So I decided to compete in the 1st victorian iaido championship for the victorian kendo renmei. As it turned out there was 9 competitors. The format of the competition was knockout but with some second chance options. The arena was very hot and I was sweating heaps, just to set the scene :).

In this competition the following is performed within a time limit of 6 minutes:

• opening reiho
• kata 1
• kata 2
• kata 4
• kata 5
• kata 6
• closing reiho

(Unfortunately I don’t know the names of the kata).

It was a open kyu event so anyone from 6th kyu to 1st kyu could compete. So there I was down the bottom end being only recently graded versus people who have probably been practicing for quite a while.

First up I was against someone from another dojo. I was a lot more calm in this compared to the grading. I was trying to focus on maintaining a very calm breathing rate. In this I decided that I would focus on going all out for the kata. Trying to manifest maximum amount of intensity and spirit as I know that is what I generally lack.

Throughout the first round I felt that I performed fairly well. I know I mucked up kata 4, performing the thrust up to high on my chest and probably the first one to high aswell. My kata 5 cut angle was good and my intensity in kata 6 on the turns was great. But I don’t know if I got the sword directly over my head or not. At the end it was time for the 3 judges to make their decision. On the command I got 2 out of 3 flags. Hooray I won!

After a long wait while the losers played off for a second chance I was up again. I think this was my best performance. My closing reiho was brilliant, I did it without needing to look at the sword at all while picking it up and placing it down. Once again I won 2 out of 3 flags.

Another battle occurred between two of my sempai’s. One seemed just a bit technically superior but then the match just went against him and I was surprised. Obviously spirit is very important and sensei reiterated this later on saying that it is always a balance between technique and spirit that the judges have to way up.

Next I was to face the winner of my two sempai’s. Coming up to face him after seeing some technical flaws left me with a glimmer of a chance, however I know he is very big on spirit and intensity and that his Iai in general is pretty good. After all he is quite a few grades above me. Sitting in the chair waiting for our turn I was concentrating on keeping my breathing under control. I could hear his breathing and it seemed a little shallow. Then I turned my attention back to the task at hand.

During opening reiho I invented a new way to screw it up. Instead of reaching out with the right hand palm up to pick up the sword I did it palm down. Realising my error as I picked it up I somehow managed to maneuver my wrist around to the proper inserting position. The rest of the kata went along rather well. Then at the end of closing reiho I stood up right on my hakama getting the back of it stuck, which is really difficult to hide. no matter. I lost it 2 flags to 3. I was glad to lose to someone from my own dojo.

Then as I was walking off I was called up again to playoff for 3rd place. I mustn’t have had my sageo properly folded in my hand due to the quick recall and that was the beginning and end of my concerns. During opening reiho I must have grabbed the wrong 2 sections. Consequently I had a bit of trouble tying it up, it must have ended up in some sort of knot as I found out later when trying to undo it. I had to pull like 3 different sections to get it free, luckily it came out. I lost 2 to 3 flags again.

4th place to me, which I am more than happy with given my current level of experience and general fatigue levels for working 40+ hours at work.

Sensei came and had a chat to me later and it said it was very close until near the end where I looked like I was getting tired. Which is not surprising after doing just over 10 minutes of continuous kata. Looking back I do seem to recall losing a bit of focus between kata 5 and 6.

Either way it was a great day and everyone was really friendly and all smiling and all that. It’s nice to have the pressure put on you to really try and perform at your best. I was quite happy with the level of calmness I managed to retain all though it was still far from ideal. In the end it was just fun swinging a sword around pretending with 110% seriousness that is a real life and death situation.