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 hikiotoshi 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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