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DTP: What & How

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WHAT:

Deliberate Targeted Practice: picking a specific skill and working it into your regular practice by mentally focusing on this skill until it is acquired.

HOW:

Below are example skills to focus on, but are not limited to the following:

  1.    sae/tenouchi – the last 20% of your swing when making a strike
  2.    fumikomi – the final action of the process in kendo footwork
  3.    swing – ensuring you have a switch point, achieving maximum velocity and acceleration 
  4.    seme/shibori – thrusting the shinai into the center and taking control
  5.    seme/footwork – using ashi seme to create an opening
  6.    seme/rhythm – using enzan no metsuke and recognizing when the opponent is open to take the center
  7.    choyaku suburi footwork – developing the correct footwork for doing choyaku suburi
  8.    sayumen suburi – ensuring your left hand stays centered and the shinai is striking at the correct angle of attack
  9.    uchima – determining your personal attacking/striking distance
  10.    kakari keiko – performing both as attacker and motodachi the correct way to enhance your jigeiko
  11.    kote uchi – refining to optimum efficiency how you strike the kote.
  12.    doh uchi  – refining your doh attack to where it is yukodatotsu
  13.    tsuki waza – refining to where you can do 1 or 2 handed tsuki and actually hit the target 

Creating an Improvement Plan

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A Quality Circle Approach to Improving Your Kendo

If your kendo has reached a plateau and you find you are not improving, then perhaps you need to do some analysis.  It is common practice in manufacturing to do process improvement or problem analysis by quality circles.  In this process you try to find the root cause of the problem and fix it.  This methodology helps you to find and correct fundamental problems that stop or restrict your progress.  This is a path to continued improvement in your kendo.  Remember you own it, not the Sensei, it is your kendo and only you can fix it.  When you run out of basics you no longer improve, and you plateau in your kendo development.

Identify the Weakness

Consider the following:

  1. Do a skill assessment to realize and identify where you have basic problems and deficiencies. 
  2. Identify from your skill assessment what your weakest skill is.
  3. Make an Ishikawa Fishbone chart with each bone describing some problem in the identified weakest skill.
  4. Write a problem statement from which to do root cause analysis.
  5. Using the root cause analysis ascertain what is the actual problem as you perceive it.

Generally you need to go down 7 levels in order to get to the true root cause of your problem.

Example of  Fishbone Diagram for Kendo

Focus Intention with each Practice

Once you have identified the root cause, then set out a plan on how to fix the problem. If you do not have enough base knowledge to do this, ask for help from someone that does.  Even if you think you have enough knowledge to tackle the problem get a second and third opinion.

Examples of Deliberate Targeted Practice

Often when you fix one problem, you will fix others by cause and effect.  A good plan and goal takes many practice hours and self discipline to work through.  Even if your progress is slow, it is progress. 

To change a habit it takes 100 reps of correction for 40 days straight.  

If you make a 1% improvement in 25 things it is a 25% improvement overall. Keep the big picture, set goals, and do deliberate targeted practice.  Make a training plan that works for you, remember “life happens” so be flexible.