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.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

This week we mainly focused on Sotei or paired forms of basic techniques. In particular we practiced Hickiotoshi and Mackiotohi. My Hickiotoshi doesn’t really feel right in the paired form (it doesn’t feel that great in individual either). I’m told I’m lowering the front hand too much (too early really). In particular my left side is worse. It’s funny how so much of the technique is learnt through feel. But then again, it’s funny how wrong your thoughts one day are when reconsidered a few days later.

I enjoy practicing Makiotoshi, I feel like I can really go all out with it. I hope I wasn’t being too hard on my partner. Having said that I doubt it, because when sensei did it with him he threw him far further around that I even approached. When doing the technique on me I still can’t perceive when he is going to attack. I just barely have enough time to sense that my sword has started to be thrown and I have to quickly move my foot in order to avoid being stabbed with it. Maybe I need to do less looking with my eyes and more sensing. A kendo friend of mine said that they are trained to look at the opponents eyes as that is where you will first see the attack. I’ll have to experiment more with that during sotei practice.

I’m going for 4th Kyu grading in a fortnight, oddly enough I’m not really concerned. I must be overconfident in my Jodo technique.

Iaido

Kata Kata Kata and reiho (opening/closing ceremonies). After warmups, Sensei went through the opening bows and all that, emphasising that it’s an important part of the practice and very important in grading. One of the big things is Sageo(the cord attached to the saya) control. It always has to be maneuvered in thirds. Sometimes you swap hands holding the sword and in the movement you need to transfer the sageo from one hand to the other. In closing you also need to magically hook your thumb between one of the thirds. So difficult for something that looks like something minor.

During the bow to the sword we place the hands out in a triangle in front of our body. The distance away from the body that this triangle should be formed is decided by the fact that your elbows should come in just next to your knees. Apparently one reason for the hands out is such that if someone where to slam your hand into the ground while you were bowing you have some protection but we are a bit iffy on it.

After this is was Kata practice. I just focused on kata 1 and 2 over and over and over again. Probably 45 minutes worth, 30 at least. I was sweating heaps by the end of it. This week I didn’t stand on my hakama as much but it was still definitely an issue.

Finishing up, a sensei (6th dan I think) from japan is going to be down for the gradings and will be giving a training session during the week. I’d really like to go but I have to make a short presentation at uni which I won’t be able to get out of and as such I don’t think I will make it in time. Nevertheless we will see what happens.

Also I got my black iai uniform today, yet to try it on.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Sensei was back this week after training with some other sensei who were down in our state last week. Also he was using a Shinken today which we received ample warning about

Jodo

Sensei today was focusing on getting across to us the couple of changes that have occurred recently, which is great seems we have a grading in 3 weeks. The main changes are to Honte and Gyakute, where now the strike comes forward with the rear hand more so than the up forward down that was originally taught. I had to change the angle that I hold the jo at when I raise it before the strike. Basically in the interim position the jo crosses just above the eye, which quite a bit steeper angle than I originally had it. This helps so you don’t slide your hand down the jo instead of moving it.

Following this we learnt some Sotei which apparently is going to be focused more upon in the future. This is the paired form of the the basic techniques (kihon). This was interesting, it also gives you a good chance to practice your zanshin and seme with a real person.

Iaido

As I mentioned Sensei had his shinken along today, as such we were told we are allowed to laugh at him if he cuts himself which I thought is rather ironic as generally you wouldn’t want to laugh at someone holding a Shinken

During warmups we did a few slightly different exercises, one which kills the thighs. We go into seiza (kneeling with the bum just above your heels, must not be touching) and from there continually do a slightly modified version of kata 1 without rising (replace O-chiburi with Yoto-chiburi). We did this for some time between 5-10 minutes I guess and I was sweating pretty bad after it, it took a lot of effort to remain above my heels :).

After this we went onto kata practice in which somewhere along the way I must have stood on my hakama as from then on it was loose and too low so I proceeded to get it caught under my feet all the time which destroys your balance terribly. Then we a mock grading again, in which my opening/closing ceremonies were better than last week but my katas where terrible (due to the hakama issue). Going to have to re-double my efforts (ironically all my uni projects are due next week…).

