This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I didn’t go to class today because:

1. Uni work has made me really tired (not sleeping enough)
2. I seem to have come down with a cold

Offcourse I still practiced at home though, just needed to start making up for lost sleep in order to get more energy and get healthy again.

I think the biggest thing that I’ve gained from last week is the really strike something. What I mean is to really materialise the attack. Instead of thinking about cutting an imaginary opponent, cut an imaginary opponent. Over the last few weeks I’ve been gaining this kind of internal energy that feels really powerful. Like at any moment I could just explode into the world. However I haven’t been able to figure out how to get that energy to manifest anywhere expect inside me so I haven’t really been able to use it.

But after last weeks spree of just going for it all out during the kata I think I’m beginning to find how to direct the energy. It’s certainly not coming out freely but it’s seeping into some of my motions.

When I go to hit down the sword in jodo I can now really swing down into it with purpose. That’s probably what I lacked, a decided purpose and resolve.

I was watching an episode of Bleach and Ichigo was going through some of the age old bad mindsets

• When you dodge, I’m afraid of getting cut
• When you attack, I’m afraid of cutting someone
• When you protect someone, I’m afraid of letting them die

changed to

• If you dodge, I won’t let them cut me
• If you attack, I’ll cut them
• If you protect someone, I won’t let them die

Not the most accurate transcript but the dodging and cutting reminded me particularly of some kata I’d been working on.

In jodo number 2 kata you dodge a vertical cut by twisting side-on and striking forward. Trying to dodge because I don’t want to be cut is far more airy-fairy then dodging because I will not be cut. It has so much more definition and purpose about it and consequently the energy is concentrated into the move. Showing my resolve.

It feels so much more powerful too.

So while my technique probably hasn’t improved much this week. I think I’ve gained a different quality.

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There was no Jodo this week which was ironic because I was really enjoying my Jodo practice during the week. Sensei was out of state this week so we just had Iaido run by one of the other senior students (sensei in their own right I guess you could say).

Iaido

First important point of today was to protect my elbow from the dreaded tennis elbow. For all cuts, but in particular the horizontal cuts, the arm should not straighten all the way out. It should retain a slight bend. One of the keys to doing this is to remember that the power of the cut should begin where the opponent is, not once it is already through them. Also not trying to strike with more power than your body can take.

I spent awhile during the week working on my noto (sheathing the blade) and I thought I had improved heaps. But when it came to it there was another aspect that I was totally unaware of. While I thought I was pulling my saya far enough back it was stated that I was not. What I was not doing was pulling it far enough back in towards my body (as well as around). Because of this I had developed a compensating hand grip. But I see now with pulling the saya back far enough the other hand grip is pretty much unnecessary and the whole move is a lot easier. Particularly when you bring your right hand forward a little. If you find yourself leaning forward then almost definitely you have not pulled the saya far enough back. As one sensei says, if you think you’ve done enough sayabiki always do a bit more.

Today we were taught kata no. 6 which is a standing one. It is pretty cool in the sense that the sword comes straight out and over the top cutting the face while walking forward. Just the flow of the motion is cool when you get something that vaguely resembles correctness. Plus there is no kneeling which really taxes my legs :).

The final part of today, the 2 new students (myself as 1) were instructed to do it as if it were real. In other words, actually kill when we cut rather than just going through with the motions. This was a big change from what I had been doing. Usually I was thinking about everything I was doing, trying to correct every little detail. Now I was being asked not to think and just cut. While it was fun going full out, most of the technique was terrible. I hope I don’t fall into the trap of just cutting and forget about technique. If I do I know sensei will pick me up on it and ask what in the world I’m doing.

Anyways now I’m home and resting again.

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This week was once again really good. I managed to get a bit more one on one tutoring then I received some times which was good but has also left me much to work on. One thing bothering me though is that I have to keep reminding myself to speak louder. I concentrate on what I’m trying to do with my body and then I forget the extra stuff I need to do with my voice. If I can improve this I think my general prestige will raise a little, because I am not presenting myself too well at the moment.

Jodo

Spent a considerable amount of time on partner work today which was an experience. It is amazing how terrible your technique goes when a sword is thrust at you for the first time :). It was also a interesting experience to be actually striking to knock down someones sword. And it is incredibly funny how easy it is to miss. Although I don’t know the name of the technique my problem with the strike was I was doing it too one handed. A lot of strikes are mostly one handed but it seems for striking the sword you need to use both hands more so. I think it may have something to do with enabling the jo to get lower.

