Timing and 3D Seme: Shinai, Body, and Mind II

by Burm Kim
(E. Lansing, Mi, USA)

Hi again,


1. I will try to make this question as simple as possible without much details. I want to know a 3rd person's view point. I am very tall and when I fight opponents, I feel like I have the center and feel as if I can strike at the moment but when I do strike, asking the opponent to hit Ai-uchi, they just lower their kensen (to mukai tuski) and takes a step back. What is the solution to this?

2. Because I am tall, sometimes, people do not want to hit Ai-uchi with me because my men is so far away and all they aim for is dekote or kaishi do. How do I convince them to hit Ai-uchi with me... What should I do different? Should I change my kamae?

Answer: Thank you for your post. You have good questions!

1. This means your opponent knows when you come. That means you are striking when you should NOT. You have to kill your opponent’s sword first by applying harai (tapping away the shinai), knocking down, maki and so on. Basically you have to remove your opponent shinai away from the center.

Also you can apply more pressures on your opponent. You can apply tame (hold your attack) too. You can move your shinai lower or higher than your opponent’s while you are putting pressures on your opponent.

Try all the techniques you can think of in order to move your opponent’s shinai off the center.


2. I don’t think you should convince them and they won’t be convinced, because they know they cannot win.

Your attack should be centered around men strikes and probably is. If so, when your opponent blocks your attacks including kote, they must lift their hands up.

In that case, you see openings their kote or dō (right or left). This is the time you strike kote or dō. Then they think that you are not the men man. All-round player. That intimidates your opponent.


Also work on kote-men as well. This will be your powerful technique too. Especially when you know that your opponent is aiming at de-kote, your kote-men becomes ai-gote men and you will get his/her men beautifully.


Hope this helps.

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Jun 16, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		sansatsu no ho.
by: Ron Fox

Before you can succeed you must have successfully applied one or more of the three possible ways to 'kill' your opponent before you attacke
Shinai o korosu - Kill their shinai (or make their shinai unable to respond).

Waza o korosu - via your pressure make them feel they must come and by creating their false chance kill their technique making it easy for you to respond.

Ki o korosu - kill their spirit, again through your pressure make them feel like they have no chance, discouraging their mind to the point that they can not effectively act and react.

In one sense, your height and speed make it hard for you to learn these applications of seme because you can sometimes use your athleticism to strike when the chance is really marginal.

The underlying point of sansatsu no ho is that you have actually defeated your opponent completely before you start your strike. That the strike is, as much as anything else, a demonstration of that fact...rather than being the fact.

Kendo-Guide.Com: Fox sensei, thank you for your post! Very important concept. For additional reading for
san sappo. Hope this helps the readers too.

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