I forgot to mention we also did a paired exercise where one person executes vertical cuts and the other would listen for where the sound was coming from. This was done in order to try and get our cuts correct. The sound should begin/occur somewhere out in front of the person and above their head height. It was a good exercise. At one stage a 1st Kyu student was helping me with my cuts and he corrected some stuff very nicely. I think I finally did a good cut. First he said I need to let go of the hammer grip (too strong and all fingers) and treat it more like throwing out a rod. Then also the I need to initiate and throw the cut mostly using the lower fingers on the hand (not the index/middle so much). Using this advice and really trying to throw it right out I got a good cut and a bit of a feel for it.

After class Sensei went about figuring out what length sword I should get for my Iaito by getting me to perform Noto with various swords. There was a bit of debate between a 2-4-5 or a 2-5-0. In the end we decided on a 2-4-5 as a 2-5-0 was just pushing it a little for my height. I could manage it but at the moment probably best off with a 2-4-5. As I’ve mentioned I’ve been struggling with Noto, during the measuring Sensei pushed my hands about a bit which taught me a little which I think will help a great deal. With noto the movement of the saya is more back and around a little as opposed to regular saya-biki where the saya goes right around. This was the main point that I think will help me stop pushing the sword out of my hand. Also moving the left hand a fair distance first before moving out the right hand and then moving the right hand out quickly. Moving it out quickly helps with the changing of the hand position providing you have a loose grip. So ironically part of me learning noto is going to be ‘fast is slow’. Ah, just practice practice practice. Shame an Iaito feels so different to the bokken I practice with at home.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

It was a smaller crowd today, so all the more pressure and scrutiny.

Jodo

Just 4 of us today and I was instructed to do the commands for the jodo warmup. Surprisingly I managed to remember them all. My Makiotoshi and Kuri-hanashe don’t feel right but everything else wasn’t too bad.

After warm-ups we worked on the application of hickiotoshi. The jo person was placed between two opponents with bokken. Each would take it in turns to place it out in front and have the jo strike it away. I have to make sure I keep the jo coming through vertical and finish further to the outside of my body rather than the middle.

We finished by working on paired katas. I went through kata 1 and 2 with one of (not all that new) students. I’m not confident with 3 yet so I decided to stay away from it for the time being. Considering I don’t need to perform any kata for my Jodo grading I’ll let them wait a bit.

Iaido

Here is where all my problems are.

First, my noto is terrible. I’m going to try relaxing my right hand more and see if getting my thumb a little more under the handle enables me to do better. But I’m really struggling to get it to work properly.

For the upcoming grading I need to perform opening and closing ceremony and katas 1 and 2. There are several hundred things that I need to touch up on in the katas (in particular noto). But my reiho really needs work. In particular I’m unsure of exactly where things go and I have very little full dress practice. It all has to be so perfect and correct it is painful. As the saying goes here, ‘It’s what you don’t do that will make you pass’. All extraneous movements need to be removed and the list goes on and on.

After warmups we broke into 2 groups, our group went through some scrutiny on our kata and then did a mock grading (which I knew I screwed up many times over). I’ll have to practice the ceremonies every day along with noto from now until the grading I think (Late October), otherwise I will be very lucky not to fail.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I would have to say I had a bad morning today, maybe my body was just sore from part-time work the night before but my whole energy level was down so it was very hard to snap into the right mind frame. I didn’t realise the effort that is required in order to really focus. It is something that you have to be prepared for all the time, ready to manifest it on request. It was an interesting lesson to learn, offcourse it means more to me than I can express in writing.

So first up, I left my Obi at home. So luckily Sensei had some spares, I was quite upset with myself for forgetting it because I pride myself on doing things right everytime (Close to a perfectionist attitude but it’s more just for things that I think are important… Well you can look at everything in a negative or positive light). Next I enquired with Sensei about how I tied the bow on my Gi (top). Apparently it must be horizontal rather than vertical which is what I had it like last week and received a reprimand for. While asking him about this he pointed out that I had obviously done something seriously wrong in tying up my hakama. So we took it off and started from the beginning.

