This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

We had two new people starting today so that was interesting. Also two other students that are around my experience (but can’t always come to class for one reason or another) were there so there was quite a few people ‘below’ and around my level. Throughout the class I was impressed by how many different roles I get to play and how thorough Iaido and Jodo are at dealing with basically all the areas of my life that I’m working on.

I should touch a little more on how Iaido and Jodo combined teach me(give me practice) with things I’m working on in my life. Confidence is a first rather obvious one. Confidence shows in your techniques but it is more important when it comes to teaching others. I was working with a partner who is not as familiar with the first couple of Jodo katas today so it was necessary to guide them through it. For me this is a good chance to practice speaking loud enough (something that is an issue at times) and to really project myself when demonstrating techniques. You also need courage, courage to continue to reinforce training points and courage to trust your opponent to strike you correctly without injuring you (Particularly in Jodo).

Then there is the opposite of the confidence, the beginner’s mind if you like. Necessary nearly all the time, including techniques you’ve done over many times. There isn’t a technique that I don’t get some correction or advice on now and again and it has been 5 months since I started. Judging by how all the other iaidoka (fits better than calling them students) are treated I expect the correcting will continue for many more years. Also you need to learn a bit of compassion when it comes to teaching others. The techniques we learn feel far from natural and at times they are very weird contortions of the body. You have to understand this (which you learn first hand from your own experience) and give the learning iaidoka all the patience and compassion you can. Without the support of senior students, being a beginner can be terribly repetitive and frustrating.

Jodo

Sensei was off training the two newcomers for class so we went through all the basic techniques to begin with and then on to kata. I was paired up with the same jodoka as last week so we picked up where we left off and continued teaching me kata number 3. To begin with this involved a lot of poking me to fix up my posture (useful torture). In the kata a lot of the motions require a lot more speed than I am used to and consequently I need to practice some of the moves in this way. Also having to actually push someone holding a sword requires a lot more strength than when we are training solo and so that takes a bit of effort to. Thankfully I had memorized all the points that were made out to me last time so a few of my moves had improved and we moved on to other areas.

Of particular note was that they wanted me to work on my Kiai. It seems that at the moment it is more of a mental thing for me where when I strike I open my mouth and say it. I’m told that it should be more of a thing were as you strike, you force the air out and as that happens make a sound. Which brings the focus much more on the technique over the sound. Something to look into next week anyway.

Iaido

Today I learnt how bad distractions can affect your techniques. As the new people were being taught separately occasionally a comment caught my ear and distracted me. I noticed that whenever this happened even though it was only for a split second it was enough to destroy the rest of a technique. Just a little bump in a sword movement destroys its journey and it is not really recoverable. All this shatters the mental concentration, I have to be careful to just focus on correcting mistakes, not being annoyed at myself for getting distracted.

Class was pretty regular, kata practice was focused on kata 1,2 and 3 for myself and those around me. A couple of key things were to

• Keep head and hand/sword movements in sync
• Have the sword further in towards my body so that my right hand can come straight up to grasp it rather than coming around
• On kata 2, don’t really draw until you are turning
• On kata 3, the block is done with the strong reverse part of the blade and it needs to be a very firm push so as to divert the path of the blade

On a final note I’m still working on getting an Iaito and uniform, need to talk to sensei again next week.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I was early this week as opposed to a little late last week and the hall happened to be open (cleaning from yesterdays opening ceremony). So I went in and started practicing my cuts. Surprising how much difficulty the standard vertical cut still causes. Last week I caught myself in the mirror and noticed that my blade isn’t coming directly over my head, rather it was angled off to the right. So I was working on this, slowly bringing it up above my head (much like how I used to practice guitar in slow-motion) and then also keeping the strike straight as it comes back down. It is quite difficult to get the hands to move independent (in different directions/motions) yet still work together and time themselves with the shoulder/arm movements. I probably cut like this for 15 minutes.

