chidokan

As usual I wrote ahead and set an itinerary down for myself for the 14 day trip... 7 days training at Seinen no Ie Ozu, down to Kannonji to visit sensei's grave, then back to Kyoto for a bit of iai related shopping/touristy stuff, with night time training...
The original plan was to hammer away at the partner work with Neil after the days' main training was over... That went out the window as Dirk, Neil and Yuriko were translating Iwata senseis notes every evening! Fortunately Chin san from ...

I have been posed a question that I thought some others might be interested in..

What makes a hachidan hanshi/ 'top instructor' be so far above his students that they all look up to him with the feeling of 'no hope of catching him'???

I have some of the answers, but not all.... perfect technique and timing are part of these, as is posture and projection, but what is the thing that makes the 'wow' factor? How do you get that 'presence on the mat'???

It's that time of year when my first year students buy swords for the first time, so I thought I might explain my logic for choosing 'first swords' for junior students.... Note I have different requirements for swords as people progress in ability, etc... Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts...

I have a variety of swords in different lengths that my beginners use before buying their first sword, plus access to my other students swords to help determine length required. ...

One of the main points to come up on my last visit to see my sensei was 'grip'... It was interesting to see how highly he ranked it in importance, however following the logic it was easy to see why...
Consider the effect of gripping the tsuka too tightly... the arms tense right through into the shoulders and they are pulled forward. Posture gone, balance is out, and you cannot swing the sword in an natural manner. In extreme cases, the shoulder blades can 'wing out' away from the back and ...

I hate Xmas... my dojo has to shut.... However on the bright side I now have some plans for various seminars.
First up is a trip up to 'sunny' scotland over Xmas holidays for a couple of days training, which is better than visiting in-laws any day of the week...
Next I have pinned down a date in March for my own dojo to run a days training session, which will give the senior instructors a chance to get together and organise the big seminar in September...Hopefully we will have ...