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Certainly. I'll see you there.

Speaking of seminars, the AUSKF iaido nationals are in your back yard this year, in Council Bluffs.

If you've ever done zazen, then you'll know that it's sometimes easier to keep the eyes slightly open. Some people tend to keep tension around the eyes (especially between the eyebrows) when they try...

This is one of the potential perils of iaido as a martial art, in my opinion. If you face only inferior opponents, it's very difficult to develop your ki. If you do kendo and you've faced a very...

Five key lessons I’ve learned about how to thrive in iaido.
1. 80% of success is just showing up.
2. When your sensei gives you a correction, practice it until it becomes yours (i.e. don't keep...

It may be a good time to re-post my "Five key lessons I’ve learned about how to thrive in kendo." My contribution to minimizing the 2 dan graveyard.
1. 80% of success is just showing up.
2. When...

Morote. If the purpose is to improve your men-uchi, the mechanics of morote tsuki is more relevant.

Strictly speaking, hansoku = the violation and bassoku = the penalty for that violation. There's no sense of DQ in the word bassoku as far as I know. The proper term for DQ would be "taijo," which is...

Best use of your time: Squats and deadlifts. If you want to add some upper body routines for variety: pull-ups and push-ups. It's best to do these routines in combination because they balance each...

This is an interesting point, which leads to the "double-tap" method that some folks use to good effect. Basically, your right foot starts going forward (with no weight on it) to probe the opponent's...

Pretty much, yes. Not doing seme to any specific target as I mentioned above. Just right down the middle with the kensen at the height of anywhere from the mune to the eyes.

You cannot seme with a "seme, pause to see what's open, strike" type of timing. It has to be seamless.

Sometime you seme to the tsuba-moto with the intention of opening up your opponent's men, or...

I would suggest you pay careful attention to the bogu that your sempai are wearing and ask them if they like their bogu and what if anything they would do differently if they were to buy something...

Here's what the AJKF rule book says.

Kinshi-koi-jiko:
The term kinshi-koi refers to the following acts which are prohibited during a match.
1. The use of prohibited drugs.
2. Insulting or...

It may be useful to look at a passage in the AJKF's "Kendo Shiai, Shipan, Administration Essential's Guide." [Translation by Stroud sensei, June 2010]

Points for Ascertaining Hansoku

(The...

The only reason he was able to pull it off was because it's so beyond the realm of what is expected in kendo.

There's a saying in sports science -- fitness is in the muscles, not the cardiovascular system. What this means is that it's actually quite easy to increase the efficiency in your cardiovascular...

Amen to that, brother.

One of the advantages that kendo has over iaido in terms of dispelling this self-delusion is the instant feedback you get in kendo when you do something wrong, i.e. you get...

Yeah, when I heard that the IOC was booting wrestling from the Olympics, it was one of those facepalm moments. Not only is wrestling one of the founding events of the modern Olympics, it was also an...

This is a common misconception about weight training. It actually takes a very specific regimen of weights, reps and nutrition to increase your muscle size. You can in fact increase your muscle power...

Amen to that. As you get older, weight training is even more important because it isn't just about improving performance but also injury prevention.

BTW, on the topic of warming up, here's a tip...

Most recent studies suggest the best way to prevent injury is to literally warm up your body -- light jogging, jumping jacks, whatever it takes to work up a sweat.

Totally. Sports science is one of those fields that really interests me.

Cool. Good to see the body of evidence is growing. The study that I'm looking forward to seeing is a massive study currently being conducted in Scandinavia on stretching and injury prevention. The...

The only time that I have consciously been aware of an anterior pelvic tilt is when I'm in seiza. APT during seiza, plus pulling the scapula back and keeping the quads engaged creates that balance...