At one stage 2 of the cleaners came in impressed by what I was I doing (It’s amazing how people are fascinated when they see someone a) concentrating and b) holding a sword). I told them they were welcome to come watch us when we train after they had finished their cleaning work but they said they were too busy having to go clean other halls and the like. After a bit more everyone had arrived and we began the class.

Jodo

This week I hadn’t done any Jo practice (using the excuse that it has been cold, raining and I had exams) so my memory and technique was a bit shoddy. Then it didn’t help that the person who was leading this week was rushing things a bit. In the middle we had an interesting discussion about kuritskae(no idea how to spell it :)) in regards to feet and hip position. Essentially you are side on to your sword wielding opponent (who is probably at 45 degrees) and you have your jo over your head pressing up on the sword handle. Then what is required is to break the opponents balance and step in towards him, which swings him around and traps the sword down by the legs. The debate was about where the hara (body center) should be facing. It seemed strange to one student that it would be facing at 90 degrees to the direction of movement but others argued that it was necessary to be that way because the first movement required (which is the strongest movement) is pushing out in the direction of the hara. We concluded that we’d ask one of the japanese sensei next time they come down.

Later on we were practicing kuritskae in partner form. Which led me to conclude that I’m still far to slow on changing from the ready position to the block/catch position. Beyond that my partner decided that every time that I didn’t do the technique right he would show me how the sword would escape and proceed to cut. So for the next 5 minutes I was cut to pieces many times while we worked on various areas of the technique. In particular, on the advance I needed to turn myself inwards a little in order to allow my body a natural turn which enables me to lock the sword against the opponent. Apart from dying so much it was fun.

Finally we finished up with some paired kata, once again my partner was very demanding on perfection due to the fact that the opponent has a sword, any wrong moves result in essential death. It was good learning time and I picked up quite a few points that I have never seen before. I started learning kata 3 which at the moment seems quite convoluted but we ran out of time to finish it.

Iaido

I was using the preferred Iaito this week, it is a little short I think but I like the design of the tsuka (hand guard). It is essentially a bird with it’s wings spread right around representing air/wind which I like the idea of.

Most of training was the regular techniques with the finer points raised here or there about different angles of the saya(sheath) as you draw the sword and the like. All interjected with Sensei’s casual humor. We had two spectators come to see what it was all about and listening to him talk to them almost made me burst out laughing a number of times.

Near the end it was time for free practice but sensei got one of the senior students to show me kata 5 which apparently is notorious for it’s difficult draw, and rightly so. On this one, while walking forward it is necessary to flip the sword over (180 degrees) and then draw it out forwards cutting upwards through your opponent. Then in the continuation of the motion, the sword at the peak of it’s ascent turns around with your wrist, the other hand joins with it and you cut back down along the same line.

The draw is terribly difficult because you need to turn the sword over but after removing the sword your saya hand/wrist still needs to be in a good position in order to do sayabiki(removing of the sheath) behind you to get the sword actually out of the saya. All of this is done in one step. It seems something very useful  to do was to turn the sword and bring it 9/10 of the way out by the time your right foot has come to the same level as your left foot. Then it is easier to do the rest and get it out nicely.

This one is going to take quite a while to get good timing on. Atleast it is not as painful as sitting in tatehiza ;).

On a whole I would have to say I am very grateful to all the people in class as they are always very patient and take the time with you to correct your continual errors. It is very admirable of them and also shows their respect/dedication to Sensei as they are teaching me on his behalf. This all comes back to the fact that Iaido(and Jodo) teaches you to respect both past teachers, current teachers and all those who have gone before. This comes through in a number of ways but none more prominent than in the opening and closing ceremonies of Iaido.

