Spochan: a sport it’s time to learn about

“Go on the counterattack, move your feet all the time! Go in with two, three,” the athlete shouted, encouraging her comrade at the Russian championship in… no, not soccer. But in sports chanbara. Or spochan.

Spochan is a Japanese fencing on non-traumatic “swords” filled with air, which originated in the 1970s. The sport is based on samurai duels. On March 25, not only teams from different cities of Russia, but also representatives of Belarus and Ukraine came to Moscow for the competition. Immediately after the performance we talked to Leonid Osokin – three-time European champion, multiple Russian champion and bronze medalist of the World Spochan Championship – and found out what this sport teaches and how it influences the formation of character.

Your own philosophy

– When and how did your history with spochan begin?
– It started exactly 11 years ago, give or take a week. I remember, my mom and I just went to the park, but it turned out to be a cunning plan of my parents. We spent a long time looking for something for me to do, and eventually my mom heard from a friend that her son was doing this sport – sport chanbara, spochan for short. It turns out that we are coming out of the park, and right next to the park is a school. We go into the school and there is a spochan practice. I started going there first, then I moved to another school, and so I keep going, I keep practicing.

– What advantages do you see in spochan compared to other martial arts?
– It is almost complete absence of injuries, that is, you can get an injury only if you stretch badly. Then sprains happen. If you stretch well, then injuries are minimized, due to the fact that the design of the sword is made in such a way that you can strike with full force and not feel pain and, therefore, not get injured. The pros of spochan is that everyone can find something different. For me, for my clubmates it is a professional sport, for children it is a game and just a good time, for adults it is a psychological release. It’s also fitness and a game element, because in addition to fights we have team battles. Well and a large number of competitions – 6-7 per year.

There are a huge number of weapon categories in our sport. From Tanto, i.e. “knife” – it’s about 40 cm, to Yari – it’s “spear”, it’s 1.9 meters. Long sword, short sword, two swords, axe, stick, pole – a huge number of categories in which people can find something interesting for themselves. At a competition, you compete in at least three categories. If something didn’t work out in the first one, you can go to the second one. If you fail in the second, you can go to the third. So you have three chances to achieve some result.

– Does Spochan have its own philosophy?
– Yes, it has existed since the very foundation of this sport. It’s honesty. You must be honest both to yourself and to your opponent. Why exactly honesty: in our sport people referee, and nobody can cancel the human factor. There are times when punches that are thrown by opponents may not be counted because of the angle of view or because the referee blinked, he was just tired. The rule of thumb with us is if you miss a punch, you have to raise your hand and admit it. I personally know a story when in the final of the World Championships – can you imagine the level – an athlete raised his hand and admitted that he had been hit. You feel better in front of yourself. I know from my own experience that when I used to cheat when I was a kid, it was very unpleasant afterwards. And honesty, in principle, one of the most important traits a person should have.

– Tell me from personal experience, what qualities develops spochan. It can be both physical and psychological aspects?
– Let’s start with the physical. This is martial arts, fencing, so the whole body works. Due to the load on all muscle groups during a fight, the physical condition of the whole body is trained and improved. Also honesty, will to win, desire to train no matter what – this has transformed into what I have in my character now, and I am madly grateful to my parents for giving me to this sport 11 years ago.

The price of the question

– What does the equipment consist of? How often do you need to change it?
– In principle, our uniforms are free. If we talk about training uniforms, you can come in whatever you like. The main thing is convenience At competitions, of course, each national team has a uniform style of clothing. The only element of protection in our sport is a mask. Because even though the design of the swords is made safe, if you fight without a mask, you can get hit in the nose, in the eyes, which is very dangerous. We have training swords and competition swords. If we talk about training swords, they are enough for a season, or a little less with intensive training. Children have enough for a year and a half or two years. Adults for a year. And professional weapons, that is, competitive weapons – again, how you will use them. You need to handle it carefully, not to hit the floor, because there is a chamber inside, which is inflated with air. It can burst. I can tell you from myself, the last sword I bought a year and a half ago, I think I’m going to change it soon, unfortunately. As much as I love it, the amount of competitions I’ve gone through with it…..

