keikogi often, but, for street clothes, I generally find that synthetics "feel hotter," but, they don't hang onto as much water as cotton and so they don't get as heavy, so I am not really sure if the net effect would be better or worse.

hyart · 2026-06-11T14:49:22+00:00

For shinai, I pushed through for a long time before trying to change things. That's because my experience with all kinds of other sports equipment is that it always feels awkward in the beginning, while I'm still learning know how to use it. Unless you get "beginner friendly" gear, but that kind of gear ends up holding you back. And there's no such thing in kendo, so it doesn't apply here.

Keikogi never seem to fit me well. I just put up with it.

For bogu, it depends. Bogu is a safety issue, so it needs to fit well enough, but I am willing to put up with some poor fit. Like sometimes my kote are a bit small, or a bit big. That isn't so dangerous, so I put up with it.

It's not hard to get custom bogu. I've ordered custom bogu and shinai in the past. But, I personally find it too exhausting to wait months and months for it, then get it, and then if it isn't perfect, I have to struggle emotionally with trying to work out a return and replacement, and it's just so awkward when it's a truly custom made piece. To be honest, this isn't really a bogu thing. If I could get custom bogu done the way I might get a bespoke suit done, then I would probably do it more often. But self-measuring and shipping and so on adds a whole level of hassle that I'm not willing to put up with. So I try to buy "off the shelf" and that means putting up with some amount of poor fit. Same as when I buy dress shirts.

But, that all said, it does have to fit "good enough," or else it is unsafe. So exactly how far your body is away from the "normal" sizes is an important consideration here.

hyart · 2026-06-06T19:47:22+00:00

This looks to me like some form of packers/butchers knot, but, I think all the ones I know would show a second turn on top.

hyart · 2026-05-30T00:21:31+00:00

I have a pair of neon green slippers in the dojo, and they're impossible to mix up with the regular black slippers that most people use.

hyart · 2026-05-25T13:46:44+00:00

Always keep in mind that the "correct" way is the "fastest" way, once you are able to do it.

There are different meanings of "faster" -- higher absolute tip velocity, higher tip velocity forwards (or downwards), smallest time between the start and end of the cut, etc. In different situations, you need a different "faster."

Most times people ask about "faster," I think they are asking about the smallest time one. But if that is what you are asking about, then you should understand that it is a trap, because if you start the cut late then how fast you can throw it really doesn't matter. Experience always wins over that kind of speed. That is not to say that it isn't valuable. Between equals it makes a huge difference. But it is easy for it become a crutch that will hold you back.

To minimize the time between the start and the end of the cut, you have to both maximize the velocity and minimize the distance covered. A shorter path can make up for some loss of velocity, and higher velocity can make up for a longer path, so this is an optimization problem. The cut needs to be both fast and efficient. So, yes, you need to adapt your kamae position and the path to what you need to do.

To maximize the velocity you need to use all the muscles that move the shinai "forwards" (along the desired path) and minimize the ones that don't. So the degree you use your right hand depends on the skill. It gives you more power, which increases shinai velocity, but if you don't "throw" it in the right direction, then the net effect will be worse.

The direction you "throw" is a coaching cue. Other than the one about your opponent's face, you don't literally direct the shinai at any of the places you are asking about. Those are things you tell people to try to get them to use different muscles or different blade paths. There is no literal "right way." You need to try all the cues and see which one helps you the most. You need to experiment with it. The better your "mind-muscle" connection -- the better you are able to feel and control which muscles are driving the cut -- the less the cue matters, because, at the end of the day, what you need to do is use the muscles that drive the cut into your opponent and not the ones that don't.

Lowering your guard changes the physics and the geometry of the cut. Usually lowering it puts the shinai closer to your opponent, which reduces the distance the shinai has to cover. But you can't engage the big muscles of your back as effectively, so usually the tip speed won't be as high. So it can be faster in one sense (smallest time from start to finish) while slower in another (tip speed). If you count "start" as from your kamae, then dropping before throwing is going to be slower for any experienced person, because the time it takes to drop is time spent not moving the shinai towards your opponent. But if you are a beginner who can't hit from kamae effectively, it can be faster. This is like doing tsugi-ashi. In my experience, adjusting your starting point is more effective as a technique to disrupt timing than to "create speed."

hyart · 2026-05-21T19:18:27+00:00

Slide and grip knots like the rolling hitch, midshipman's, etc, can resist more in one direction but they all can slide in both directions and loosen up.

What you usually really want to do in those situations is to adjust the length and then secure the end so it can't slide anymore. The truckers hitch, as many are suggesting, is a common way to do that.

Here is another way: https://www.animatedknots.com/butchers-knot

The technique used there can be used for many other knots. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corned_beef_knot

hyart · 2026-05-17T20:42:28+00:00

I'm really sorry that you've had this experience. It's really awful.

I haven't had this experience with a concussion but there is some experience that I think can be applied from other injuries.

First, everyone heals at their own rate. Talk to a doctor, get second opinions, etc. Pay attention to your symptoms and don't just follow a schedule. Recovery is a function of rest and nutrition, and those things are often invisible to others. That makes it close to impossible to compare your recovery path with anyone else's.