At the end of each class, you always walk backwards away from the front, then bow to the most senior(sensei), then bow to everyone who has taught you something during the class in order of descending rank/experience. Apparently this is really big in japan and can result in lots of bowing but in our dojo it is not so big apart from always bowing to sensei at the end and then anyone who gave prominent teaching.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

We didn’t have Jodo this week and sensei had to leave half way through to have a look at a house but during the time he was there he sure did have a word to us. We spent probably 15 minutes going up and down the hall practicing proper footwork and insuring that we have parallel feet (pointing forwards). Making sure we didn’t bob up and down as we moved. Then he was all over our cutting technique, mine in particular had some issues. For the time being I have to focus on always holding my hands very high overhead when doing vertical cuts and keeping my elbows in. Looking in the mirror I noticed that the sword tip is also going a little over to the left when I raise it up.

So as you can see, it was a brutal session of hard facts. Yet sensei still managed to inject at an appropriate time why he was correcting all these little things and be humorous about it. Which is why he is so great. He even went as far as saying that he thinks in general we have relatively good technique (which I couldn’t really allow to generalise too much to me seems I’m the newest student). But one thing he pointed out is that we all need to pay attention to the small details that he repeatedly points out to us every week. Because without working tirelessly on those details (cutting out, keeping parallel feet etc.) we cannot move on to the more advanced areas.

After sensei left we were to do free practice with the senior students guiding us. So I went through the kata that I know trying to fix things I know have issues. In number 3 I know that after I reach over my head with the block I tend to swing to low and step to early. With all my kata I don’t seem to step far enough back. This results in my legs not being at right angles when I go to kneel while sheathing the blade.

When I was practicing number 6 (involves a vertical draw straight up and over) I did a terrible draw. When you draw to early you can hear the sword scrape against the scabbard as you bring it out. Even though it was probably only a matter of drawing it about an inch to early the sound is easily noticeable. One of the senior students was quick to remind me of this and give me some pointers on the rest of the kata. I good draw is very quiet, achieving it’s purpose without notice.

It’s funny how much harmony(of all aspects) and perfection is desired in the katas. It’s a very nice goal.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Had quite a few people there today, a group that occasionally comes down from shepperton(I think) was there to get some guidance from Sensei.

Jodo

Not a lot to say on the jodo front. Biggest point was to keep your center moving in a flat plane, no bobbing during the technique. I was actually doing fairly well with this. Most other points were small issues of angles of the jo, elbows and wrists (oh and feet offcourse). Every week in Iai and Jo people are reminded to keep their techniques light. The point being firstly that it’s a lot harder to pick the problems in a technique if it is always being flown through at full speed. Secondly it is a lot harder for yourself to notice issues and near impossible to make changes to your technique unless you work slow. Personally I prefer to do most of my practice in a rather slow fashion, firstly because there are some many things to check at each stage and secondly because it helps me become smooth and fluent with the techniques. So then when I just let go I have a much greater chance of gliding through it all which I really enjoy. Which reminds me, one thing I can’t seem to get is how people manage to get so much forward travel on their slides (during a technique). My feet almost always catch on the floor so if I was to go for the travel I would surely trip onto my face :D.

Iaido

Iai was rather quiet for some time. I was using a different Iaito this time around. Whenever I go from using a bokken to an Iaito the difference in weight kills me. My horizontal cuts are using destroyed for awhile and I have to be quite careful with my elbows so as not to strain them on any swings.

The most interesting part of the class was when sensei after correcting some issues I had with kata 3 showed me kata 4. Which is the first kata that involves sitting in Tatehiza. I have to say that it is mighty uncomfortable and verging on painful. It is going to take quite a bit of practice to first get it right and then to try and do it in a balanced and composed fashion. I’m not going to try to explain it now, I’ll wait till I’m more confident that I have it right.

This kata is rather neat in that it has two new moves in it. First move is to move the sword (while still in the saya) and strike the seated opponent in the sternum. Then drawing the sword by taking the saya off with the left hand you do a horizontal stab past your body at a person behind you. I was reminded a few times to make sure I turn myself really side on and pull the left hand back on the saya. Otherwise it is relatively easy to stab the sword through your upper arm. The stab is done very close to your body because it keeps you centered where you can get power into the stab and secondly because the opponent is directly behind you nothing else will do.

