This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Very interesting today, I realised that never before have I taught someone who was more than a couple of years older than me. Today that changed. Also I got to practice in uniform for the first time which was awesome.

Jodo

We began as we always do with the warmups. I’m really enjoying Jodo. I seem to be able to remember all the techniques better than Iaido and the movements feel much more natural. My Kiai’s have also improved heaps recently. It was probably only 2 or 3 weeks ago that my Kiai’s were very weak (just generally weak as opposed to tentative). This is linked in with intent and concentration. I was quite good in both areas today. At the beginning of each technique I would take the ready position and focus on an imaginary point in front of me (I should be visualising an opponent but I’m not to that level yet). I could quite literally feel my pressure and intent hone in on that direction and somehow this enabled my Kiai’s to be much more focused. It is interesting how your level of intent and concentration feeds in to everything you do. Your body movements, your strikes, your Kai’s, everything can be so different with a determined and intent mind.

The only thing I really had to watch out for is to make sure in Kaeshi Zuki that I’m dropping the bottom hand far enough and taking the first vertical ready position before moving into the ’somewhat’ horizontal ready position.

After this I was about to work on some kata when Sensei commanded me to come over to where he was with the more junior students of the class (I’m really confused as to what level I’m at. I suppose to even segregate the students into levels is incorrect, as this is not what class feels like. You know where someone is at by how they perform their techniques and it is far more subtle than any assignment of rank. But I’ll leave that discussion for another day). So as I was saying, Sensei called me over. And then you’ll never guess what happened, he paid me a compliment (in an offhand way offcourse). Training is always very grueling, usually the closest thing you can get to a compliment is for sensei to look at your technique and walk away without correcting it (Unless it’s the case where they believe you are not putting in enough effort and so ignore you, which I hear is common among Japanese teachers, once again, a story for another day). Anyway after mentioning that I appeared to be quite competent at the early techniques he wanted me to instruct the 5 other (’junior’) students.

Initially I don’t think I could hide my surprise, I certainly didn’t expect it. So when I nodded in acknowledgment of his request he continued to look at me with that face that you know is trying to analyse what you are thinking/feeling. So I gave him a confident ‘Hai’ and he moved on. Now I was left with 5 students to manage and instruct in almost any manner I felt like. Two of them I know relatively well, the others I only see maybe once a month (from Shepperton) so I don’t know them that well. The other thing that I didn’t realise at the time was that atleast two of them are probably almost as old as my father (to their credit they are probably not that old). I never realised that I have never really seriously taught someone that was much older than myself in my life. The fact that the thought never even crossed my mind is a tribute to the quality of the people at the dojo and to the style in which Sensei teaches (and probably the art in general). Their is no discrimination between age, sex or ability. The only thing that matters is your willingness to contribute, learn and exert effort.

To avoid getting sidetracked once again, let me resume. So I got them to perform the first few basic techniques (tandoku) while I walked up and down the line checking angles and looking for things to jump out at me as wrong. I was surprised how confident I was shouting out the japanese commands for different techniques and maneuvers. In particular there are a series of commands that tell people to put away the jo and turn around. Namely after Yamae we have ‘Motowae, Mawari Migi’. Each of these commands relates to a particular part of finishing a technique (while it’s different to a strict japanese translation I’m sure). Personally I associate them with similar sounding english phrases.

‘Motowae’ - “Put it away”. Move the jo from the final position of the strike to the regular ready position awaiting further commands.

‘Mawari’ - “Get ready”. Turn the tip of the jo down so the rear comes up and rests behind your shoulder. This is the position just before you turn around. Hence it’s ‘getting ready’ for the turn

‘Migi’ - I don’t have anything that really rhymes with this one, but it’s always the last one so it’s easy to just remember to turn on that command.

I think I heard from a translation perspective, ‘Mawari Migi’ means ‘turn right’ but I digress.

It was surprising how many people would go through the whole turn after I had just said ‘Motowae’. So I tried to drill in each stage of the turn. There was some issues with the turn for some people but I thought I should focus on bigger issues so I let it slide for the time being.

For honte uchi and gyakute uchi there was one person who was doing the strike and it just looked wrong. I think it was that the back hand was sliding down the jo too early, but I couldn’t be 100% sure and couldn’t reproduce it in my own technique. Sensei confirmed though that the back hand should definitely lift first before coming down and forward(mostly forward).