Anyway it was really cool when I get a strike almost right because I can really feel the difference. It has a lot more definition and there is a certain feel as the jo slides down the bokken.

Iaido

I think my opening and closing rei were a little better this week but the finer points are still totally missing. I have been looking at pictures and videos on the net where I can find them but I guess I need to be careful because not all demonstrations (due to styles) are the same.

Spent most of the second half of the class on kata no. 1. In particular chiburi and noto. Noto is so difficult to get smooth. I have been instructed to push the saya back and around into the body as much as possible and then some, while only having the sword hand come forwards as if punching. The handle is only really held with the index and thumb, not the entire hand. With the saya hand you have your thumb and third finger (originally I thought it was middle) touching and with the first and middle finger coming in front of the mouth of the saya to make a bed for the sword. You use this bed to slide the sword along (where most of the movement comes from the left hand) and support the slight turn. Anyway I find the hardest part is getting the little finger side of the right hand free enough to allow the sword to turn just that little bit to give you a nice angle.

To summarise, it was a grueling work out with good people.

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This week we moved into the new hall, it’s very nice. In particular it has mirrors covering half the wall on one side which is very useful. Shame there aren’t mirrors across the entire wall. The room is nice and bright which I also like.

Jodo

There was only 5 of us there this morning so I got to work on some of the techniques that I could barely remember from last week when they were introduced. It’s funny how if you get interrupted in the middle of a technique and lose your place how hard it is to get back in the rhythm. Proves I need to think more in my opinion.

I was working on a few techniques where the jo is held directly over the head (in a straight line). It took a lot of monitoring myself in the mirror to begin to curve the habit of leaning my body off of the center line. I still haven’t quite figured out the proper way to hold it straight over my head as I get a sore shoulder after awhile. But the techniques are quite fun. Just have to be careful not to get too carried away with trying to do things strong and losing correct form and balance.

Iaido

Lots of people here for this. Funniest thing that happened was when we were all doing our warmup vertical cuts, sensei stopped us and asked us all a question.

‘Does anyone really dislike dwarfs?’

This baffled most of us and had me in stitches laughing (although I was trying to hide it). The point of this was that everyone was doing the actual cut far to low, around waist height. The cut is to start at the head, ie. The height of your own head as if you were cutting someone your own height. This conversation finished with,

‘So this time make sure you are cutting out, imagine someone your own height in front of you. Or a dwarf standing on a chair if you are that way inclined’

I couldn’t hold back on that one, just far too funny.

The last part of training was spent working on the opening ceremony. Unfortunately trying to do this blew my mind apart for days to come. I was trying to imitate the demonstrator in front of me but due to having to mirror which hand does what I was getting confused and so many times ended up with the sword facing the wrong direction. So annoying, must practice this. Atleast for now to get the sword facing the right direction for a start.

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We had a sensei from Japan down here this week with his son. He must be a fairly high dan grade as he was pretty awesome.

Jodo

The japanese sensei really put our basic techniques through the paces. A lot of time was spent focusing on the speed at which parts of the techniques were executed. The whole experience had a very intuitive slant to it. Although I was doing techniques that I hadn’t even learnt yet in regular practice it was good that I got to watch my sensei quite closely as he was down my end of the line while the other sensei was in charge.

It was interesting to listen to the different sounds of the strikes between myself and sensei. When I would swing there would be almost no sound whereas when sensei swings there was always a whoosh. It’s like yes, someone could die there haha.

Iaido

I got to use an Iaito today which was fun. It was a fair bit heavier then the bokken I’ve been using (and offcourse looks cooler). After the initial technique warmups, the three noobs (myself included) went off to practice kata 1 under some guidance. My kata was much better than my practice the night before, I was even complemented on it (how generous people can be :D). The key problem was that I was rather enclosed (cramped up), ‘afraid I was going to hit a wall or something’. This makes a lot of sense considering I have been practicing indoors at home and I don’t want to hit the walls. Must do some more outdoors practice. Also I need to make sure I raise the sword nice and high over my head for vertical cuts, this problem is related to the first.