To finish the kata it is just a matter of turning back to the front person and finishing them, chiburi and then noto. The extra note on noto is that as you bring the tsuba(handle) back and it reaches your knee you bring your right leg back into the position similar to the start in tatehiza. Then you finish by standing up.

Unrelated to the kata is to make sure you cut your toenails (fingernails to, but toenails in particular). In Iai a lot of katas start with the iaidoka (person doing Iaido) in a kneeling position where the feet are top-side down (like you would sit on your heels with the toes flat). Then as you rise to strike, the feet have to come up with the toes under so that you have some power to push off. If you mistime this or overstretch it is very likely that you will bend the nails on your toes (big toe in particular if you have the proper footwork with parallel feet).

Finally I asked sensei about getting an Iaito and Gi(uniform) and we will look into it next week. The Iaito is likely to cost ~$500 if I get it semi-locally or if I go through sensei’s preferred supplier from Japan ~$900-$1000. We will see which way we go but I have some money around from years of work so it wouldn’t surprise me if I went for the slightly more expensive ones. But that is a story for another time.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Well this was mighty interesting particularly on the Iaido side of things but jumping straight in.

Jodo

A lot of my techniques were picked to pieces today. Hickiotoshi in particular has a lot of work to be done and this is only concerning the movements not relating to the adjustments made when striking the sword. For a lot of my techniques I need a deeper stance. I don’t have trouble using a deeper stance but often when I strike forward with a technique I don’t move the front foot far enough forward (and I bring the back foot forward) which forces me into a shallow stance. I’d love to be able to just glide across the floor as some do but my feet often seem to catch on the floor. Maybe I need to concentrate on moving more from the center of my body (I’ve been reading a fair bit on the hara and related ki topics).

My techniques where you catch a swordsmans’ wrists with the jo near eye height (I’ve forgotten the name) were not too bad. I just need to always remember to move the jo before I move. For Taitari(I think that is it), when throwing the sword away the left hand pulls down a little breaking the opponents center before you start spinning the jo around. The same goes for all of these techniques, you break the opponents center before you move. Otherwise chances are you will not be able to move the opponent and/or your own center will be broken.

Also with the techniques like this with the body on a 45 degree angle, I need to remember to push off with the ball (closer to toes) of my back foot to help keep my feet parallel. In addition I think I need to be a lot lighter on my feet with these techniques as I tend to drag the back foot as it follows which causes a lot of stress on one of the tendons near my ankle.

Finally I thought I did kata 1 fairly well on the jo side :).

Iaido

Sensei had me using an Iaito again today so it is something serious. I was surprised how heavy it was and the weight caused some issues for my noto. On that, it is so much easier to do sayabiki(moving of the saya) with an iaito saya. Bokken saya (atleast the one I use always gets the sageo(rope) holder caught in my obi (belt).

Once again we were all brutally murdered(not so violently) for cutting too low and not cutting out far enough. So then we did a practice drill where everyone had bokken. One would hold out the bokken horizontally at head height and then the other would strike out at it. An interesting exercise, anyway I just need to keep practicing cutting out when I strike at home, also remembering to hold the katana high above my head (ie. not get lazy when my arms are tired).

I think my drawing cuts were a bit better today (probably thanks to the extra practice I did this week). They felt like they were coming out of the saya much more straight. Also my sliding forward on one knee was rather nice. When moving backwards before doing noto(put sword away) I need to make sure I’m going into a deep enough stance and not leaning backwards. When I go down to kneel the legs need to be parallel and this can only be achieved with the right depth of stance.