Then we moved on to Hickiotoshi (once again the name just came to me without having to think about it). Here there was issues with strikes that weren’t coming through vertical and also lots of issues with the starting positions. People weren’t resting their lower hand on their thigh and there was all sorts of variations on where the top hand was. The top hand should be where it goes if you just naturally raise your hand bending from the elbow. It generally goes somewhere just slightly in front of the shoulder.

I was being a little generous on some of them because I wasn’t sure if they could physically make the position but Sensei intervened saying they should all be able to make the position. He then proceeded to use me as a presentation doll to illustrate some points. The cool thing was that he had me assume the ready position and then just point out all the things that I was doing right without me knowing what he was going to show. Like he had me take away the top hand totally to show that you should be supporting the jo totally with the bottom hand. Very interesting stuff.

After a little bit more of my attempt to instruct I was pulled away to do some practice on my katas while someone else took over. My katas were generally good with the exception of kata 3 which I still haven’t really got my body around.

Afterwards one of the 5 I was instructing came over to mention that he thought the way I was emphasizing a few points was very good (mostly the japanese commands) which was nice of him. I’ve spent way too long talking about Jodo so moving on.

Iaido

I’m really enjoying my Iaido, especially gliding across the floor and really trying to emphasize the jo-ha-kyu before strikes. My cutting technique still doesn’t feel good, it’s been over 6 months of training ( I just had massive dejavu on that line… anyway) and I still think my cuts suck. Mainly I just don’t have any smoothness to it, I must be tensing too much and at all the wrong places.

Today we went through warm-ups and then split up to work on katas. Specifically I was doing kata 1-4. My kata 4 had issues which is not surprising as it is rather intricate and I haven’t practiced it for quite a while. Always get confused as to when to move the legs in relation to the arms etc. There were some minor points on needing to do my O-chiburi closer to my head and things like that but that’s really all I’ll mention for now.

Before I forget though I must talk about being in uniform!

I’ve always been a fan of loose clothing, track pants over jeans that sort of thing. A Hakama would have to be the closest thing to a dress a man can wear. Incredibly loose and it flows everywhere around your legs when you are moving. Feels much better doing the techniques in a hakama and Gi compared to track pants and a t-shirt. Also looks much more traditional/professional and just more in the spirit of training. I think wearing the uniform just makes the whole occasion more unique and the group look more unified. I could go on and on but if you have made it this far through this long post I will spare you and thank you for reading.

Till next week.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I’ll report in reverse order today. So starting with the end we got some uniforms today :). So I now have the Jodo (blue/indigo) uniform and I’ve ordered the Iaido (black) one from another guy which I should get in a month or so. Now that I have the uniform I’ve come across another great challenge in the art. a) figuring out how to put all the darn stuff on and b) figuring out how to fold it when you put it away. ‘A’ will probably kill me for a week or two, ‘B’ on the other hand could take months for me to get really right. Folding the pleated(7 I believe) correctly and then doing the rather intricate knot at the end is going to take a lot out of me. That’s what is so great about this art. In every way it forces you to be a total beginner :D.

Jodo

More and more Kihon (basic techniques) today. Sorry did I say more and more, I meant more and more and more and more and more Kihon. After the initial run through sensei went through some finer points on Makiotoshi, Kurihanshe and Dobari. For makiotoshi I needed to angle my Jo less straight such that more angle is created between the Jo and sword. Also I need to maintain a strong zanshin(awareness/intent) after the strike/throw on coming forward. Finally something that everyone needed to look into for all techniques was to make sure that we don’t lean for in any of them.

For Kurihanshe (another of the catch and throw techniques… interesting) we were trying to get the sense of keeping the Jo feeling sticky on the sword as we move forward to throw the sword away. The timing of moving the hands and body is very interesting with this one. A lot of peoples problems were that they would move the left hand first (which is fine) but take it too far which releases pressure on the sword (freeing the attacker, not good!). Bringing the left hand to far forward and down moves the tip of the Jo behind you which releases the pressure which I mentioned. The left hand has to move first, but to stop the Jo releasing the pressure you step in at the same time. That forward motion helps to compensate for the left hand movement. Using this, you can get the left hand in a good position, while maintaining pressure, and then produce a strong controlled throw. In Sensei demonstrating the technique on one of the senior student he nearly took him out as he wasn’t expecting as much force. Which was quite funny (only because we have such a light-hearted atmosphere generally, but always serious when it comes to technique).

