This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

This week we first went through the grading format, which it seems now I only need to perform the first 4 techniques rather then the first 8 I originally expected. After this the 4 newer students (myself included) worked on kata 1 and 2. Which need a lot more work!

Iaido

First let me briefly talk about the line involved in gradings. At the start you stand up, walk forward and kneel down just behind the line. Then the sword must be placed down in front of the line. On finishing you must walk back behind the line and follow the same procedure. With walking back though it is at the end of a kata so you cannot look down, you have to feel it with your feet. Another reason to walk with your toes down.

During training I spent basically the whole session practicing kata 2 trying to not stand on my hakama, I did relatively well but it’s still going to be a risky affair. In the mock grading I didn’t stand on it so with everything I would have passed if that was it, finally. So hopefully everything works out on saturday.

Closing up I worked with a couple of new students (myself being one of the learners) on how to do the opening and closing ceremonies. There are still so many little intricacies that I don’t know.