In Japan, Kobo is not a practice method – they are a testing requirement. Nobody here practices kobo with the intention of improving their skills or building their technical base for jissen. Instead, most students spend a portion of the two or three practices preceding their exam to memorize the required kobo and perform it well enough to pass. What a waste.
Kobo means “offense and defense,” and it can be a good way to train attacking and defending in jissen. It can also be used as a kind of mental conditioning to rewire a few of the less productive habits some students tend to develop in jissen.