Finally on Dobari it was once again about the angle of the Jo and the body. Making sure that the back foot doesn’t go past the front foot when you move it back (so when you are standing side on the back foot is just in front of the front foot). Then also as you draw back for the strike, you draw back and over your shoulder (rather than straight back). Sensei demonstrated how the few degrees off in angle make the differences between whether your opponents sword practically falls out of their hands (due to the damage to the wrists, the sword is hit quite violently at an awkward angle) or the sword going down but then easily maneuvered around into a position ready to attack again.

We finished focusing on really applying pressure on an opponent with our spirit/intent. Which led to me hitting a guy on the head (thankfully I managed to pull the strike so it wasn’t full strength)… It is much more enjoyable when you get right into the act, your mind broadens and senses sharpen.

Iaido

Kata work on 1 and 3 in this one. Once again focusing on pressure/intent. My kata 1 was good, my kata 3 terrible. Not being able (due to lack of making time (darn uni)) to practice every technique kata I know each week is starting to show as I forget finer points. Like in 3 I was forgetting to raise my toes on the right foot as the first/second movement, which provides the power for the next move.

Really need to practice more. My Jodo is holding together well, but Iaido not so well.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

This week was keenly focused on preparing for the gradings (which to the best of my knowledge aren’t till the end of October).

Jodo

After the warm-ups Sensei broke us up into our different grading groups. Then he came and scrutinized us for the rest of the session as we went through the early tandaku(techniques). We all need better Kiai’s, coming from the hara/stomach, not an easy thing to grasp. Finally it seems Sensei is trying to decide whether to have me double up on my grading (go for a higher level). At the moment it looks like I may but I need to work on my Kuri Hanashi technique. I need to get the throw executed a bit higher.

We finished up with another guy working on kata 1 (I should learn the names of the kata now that I’ve got the technique names down). I made a rather hilarious mistake during practice though. When I was practicing the bokken side I was kiaing on the strike. Then when I was the jo side I kiaied when I dodged the strike, which is clearly wrong and appears very bizarre. It was rather funny.

Iaido

After warm-ups we once again split up into grading groups. Then our grouped worked on kata 1 and 2 for the rest of the session. I’m not very happy with my Iaido execution of kata. My cuts don’t feel right and when your cuts don’t feel right then your draw has basically no chance. I really couldn’t feel the katas at all. Practice, practice, I probably need to concentrate more on killing an opponent.

We finished up with some free training in which myself and another guy who hadn’t been their for awhile just went through some of the katas to see what we could remember.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Been very busy this week, hence the late post.

Jodo

This week was warmups followed by paired forms of basic techniques. So one person would have a bokken and the other the jo. Then the Jo person would strike with the bokken person receiving. First we did Honte uchi. With this technique the bokken’s role was to move back just as the jo person was striking such that the jo would end up only a few inches from your forehead. The key for this paired form was that the bokken person must move late. If you move early you can’t judge how far the jo person is going to strike and also it doesn’t give as much of a realistic target.

The second paired form for this was Gyakute Uchi in which the bokken person would actually block the strike a few inches from the temple of the head with that of a sticky sensation. Then they would continue to pivot backwards blocking on alternate sides with each strike. Once again it was necessary to block late to give a more realistic target. It is all part of training Ma-ai(distance) skill, which is probably closest translated to combative distance.

We finished with kata work where I improved my paired form version of kuritskae where I break the opponents center more before locking the sword on them with my Jo.

Iaido

I’d lost the knack of my new cutting technique from last week so I spent most of the warmup trying to get that back which I didn’t really achieve. What I did enjoy was that I was managing to cover a lot of ground with my steps. So when we were practicing cutting and turning I was managing to get a fair bit of slide in my steps. This is nice as it gives a good sense of speeding up to a climax.

That sense of slow-medium-fast (or fast-faster-fastest) called Jo-Ha-Kyu has been the most recent advice for improving my technique. One of my main problems is that there is little sense of rhythm in my movements. I know what to do and can do it, now I need to do it better. All my cuts need to have a sense of this speeding up and then bang! strike. That was the most important thing to take away and work on this week. For the rest of class we worked on the kata that we will be doing for our gradings (in about a month or so), I really need to get in practice time.