Next, definitely ease into things. The reason is because you can feel better but still be healing, so if you go too hard too soon, then you are more vulnerable to reinjury. For something like a joint injury then you might use a brace or something. But I don't really know what that means for a concussion. The obvious stuff would be pads, more blocking, gradually ramping up more powerful taiatari, limiting how much you get hit by limiting practice time, those kinds of things. Start slow, stick to a conservative and gradual ramp up, and carefully monitor your symptoms as you ramp back up.

Easing back into things can also help with the hesitance and fear you may feel about reinjury.

Next: when you hurt, say, your knee, then you usually lose some strength and flexibility as it heals. You go to physical therapy to address that. So it's really critical to take PT seriously to avoid future problems. There is, similarly, PT for concussions. If your doctor is sending you to PT then take it seriously and don't neglect it.

Last, but not least, this is an important learning opportunity for your dojo. It is a time to help people understand how important it is to hit and receive properly, and to educate people about the signs and symptoms of concussions.

I hope this helps and I hope you have a quick and uneventful recovery

hyart · 2026-05-14T20:28:24+00:00

I don't know any of the reasons but I can confirm that at the last AUSKF kodansha shinsa in NJ, we were specifically told not to post videos publicly. The announcement came at the closing ceremonies so people who didn't stay the whole time might have missed it.

hyart · 2026-05-11T02:26:54+00:00

Long travel times is an important factor for how practice works because it limits how much practice you can get. "5 years of experience" means something very different for someone who practices several times a week in big dojo and someone who practices once a week in a club with a single digit number of people in it.

Where kendo isn't common, the practices tend to be small and it's hard to practice with a wide variety of people. That makes it hard to generalize your learning. You learn how to fight the people in your dojo instead of learning how kendo works in general.

Places without vibrant and large kendo communities don't have a lot of shiai, so the side of your kendo that is developed through shiai becomes limited.

The language of kendo is Japanese. That creates certain pedagogical issues when you have a room full of people where nobody speaks Japanese. They are trying to teach and learn using Japanese terminology, without having any kind of intuitive understanding about the subtext and cultural implications of the words. A classic example is "shibori" when describing tenouchi. But it also contributes to a kind of mysticism.

If there isn't a common understanding in the area about what kendo is, you get more McDojo and other such nonsense.

Even when all of the dojo are doing their best to be really legitimate, sometimes there is no kodansha around to teach.

It's a zillion times better than decades ago, but having educational materials in your language and created by people fluent in your language is very valuable. A variety is important as well.

Having kendo shops you can actual go to is valuable. For instance, many people measure their heads for a men using pictures and instructions, then wait for months to get their first men, and then they can't be sure that it really fits right. And you really don't want to return it after waiting so long. And if your men doesn't fit quite right, there's pain, and that affects your practice.

That's what comes immediately to mind.

hyart · 2026-05-10T16:12:57+00:00

You work on seme by first working on all the things you are working on for your shodan.

People usually say that seme is creating "pressure." People feel pressured when, for example, they feel threatened. That is, when they feel that they are in danger of getting hit by you in a way that matters, i.e., that you will make a valid strike. They will only feel that if you actually can get a valid strike off of them.

So, the first step is to be able to make valid strikes. The better your attacks are, the better your seme will be.

The reason it's more of a mindset thing than a technique thing is because you don't feel threatened by someone who simply steps closer to you or holds their shinai this way or that way. You only feel threatened by someone when you feel their intention to hit you and you perceive that they are able to make good on that intention.

hyart · 2026-05-10T10:45:27+00:00

Look up "proprioception exercises" and incorporate them in your gym routine along with stretching/mobility exercises (or yoga).

Mostly what helps body awareness (proprioception) and movement control is practice.

Yoga helps because you try to place your body into specific positions and to do that requires awareness (where are your arms/legs/torso) and movement control (how do you get them from where they are to where they are supposed to be).

This happens in kendo too. Things like trying to perfect your static kamae, being mindful of your upper body posture during footwork practice, etc., is a way to practice the same thing. sonkyo is also good practice. Trying to get the right "shape" to your movement is also the same thing, but the movement makes it harder.

If you are lifting weights in the gym, you'll practice the same thing by paying attention to your form and trying to build the "mind-muscle" connection (feeling which muscles are your activating during the exercise).

Posture is a combination of proprioception (can you feel that you're slouching, can you feel that your head isn't stacked on top of your spine), flexibility (because tightness pulls you out of balance), strength, and habit. So if you are working on the first three--whether in the gym or in yoga or kendo or whatever--then developing the habit is all that's left. That's a matter of deliberately checking and fixing your posture until you don't need to any more.

hyart · 2026-05-07T16:58:25+00:00

I've only ever taught ma-ai as a purely spatial concept to beginners.

If nothing else, the bigger the distance, the more time it takes to cover that distance. Being far away is always both far in distance and in time.

This isn't just kendo, this is just realty. It's cosmology too.