For completeness sake (and so I don’t forget) I’ll go through tying up the hemo. First of all, the front of the hakama goes just above the obi (Which I just remembered, the obi should be pulled down a little at the front), almost a centimeter above. Then the front hemos go around to the back and cross over on top of the obi bow. It’s important that they cross from top to bottom over the bow, keeps it nice and tight. Then it comes back to the front of the body. Here it stays below the bottom of the obi. Tie it up a little (gotta be tight) and then bring it around behind again. Here you tie it up properly (below the obi), very tight again.

Now it’s time for the rear hemo’s which are the shorter ones. There is a tag connected to the rear of the hakama which goes down between your body and the obi. Then bring the hemo’s around to the front. Cross one over the top of the other and then bring that one up from below, underneath the previous hemo which has been tied up. Then tie a knot here with the rear hemo’s. For Jodo it is a reef knot, for Iaido it is this unusual bow sort of thing which is the same as on the obi. Finally for Jodo you will have some remaining hemo. These are tucked over the top and down over the high hemo. Then the ends are tucked into the sides of the hakama. Whether you fold them in the sides or tuck them under the obi doesn’t seem to matter. Mainly just keep them out of the way and out of sight. I tuck it under the obi because it doesn’t come out very easy I’ve found.

For Iaido, the katana is placed within the innermost loop of the obi (so it’s one layer of the obi before the body) in the middle. It is then maneuvered to go out through the left side hole in the hakama. One thing I didn’t know originally is that the sword scabbard (saya) is supposed to go over the top of one of the hemo at your side. This also helps to keep the sword more horizontal which is good. There is nothing much more embarrassing then having the saya slip down at your side and be vertical along your leg. It just looks terrible and is not right. In an art where perfection is so deliberately aimed for it is not on. Which is another reason to make sure you tie your obi really tight.

Jodo

Today was all kihon (basic technique) for me. We spent a lot of time on the first few techniques, which is fine for me as that’s what I’ll be graded on. I was very unhappy with most of my techniques today. Particularly my makiotoshi was bad, I couldn’t feel the movement flowing through my arms and body so it was stilted. It’s amazing how a good strong focus effects your movements, when it is lacking so is your action. Afterwards Sensei had me training 3 of the newer ones. He comes around here and there to inspect all of our techniques and correct us. I’m a little surprised at my confidence, the japanese commands just seem to role off of my tongue (not that the pronunciation is correct). It’s also funny how many of the things I say that are things that have been said to me to correct what I do. In particular ensuring that people don’t hold the jo directly in front of them such that they can’t draw it behind them without moving. My sensei proceeded to gently shove the Jo into my lower abdomen and explain that his Japanese Sensei is not so gentle. Not a lesson I would forget, I used something similar to illustrate to one of the other students, except I have a gentler nature so I didn’t make contact but explained that other Sensei would do as our Sensei did to me.

The wonderful thing about martial arts is that is an honest conversation.

One of the new girls is very shy and in particular is embarrassed about Kiaing. Sensei gives her a hard time making sure she atleast makes some sort of noise (he explains the reason, while he is demanding he is very considerate). Next week I’ll have to tell her how I used to be very shy about Kiaing and that Sensei made me go up and down one side of the hall by myself for most of the class. She has the advantage of working with other new students. Really kiaing is important and I think it adds a certain something to the art. I’m not sure what it is but I’m glad I’ve been made to do it.

Iaido

Well I don’t know if my kata suck or not, maybe they just suck somewhat… I know my cuts still aren’t feeling right. I’ve been watching Sensei very closely and I have some new ideas to try out. Also my noto needs some work, must remember to move the left hand back first. I have great difficulty getting my right hand to move out freely as I begin noto and I know it looks ugly. I must practice more!!!