Finishing up I managed to order a uniform (finally), just the black Iaido uniform but it should be good to have. It’ll probably take me forever to learn how to put it on properly. Also I bought the Federations official Iaido and Jodo manuals so now I’ll have a ‘reliable’ reference (as opposed to my memory) to what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s no substitute for having someone poke and prod you continually for hours but it’s a useful reminder.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

All week I had been going over the japanese commands for each of the techniques in the warm-up in case Sensei decided it was my time (it has been more and more threatening each week :)). This week however he didn’t make a particular person do the entire warmups (probably due to last weeks disastrous effort…), rather he randomly picked people for each different technique. It came time that he eyed each of us off and then he picked me for one which just happens to be one of the latter and longer ones. But I was on the ball and up to the challenge remembering that it was time for ‘Tsuki Hazuchi Uchi’. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that ‘Tsuki’ is actually pronounced more like ’ski’ but overall a good result. My japanese is rather terrible understandably.

We spent quite a while working on a couple of these techniques trying to polish them up. After which we went onto kata. My kata 3 really sucks, the other ones are not so bad. Getting into kuritskae and catching the swordsman I find tough. However the thing I am getting killed over every week in kata practice is that I don’t appear threatening enough. Bah! I can’t figure it out. Obviously more defined/precise (through practice) movements and maintaining focus on the opponent are a step in the right direction but obviously I’m really missing something. Hmmm…

Iaido

I got to learn 2 new kata today, 12 and 11 (which is the order I learnt them). With 12, the swordsman steps back one step while drawing his sword very vertical in order to evade an opponents cut. Then in a rather fluid fashion you step back in towards the opponent and cut through their body. The key difficulties here are drawing vertical, if you draw flat even a little you will generally lose your arm. You also have to make sure you don’t step so far back in the dodge such that you can’t get back to the opponent quick enough.

We practiced this in paired form. First I practiced with one of the middle-level students and that was difficult enough considering I had just learnt the kata. But at the end he was swapped with one of the senior students who was doing his attack from the draw (meaning it’s harder to judge distance) and very fast. Basically if I did it wrong here I certainly would have felt it for a few days.

The other kata I learnt was 11. This is a long kata involving 5 cuts to a single opponent (plus a glancing parry). All 5 cuts come in at different angles ranging from vertical to horizontal. All 5 cuts are to different locations of the body (chin, sternum, waist, horizontal through waist, vertical through body). The last 2 cuts ’sort of’ bleed together (I’m told they are supposed to be fluent but must be distinct from each other) and it is a really nice sweeping motion. After running through it on my own 5 or 6 times one of the senior students arrived telling me something along the lines that ‘now that you know the basic moves it is time pick it apart’. She then proceeded to tell me all the things I was doing wrong and what all the key issues to remember for the kata are. Sessions are brutal and intense but they can’t really be any other way. Always striving for perfection means always improving and finding faults.

I’m very tired today so I’ll leave it there. Oh actually I forgot to mention that I changed my cutting technique a little. Now at the very beginning of my strike I really focus on the right hand going forward and left hand staying where it is or almost moving backwards. This makes the sword ‘flick’ over and forward cutting into the target before you slice down with both hands. In practice the hands at the start still move down a little but I need to focus more on getting the right first motion so I’m thinking like the above. In cutting to the contact point of the opponent sensei said ‘Pretend that you are cutting a fly that is sitting on your friends’ head’. He is a classic

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

For something different, one of the students did a Kenbu demonstration today (see end of post)

Jodo

Today we were given a big speech about needing to learn the japanese commands for the warm-ups. Soon it could be my turn to run the warm-ups so I think I better print off the command list, stick it in my uni book and get memorising.

The other thing I was really beaten up about was not looking intent enough. This one I have no idea how to easily correct. Particularly for kata I don’t really know. Somehow I need to keep ‘pressure’ on my opponent even when I am being pushed back and defeated. So bizarre, not sure how I will figure that one out.

An interesting side event happened when we were standing around waiting for Sensei though. I was standing waiting and then out of nowhere I felt this kind of ‘click’ or ‘knock’ in my head which kind of set my body to turn and move my hand. Then before I knew what was happening my hand had parried a playful attack from behind with a jo (about 120 degrees from my front). I still can’t figure out how I knew an attack was coming as I’m pretty sure I couldn’t see them. Maybe it was something like the whole ’sensing a murderous intent’ thing that basically forms the basis of all our Iaido kata. Whatever it was it was unexpected but cool :).