The coolest thing happened when I was practicing kata number 6 for the 7th or 8th time. Essentially my mind was locked down, it felt like I was outside of it and I could reach up and tap it inside some sort of box. So the mind was shutdown from its thinking and analysing and then I could feel a little like twirl of energy in my lower spine like fire rising in a whirling wind. So for the next few kata techniques I pushed more with this center sort of energy to do my techniques and low and behold everything I did was much more fluid. My stance deepened and I sunk lower into it. Relaxing more my noto felt pretty awesome as I pushed the sword out in front of me and drew it back. None of my technique was perfect but I was much more relaxed and everything flowed more. And it felt really cool :D. Shame it took 3 hours of practicing to get there.

Next week I will inquire about uniform and an Iaito, which will probably arrive in who knows how many months.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

This week was the special photo session week. Sorry I’ve been watching to much ‘Bleach’ (Shinigami Cup Golden). Anyway on to the story, pay particular attention to when I get to use an Iaito(Blunt replica of a real sword).

Jodo

Again with the hitting the sword troubles! So difficult so difficult. Beyond my incorrect angles, footwork, timing, movement of center and generally everything with my technique the key issue that was pointed out to me was that I was trying to hit the sword.

The pain, I’ve been told this over and over again and even at the time I was trying to focus on my opponent but evidently I was deceiving myself. When I visualise the practice session in my head I can see the split second where my mind changes target. Then offcourse this change of focus leads me to do all sorts of things wrong.

How am I supposed to execute a technique designed to hit the sword without trying to hit the sword? It’s relatively easy to think of an answer but thinking doesn’t change who you are. So when you go to do the technique all the thinking does nothing. Ideally what I need to do is have my head explode so it doesn’t interfere (and consequently enter the state of Ye Olde No Mind).

It’s interesting that in many of the ’samurai’ anime and movies one of the events that occurs to the main character (or that is mentioned of weaker characters) is that their attacks lack any intention or the wrong intention. Surprisingly it is the same in Iaido and Jodo. Last week I was afraid of hitting/hurting the girl I was practicing with (which was enhanced by the fact that she was using a bokken without a hand guard(tsuba)). While in this state I had no chance of executing even half-decent strikes. It was only after confronting myself with the issue and my partners persistence to not be concerned that my technique showed any sign of improving. It is the simple fact that unless you can fuse body and mind your techniques suffer.

For those interested read the last chapter(one-page) ‘Book of the Void’ of Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings.

Coming back to my practice, my issues are as much training my mind as training my body. Doing it is very different to reading about it. Living the practice is another entirely different experience.

Iaido

Iaido started off most unusually with sensei telling me to use an Iaito(Blunt replica) for training. I have been trying to figure out why but can only guess. One thought is that it was because the photographer was going to be around but this doesn’t make sense as another junior student who has been there longer than I (but I seem to be leaping ahead of him in technique) wasn’t instructed the same. I can only guess that he wanted me to feel how it is to use a ‘real’ sword, maybe because I’m showing a lot of desire and commitment. The only other comment on the subject was during group noto practice he asked ‘How does it feel to use a real sword?’. At the time I was really trying to focus on my technique for putting the sword back in the sheath as I was concerned I could easily stab it though my left hand so all I could manage was a slow nod. I mentioned that I was afraid that I would stab it through my hand and he replied with something like ‘You don’t have to worry it has a blunt edge, although the end is rather pointy’ which is hardly consoling but made me smile nonetheless.

The reason I was concerned about sticking it through my hand is that when practicing with a bokken at times I’ve tried to put the saya on too early which makes the tip push into your hand between the thumb and palm. The first time trying to put away the Iaito I did it real slow and careful. When the tip was crossing the hand I could feel it scratching the skin, hence the concern if I mucked up. Many times after practicing with a bokken I have had scratch marks on that part of my hand. Yet for some reason after todays practice I didn’t have any. I think it has something with the fact that I was concentrating so hard on doing it right that I changed my technique such that I focused on the feel of the sword across my hand rather than relying on the feel of the tip no longer pressing on my hand as it passes by. Something changed but I can’t remember what. I’ll probably remember when I go to practice noto again during the week.