The funniest thing today was when the japanese student pointed out to my sensei that one of the other students looked like a real samurai due to his hair. My sensei having a clean shaven head replied with ‘what’s wrong with my hair?’ and proceeded to pull out his sword, ‘I know how to fix this’. It was most hilarious.

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Today before arriving I was totally dead tired. I spent 6.5 hours unloading stock off a truck last night and my whole body ached. Today’s class while physically and mentally grueling still had it’s light-hearted charm which is always a blast. It’s amazing what a little laugh will do for your kata.

Jodo

Today I started to learn the first kata. Now trying to remember both the jo and bokken side after only seeing it demonstrated a couple of times was crazy and really brain fried me. With some guidance I eventually got the gist of it and I think I’ll be able to remember the general moves although probably not all the little specifics.

Remembering the names of techniques is still an issue, I only know the order in which they come for warm-ups. Which reminds me that I also need to learn how to count to ten in japanese.

Iaido

The opening and closing ceremony still totally befuddles me. One of the senior students who has been providing me with a lot of guidance (thankyou :D) mentioned that we should go over it some time next week. So I think I might see if I can learn the procedures during the week. Next week one of the senior teachers is coming over from Japan so it’s likely to be a very packed class. It will also be interesting to see how a student who is starting next week is going to be handled.

The more and more I come to practice the more I notice how bad my technique is. I guess this is actually a good thing as it means I’m noticing more. Sometimes I would be about to make an adjustment to a action and I would see sensei start to approach me. Then when he sees me make the adjustment he will change direction to attend to something else. So the next step offcourse is to iron out all the mistakes so I don’t need to make the late adjustments.

At the end of class I got to have a look at and a go at kata no. 2. My gosh, the turning around 180 degrees feels so weird!!!. It’s gonna take a lot of practice to get this smooth and not over balance. In regards to my number 1 kata, I can see so much ugly stuff going on in it… oh well.

Practice until next week I say, or rather just practice

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Today’s session was really fun. There were little jokes everywhere and it was all kept very light-hearted. I don’t mean to say that people weren’t focused or weren’t taking things seriously. Rather they laughed when appropriate and focused when training/listening to serious points.

Jodo

This week was very interesting, not having equipment to practice with has really been hampering my ability to remember exactly how each strike goes so I have been practicing with a old broom handle I found lying around. Problem is that it is about 20cm too short which makes a huge difference to how a technique feels. While going through the techniques at the beginning I found my front hand was raising up far too high as I drew the back hand down the jo.

Something that seems like it will always help in developing technique is to consider the opponent. When using the jo, as much as possible you want to keep the pressure on the opponent and not display any openings that you don’t want to display. So with the first technique (I think it’s called Honte :D) your front hand should be out in front of your eyes, which is the opponents eye level as well in the imaginary case. This keeps a sense of pressure on the enemy. If you can imagine yourself in the position of the opponent you can feel what feels like the most dangerous position. If your hand is too high it appears like there is an open/safe area to strike low. If it is too low then not only is this position much less threatening but it also much harder to put any strength into the strike that comes over.

So far I have only really learnt strikes. But today I was taught 2 techniques that were more like kind of traps/throws to push back the swordsmen. These feel really awkward in the sense that it is hard to imagine how it feels without really doing it to someone. After catching the bokken handle with the jo, it is hard to figure how to move your hands around the other end of the jo in order to control the swordsmen and direct them in the desired direction. With one of the techniques it is necessary to push them back while you are in close to them. What took me awhile to get after lightly punching people in the face etc. (most light, sorry…) is that the pushing back motion comes from the ‘hara’ which seems to be a reference to an area somewhere around the abdomen. This is a very different feel as it keeps you very centered and your strength doesn’t wane. This idea of moving with the hara seems very prominent throughout jodo and iaido. It also reminds me a lot of how the draw and sheathing of the sword is done almost entirely with the left hand which I’ll touch on in the Iaido section.

Something that I sucked even more at in this session was not having and maintaining a deep enough stance, which reminds me of really getting into it. I really enjoy getting in a deep stance and being able to put power into moves but I forget to a lot.

Iaido

I made an error at the beginning of the session in that after the ritual I put the bokken in the outer loop of the obi. This, after doing some serious sayabiki loosened the obi quite a bit. I managed to adjust it a little and place the bokken in the correct inner loop but it wasn’t as good as I’ve done it in past weeks.