Iaido

We spent our time on kata 1 and kata 3 in class today. In kata 3 sensei particularly wanted us to try and get the entire movement smooth and flowing. It is quite amazing to watch him doing it as he does it with an incredible amount of Jo-Ha-Kyu(speeding up). You see him slowly moving up from a kneeling position and then by the time he is executing the block and cut everything is moving through so fast. I don’t have anything else I particularly want to mention. Except I had a friend come over later and we watched 100 minutes of silent old footage of Einshin Ryu Iaido which was quite interesting.

On finishing up, one of the senior students gave us a demonstration of Kenbu (Basically sword and fan dance). She was very impressive, but it is a much different use of the sword to Iaido in general. Ironically a search for Kenbu on youtube brought up a video of her doing it a year ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqjJOqO3Y9Q). I thought she did it a bit better than on the video, it doesn’t do her Iaido skills credit, but it’s not supposed to, after all it is Kenbu not Iaido. Just the same it was nice to be able to see it performed in person as opposed to just on the internet.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

We had a massive class today, it seems like the people come down from shepperton for the first training of every month. The moral of today was that the first technique includes so many elements of every other technique that follows on, you will never stop needing to practice it. And practice we did :).

Jodo

We went quickly through the initial warm-ups this morning and then proceeded to practice particular ‘tandoku’ (basic techniques) focusing on certain aspects of each one. We worked on honte (1st technique). The first main points here were to make sure the strike finishes with both hands in action. It is not just the bottom hand acting as a fulcrum. This is somewhat similar to the horizontal draw-cut in Iaido where the sword comes out towards the opponent, spins to point at them and then you move your arm such that the sword slices through them. In practice you don’t see it so disjointed as they shouldn’t be distinct phases (except for beginners… like me I often think) but you have to be aware of how the cut (and strike in hontes case) is actually done. It is surprising how so many aspects of these beginner techniques generalise to be important for most other techniques (in Iai and Jo).

The second point (which is also very important for all of Jodo and Iaido) is that your hips should stay at relatively the same height. So even though you are swinging the sword or jo up and around your head, you must not bob up and down. It also looks so much better when you stay the same height, makes it look like you are gliding.

To finish we did kata practice, while the senior students practiced later katas, sensei instructed the group from shepperton and put me in charge of training one of the new girls in kata 1. I always feel rather privileged when I am put in charge of training one of the newer people. It feels like a very important role, like I am passing down the teachings of my sensei who is passing down what was taught to him and so on. Also if I were to train them badly I would be letting down my sensei and so on. Quite a task considering how relatively beginner I am. Offcourse this is all my own thinking and how I view the art, not necessarily reflecting sensei’s view of it. Regardless I enjoy helping others grow.

Anyway it was very difficult training this girl as she is a rather timid one, it will be interesting when she is required to kiai in the future (as an aside, my kai’s are improving. I’m finding that there is a certain amount of tension where if you set your vocal chords right, the air vibrates all the way from your lungs out to your mouth making the sound a lot louder. Also I’ve been practicing exhaling severely on strikes. My brother (karate black belt) tells me that you have to set your body(muscles) up like a spring and when you strike it all explodes, it feels right). So back to the girl, I worked on trying to ingrain the basic correct movements. At times I couldn’t quite correct things because she seems to have short arms (she is a little shorter than me) so some techniques need to be adjusted. Overall I was happy with her improvement, I remember it took me ages to get used to it.

Before I move on, I’ll just mention something funny. In the kata the swordsperson has to cut through where the jo person is standing. It took quite a few minutes to convince her to really get in close and cut at me. I had to explain many a times that if I don’t move and get hit then it is my fault (which was re-iterated to me by one of the senior students in the past). Kata 2 will be interesting, where the jo person has to strike into the sternum(and yes we make contact on this one). I remember 2 senior students on different occasions grilling me to strike them harder (one who is an older guy who has arthritis…).