It was funny, I was practicing the day before and I thought my noto was absolutely terrible. But by the end of todays practice I was heaps happier. Probably to do with my focus shifting from being frustrated, to being concentrated.

Something else I noticed about using a Iaito was that using a sword doesn’t instantly change you into some sort of incredible being capable of incredible samurai feats :). While an obvious point, the subtle point comes from trying to use it. You come to see where the difference is. Ugly technique feels really ugly. But when you get the flow right it is easy to understand the concept of the sword being merely and extension of the body. In these moments you can feel how easy it is to wield a sword and the feeling is so connected that you don’t make the distinction between sword and yourself. Naturally this has a rather mind exploding sensation to it leaving you in an empty space. Currently in Iaido I don’t have as much of an issue with my mind as I do in Jodo.

In Iaido I was more or less left to myself to practice (in terms of personal guidance). Which just means that everything terrible that I did I knew was terrible (And boy did I do the occasional terrible thing :)).

Till next week.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I wasn’t as healthy as I thought I was(I didn’t realise how little I improved over night until I arrived at class) but anyway I went to class today. It was quite a full on class, as usual I was wasted by the end of it and was pouring sweat during it. The one thing that came out of today was that once again, I still suck at everything!

Jodo

I’m happy that I know all 12 of the basics techniques, atleast by motion but not by name. But then again there is a wealth of points where I do things incorrectly. I enjoy particularly some of the slightly more intricate techniques but offcourse these are more difficult to do right and nigh on impossible to use in their application of actual hitting the sword down with the staff. Most of my time was spent trying to figure out how to hit the sword correctly.

I should clarify that when I say hit, it’s more like a throw and generally works better than if you were just to hit the sword down. So when you swing down quite a lot happens which I’ll describe in slow motion.

First the jo(staff) comes into contact with the back of the sword and to one side. It’s important to have your body weight centered and low. If you are off balance you have no chance of hitting it right and may as well die. If you don’t have a low center of gravity set up then it is difficult to get the power to push through the sword.

When the jo comes into contact with the sword it has a kinda of sticky feeling. What you want to happen is to have the jo slide along the sword and then fling it away. If you were to just to hit it with a ‘clanging’ sort of feel the sword would only be moved a little offline. This is the same principle that applies to throwing stones. Due to the way you move your arm you can fling a rock much further than if you were trying to punch it.

With this sticky feeling the motion of the jo slides along the top and side of the sword as you continue your strike. The jo is quite a heavy weapon so most of the move comes from it’s own weight and you only need to apply directional force to guide it where to go and oppose the swordsman own resistance.

You build up the speed that the sword moves as you push it down and around. The sword generally goes down and slightly sideways to end up slamming into the opponents leg with the tip pointing behind them. We don’t want to hit the sword sideways as this just results in the swordsman being in a position to do a horizontal cut.

While some of the directional control comes from the angle you move the jo at, sometimes the critical factor is how you rotate your hips as you strike. This often provides the small amount of sideways movement required to throw the sword freeing up the rest of your upper body to push the sword.

It’s a shame it’s hard to know if you are doing it right without having someone patiently sticking a sword an inch away from your face waiting for you to move and strike.

It’s probably worth me making a bit list of techniques and all the pointers that I get so I can have them  somewhere to refer to when I forget.

Iaido

Where do I start? So much was wrong and I didn’t even try to do the 2 new katas I’m learning. The class as a whole spent something like 30-45 mins just doing chiburi(shaking off of blood) and noto (sheathing the sword) practice.