After some cutting drills up and down the hall (which can be a bit of a workout at times) we went on to doing some paired kata. By this I mean everyone was using bokken and one person would do the kata while the other acted as the aggressor. This was done to help people get the right feel when doing the kata. Offcourse I only did kata 1 to begin with, but when we went to kata 3 I was shown how this works. They don’t look hard but it is difficult to get every part of the body to do what needs to be done.

Then we went on to free practice in which I choose to practice kata 1 as I still had heaps of points to work on from last week. Unfortunately not having been able to do much serious practice at home my moves were all over the place as I couldn’t properly remember it. For example, after the vertical cut but before doing chiburi I would turn the backside of the sword to my left like you would when going from the horizontal cut to the vertical. This offcourse threw me totally off and I couldn’t do chiburi at all haha. As soon as I was told to turn it the opposite direction it felt much more comfortable and chiburi muscle memory kicked back in.

The other area that I received a lot of guidance on was my noto (sword sheathing). It cannot be emphasised enough that the left hand does all (it’s actually most but just over-emphasising) the work. It’s the same with drawing the sword. Even the turning of the sword to a different angle is done with the left hand. This actually makes it so much easier to draw as you don’t need to muscle it with your right hand which often over-balances you. Doing good sayabiki essentially makes the sword seem smaller because all of a sudden it is so much easier to use.

After training I mentioned to sensei about equipment, his preferred supplier is receiving a shipment hopefully in 2-3 weeks. In the meantime though he has lent me a bokken(and saya) which is awesome cause I can now practice so much better (at least it will feel much better and more than likely be more effective).

Overall I really enjoyed today’s training.

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Woo!! It’s getting tough now, surrounded by thunder and lightning (literally there was a thunderstorm outside). But before I get to the details, a success story. This week I tied my Obi all by myself… haha that sounds pretty funny. I got the nod from sensei which is cool. One point to me :D. It sounds like quite a trivial thing (but it’s not when you have no idea, I scoured the internet for guides) which is why I’m so glad to have it under control.

Jodo

Today’s practice had me learning 2 new techniques to add to my repertoire of 5 now. Number 3 is still very shaky and I was struggling to remember the 1st new technique after class. Thankfully it came back to me so I’ll be able to practice it, atleast enough to keep it in memory. Which brings me to another point that bothers me at the moment in that I really only get to the hear the japanese name of a technique maybe 3 times during class. Then I’m so busy trying to get the technique right that I totally forget it’s name. It’d be nice if I could find some reference book somewhere on the net (may need to get the ZKNR manual).

It’s funny when I get a little confidence with a technique I try to apply power into it (with my body rather than just arms) and it makes my feet often slide along the ground quite quickly. So sometimes my feet can get a little warm due to the friction (hardwood burn?).

Iaido

I was so uncoordinated in the warmups today. Couldn’t figure out when to raise the sword while moving and then when it came time to do a 45 degree sort of drill I really struggled (never done that one before). Key to remember is that each movement should be useful, either keeping the sword in a position ready to strike or bringing it around where it protects us (the capability to block).

After warmups the rest of my time was spent working on Kata 1 (Mae). One of the seniors was watching over us and correcting everything and I mean everything. If you can’t take criticism then you would definitely be in the wrong class here (although it varies from student to student how(style) each of them teach you). The criticism made though was very valid. Some of the points revolved around posture… in fact I don’t there was anything in the kata that wasn’t corrected. That is quite funny. Even at the very beginning I was kind of twiddling my fingers a little to relax before I start and this was picked up on. I had already noticed I was doing it, was just having trouble stopping it happening before it started. More focus I say :D.

Some of the points that I found really interesting is how on the draw and noto(sheathing) the left hand is the real active one. It does almost all the work. It is amazing how different and easier this feels compared to muscling it out with the right hand which also tends to throw your balance forward a bit. Well I guess that was the main standout point.

Now it just comes to down to practice practice practice… just need a weapon to do it with.It is proving difficult to find a bokken with a tsuba and sheath for well under $100 and a lot of them are 30″ blades which I expect will be way to big. Then again I’m not sure what the process of upgrading to an Iaito is (how long it takes to reach that stage or if you just go for it). I think for the first kyu grade you need to be using an Iaito rather than a bokken.

