Low guard
Hadan-se (하단세) is the low guard of kumdo. It is a guard posture (gyeonumse) in which the sword tip is lowered to protect oneself and then turned into an attack as the opponent changes.
How to say it
- Korean
- 하단세hadanse
- Spanish
- Guardia baja
- English
- Low guard
- Japanese
- 下段げだんgedan
Hadan-se (하단세, "low guard") is one of the guard postures (겨눔세, gyeonumse) of kumdo, alongside the middle guard (중단세, jungdan-se) and the high guard (상단세, sangdan-se).
According to the Korea Kumdo Association (대한검도회), the practitioner lowers the sword tip, protects their own body, and turns to attack according to how the opponent changes.
- How it is taken: from the middle guard (jungdan-se), the sword tip is lowered below the opponent's knee, by about 3 to 6 cm according to the Association.
- Character: a Korean dictionary describes it as more defensive than the other guards. The practitioner watches the movements of the attacker and threatens the opponent's feet with the sword tip, and can attack at once if an opening appears.
- In practice: it appears in the grading rules of the Korea Keomdo Association (한국검도협회) among the postures for the 9th and 8th grades (급, geup). In the 대도 본 (daedo bon, long-sword form), the sixth set begins with lowering the sword tip into hadan-se.
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