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.