A Detail About Chudan no Kamae

by Kether
(UK)

Hi Sensei. Recently I found a misunderstanding of the position of left hand in Chudan no Kamae.

We were told in dojo that:

The left fist is one fist distance from navel. This position looks really beautiful when wearing bogu, especially watching high level sensei's dan grading.

But should we keep the same position of the left fist when only wearing kendogi and hakama (no bogu and also for beginners)??

In my dojo, the young Japanese senpai have different options and some think the position of left fist should be lower in no bogu condition.

My Question: is this option correct? Or should we keep the same position of left fist no matter wearing bogu or not?

Thank you very much!

Answer: Very nice and interesting question! When I started kendo to non-Japanese for the first time, I realised many differences of the body features. So I had to change my teaching methods.

The positions of the hands: I shake hands with my students and then tell them, “This is your hand position”. Of course the right hand should be a little higher than the left. But it seems like shaking hands to determine the hand positions works really good.

People have different body shapes, so we cannot say what is right for whom. And chūdan no kamae should be “built” through the long term basic training.

Hope this helps!

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