Back to the training, in kata we have to stare intently at our opposition (preferably in the eyes), manifesting our air of seme (forward pressure and presence) along with zanshin (our awareness of our opponent and everything else). The interaction of both people in the kata staring intently like this at each other is like a battle entirely on another level. I am starting to understand why Miyamoto Musashi talks about it being possible to smash an opponent entirely with your spirit. Anyway when I was teaching this girl, there was one time where she returned the intent glare rather strongly and I could actually feel it ripping at me. Took me totally by surprise, but it is good as it shows she has potential, we just need to train her in the movements. Hopefully she sticks with it.

Iaido

Absolutely massive class (20 odd probably), there are always more Iaidokas than Jodokas. After warm-ups we spent the entire class on kata 1, doing it extra slow focusing on little things sensei would point out. I would rant about how one should never be bored in life as boredom only occurs when you stop paying attention (which you should never do) but this weeks post is already getting very long.

The very end of class was free training in which I was grilled on some more fine points on putting away the sword. Briefly the last third of the sword goes back into the saya very slowly (as you kneel in kneeling katas). This is all to do with Jo-Ha-Kyu (translated roughly as slow-medium-fast or fast-faster-fastest, once again something I’ll leave for another post).

Sensei tells me I should be looking to grade at the end of October (tentative date). I enjoy Iaido so much, drawing and sheathing the sword is such a brilliant sensation, such a wonderful art.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

Sensei seems to be going through all the students and having them issue the commands during the warm up. In order to try and ensure that they learn the names of all the techniques. Us new students have been warned that our time will come when we are placed on the spot, so be prepared. I’ve almost got counting to 10 figured out but all the commands.. I doubt it :). Sensei was keen on the fact that the punishment for mistakes today will be that the ground opens up beneath your feet and you fall into a chasm over the usual financial penalties which didn’t seem to be having effect. It always amazes me how funny he is.

Nothing fancy to mention in jodo today. We did warm-ups, paired hickiotoshi practice and finally kata. I enjoyed the kata, gave me practice at being full on with intense concentration and presence on the opponent. Not a backwards step in the face of adversity, once again, something you don’t get to practice in a safe environment usually.

Iaido

Iaido was also rather normal with it’s consistent polishing up on techniques with Sensei stopping us to get us to focus on particular issues. Of particular note was the fact that cuts come out and hit a target at maximum speed, then the blade is allowed to move through the body in what vaguely resembles a follow-through but it is a bad analogy on my behalf.

After basic warm-ups we spent a lot of time on kata 1 (It is the first kata we learn but everyone still has so much to go before reaching perfection) and kata 3. Then after touching on kata 6 we went on to free training. During this I helped demonstrate the pain that is kata 4 (due to the somewhat painful tatehiza kneeling position) and then proceeded to practice kata 5 in particular on my own.

I really enjoy the upside down draw followed by the blade spinning in your hand and then speeding down along the same line as the first cut as your other hand reaches it. When you get it smooth it feels very nice. A bad draw on this kata (5) makes it all terrible though. Something I need to work on is my chiburi (flinging off of the blood). I have make sure my wrist is still firm, not allowing it to brake as I’m doing a little at the moment.

As a side note, the attention, presence and discipline that is required to execute a good move(and eventually kata) is hugely different compared to the extent one exerts themselves during the day. Not even 1% of what is required for an action is generally requested from you in the regular educational settings of school and university. This art really helps to build character and confidence.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I must say that I feel rather fortunate to have fallen in with such a good bunch of people. Class while tough and strict is always so funny and enjoyable. Today we only had a small class so I got to do a bit more ‘teaching’ than usual which I enjoy.

Jodo

Today there was a lot of time spent going through the basic techniques and how they are to be applied. In particular we spent a while working on the 3 kuritskae techniques. The 3rd technique (taitari I believe) is a lot softer than the other two and in order to do it right it has to be in a very flowing motion. Essentially as you move in, the jo must remain in contact with the sword, kind of caressing it into position. It has a very nice feel (given that I think I have preference for softer techniques) to it. Very smooth, reminds me of water in a stream.

Makiotoshi was also worked on, I have to make sure that I finish the strike out to my left. Which is necessary in order to throw the sword back around behind the swordsperson. With all the jo ‘throwing’ the sword techniques, the jo always slides along the sword in order to get the flick away. In order to do this and not just club the sword you kind of have to move both hands until you are in contact with the sword and then the topmost hand moves faster which gives you that extra torque. Offcourse this all happens very quickly but that’s what I’m thinking at the moment.

