Iaido Training Session 49

More Shinsa Training

Last Wednesday we spent another evening devoted to shinsa training through embu. I like this kind of solid practise and it stops me being distracted by other people.

Key points for me to remember:

1. Chiburi from shoden needs to be more clearly accelerating into the cut whereas seitei can be a bit more steady.
2. The first cut in Tozume needs to be a little more diagonal (this needs some work).
3. Yamaoroshi tempo mustn't become labored during the drawing process even with circles considered.

Ochiburi took a lot of hammering this evening and my legs and elbow felt it the next day. I am working to try to get the right hand to move more directly to the objective position rather than orbiting over and around my head. It's funny because I have been trying to get Lucy to do this for ages and now I am working on it myself. Shohatto as a whole is starting to feel more solid now that my focus is on footwork and I need to train ochiburi so that it becomes a favourite part of the kata rather than an Achilles heel (much like Soetezuki used to be for me).

I think the time is getting close to having another video review and then maybe take a break from the shinsa training to do some broader koryu training. I would like to ensure that my koryu kata for the grading are the "best of the bunch" rather than the few I could manage...

More coming up in a separate post...