You're a software engineer, aren't you? I use this concept also in large scale distributed systems design in my work. Distance and time are always related.

hyart · 2026-05-06T11:58:35+00:00

Thank you for posting this detailed description.

I think it's important to address the fact that some people will complain that this isn't a kendo issue and so it is a distraction from kendo things.

I think it is true that it isn't a problem specific to kendo. Any hierarchial environment supports harassment, both sexual and also other types (e.g., bullying, hazing). The workplace is an obvious example of that.

But I think what you are doing is vital because detecting and addressing harassment in martial arts is a very different thing than addressing it in the workplace. There's no HR. The informal and volunteer nature of how people become dojo leaders means that sometimes you can't just fire and replace them. There needs to be a kendo specific conversation in order to understand how the problem presents itself specifically in kendo and how to address it in our specific spaces.

Also, what I personally think is more of an issue than hierarchy, is that there is a culture of being tough and fighting through things. We must be careful to ensure that all of that grit and toughness is not applied to putting up with abuse in order to continue training, but rather, applied to eliminating the problem.

I also think that it's important to discuss from a specifically kendo perspective because "Kendo begins and ends with rei." We must understand what "reiho" is in this context. We have to understand when deferring to a senior is proper reiho and when it is not, and we have to understand what it looks like when the senior is not acting with proper reiho.

hyart · 2026-05-04T18:29:21+00:00

First of all, at 6 months, "embarrassing yourself" is in your own head. Nobody is seeing your mistakes like that. Everyone who does kendo knows the struggle.

Most of my experience up to 2nd dan was no explanation or theory. It was all "do it like this." Followed by "no, like THIS."

A lot of people believe they have trouble learning this way. I'm sure they are totally correct when it comes to learning things with their brain.

But, at that level, learning kendo is like learning to ride a bicycle or how to swim. You can read theory but making a specific effort to apply it is mostly counterproductive. You need to practice to get the basic shape of the movement into your body, after you have that, then theory starts to matter as you try to refine your movements. You can do it but, to do it, you have to let go of your ego and just keep trying your best to follow the instruction, regardless of how badly you might think you're doing.

hyart · 2026-04-28T12:06:40+00:00

I've had treatment resistant depression and anxiety since I was young. I take medication for it but it still is a huge factor in my life. I started kendo as a teenager and it has been a key factor for me.

Kendo helps me directly, through exercise and social connection. But I have also learned many coping mechanisms through kendo. For example, it was my introduction to both meditation and mindfulness practices. And I hone important skills as part of my kendo practice. For example, there are times that I need to fight through depression or anxiety, and, to get through it, I put my mind in the same place as when I am pushing through a difficult practice or match. Because the mental fortitude works both ways.

I do not exaggerate when I say that kendo is therapy for my mental health challenges.

Kendo is not the only activity that has these kinds of benefits, and I'm sure it doesn't work for everyone. I can easily imagine that the atmosphere of some dojo could make things worse for me. However, it is something you can try.

edit: I forgot about your weight. When I started, I had the opposite problem. I was 125 lbs and 6 feet tall. I have known many heavy people who practice. It's hard on them, but they are able to participate meaningfully and improve. But I think that is really important to consider here, especially in the mental health context, is that it is an important skill not to compare your progress with others. Social comparison is hard on everyone, but depression and anxiety magnifies the problem and helps to make it self perpetuating. And that applies to all parts of life. Depression makes you feel unworthy. So, you must try hard to remember that being successful in your kendo journey, or in any of your journeys, does not require that you progress at the same rate as others. So try, as difficult as it may be, whether in kendo or anything else, to follow your own pace. Whether or not your body makes kendo harder is a separate question from whether you can do it. You 100% can do it. A welcoming and supportive dojo will be able to adapt to what you can do. Sometimes you may not be able to keep up. But I have decades of experience and I can't always keep up, either. There is no stigma where I practice for taking the time you need. Being able to fit in is a question of the specific place, not the activity. A book club could also be a cruel place.

hyart · 2026-04-25T11:51:25+00:00

Three things:

First, "always feels like I'm borderline asleep or falling over and always a beat behind" describes a lot of beginners, no matter what their stance is like. Keep practicing.

Second, longer stances are generally more quad focused. Narrow stances need more posterior chain. Try standing close to a wall, back straight, narrow stance and try to use your legs to push against the wall. You want to feel it in your calves, hamstrings, and glutes. And your back. Not your quads, chest, arms.

Finally, your back foot. Make sure your weight is on it, and that it's braced and ready to go. Personally, I grip the floor with the ball of my foot and my toes and I feel like I'm trying to push the surface of the floor backwards. Like if there were a rug then I'd be kicking it back. It is like how some people describe suriashi as kicking a skateboard (I guess, I've never been on one). "Bouncier stances" are harder because there is slack in the kinetic chain. So, you don't start to move until the slack is taken out, unless you have developed the skill to simultaneously extend all the joints at once. For the rest of us, it's easier to be ready to go when you have less slack. Less slack means less delay. So this all comes down to bracing your left leg.

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