Hello everyone-
As this is my first post here, I feel I should introduce myself. My name is Christian Gunberg, and I have been practicing Mugai Ryu Iaido for three years now, with the Kenbukan iaido school in Jacksonville, Florida. Because I was doing the Iaido training at the same time as I was in law school, my training time was necessarily limited to the three years I intended to stay in Jacksonville. I trained hard, and achieved Shodan rank relatively quickly for our school. After a demonstration (at the 2009 spring festival at the Morikami museum in Delray beach) my teacher and I discussed means by which I could continue my training following my departure from Jacksonville. He suggested I start a remote study group and teach others, allowing my own training to go along with theirs. I am finding that this is much easier said than done.
I am posting here for a number of reasons: first - as an inexperienced teacher (my prior students were really the fellow students of my teacher: I was helping out) I am interested in learning more about the beginnings of these sorts of things. How does one go about starting a study group? Second, I am posting here to make my existence known: if anyone is interested in helping, partnering up, being a student, giving advice, or anything else, give me a PM, I'd love to hear from you! I'm in Northern Virginia, specifically Loudoun County.
Also, I know that there are many highly experienced practitioners on these forums whose experiences would be very useful. Any help for the noob teacher would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks very much!