Well for the time being I’ll keep an eye out.

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So as the title suggests I managed to make it to week 2. I had a cold during the week but thankfully through lots of orange juice and a really physical game of basketball I consider myself over it. I’m feeling confident that I know my way to the location now so I won’t be leaving home for an extra 20 minutes. You know that means an extra 20 minutes sleep on Saturdays, yey! Anyway upon arriving I did some stretching and think this a habit that would be well worth continuing. An area I probably didn’t stretch enough today was the elbows. I really noticed it when I went for the first horizontal cut in Iaido and felt it pull and burn on the inside.

Jodo

There was another ‘beginner’ student (although I expect they have been there at least a month) this week so I wasn’t the only one off on the side going through basic techniques. This week I’ll have to do some research to see if I can find out the names of the techniques because at the moment I only know them as 1, 2 and 3 :). An interesting event occurred when I was in the process of practicing 3 up and down the hall was the other student saying, ‘You must be tired, you’ve been doing that same technique for ages’. I replied cheerfully ‘And I haven’t got it right yet either’. Was a funny exchange. Repeating a technique over and over again is not boring if you are trying to perfect it. It is probably only boring if you think you are just repeating it rather than learning.

There was a time near the end while I was practicing technique 3 that I decided that rather than concentrating on the stick I would do a few strikes focusing only on the imaginary enemy in front of me. This was really good and got me right into ‘the zone’. Plus because I was looking where my strike was supposed to go the strike went to that spot.

I almost forgot this time I had to ‘Kia’ when I strike. Interestingly unlike my brother’s karate where it sounds like ‘Key-eye’, ours sound more like ‘e’-'a’ with a lack of the usual pronounced ‘k’ at the start.

Iaido

At the start I always need someone to tie my obi (belt) which thankfully as of today I now own one. So this week I need to learn how to tie this all by myself. In my opinion this would be a very good thing as it’s not an easy task like most things in Iai. In the future I’ll have to work on the closing and opening ceremonies but for now being able to tie the belt will be a good start.

Today we worked more on cutting technique and finished with Kata 1 (Mae I think) which I’ll now need to work on. It’s funny that doing a cut is hard enough let alone a whole kata. Drawing and sheathing is hard to begin with too. Pointed out was that it is important to really use the left hand in sayabiki (moving the saya (sheath) back and around behind you as you draw and reverse for sheathing).

The good news is that even though it is very hard, once I have memorized the techniques more I think I will really enjoy this. I made my intentions clear to Sensei after class that I was interested in obtaining a bokuto(bokken - wooden sword) and Jo(Short staff - Stick). It could take a couple of weeks to get though due to needing to go through the right people. These imported from Japan while a little expensive I expect that I will be able to use them for a very long time.

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So it was time for the first class, as expected I spent my time working on some basic techniques for both Jodo and Iaido. It may look boring but it is so surprisingly hard. So across the 3 hours I probably spent the time on a total of about 4 maybe 5 techniques. Which I could have easily spent another x amount of hours on.

Jodo

It is interesting that the Jo is probably only a little less than a sword handles length longer than a sword. Consequently is seems important when doing strikes and in general to keep the jo held just in front of the body. After awhile practicing I noticed sometimes I would do a strike and it would feel a whole lot more fluid than the last and that was pretty cool.

Iaido

Well this seems extremely complicated, so much to keep in mind with every strike. It’s like ok stance, align hips, get sword correct angle, raise a little to where it is to be held, relax shoulders on the raise, relax, relax, relax, relax, relax, relax. Swing forward out, down and bring in towards the abdomen after, check relaxed, relax, relax. My shoulders really like to tense up with this. An interesting thing with the vertical strike of the sword is in order to stop it at horizontal rather than having it bounce around, at the end of the swing you ‘wring’ the handle like you would a wet towel. This does a real good job of stopping it.

The cool thing about having soo many things to look for is that if you do it in a patient manner your mind can sometimes really quieten down which is always nice.

On a side note it is surprising how difficult it is to draw and sheathe the sword (maybe just for beginners) but also I think the bokken I was using was a little bit too long for me.

So I look forward to next week, in the mean time I need to figure out how to practice while I have no equipment at home ^_^.

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