The rest of class was on kata 1 and 2 for me. We did some group practice followed by myself and another student performing individualy while all the others were asked to pick faults in our technique. The senior student taking us was counting errors on his fingers. So while I was doing my kata I could see him out of the corner of my eye counting. It’s all part of the training, preparing us for gradings.

Among a large variety of things to correct, two notables were a greater sense of Jo-Ha-Kyu (speeding up) and cutting like I mean it. The senior student really killed me every time I cut. Which is fair enough, I can’t get any power into my draw cuts in particular.

Afterwards he came over and made the comment that I should be fine for the gradings, but you always want to pass as best as possible. This is the way of class, always someone drilling some tiny point into you until you can’t take it anymore. The more you repeat the error the harder it will be drilled into you. It is brutally disciplined but I think it is right.

So glad I’m doing something so hard and honest.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Very interesting today, I realised that never before have I taught someone who was more than a couple of years older than me. Today that changed. Also I got to practice in uniform for the first time which was awesome.

Jodo

We began as we always do with the warmups. I’m really enjoying Jodo. I seem to be able to remember all the techniques better than Iaido and the movements feel much more natural. My Kiai’s have also improved heaps recently. It was probably only 2 or 3 weeks ago that my Kiai’s were very weak (just generally weak as opposed to tentative). This is linked in with intent and concentration. I was quite good in both areas today. At the beginning of each technique I would take the ready position and focus on an imaginary point in front of me (I should be visualising an opponent but I’m not to that level yet). I could quite literally feel my pressure and intent hone in on that direction and somehow this enabled my Kiai’s to be much more focused. It is interesting how your level of intent and concentration feeds in to everything you do. Your body movements, your strikes, your Kai’s, everything can be so different with a determined and intent mind.

The only thing I really had to watch out for is to make sure in Kaeshi Zuki that I’m dropping the bottom hand far enough and taking the first vertical ready position before moving into the ’somewhat’ horizontal ready position.

After this I was about to work on some kata when Sensei commanded me to come over to where he was with the more junior students of the class (I’m really confused as to what level I’m at. I suppose to even segregate the students into levels is incorrect, as this is not what class feels like. You know where someone is at by how they perform their techniques and it is far more subtle than any assignment of rank. But I’ll leave that discussion for another day). So as I was saying, Sensei called me over. And then you’ll never guess what happened, he paid me a compliment (in an offhand way offcourse). Training is always very grueling, usually the closest thing you can get to a compliment is for sensei to look at your technique and walk away without correcting it (Unless it’s the case where they believe you are not putting in enough effort and so ignore you, which I hear is common among Japanese teachers, once again, a story for another day). Anyway after mentioning that I appeared to be quite competent at the early techniques he wanted me to instruct the 5 other (’junior’) students.

Initially I don’t think I could hide my surprise, I certainly didn’t expect it. So when I nodded in acknowledgment of his request he continued to look at me with that face that you know is trying to analyse what you are thinking/feeling. So I gave him a confident ‘Hai’ and he moved on. Now I was left with 5 students to manage and instruct in almost any manner I felt like. Two of them I know relatively well, the others I only see maybe once a month (from Shepperton) so I don’t know them that well. The other thing that I didn’t realise at the time was that atleast two of them are probably almost as old as my father (to their credit they are probably not that old). I never realised that I have never really seriously taught someone that was much older than myself in my life. The fact that the thought never even crossed my mind is a tribute to the quality of the people at the dojo and to the style in which Sensei teaches (and probably the art in general). Their is no discrimination between age, sex or ability. The only thing that matters is your willingness to contribute, learn and exert effort.

To avoid getting sidetracked once again, let me resume. So I got them to perform the first few basic techniques (tandoku) while I walked up and down the line checking angles and looking for things to jump out at me as wrong. I was surprised how confident I was shouting out the japanese commands for different techniques and maneuvers. In particular there are a series of commands that tell people to put away the jo and turn around. Namely after Yamae we have ‘Motowae, Mawari Migi’. Each of these commands relates to a particular part of finishing a technique (while it’s different to a strict japanese translation I’m sure). Personally I associate them with similar sounding english phrases.

