I just enjoyed a very pleasant 5 days in Zawiercie for this year's Polish
Iaido and Jodo Championships. There were examinations for both with iaido going
up to and including 4th dan. I only sat on the 4th dan panel and only 1 out of
4 candidates passed. Those that failed came up to me afterwards to ask for some
feedback and advice and I wasn't able to offer much. The problem was that no
one made any big mistakes, I believe the main reason for not passing was a
conglomeration of many minor errors. What has become very obvious to me is that
Jodo technical performance is much easier to self-evaluate as the visible
effects are there and a good partner will also provide some feedback. Not so
with Iaido of course.
I wanted to write this
short post especially for those who didn't pass but I hope it will be useful to
many.
Firstly I don't believe
that any of the failures were due to not enough "practice"; everyone
looked quite strong and vigorous. If one reads the earlier posts in this
blog I think you will see where I am heading. To cut a long story short I will
explain the main preparation for my iaido 6th dan in a few short paragraphs.
Every Wednesday evening
that I went to the dojo I would be videoed by a dojo elder, Tony Brocklebank.
He would transfer the few embu that I did onto VHS and give me the latest
recording a week later. I would then, at home, review every recording and make
a note (actually a spreadsheet) of:
- Which
particular kata were giving me problems and
- Which
individual technical components were giving me problems.
I would then focus all my
training on those problem areas until they were up to the same level as
everything else. With the one week delay between being videoed and seeing the
video, then the three to four weeks of repair-and-improve training and then a
one week video check, this meant that all problems went through an approximate
6 week cycle. This would of course overlap other video cycles so there was
always a variety of things to do.
The main point was though
that it forced me to do frequent, detailed self-evaluations. This has become my
regular approach to training (although these days with mobile phones and
great apps like "Coaches Eye" this has a much shorter feedback loop).
I thereby become responsible for identifying all of my shortfalls and doing
something about it. I know which are my strong techniques, which are my weak ones
and what to do to make improvements.
This is, I believe, a key
stage of preparing for a grading. Allow me to reiterate:
- Regular
(like every week) videoing.
- Self
analysis and training planning at the same frequency.
And I also think that this
is what was missing from the training schedule of those that failed 4th dans. I
don't think they actually know what they look like when they do an embu, or at
least, I didn't get that impression.
For more information on
this I introduce the entire rest of my Shugyo Blog….
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