Hansoku Ikkai?

[Dahlia]

Hi everyone,

I've got a new question crying out loud for a response... If during a shiai one of the opponents touchs the bamboo part of his shinai, is it a hansoku? There are people, who say it is and there are some, who say it's not. I'd kinda like to know it before my next tournament.

If one of the opponents lets his shinai fall on the ground it's not a hansoku, is it? (That I was told once as well...)

[gendzwil]

If you touch your shinai with your hand, like to adjust the nakajime, it's hansoku. If you need to fix your equipment in any way, raise your hand. The shimpan will halt the match. You then need to explain or point to the problem, and he will either let you fix it or get a new shinai or whatever.

If you drop your shinai, your opponent gets one free shot at you, but he has to be quick (the judges must see that he immediately seized the opportunity). If he gets a point from your mistake, it's not a penalty (you've been sufficiently penalised by losing the point), otherwise it's a penalty for you. If you fall down, similarily he gets one free shot but even if he misses it's no penalty on you unless you fall out of bounds.

The most common penalty is of course out of bounds (jogai). It is 99.99% of the time called on the person who went out, even though technically it can be called on the other person if it is A) clear that he shoved you with the intention of causing you to go out and not as part of an attack and B) clear that you were ready for such an attempt and resisted. ie if you're off balance from a legitimate attack and he gives you another shot and you go out, still your fault. It's jogai if any part of your body touches the ground completely past the line, ie if your foot is half on the line, no jogai. Also if your shinai touches the ground outside of the line, as in using it to stop yourself from falling out, it's jogai.

If you go out of bounds after scoring a point, it's no penalty. But you'd better be sure, because if you miss and let your momentum carry you out, it's a penalty. Losing by jogai sucks, but it's fairly common. Also remember that penalties carry over into ensho. So if you've got one penalty and now it's sudden death, look for your opponent to start getting very pushy because one penalty for you wins the match for him. Be more careful than ever about where you are in the ring.

You can also get penalties for rough play. Arguing with the judges is immediate disqualification. Illegal equipment (like a weighted shinai or something) is immediate disqualification for you and everybody from your dojo. There's a few other cases too but I forget what they are.

[Enfield]

Besides the things which Neil mentioned, other things that get hansoku are:

- covering yourself up to avoid being hit after falling.
- tripping or foot sweeping.
- grabbing the opponent.
- resting your shinai on the opponent's shoulder.
- holding or trapping the opponent's shinai under your arm.
- hooking in tsubazeriai.
- stalling, particularly in tsubazeriai.
- being coached during the match.

Of those, I've only seen stalling and putting the shinai on someone's shoulder actually occur during a match, though I havn't been to that many taikai. The stalling got hansoku, and the shinai on the shoulder got a warning (it was in a 0-4 kyu match).

There are probably a few others that I'm not thinking of.

[gendzwil]

Originally posted by Enfield
Besides the things which Neil mentioned, other things that get hansoku are:
- covering yourself up to avoid being hit after falling.
Really? I've never seen this called. In fact, a few years ago at Canadian nationals I saw a case where the judges for some reason didn't call yame right away, and the guy on the floor was rolling and covering all over the place. Very entertaining.
- tripping or foot sweeping.
Probably rough play but if it was obvious enough it might be a match or tournament DQ.
- grabbing the opponent.
I've received direct advice to grab the opponent after dropping the shinai to avoid losing a point. Maybe you're already getting hansoku for dropping the shinai and they won't give you two. I think if you grab the opponent during play without losing your shinai it's a penalty.
- resting your shinai on the opponent's shoulder.
This is often done to get an advantage in tsuba-zeriai, you lay the shinai on the shoulder and shove sideways on his neck. It's also a penalty if you shove your opponent with the tip, as is often done if you stop him on the mune (the upper part of the doh).
- holding or trapping the opponent's shinai under your arm.
- hooking in tsubazeriai.
Yup, by hooking he means the common practice of trying to strip the opponent's shinai from his hands using the end of the tsuka.
- stalling, particularly in tsubazeriai.
Stalling in tsubazeriai is almost always called wakari now (seperate on the spot and continue, no time stoppage) although if it's abused a penalty can be called. In that case I think the penalty would be more for inactivity/non-aggression.
- being coached during the match.
Hadn't heard of this one but I suppose so. You can also get penalized for talking during the match and if your talking degenerates into verbal abuse of opponent or officials, it's tournament DQ for you.

[Enfield]

Originally posted by me
Originally posted by gendzwil- covering yourself up to avoid being hit after falling.
Really? I've never seen this called. In fact, a few years ago at Canadian nationals I saw a case where the judges for some reason didn't call yame right away, and the guy on the floor was rolling and covering all over the place. Very entertaining.

At our dojo's summer gasshuku, we had a little taikai, then the visiting sensei (several nandan kyoshi) went over the taikai and any questions we had. Apparantly, it's okay to try to avoid being hit, but you can't "play the points." E.g. no covering your men with your arm to thwart the opponent hitting a valid target. I think the reasoning behind it is similar to that that makes the mengane a valid target when someone tips their head back to make you hit the mengane.

- grabbing the opponent.
I've received direct advice to grab the opponent after dropping the shinai to avoid losing a point. Maybe you're already getting hansoku for dropping the shinai and they won't give you two. I think if you grab the opponent during play without losing your shinai it's a penalty.

I've been giving the same advice for when you drop your shinai. I think it's one of those "what else are you going to do?" things.

- stalling, particularly in tsubazeriai.
Stalling in tsubazeriai is almost always called wakari now (seperate on the spot and continue, no time stoppage) although if it's abused a penalty can be called. In that case I think the penalty would be more for inactivity/non-aggression.

Right. Just being in tsubazeriai for a long time isn't automatically hansoku, but you have to be trying to attack. You can't simply try to stay in tsubazeriai, knowing that the shimpan will eventually call wakare to get you back to issoku-itto-no-ma. This seems to be a recent development.

[Chidokan]

Fairly mild stuff you get disqualified for now. In modern kendo you dont get to make your opponent lose by strangling him unconcious with his own do whilst sitting on his head, tossing him over your head with your shinai while kneeling down, grappling until someone loses their men etc. Always someone to take the fun out of it isnt there?;)

Tim Hamilton

[Dahlia]

Originally posted by gendzwil
Hadn't heard of this one but I suppose so. You can also get penalized for talking during the match and if your talking degenerates into verbal abuse of opponent or officials, it's tournament DQ for you.

The most hillarious thing was an opponent missing a do (it was about knee height and hell, it HURT!) and trying to apologize during the match... He got hansoku and I decided to train to react immediately when someone misses a do or a kote and to strike during the few seconds he's stupified :D

For the rest of it... Seems obvious but how should you know for sure, if nobody tells you?! Thank you very much :)