– Parents who give their children to the sections are also interested in the financial question. If we talk about the cost, how much does it cost per year for equipment?
– My mask has lived for 11 years and I’m not going to change it. It is very durable. Swords – a set costs about two thousand. They’re training swords. Competition swords are somewhere from 12,000. In the first year for a child from two to six thousand, depending on whether you buy a mask or not.

– Is the mask the most expensive part of the equipment?
– Depending on the manufacturer. There are Taiwanese masks, there are Japanese. They differ both visually and in feel. A Taiwanese mask costs about three or four thousand rubles, a Japanese one about six or seven thousand rubles. That is, compared to many other sports, it does not hit the wallet so hard.

– I know that you are already training and have tried yourself as a referee. If at all it is possible to compare these categories, what do you like more – to perform yourself, to train or to judge? How does it feel different?
– It is impossible to compare here, these three activities have different goals. In coaching I aim to share my experience. I try to give my students what I know as much as possible, because it is really nice when you can show and tell people something. As for refereeing, in a way it is a forced measure, because sometimes there are simply not enough referees. Unfortunately, our sport is not so developed in Russia yet. Sometimes I have to get up to judge, but it’s just a pleasure for me. I’ve been judging since I was probably 14 years old. As for competitions, again, depending on the tournament. If we are talking about Moscow Cup stages, such regional competitions, then in our club the philosophy is as follows: at competitions you should try to feel like at training, only in slightly nervous conditions. If you are able to do well at competitions what you do at training, it means that you have done a good job. If you can’t, you have to work, work, work. Competitions are a kind of training for us. As for refereeing, in a sense it is a forced measure, because there are simply not enough referees.

Unfortunately, our sport is not so developed in Russia yet. I have been judging for quite a long time. At the age of 14 I was already given to referee children. Slowly I started to move to the older subgroups. There are many aspects of judging that are not visible to the average spectator. Because of this you can even hear discontent and reproaches from parents or other athletes, but this is a normal situation for any sport. It is also interesting to see how referees work in different countries. Having been to many international competitions, I can say that our referees are among the best, maybe even the best in their field. As for the European and World Championships, we are already fighting in full force, and there is no talk about any experiments.

Spochan’s future

– Would you like spochan to be included in the list of Olympic sports? And what do you think about the chances that it will be included there soon?
– Of course I would like it, because it is my life sport. I do my best to develop it. We have quite an active team, we travel to Moscow and the regions with various master classes. If we talk about the development of the sport in Russia, at the 2014 Russian Championships there were about 60 people, and at the 2017 Championships there were more than 170 people. As for the Olympics, as you know, the next Olympics will be held in Tokyo in 2020. The leadership of our world federation has a contact with the Japanese Olympic Committee, and there have been attempts to present our sport as a demonstration sport from the host country. It happened in 2008 in Beijing. Then sports wushu was presented, if I am not mistaken.

In Japan, and in the world, we can’t compete with such clumps as karate and judo yet. But I can say that in a number of countries, such as Italy, France, Japan, the sport is already officially recognized. If we talk about the countries where the sport is practiced, there are more and more of them every year. I will only mention the European ones: Russia, Latvia and Estonia, Italy, France, Poland, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Switzerland. I’ll brag a little bit. At the last European Championships, we were the first in the team competition – that is, when the three best athletes from a country compete in each event. After us it was the Italians and the French.

– What are your plans for the future, what goals are you pursuing?
– To develop our sport as best, strongest, most effective as possible. The second thing is to start building our own club. So far it’s progressing quite slowly, but it’s only been two months. And the third thing is to do my best and prepare to the maximum for the next World Championships, which will be held in Tokyo in 2018. I am absolutely dissatisfied with my performance at the previous World Championships. These are my three plans for the next 2-3 years.

– What has the sport taught you?
– The sport is Japanese, accordingly, there are obligatory elements of etiquette. I think it somehow helped me to become more respectful to people. On the court, athletes have to respect each other. Yes, it is said that on the court we are one and off the court others, but I try both on the court and off the court to remain the person I am. In this regard, sport has given me a lot for the formation of my personality and for my communication with people, as I get acquainted, communicate with a huge number of people from different countries, so it is a different mentality, different language. It also helps.