Now with noto I have to make sure that I keep the saya(sheath) mouth very close to my body. Apparently my little finger should always be touching me. This does seem to help in getting the sword back in the saya. The other thing I have to do is keep my index and thumb touching in front of the saya mouth (next to the sliding blade unprotected by the saya). I was tending to open my index and thumb to let the sword easily pass through (the blade slides along the knuckle and first joint when being sheathed) but I’m not supposed to evidently (It does look strange I agree).

The thing is it is so dangerous. It puts the skin of your hand within probably 5-10 mm of the cutting edge when you sheath it. I should also mention that at the same time as sheathing the blade you are doing a 90 degree rotation of the blade and moving the saya away from your body towards the sword. Offcourse all without looking at the sword at all (after all, what if your enemy comes back to life, watch him!!!).

This is alright for me as I’m only using a bokken but for people with skinken(sharp swords) this is scary at times. Particularly when demonstrating the correct way to do certain things. You can see how close the hand is to the blade and yet they seem to do things so casually. One person in particular in demonstrating a certain fault pinches the sword blade in one hand between his index and thumb approaching it from the sharp side, then proceeding to draw the blade the rest of the way out of the saya. Certainly requires a lot of confidence.

Anyway my cold was hampering my ability to really get into the katas. Looking forward to the holidays when I can get some serious practice time. Might need to find some more carpet so I can practice with some more space outside (you can’t slide or kneel on concrete).

There are just so many things that I just need to practice 10000 or so times to get any sort of basic fluency with.

It’s such a beautiful art, just so darn hard. I was talking to one of the older students (probably getting on 50 or 70 (I guess)) who is going for a grading soon and he was telling me how he has so much that he has to correct from todays class. Guess it never ends.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Unfortunately I’ve fallen sick again with a cold. which sucks. If it wasn’t likely to be contagious I’d be out there carving it up. Was really looking forward to Iaido, wanted to see what aspects of kata 2 and 3 I’ve forgotten. Always so much to learn when I go to class which is really good. Anyway I went outside and practiced Jodo for 30 minutes at full pace. I figured it would probably make me feel a bit better as it gets me breathing and the blood and muscles flowing. With a bit of luck it will reduce the duration of the cold. It always feels good waving the stick around in the way jodo teaches.

I better be healthy by next week, missing 2 weeks in a row would really not be cool.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

So there it is, I’ve hit the big 3 months and boy, do I know nothing :). No wonder it takes people decades to become good. Fair enough I’m lucky if I get 1-2 unsupervised practice sessions outside of class but just the same, everything I do is still so far from the others I see around me. So many of my movements are awkward and as my teachers will tell me, there is no such thing as a natural Iai student. Nevertheless, I still think it’s all awesome even if it is probably the most difficult thing I have ever attempted.

Jodo

Sensei was over in japan for one reason or another (and I hear he received a shinken(sharp japanese sword) and as such we had another sensei come to lead jodo today. The big focus for all of us and particularly me was strikes that hit down on the sword. When learning new techniques you really have to pay attention to everything you do as almost everything is unnatural. Also you can get your muscles and tendons in all sorts of trouble. With the technique I was working on today there came a time where I was getting pins and needles in my hand which I really don’t understand and is a little concerning.

Back to hitting down the sword with the jo, how could this be so hard! First I keep missing the sword with my strike, then after we correct my feet posture and ensure that I twist and sink as I strike I start hitting it. But now I’m hitting it away to the side rather than down. So then I have to focus on bringing the jo in a very vertical line and leaving my twist till late (this is mainly in hickiotoshi for those interested). With the jo so straight you only have a very small margin in which you have to line up in order to hit the jo. As the jo is on a small angle you get a chance but how these guys hit it all the time in kata’s is beyond me. One of the students recommended that I try to aim for the temple of my opponents head when striking, then because of the distance between us the strike will fall short and consequently hit the sword down. Either way I have been told many times to always look at your opponent and never at the sword. I am very grateful for the patience the other people show me.