‘Motowae’ - “Put it away”. Move the jo from the final position of the strike to the regular ready position awaiting further commands.

‘Mawari’ - “Get ready”. Turn the tip of the jo down so the rear comes up and rests behind your shoulder. This is the position just before you turn around. Hence it’s ‘getting ready’ for the turn

‘Migi’ - I don’t have anything that really rhymes with this one, but it’s always the last one so it’s easy to just remember to turn on that command.

I think I heard from a translation perspective, ‘Mawari Migi’ means ‘turn right’ but I digress.

It was surprising how many people would go through the whole turn after I had just said ‘Motowae’. So I tried to drill in each stage of the turn. There was some issues with the turn for some people but I thought I should focus on bigger issues so I let it slide for the time being.

For honte uchi and gyakute uchi there was one person who was doing the strike and it just looked wrong. I think it was that the back hand was sliding down the jo too early, but I couldn’t be 100% sure and couldn’t reproduce it in my own technique. Sensei confirmed though that the back hand should definitely lift first before coming down and forward(mostly forward).

Then we moved on to Hickiotoshi (once again the name just came to me without having to think about it). Here there was issues with strikes that weren’t coming through vertical and also lots of issues with the starting positions. People weren’t resting their lower hand on their thigh and there was all sorts of variations on where the top hand was. The top hand should be where it goes if you just naturally raise your hand bending from the elbow. It generally goes somewhere just slightly in front of the shoulder.

I was being a little generous on some of them because I wasn’t sure if they could physically make the position but Sensei intervened saying they should all be able to make the position. He then proceeded to use me as a presentation doll to illustrate some points. The cool thing was that he had me assume the ready position and then just point out all the things that I was doing right without me knowing what he was going to show. Like he had me take away the top hand totally to show that you should be supporting the jo totally with the bottom hand. Very interesting stuff.

After a little bit more of my attempt to instruct I was pulled away to do some practice on my katas while someone else took over. My katas were generally good with the exception of kata 3 which I still haven’t really got my body around.

Afterwards one of the 5 I was instructing came over to mention that he thought the way I was emphasizing a few points was very good (mostly the japanese commands) which was nice of him. I’ve spent way too long talking about Jodo so moving on.

Iaido

I’m really enjoying my Iaido, especially gliding across the floor and really trying to emphasize the jo-ha-kyu before strikes. My cutting technique still doesn’t feel good, it’s been over 6 months of training ( I just had massive dejavu on that line… anyway) and I still think my cuts suck. Mainly I just don’t have any smoothness to it, I must be tensing too much and at all the wrong places.

Today we went through warm-ups and then split up to work on katas. Specifically I was doing kata 1-4. My kata 4 had issues which is not surprising as it is rather intricate and I haven’t practiced it for quite a while. Always get confused as to when to move the legs in relation to the arms etc. There were some minor points on needing to do my O-chiburi closer to my head and things like that but that’s really all I’ll mention for now.

Before I forget though I must talk about being in uniform!

I’ve always been a fan of loose clothing, track pants over jeans that sort of thing. A Hakama would have to be the closest thing to a dress a man can wear. Incredibly loose and it flows everywhere around your legs when you are moving. Feels much better doing the techniques in a hakama and Gi compared to track pants and a t-shirt. Also looks much more traditional/professional and just more in the spirit of training. I think wearing the uniform just makes the whole occasion more unique and the group look more unified. I could go on and on but if you have made it this far through this long post I will spare you and thank you for reading.

Till next week.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

I’ll report in reverse order today. So starting with the end we got some uniforms today :). So I now have the Jodo (blue/indigo) uniform and I’ve ordered the Iaido (black) one from another guy which I should get in a month or so. Now that I have the uniform I’ve come across another great challenge in the art. a) figuring out how to put all the darn stuff on and b) figuring out how to fold it when you put it away. ‘A’ will probably kill me for a week or two, ‘B’ on the other hand could take months for me to get really right. Folding the pleated(7 I believe) correctly and then doing the rather intricate knot at the end is going to take a lot out of me. That’s what is so great about this art. In every way it forces you to be a total beginner :D.

