Iai-waza and a big stick
Topic: Cutting from the Wrist
Last night I went back to class and of course helped to teach the kids classes and moved onto some of my own stuff before class. I took one of the Chen swords that Loren had sent me and tried some iai-waza with it. This is where I made my rookie mistake for the evening. My first mistake was that I didn't fix my dogi after I had been doing ukemi with some of the students. The other rookie mistake was not taking the time to get familiar with the three foot knife I was swinging around. At one point I noticed a small peice of my higagi (the wrap over jacket) hanging loose. During one of the sword draws I was doing, I had nicked the jacket and because of the way it was sitting against me, it provided enough resistance for the blade to cut. This loosely translates as I need to pay more attention to my form ( as well as my jackets ) otherwise I am going to be an expert in sewing-fu.

Also last night during the Shinko-Ryu Kempo class, little old me was approached by my sensei and asked about my long staff forms. He had mentioned that he had not seen me do them in a while and wanted to see if my skills were up to par. I demonstrated both forms that I know and he was satisfied with my performance. Although I know I can make the most of every kata and make sure I show the instructor what he wants to see, there is always room for impovement. And I know from what I did last night what parts I have to improve on.

This weekend we are starting some basic cutting excersizes with the test blades from Orochi Shinken. I am going to video my cutting demo and get it out of the way so that way I can concentrate on some of the torture tests by some of my fellow kenshi.

This should be fun.

Regards,
Walt