the Way of the Turtle

Iaido Class
Friday, May 18, 2007

Next-to-last iaido class before the summer "break", and the last one prior to the beginner students being evaluated in June. After warm-ups the advanced students got a brief talk about looking at the whole picture and taking time to "stop and smell the roses." Then we spent the bulk of the class focussing on katas while GMC worked with the beginners in preparation for their evals next month.

Jim C. and I were the only advanced men present, so we each were able to run through many of our katas under the eye of Mr. Phillips. I managed to get through nukiuchi, uken/saken, riken, and ninin-giri multiple times before we wrapped things up. Jim was brave and also did yin/yan-no-kata (both of which involved extensive time kneeling) - I was chose discretion over valor and decided not to risk my knees, with the Spring Classic Du tomorrow morning out in Rochester.

Some of the katas felt decent, others felt like they need a lot of work... truth be told, they all need a lot of work, because I don't practice them often enough. So it was nice to get a chance to focus on them for 45 minutes or so. Especially since I have a feeling we won't be doing as many katas next time; I suspect much of the class will focus on the beginners showing what they've learned instead.

JMH