A Beginner's Point of View 764-765

Day 764:

Today was a preparation day in Iaido. I did 2 sets of kata and then was invited to practice a test twice. My first test I did a recommended set of 1, 3, 5, 9, 11 and got a time of 5:25. Not bad but I need to stretch it out more.

I then tried a set of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and got a time of 6:07. That didn’t make sense. I did stretch out my breathing but that much time seemed a bit long. The senior student admitted that she forgot to give the command to approach and started the time without giving the command. That makes more sense. I need to remember to make 2 short breaths between each kata.

In Kendo, we had a tournament preparation day. After suri-ashi, we had the beginners line up for matches and we taught guests and family members how to keep time and score. In my matches, I fought Sensei and my old first instructor who is nidan like myself. I lost the first match and tied the second one. Just like how real tournaments go.

Day 765:

No class today as I am ill.

Day 765.5 Iaido seminar:

Ouch, ouch, ouch. Standing in place for hours and performing kata is hurting my back. I need to see the doctor about that.

Still, the seminar was very good. We learned a lot about how we’re not breathing right. We need to breathe in slowly to start the kata and then exhale strongly for each cut. Breathe in and out for noto and stepping back.

It turns out that I was making a mistake with the eleventh kata. The draw is not straight overhead. It’s a little bit angled like the twelfth kata so it is sympathetic with the first cut. That makes it so much easier.

Breathing this way actually does make everything work better. I should remember to do it that way. Not that I can seem to remember it. During the tournament, things were exactly as expected. One match, no flags, loss, then wait for hours and hours for the next event. At least I sat down for a lot to save my back.

For the shinsa, at least I psyched myself up. Need to cut deliberately and smoothly to impress the judges. I made sure to use as much spirit as possible and cut the air with authority. It seemed to have worked and I passed ikkyu.