Then I was working on kata 1 and 2 with 2 less experienced students. I was doing the sword side while they focused on learning the jo side. It was quite enjoyable correcting things to make it all look better. It is funny though because I know sensei is behind me watching to see if I make any mistakes on my side which he then interjects and corrects me on. I think I like helping make others better :).

Iaido

After warmups (which were a little different (Western Australia style apparently) and being told I have long arms…) we moved onto kata. We went through each kata 4 times in row. It feels really good when the sword comes out of the saya smoothly. I think I did it once on kata 2 (180 spin) and maybe once or twice between katas 5 and 6 (walking vertical draws). After we had pointers about the later katas in regards to feet positioning and cutting angle(very particular about everything) we went on to free training.

One of the other students asked me to show them kata 3 and so I gladly walked them through it. As I was going through it with them I could see/hear (in my head) all the training we have done on this kata over the weeks involving pairs. Practicing with someone more experienced than yourself really does help, even if they don’t say much, just seeing their form when you interact helps I think. Back to the kata again I could see sensei watching me as I explained things. Ironically I forgot one of the first things of raising the right foot to the toes to begin with because I was focussing on the block. Lack of practice evidently. The paired exercises have really given me a better idea about where we should be blocking and cutting.

After this I went on to practice kata 4 (the painful tatehiza kata). It became apparent that my footwork timing was all wrong. Before the first strike comes out the left foot comes up and hits the ground, followed shortly after by the strike and right foot. Then as you pull the saya off both feet/legs move into their right spots BEFORE the strike comes in. Same with turning back to the front. The legs move into position before the strike is completed.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Another good class, after 3 hours though you start to forget some of the first corrections you are given in the first stage of jodo practice. Oh well, guess I’ll have to try to commit it more to memory at the time.

Jodo

We just did basic practice followed by a block/throw technique (the one after kuritskae…) in paired form practice. I’m still not used to getting into the kuritskae position to block the sword (getting the jo to land between opponents hands. My form feels terrible when trying to assume it in time. The person I was practicing with this time, cuts in a different fashion so that threw me out a bit too. No matter, practice practice practice.

We spent the rest of the session learning kata 8, which has some rather quick movements in it which once you get used to are quite fun. I couldn’t really commit enough to memory to go really out though so I couldn’t really get in the zone.

Iaido

After basic techniques we did paired form practice of kata 3 with bokkens. So the defender is kneeling, the attacker comes in from the side to cut vertically through their head. The defender sees the attacker in their peripheral vision and draw the sword up and out to parry the blow. In the same motion the sword swings up overhead, is grasped with the other hand and then the now off-balance attacker is slain from shoulder to hip. When practicing this in partner form we were trying to get the footwork correct (aligned at the end and not stepping out too far) as well as showing that the draw does not need to be rushed by the defender. They can do it at the last moment and it should be done while rising not after rising. Also as was pointed out later, don’t raise useful up fully, keep some bend in the knees.

After this we went onto free practice. I worked on kata 3 for awhile with an iaito and then I went on to kata 2. Kata 2 involves starting kneeling, then spinning 180 degrees while drawing and horizontally cut the opponent who was behind you. I was picked up quite severely on this one. On rising from your heels to kneeling the sword is only really having the saya pulled back, not much draw happens from the other hand yet. Then the sword is rotated 90 degrees (for horizontal cut) but still not drawing much more. The drawing happens once you are at the bare minimum past the 90 degrees of the 180 spin. To demonstrate, I had a senior student sit next to me so that I could not draw until I had moved the sword past their position (under threat of death if I did lol). It makes sense and is actually a lot more balanced as the right hand doesn’t come out in a direction that is not at the opponent. By waiting a bit more for the draw, the draw becomes more focused out towards the opponent like in kata 1.

At the end we did kata 1-12 as a group (1-6 for me). In this I saw the correct footwork for going into tatehiza position. After kneeling, the right foot comes forward before the left foot goes underneath. Going into tatehiza was really painful for me today, must be leaning on a piece of bone. I’ll have to experiment during the week.

After class sensei gave me the iaito catalog to have a look through over the week. I look forward to next week. Something like this is a really worthwhile thing to do. It brings a sense of discipline that you don’t get in a ‘normal’ life. And doing it together in a group just helps along the way.