In order to stay centred with the left hand during Kiri-kaeshi, you need to practise controlling the Shinai with your left hand. Consciously control it, especially with the wrist. In concrete terms, you can practise holding the Shinai with your left hand only and using your wrist to turn the shinai back and forth from side to side. A light shinai or, if you do not have a light shinai, an alternative such as a beer bottle will also work.
This was very nice, I have a Question: I tried all these techniques at the dojo today in shiai, I am quite tall (6ft 4 which is 194cm in most of the world) When going for a men strike from below 1 out of every 6 times that I tried men from bellow the shorter opponents cut a strong debana kote or simply did not raise their hands to protect kote at all, the rest of the times tried it I hit a pretty overwhelming men strike right after cutting into the center pressuring from bellow. but it was harder to execute this technique against a shorter opponent in a shiai. Any idea on how to pressure shorter opponents when using this technique? I find that their hands don't guard their own kote as often as players which is of similar height or near my own height. Is it just a case of my own pressure failing when the technique fail? I found it easier to get them to raise their hands if i went for a fake migi-men into men on the other side etc with strong seme once your footwork was on point. Got some good advice from our coaches (and an old English national team member gave me loads of advice on how to improve) but would love to hear your take on men from bellow when there is a height difference. Cheers
Sorry for the late reply. We don't have the experience of being as tall as you, so I don't know if this is an appropriate answer! However, I would imagine that for a tall person to hit Men from Below, it would require a large movement, which would easily create an opening for the opponent to attack. I think it would be good to select techniques suitable for taller people. For example, if it is a "supressing" action, such as in the case of Suppressing→Men, it is possible for a tall player to apply pressure while making a small movement.
The problem of tall people in kendo in size of our (I have 197 cm) hands and legs. Other kendoka can see every move, even if we believe that they are small. I'd like to advice you to learn your own footwork. When you doing seme-ashi, prevent your right leg from going forward more than 5-10 cm and do not move your shinai. Put your shinai down simultaneously with move you left foot (hiki-tsuke), and after that make a strike.
1. Direct Men 1:52 2. Men Feint -> Men 4:34 3. Supress -> Men 6:54 4. Turn -> Men 8:39 5. Men from below 10:54 6. Deflect -> Men 12:03 7. Kote -> Men 14:16
