A Beginner's Point of View 417-418

Day 417:

We were in the gym again. It’s not a comfortable floor. Our other nidan came back from her break away to take care of private business. We had some more structure today. After a full set and then half of another set, we lined up for class.

We learned some points about the fourth kata. I learned that I should only thrust my arms forward in the initial tsuka thrust, not lean forward. Pushing the sword out of the saya may lean me forward but not until then. I also learned to not be in a hurry to rise up from tate-heiza. Rise up onto toes and then fumi-komi. Remember to turn your head before the backward thrust and before turning back around for the final cut.

We practiced the third and fourth kata for the rest of class. I tried to include more metsuke in everything. I also have started to try to do the stand-up and cut for the third kata all in one motion. It’s really tempting to move too fast.

Day 418:

There was another new student today. The instructor spent most of the day with him teaching about standing and basic cuts. I got to do two and half sets by myself until he squeezed in a lesson.

We learned about the fifth kata. The biggest thing was something we had already known. It was to turn over the saya at the last moment before drawing. One thing I did learn was that on the downswing, you only cut to the center, not all the way back to the left side. That’s hard to do if you’re trying to make both upswing and downswing look together as a single attack.

The tsuka should finish its travel in the center while the ki-saki should finish a little left of center. It is better to twist the sword a bit in hasso so all you do is push it along the plane down into chiburi. I wonder if that’s the way in all of the big chiburi, like in number seven and number ten.