Jodo

More and more Kihon (basic techniques) today. Sorry did I say more and more, I meant more and more and more and more and more Kihon. After the initial run through sensei went through some finer points on Makiotoshi, Kurihanshe and Dobari. For makiotoshi I needed to angle my Jo less straight such that more angle is created between the Jo and sword. Also I need to maintain a strong zanshin(awareness/intent) after the strike/throw on coming forward. Finally something that everyone needed to look into for all techniques was to make sure that we don’t lean for in any of them.

For Kurihanshe (another of the catch and throw techniques… interesting) we were trying to get the sense of keeping the Jo feeling sticky on the sword as we move forward to throw the sword away. The timing of moving the hands and body is very interesting with this one. A lot of peoples problems were that they would move the left hand first (which is fine) but take it too far which releases pressure on the sword (freeing the attacker, not good!). Bringing the left hand to far forward and down moves the tip of the Jo behind you which releases the pressure which I mentioned. The left hand has to move first, but to stop the Jo releasing the pressure you step in at the same time. That forward motion helps to compensate for the left hand movement. Using this, you can get the left hand in a good position, while maintaining pressure, and then produce a strong controlled throw. In Sensei demonstrating the technique on one of the senior student he nearly took him out as he wasn’t expecting as much force. Which was quite funny (only because we have such a light-hearted atmosphere generally, but always serious when it comes to technique).

Finally on Dobari it was once again about the angle of the Jo and the body. Making sure that the back foot doesn’t go past the front foot when you move it back (so when you are standing side on the back foot is just in front of the front foot). Then also as you draw back for the strike, you draw back and over your shoulder (rather than straight back). Sensei demonstrated how the few degrees off in angle make the differences between whether your opponents sword practically falls out of their hands (due to the damage to the wrists, the sword is hit quite violently at an awkward angle) or the sword going down but then easily maneuvered around into a position ready to attack again.

We finished focusing on really applying pressure on an opponent with our spirit/intent. Which led to me hitting a guy on the head (thankfully I managed to pull the strike so it wasn’t full strength)… It is much more enjoyable when you get right into the act, your mind broadens and senses sharpen.

Iaido

Kata work on 1 and 3 in this one. Once again focusing on pressure/intent. My kata 1 was good, my kata 3 terrible. Not being able (due to lack of making time (darn uni)) to practice every technique kata I know each week is starting to show as I forget finer points. Like in 3 I was forgetting to raise my toes on the right foot as the first/second movement, which provides the power for the next move.

Really need to practice more. My Jodo is holding together well, but Iaido not so well.

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.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Been very busy this week, hence the late post.

Jodo

This week was warmups followed by paired forms of basic techniques. So one person would have a bokken and the other the jo. Then the Jo person would strike with the bokken person receiving. First we did Honte uchi. With this technique the bokken’s role was to move back just as the jo person was striking such that the jo would end up only a few inches from your forehead. The key for this paired form was that the bokken person must move late. If you move early you can’t judge how far the jo person is going to strike and also it doesn’t give as much of a realistic target.

The second paired form for this was Gyakute Uchi in which the bokken person would actually block the strike a few inches from the temple of the head with that of a sticky sensation. Then they would continue to pivot backwards blocking on alternate sides with each strike. Once again it was necessary to block late to give a more realistic target. It is all part of training Ma-ai(distance) skill, which is probably closest translated to combative distance.

We finished with kata work where I improved my paired form version of kuritskae where I break the opponents center more before locking the sword on them with my Jo.

Iaido

I’d lost the knack of my new cutting technique from last week so I spent most of the warmup trying to get that back which I didn’t really achieve. What I did enjoy was that I was managing to cover a lot of ground with my steps. So when we were practicing cutting and turning I was managing to get a fair bit of slide in my steps. This is nice as it gives a good sense of speeding up to a climax.

