Gordon Smith
2nd June 2000, 20:17
Lord, it's been busy...
I've had computers to purge, Windows to reinstall, data to recover off of backup, my dissertation to write, my wedding to plan, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I've been swamped... http://216.10.1.92/ubb/smile.gif
Anyway, after five months of regular practice, I'm finally getting confidently comfortable with the balance transition from iai to tameshigiri (said he with the full knowledge, heck, even expectation, that he will be proved wrong when surrounded with the more knowledgeable).
Anyway, the technique that I have developed on my own (having to practice in the dark in mild embarrasment over how bad my swings initially were with this wonderful sword) differs slightly from my iai techniques.
When using a sword with a lighter heft, and a closer balance, the wrists moved pretty much together when cutting, with just a little bit of motion. It moved the sword quite well, I got a nice "swish," and I got several compliments from instructors from time to time.
When I got my tameshigiriyo (blatent plug for Nosyuiaido!), my cuts suddenly sucked. We're talking huge moss-covered boulders here. My body was thrown forward a bit with the change in balance, I was gripping the sword too tightly, trying to force my will upon it, and the blade wobbled incredibly from side to side. Basically, I was suffering the problem of trying to handle a tameshigiri balance like my old iai balance.
After considerable practice, I started seeing glimmers of good swings, but was still plagued by the occasional throwback of a limp noodle of a cut. Now, I'm regularly swinging better, and I think that the differences are due to...
1) A slower cut. Practicing Seitei, I'd been told that I should slow down and work for perfect technique, not speed. Leave the speed for the koryu techniques. It took a while to absorb that one, but I've been told that my whole movement now looks better than it did.
2) Relaxing the wrists. With the different balance, in order to get a good cut, I find I have to relax my wrists, and allow for a larger flex than I used to. This also resulted in my wrists moving a bit independently, with my left wrist feeling like it's breaking (motionwise, not bonewise) a little, but it locks back down on the tsuka on the final portion of the swing...
My question is wondering if this is the correct iai swing that I just have been missing all these years. I tried this with a friend's iaito, and the cut was much more powerful than it had been before. Easier, too.
Now, if I could just stop that slight wobbling in my chiburi, I'd be ecstatic. It's my hope that I'll get those last little kinks worked out by the New York Gasshuku in July.
-G-
------------------
Shotokan Karate-Do (Oxford, MS)
Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido (Memphis, TN)
Te Deum Studios, garage manufacture of weighted bokken (http://smaa.techwood.net/sword.htm)
I've had computers to purge, Windows to reinstall, data to recover off of backup, my dissertation to write, my wedding to plan, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I've been swamped... http://216.10.1.92/ubb/smile.gif
Anyway, after five months of regular practice, I'm finally getting confidently comfortable with the balance transition from iai to tameshigiri (said he with the full knowledge, heck, even expectation, that he will be proved wrong when surrounded with the more knowledgeable).
Anyway, the technique that I have developed on my own (having to practice in the dark in mild embarrasment over how bad my swings initially were with this wonderful sword) differs slightly from my iai techniques.
When using a sword with a lighter heft, and a closer balance, the wrists moved pretty much together when cutting, with just a little bit of motion. It moved the sword quite well, I got a nice "swish," and I got several compliments from instructors from time to time.
When I got my tameshigiriyo (blatent plug for Nosyuiaido!), my cuts suddenly sucked. We're talking huge moss-covered boulders here. My body was thrown forward a bit with the change in balance, I was gripping the sword too tightly, trying to force my will upon it, and the blade wobbled incredibly from side to side. Basically, I was suffering the problem of trying to handle a tameshigiri balance like my old iai balance.
After considerable practice, I started seeing glimmers of good swings, but was still plagued by the occasional throwback of a limp noodle of a cut. Now, I'm regularly swinging better, and I think that the differences are due to...
1) A slower cut. Practicing Seitei, I'd been told that I should slow down and work for perfect technique, not speed. Leave the speed for the koryu techniques. It took a while to absorb that one, but I've been told that my whole movement now looks better than it did.
2) Relaxing the wrists. With the different balance, in order to get a good cut, I find I have to relax my wrists, and allow for a larger flex than I used to. This also resulted in my wrists moving a bit independently, with my left wrist feeling like it's breaking (motionwise, not bonewise) a little, but it locks back down on the tsuka on the final portion of the swing...
My question is wondering if this is the correct iai swing that I just have been missing all these years. I tried this with a friend's iaito, and the cut was much more powerful than it had been before. Easier, too.
Now, if I could just stop that slight wobbling in my chiburi, I'd be ecstatic. It's my hope that I'll get those last little kinks worked out by the New York Gasshuku in July.
-G-
------------------
Shotokan Karate-Do (Oxford, MS)
Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido (Memphis, TN)
Te Deum Studios, garage manufacture of weighted bokken (http://smaa.techwood.net/sword.htm)