Referee Seminar with Mike Davis sensei January 2009

Mike Davis sensei (nanadan kyoshi) made his way to Edinburgh again, this time
to teach refereeing. The seminar was attended by kendoka from Edinburgh,
Glasgow and St Andrews (Noemi, Joris, Andy and Michael). About half of the
group had never done any refereeing before and had to work very hard to
remember the etiquette, all commands and flag signals. The other half just
realised again how difficult it is not just to take an instant decision (‘One
flag moves, all flags move.’) but also to be able to explain to sensei in
detail on which grounds one had taken their decision to award a point or to
deny a point.

Referees judge other people’s kendo. That is the most basic way of looking at
it. But it is important to understand that fighting and refereeing are
connected. Referees are not an alien species, they are kendoka and they judge
by their own experience with and their knowledge of kendo. Ideally the referees
are on the same or a higher level of experience than the fighters of whom they
are in charge. When it comes to very high level bouts, this might not always be
the case but at the very least a referee must be able to see, hear and
understand the techniques used by the fighters. This shows us that refereeing
and practising kendo influence each other. The better your own kendo becomes,
the better you will be at refereeing. As a referee you will learn about kendo
which will improve your performance in jigeiko and shiai.

This is not the place to explain the verbal commands and flag signals used by
kendo referees, as these things can easily be looked up (you can refer to the
article on refereeing on our website). What new referees have to learn – and
most of us struggled with this - is to move on the match court (shiaijo) as a
team. This means you must be constantly aware not only of the fighters but also
of your fellow referees. You must be able to anticipate their movements and to
react instantly to their signals. The movement of the team should be smooth and
you should aim at maintaining a triangle at all times.

When it comes to judging yuko-datotsu (the validity of a strike), there are ten
points to bear in mind. All kendoka should know about them, because these ten
criteria tell you what good kendo is about.

There five basics which need to be applied in every match:
1. The strike makes correct contact on the correct target (men, sayumen, tsuki,
kote, do).
2. The strike is performed with the correct part of the shinai (monouchi).
3. The strike is performed with kikentai.
4. The fighter’s posture is straight.
5. The fighter displays zanshin (continuous awareness, readiness to strike
again).

Then there are five more criteria which come into consideration for dan-grades:
1. There must be an opportunity to strike.
2. The timing of the strike must be correct.
3. The cut must be performed with good tenouchi.
4. The hasuji (orientation of the blade, line of the strike) is correct for the
type of strike.
5. The fighter displays fighting spirit.

Michael Gratzke

StAKC dojo leader