That sense of slow-medium-fast (or fast-faster-fastest) called Jo-Ha-Kyu has been the most recent advice for improving my technique. One of my main problems is that there is little sense of rhythm in my movements. I know what to do and can do it, now I need to do it better. All my cuts need to have a sense of this speeding up and then bang! strike. That was the most important thing to take away and work on this week. For the rest of class we worked on the kata that we will be doing for our gradings (in about a month or so), I really need to get in practice time.

Finishing up I managed to order a uniform (finally), just the black Iaido uniform but it should be good to have. It’ll probably take me forever to learn how to put it on properly. Also I bought the Federations official Iaido and Jodo manuals so now I’ll have a ‘reliable’ reference (as opposed to my memory) to what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s no substitute for having someone poke and prod you continually for hours but it’s a useful reminder.

This post is part of the First Year of Budo series

Jodo

All week I had been going over the japanese commands for each of the techniques in the warm-up in case Sensei decided it was my time (it has been more and more threatening each week :)). This week however he didn’t make a particular person do the entire warmups (probably due to last weeks disastrous effort…), rather he randomly picked people for each different technique. It came time that he eyed each of us off and then he picked me for one which just happens to be one of the latter and longer ones. But I was on the ball and up to the challenge remembering that it was time for ‘Tsuki Hazuchi Uchi’. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that ‘Tsuki’ is actually pronounced more like ’ski’ but overall a good result. My japanese is rather terrible understandably.

We spent quite a while working on a couple of these techniques trying to polish them up. After which we went onto kata. My kata 3 really sucks, the other ones are not so bad. Getting into kuritskae and catching the swordsman I find tough. However the thing I am getting killed over every week in kata practice is that I don’t appear threatening enough. Bah! I can’t figure it out. Obviously more defined/precise (through practice) movements and maintaining focus on the opponent are a step in the right direction but obviously I’m really missing something. Hmmm…

Iaido

I got to learn 2 new kata today, 12 and 11 (which is the order I learnt them). With 12, the swordsman steps back one step while drawing his sword very vertical in order to evade an opponents cut. Then in a rather fluid fashion you step back in towards the opponent and cut through their body. The key difficulties here are drawing vertical, if you draw flat even a little you will generally lose your arm. You also have to make sure you don’t step so far back in the dodge such that you can’t get back to the opponent quick enough.

We practiced this in paired form. First I practiced with one of the middle-level students and that was difficult enough considering I had just learnt the kata. But at the end he was swapped with one of the senior students who was doing his attack from the draw (meaning it’s harder to judge distance) and very fast. Basically if I did it wrong here I certainly would have felt it for a few days.

The other kata I learnt was 11. This is a long kata involving 5 cuts to a single opponent (plus a glancing parry). All 5 cuts come in at different angles ranging from vertical to horizontal. All 5 cuts are to different locations of the body (chin, sternum, waist, horizontal through waist, vertical through body). The last 2 cuts ’sort of’ bleed together (I’m told they are supposed to be fluent but must be distinct from each other) and it is a really nice sweeping motion. After running through it on my own 5 or 6 times one of the senior students arrived telling me something along the lines that ‘now that you know the basic moves it is time pick it apart’. She then proceeded to tell me all the things I was doing wrong and what all the key issues to remember for the kata are. Sessions are brutal and intense but they can’t really be any other way. Always striving for perfection means always improving and finding faults.

I’m very tired today so I’ll leave it there. Oh actually I forgot to mention that I changed my cutting technique a little. Now at the very beginning of my strike I really focus on the right hand going forward and left hand staying where it is or almost moving backwards. This makes the sword ‘flick’ over and forward cutting into the target before you slice down with both hands. In practice the hands at the start still move down a little but I need to focus more on getting the right first motion so I’m thinking like the above. In cutting to the contact point of the opponent sensei said ‘Pretend that you are cutting a fly that is sitting on your friends’ head’. He is a classic