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.