Cutting DO

From my understanding, Do cuts require the right arm's pull action to complete the cut by pulling the blade out from the opponent's torso. However, I have sustained a right shoulder injury from an accident in kendo before. After the first injury, I injured the same area again twice while I was doing do cuts.

My question is whether or not I am doing do cuts correctly. If so, are there any ways to do do cuts without the right arm while using the chudan stance? I want to improve myself in kendo so I am not going to let my shoulder stop me.

Answer: Since I cannot see your do cuts, it is hard to say if you are doing the do cuts correctly or not. But you described the right arm movement for do cuts well.

It is not only the right arm movement; it needs a bit of a twist of your body and a slight footwork to the right.

Now before you think about the do cuts without the right arm (you should not do this), let’s think about what have you done wrong before.

There are two causes of your injury that I can think of.

1. You overdid kendo.
2. You pulled your right arm to the direction you should not have.

Do cut is very difficult, actually. Of course, there are people who can do it without problems but generally speaking not many people can do it right for a long time.

My advice is for you is not to worry about do cuts now. Practice men and kote for now. As you improve, you will be able to strike do with no problems.

If you want to practice do cuts, do not worry about "pulling your right arm out" too much. This article may help you a bit, "How do you do "DO" strikes?"