Iaido

I wasn’t all that happy with my Iai today, we were going through kata’s 1-12 in which I only know 1 and 6 (so I repeat those) but I was always trying to keep up with everyone elses timing. This caused me to divide my attention and consequently my kata’s were terrible. Shows that focus is everything, from it derives the intent to kill and from that the movements gain definition, power and purpose.

After this one of the senior students took me aside and taught me kata 2 and 3 which I am grateful for, but now I must practice them to keep all the details in my memory. These katas involve all sorts of funky twisting of the body (2 deals with enemy behind and 3 deals with enemy on the side) so there are lots of details to keep in mind. Number 3 has a really funky noto(sheathing the blade where you place the blade diagonally down such that it is pointing just past your right knee. Then you take your right hand off and then grab the sword again but with your hand coming from the opposite direction (a somewhat reverse grip). Then your left hand grabs the saya(sheath) and your right hand moves the sword from the right side of your body to being horizontal on the left pretty much in line with the saya. While it feels really ugly when I do it, it looks cool when others do it. I think I have trouble because I haven’t figured out how to smoothly swing it from one side of my body to another.

A smaller thing I was pulled up on again (same as last week I believe, not a good thing to be making the same mistake 2 weeks in a row after being told) was when I put my leg back in order to do noto. I should be making sure my body doesn’t bend forward (very bad thing to do) and try to let the back of my body fall back as my leg moves (this is pretty much the only way to move without the body leaning). Also I need to find the perfect distance for putting my leg back such that when I kneel, my ankle and leg form a perfect 90 angle (yes we do get picky).

A funny thing happened before class (we naturally all had our swords in our hands). The topic of discussion had somehow gotten near dancing and one guy had his leg in the air spinning his ankle around the place. I thought he being rather stupid (in the comedic sense) and so I gave him the ‘Your about to be killed’ stare that we have in our katas. He caught my stare and so we both rapidly reached for our swords and began the draw, shortly after bursting into laughter. It was one of those classic moments. Naturally I don’t do this sort of thing with people who I know are carrying skinken.

Now I just want time to practice.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

This week I was once again brought to my knees with needing to pay attention to an infinitude of minute details in practically every technique. While this is incredibly difficult and humbling it is also what I love so much about Iaido(in particular) and Jodo. The striving for such an extreme level of perfection in everything everytime.

Jodo

While I had been enjoying my little bits of practice at home, the moment I started practicing with the group going through the basic techniques I knew immediately that I sucked. The jo in class is much heavier than my imitation broomstick handle at home and this makes a big difference.

I am starting to pick up a few of the technique names. So I know what position I should be assuming without having to pause to see what everyone else is doing. Half of the the names still don’t mean anything to me but I’m getting there. I didn’t get to work on any kata today which was a shame but I still have plenty enough to work on anyway.

One of the key issues I had was with hickiotoshi I was not using my little finger to move the jo around and over for the strike.

Iaido

Iaido can be a real workout at times. Particularly the legs get tired with all the kneeling, rising and lowering of the body that goes on. The right arm usually gets tired with all the drawing cuts that occur. After the first hour my legs usually start to shake a bit as my muscles get quite tired from holding positions between kneeling and standing. But it’s good because I should get stronger from it.

After the warm-ups I spend the session working on kata 1 and 6. Six is my favourite. Apart from not having to kneel and go up and down I love the draw cut. It comes straight up out of the saya, passing past your ear and then cutting almost straight down the opponents. When you do this fast and you manage to get the flick of the sword right it feels awesome. Key to getting the flick right is to draw the sword high enough and then clasp with your pinky and third finger to bring it over to cut.

The rest of my issues today were sayabiki issues. I was not pulling my left hand close enough into my body and far enough around. It’s amazing how no matter how much further around you think you’ve gone from last time it seems there is always more to go. A suggestion is that your little finger should come into contact with your obi as you push the saya in and then the pinky should stay in contact as you move around. The same when the saya is coming back around during noto.

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