A Beginner's Point of View 533-534

Day 533:

Today was unique. It was only myself and Sensei. Nobody else showed up. I’m sure he was looking forward to cancelling advanced class and going home early. Not for me, though. He planned for a ‘shorter class’ but still wanted to work on some kata, though. Good for me.

We practiced kiri-kaeshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, doh-ouchi, and ji-geiko. We did a few types of kiri-kaeshi such as men only, man and kote only, men and kote with oji-waza, and then full ji-geiko.

We broke for kata. We practiced all seven kata as if testing. Sensei gave a few pointers, but he said I should be good enough to pass.

He then looked at the clock and realized that we had lots of time left. So he offered to teach me the three short sword kata. He loaned me his kodachi.

In the eighth kata, the shidachi must switch swords to the kodachi, making sure to bend the knee nearest the shodan. The uchidachi steps into left jodan. The shidachi starts with the kodachi in chudan and his hand on his left hip. He then reaches forward with the kodachi and raise to aim for the chin. Both take three steps forward. The uchidachi attempts to strike men, but the shidachi parries like in Iaido using uke-nagasu to the left. The shidachi steps forward and right and strike the shidachi’s men. You then step back into left jodan and the uchidachi turns to take chudan. Both step back into line and finish.

In the ninth kata, both the shidachi and uchidachi move into gedan and step forward three times. The uchidachi tries to raiser up but fails and moves into waki-gamae. The shidachi takes chudan. The uchidachi raises into squared jodan and tries to strike men. The shidachi parries to the right and then steps left and strike the uchidachi’s men. The shidachi then brings the kodachi to the right hip and grabs the uchidachi’s right arm above the elbow to pin the arm. The shidachi must be very, very close to do this properly. Almost face-to-face. The shidachi steps back to the start position and both finish.

The tenth kata starts with the shidachi taking gedan. Both step forward for three steps, however the uchidachi raises up on the second step and strike men on the third step. The uchidachi should raise up to parry the bokken using a suriage and toss the blade to the left and behind the uchidachi’s side. The uchidachi uses the momentum to swing the sword up and around to the shidachi’s doh. The shidachi must parry sideways to the right to block the doh strike. The shidachi must step forward while sliding up to the tsuba with your tsuba and grab the right arm of the uchidachi. The shidahci steps forwards, carrying the uchidachi with them for three steps. The shidachi returns the kodachi to the hip for zanshin and then return to start. Both the finish and bow out.

We wound up going over time limit with instruction.

Day 534:

This was a hard practice. We did kiri-kseshi, men-ouchi, kote-ouchi, doh-ouchi, and kote-suriage-men. Each were multiple repetitions, draining my breath. We then did a few rounds of ji-geiko.

We then broke for kata. The other instructor then took his turn teaching me the three kodachi kata. These kata are complicated to do. I’ll need a lot of practice. Good thing I won’t need them for years to come when testing for sandan.