In the previous articall I discussed the basic principal of striking from Jodan, but whichever one of these you choose to adopt you are not going to get very far unless you get your footwork right. The same principle apply to Jodan as to Chudan, but only with your feet the other way around, ie: Left foot forward. If you have been practicing Kendo for some time, you probably have a good strong left leg which can send you hurtling across the dojo and allows you to cut your opponents from Toi-mai ( far distance ) unfortunately when you start playing Jodan this will be of absolutely no use to you, as you now need to use your Right leg to push off and preform Fumocomi with your Left, this means that you are going to have to go back to basics and re-learn your footwork, this is the part that i found most frustrating when i started playing Jodan, but if you put the hard work in and strengthen your Right leg you will overcome the frustration.

So now you have the footwork off to a tea and you know how to strike, now comes the hard part, Semi. When you are playing Chudan it is obvious when you perform Semi, in most cases you simply step forward holding centre and your opponent feels the pressure that you are trying to exert, Jodan is different, in so much as your shinai’s are not touching, therefore your opponent cant feel the pressure that you are putting on as easily.

The most basic way of performing Semi from Jodan is to simply step forward into your opponents safe space and see what their reaction is, but be careful when you do this as you are now offering your self as a target. When I say step forward I mean inch forward, take tiny steps, constantly trying to edge your opponent backwards towards the edge of the area, I was told once that the perfect Jodan shiai is to win by forcing your opponent out of the area 3 times and winning on JO-GAI, I no this doesn’t sound very impressive, but think about it for a moment, why cut your opponent if you can put enough pressure on them to make them retreat and step out of the area, if you can do this then you know that your Semi is working, remember at all times to be switched on and take the attitude that you are the one in control.

Unfortunately some Chudan players are to thick ( sorry folks ) to understand that they are supposed to retreat when you step forward, and as you inch forward they see it as a chance to attack, normally against either Kote or with Tsuki, so as a Jodan player you have to be ready to respond. The best ways to do this are either with Oji-waza or Debana-waza.

First of all I will try to tell you how you should perform Debana-waza. As with Chudan this takes split second timing, as you can only successfully perform Debana-waza at the instant your opponent begins to step forward, the easiest Debana-waza to perform from Jodan is Debana Men, to do this as you inch forward you should present your Kote as a target for your opponent, normally your left hand will be about a fists width away and above your Men and slightly outside your left eye allowing you a clear view of your opponent, to lure them into attacking your Left Kote, bring your Left hand an inch or two to the right so that it is more or less central and offers a better target to your opponent, remember that when you move your left hand to the right don’t move your right hand at all, it should keep the same position as in your normal Jodan posture, keep both hands relaxed, keeping a very light grip on your shinai, as your opponent sees that your left hand is now slightly closer and an easier target hopefully they will react and attack it, as they initiate their attack drive of your right leg and cut towards their Men, if you have got the timing right your men will score before they can execute their attack, don’t worry to much if your timing is slightly out and your opponent has already started to raise their hands to attack your left kote, as if you perform a good clean men cut down the centre it will deflect your opponents shinai enough so that they won’t score, you won’t score either but at least you will have put some doubt in their mind about their attack and you can draw some inspiration from the fact that you have denied them the cut.

An alternative to presenting your left kote as a target is to make your right kote easier to attack thus opening up the opportunity of Debana-kote as well as Debana-men. To do this move both your hand slightly to the left, bringing your right hand to just in front of your right eye, at the same time your left hand should pull away from your opponent and be approximately a fists width to the left of your left eye, by doing this you are making your right hand a more obvious target and making your left kote much harder to hit, remember that most Chudan players will adopt a Kamai that is slightly raised and slightly of centre to their right, with their kensen aimed in the vicinity of your left elbow when you take up Jodan-kamai, this makes it very difficult to score kote and hence you have to make your right kote a more attractive option for them.

Hopefully by moving your hands to the left your opponent will initiate an attack to your right kote, as they move their kensen across to their left and step in for the attack they will open up their kote for you to perform Debana-kote. The chudan player only needs to move their kensen ever so slightly to their left before an opening becomes available, as the Jodan player has already moved their left hand to their left thus altering their centre of attack and making the chudan players kote an easier target, as the chudan players kensen moves to your right hand the target becomes more obvious and allows you to strike kote. With Debana-kote remember that you only need take a small step forward, as the target is much closer than when you want to strike men. As with any cut after you have performed it, whether it be successful or not, you must drive forward as this shows zanchin and gets you out of harms way by coming inside your opponents striking distance.

You can of course try Debana-men by using this technique as well, but remember, as you have already moved your centre to the left, you must bring your left hand back into the centre when you cut men, otherwise your men cut will be invalid as it will come in from an angle and you will strike your opponent with the side of the shinai and not the blade.

I have only scratched the surface of Jodan-Semi, hopefully in the next artical I can give you a few more tips on how to break a Chudan players kamai ( and make them cry!!!! )