The purpose of this study was to reveal whether the best male kendo players (experts) have an efficient movement pattern when striking with oji-waza (techniques utilizing the opponent’s strike to initiate one’s own attack) in the same way as shikake-waza (techniques attacking of one’s own accord).
University kendo players (22 males) participated in this study. Participants were classified into two groups (regular and sub-regular) according to their achievement in a team competition (dantaisen). In this study, kote-suriage-men, which is one of the oji-waza techniques utilized against kote, was evaluated. All striking movements were recorded with a digital video camera. To examine the body and shinai movements, we analyzed 14 kinematic parameters of upper limb, lower limb, shinai and 4 time phases.
The results in this study showed that there were significant differences between the two groups in 3 kinematic parameters. In addition, we classified the kinematic movements into two patterns, which are large and small movement patterns. When compared with the results in a previous study, those whose value was closer to the characteristics of male experts were scored black, and those that were not were scored white. There was a significant difference in the rate of black between the regular and sub-regular groups (63.1 ± 11.2% and 36.4 ± 10.6%, respectively).
The findings of this study indicate that the regular group of males had an efficient movement pattern when striking kote-suriage-men in oji-waza in the same way as shikake-waza.
