Degote Technique

Hello everyone, 

Thank you for reading the following blog post!
I'm Kota Suzuki from Japan. I've been practicing kendo since I was seven years old in Japan－I am currently 3rd Dan. Right now, I am studying abroad in the United States and regularly practice at the university kendo club here.

Today's topic: Degote. Degote is one of the kote techniques that you hit kote when an opponent hit men. This is one of the common oji-waza which means defensive techniques, so many people want to master degote. However, many of the have difficulty in doing degote because this technique is not easy. Today, I'm going to show you three useful advices that make degote easier.

1. Let an opponent hit men

First, it is important to let an opponent hit men, meanig you should not wait for an opponent hitting men. It is a general idea of defensive techniques that you should try to control an opponent. Many people wait for an oppnent's hit, but you are late at the time to hit correctly.

Basically, you go forward a bit to let an opponent hit men because the opponent think this is a chance to hit men, but it is actually fake. You should not go too close to the opponent since it will nbe difficult to hit kote in the close distance. Make sure you have enough space to hit kote correctly.

2. Hit kote in the correct timing

Second, the hitting timing is very important for degote. As I pointed out in the first session, you will be too late if you start to hit after recognizing an opponent's attack. The correct timing for degote in the moment the opponent's shinai is going up for hitting men. Therefore, you need to predict that the opponent hit men, don't start hitting after you notice the attack.

The timing is the most difficult part of degote and you need to work on the most. The first step to hit degote at the time is trying to find the correct timing many times. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. I recommend you starting to hit kote when you think the opponent hit men. It might be too fast in the beginning, but that is fine because you can get it step by step. Don't wait for the opponent's men attack.

3. Don't stop after hitting

You can miss hitting degote in practice at first, but you cannot do that in actual matches because you will give an opponent a chance after you miss. To avoid getting hit, you should go close to the opponent fast after you hit kote. If you come close to the opponent immidiately, you will be able to avoid getting hit even if you miss degote.

Kote is the closest hitting parts to you, so it is easy to hit kote. However, kote is a weak waza (technique) compared to men because men is a very fast and powerful waza. Therefore, once you miss degote when the opponent hit men, it is going to be a risky situation, so please be careful especially after hitting kote.

Thank you for reading this blog post! Degote is one of the useful technique in kendo matces, so practice many times and use degote if you have a chance. If you have any questions, please ask me. Also, you can let me know if you have any requests of the blog posts!

#剣道 #kendo #頑張れ剣道