This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

Going through the kihon at the beginning of practice I was quite surprised at the sound of my Kiai’s which were (to me) much different to usual. Much stronger/clearer and closer to replicating the sounds of my teacher (albeit a very long way off that). Must be a progression on from last week.

We moved through kihon quite rapidly, I think maybe I just need to practice more on my own so I’ll be comfortable at that pace. After this we did the sotei of Hikiotoshi. It’s amazing how little I am aware of my technique. Consistently I was not side on enough and I had no idea. Which reminds of another point in kihon in which I was dropping my body weight too much in dobarai and hikiotoshi.

We spent some time working through katas 1-3 rotating partners and each training a little with sensei. We were enlightened a bit with the footwork on the sword side of kata 2. Also some movements were corrected in regards to having the body more square on.

To finish with one of the senior students taught me kata 4. An interesting one which has a unusual movement to kaeshi zuki and a neat method of putting away the jo.

Iaido

Today was a little christmas special where we were taught Tamiya Ryu’s first kata. It is similar to Seitei’s first kata except it is rising and the opponent is off to the right a bit. There are probably a thousand other differences but there is no point me going into it. It did kind of re-emphasis the need to focus on the basics though. Sensei pointed out the my cuts are still a bit weird with me now raising the sword up just before cutting which is throwing everything out. It’s scary how hard it is for me to perceive the feeling of this motion. It must be something that I have developed when I took out the too tight grip I had. Now my arms are still used to that grip and hence forcing everything up as I begin.

Practice practice practice. Enough said.