“Just Go Men”
“Just go men.”
“But when somebody comes kote I get hit!”
“Just go men.”
“Then they go do!”
“Just go men.”
For some time while learning this was the best (and seemingly only) advice I received when asking questions about what to do during keiko or in a shiai. “Just go men.”
So I did just that. Go men over and over and over. Almost to the point of boredom. Naturally I threw in a few other techniques for fun, but mostly just men.
The repetition is good if tedious. It trains the muscles and sharpens the mind. And I know that. But for a long time it seemed to me that there was obviously some “trick” to parrying an opponent. A fixed counter-move that perfectly offsets the opponents position.
It turns out that there are such pairs of move/counter-move but I’m realizing that they’re less important than I would have thought back when I began my kendo journey. And to think that’s what others have been telling me from the start! Who’d have thunk? 
As an example I recall the last local shiai when I was watching the 4-dan+ matches. The top performers had no tricks. No stunts. No “parry-parry-thrust.” Just one solid men strike that seemed to move in slow motion from watching on the sideline and which I’m sure like lightening to the opponent.
In one such match I witnessed a chudan-stance user face off with a jodan user. “At last,” I thought, “I’ll be able to witness how high-ranking kendoka deals with jodan!” To my amazement it was *exactly the same* as how he dealt with every other opponent – “straight men.” And it worked beautifully! Two strikes later the chudan kendoka won.
In my own matches I have also found better success when I focus mostly on keeping center, straight and going men. In one such instance I had an opponent try to ‘fake’ me by dropping his shinai and without a thought I went men (and it landed nicely). It was a fascinating experience and one that I haven’t had in a long time – automatically reacting without thinking. I credit my teachers for patiently pushing “just go men” on me constantly over the last couple years.
These days I try to not underestimate the value of a good men strike. I’m trying to learn good control of maai and to control my opponent but it’s become obvious to me at this point that without a solid men strike everything else is just for show.
