A bit of oomph into the attack

So, another week past! Shoulder has been aching a lot less, and I feel as if I've come quite far with the Kali stuff. I still overextend at times, both reach-wise and strength-wise, but that is something I need to work on, eh!

My research into getting a new katana, a shinken this time, has been a bit uplifting, but mostly made me feel a little downcast. Swordstore.com has the perfect service for selecting all the details yourself and great customer contact, but I can't afford 7200 USD - I've got a little put by as an emergency stash, but it's so far from that it's ridiculous. Nine Circles, the go-to if you're in Europe, have great budget alternatives and it's perfectly possible to change tsuba, tsuka etcetera yourself... but they're out of shinken in the length I'd like. I could use 2.5 (shaku and sun) of course, which is what my current iaito is, but I am aiming for 2.4.5 instead - I like my fingers fine the way they are thank you very much. There's a seminar in a month's time where I'm going to go for yondan (4th dan), and I'm meeting with a buyu (budo friend) who'll bring his 2.5 shinken for me to try a little. It can potentially hurt like the bloody blazes what with it being razor sharp, but it is worth trying!
Well, anyone interested in seeing my iaido, that which I hold most important, progress are welcome to donate to the "get Ellie a shinken"-fund... I'm simply not going to get any better without a new sword. But I can always focus on teaching others! That's something, at least!

I've had a sneaking ache in my left knee on and off for the past few months. I'm rather worried and here I do now pledge that I shall get back to doing some physical therapy exercises in order to strengthen and better it - and the shoulders.
And part of why I keep this blog is to make sure I don't skive off such things. Hence why I give questions and am always happy to receive answers! That's a way of seeing that people see what I do and will know if I skive off training, and any motivation that gets you going...

My footwork in the more self-defensive martial arts have really got better. It has to, really, standing still is asking for having that knife in your belly...
Saturday was great; though only me and Theo was there, we had a wicked good session! Mainly, we focused on single-stick, and on the knife. Because I've picked up a lot of the movements and technicalities on fighting with such, we moved on to something rather interesting: depth of fight, as I'd like to call it. It's like shu-ha-ri of any do, you progress not only in skill but in understanding.
There's a method to the madness. Having the "intention", "thinking about what comes next" and so on are things I have heard many times by now, but last Saturday that actually started to make sense and sink in. It's about pushing, putting weight of mind and body behind your attacks (and defences!), starting to read your opponent's body, knowing where they will be when you've made your attack or defense, and knowing where you will be too, and where you'll be when they've... and so on. I'm not good at chess but this is more physical, so this I can do. At the end he was pleasantly surprised - "I can't just stand around anymore, I've actually got to make an effort!" - and I feel very good about that, because he's just so skilled that he hasn't been able to get any sort of challenge to drive him on or even keep him on the right level of skill. I feel I progress very quickly indeed, although it's really only been half a year of free sparring (or less, even).
So, that feels great! Not just noticing how much I can actually pick up during just two hours, but how much of it sticks, how much better I get all the time, and how much I can help him with his own training! As a trainer, one must not forget one's own training, or else how can one stay on the level needed to teach others?

Now, if I could only start running again... I'm being a bit too careful about that, I think.

If you look back on the past half-year or so, what are the most encouraging points of progress you've made?

Bringing a friend along

The days of rest did me good, the shoulder has not been bothering me as much since, though it's sort of moved and still aches almost continuously.

It was good to get back on Wednesday and pass on the new and not-so-new knowledges gained from the iaido seminar. Some things were dismissed with an "that's the Ishido-sensei way, we do things a bit differently" which, to be honest, is quite all right, but others are changes we do need to implement on the way we do Seitei Gata. I also appreciated being able to go through the kata slowly and in my own time, to better understand the changes. I may not appreciate the ZNKR kata but, oh well, I need to perform them.

Joining the Kali Sikaran training on Thursday was a delight. It's quite satisfying that the majority of the little club are female - if only because it makes people look surprised when you say it. Why should that be strange, really?
Anyway. There were five of us, plus our trainer, and we focused on Panantukan and some cadeña de maño, chaining hands. I need to learn not to stop breathing just because I am punching things, though! I was pleasantly tired afterwards.

I was of half a mind to go to either Kuntao or another club's iaido training on Friday but decided against it - I needed the rest away from people. Saturday, though, I managed to lure with me a friend to Open Training, and we had lots of fun! She wants to start training martial arts and was rather tempted to go for some kind of FMA (Filippino Martial Art), partially because of the very practical part with knife-defense. She was brave to just jump in when I asked her to join, and have a go, with sticks, softsticks and knives, and damn, did she take to it! It was great to see! The learning curve is usually quite quick in the beginning, but knowing that and seeing it in action are two different things. It was so gratifying, such a great experience, to see how quickly my friend took to it, and how fun we had together!

The trainer, Theo, is good at emphasising that you need to practice with intent behind your attack, so both of us got a few bruises, but he also found us a pair of leg-protectors to put on our right arms - all the slapping with and without knife on the right arm hurt quite enough with it on, so I don't like to think what it'd have been like without!

And, I managed to win a small sparring match against him - though it was part luck on my part, more than skill, I think. Still, good to get a few hits in on the trainer as a change!

I was going to go on a run today, but I am still a little worried about my left knee. It's fairly annoying that it's started acting up again... perhaps I need to do more koryu iaido?

How do you do when a friend starts expressing an interest in training, whether it be your martial art or preferred way of training, or something else entirely? Have you ever brought someone along and how did it go?

Swedish National Iaido Championships 2013

And I'm late yet again!
To my defence... it was six days of iaido last week. And this will be a long and rambling post.

Monday I was left pretty much alone, as I was on Wednesday. I tried to focus on Seitei Iai, the ZNKR kata, but it was pretty much just going through the motions and also trying to call up a proper fighting spirit. And I ought to have left well alone on Wednesday - my shoulder was acting up more and more, not showing any signs of letting up since last week, and the right shoulder decided to keep annoying me too. It felt reasonably good apart from that though.

Kali gave me a welcome respite from iai, and was interesting as always, though the commuter train had the audacity to make me an hour late - if ever I get annoyed and start thumbing that Buddhist rule of not letting my anger flow, it's if something hinders me getting to practice... And there I was, stuck on a train between stations - had they only told me a little earlier, I could have got off and taken an alternate route, but oooh no!
There was a lot of focus on defense against a barrage of hits, and taking "revenge".

Anyway. Thursday morning dawned and I got up after about three hours sleep. Flying went well, I used every trick I have to get all my luggage along with me - I'd forgotten to book an extra luggage, you see... and the sword case took up the one slot I had. Going to the plane restroom in ordinary trousers and hakama over them is a challenge, but one I have done previously and never failed at. I wanted to bring two sets of keikogi to the seminar, but, alas. Training and competing in the Swedish National Iaido Championships would have to take place in the same clothes.

Training was scheduled to start at midday, twelve o'clock, and after a bit of research I managed to hunt down a decent lunch salad and something for the pauses between practice.
The seminar was opened, and I took a spot that turned out to be rather unlucky. The cold light, the blue floor and the wall plus some low detachable black wall with text on it... I was wobbling as much as I would have done had I been severely ill. It wasn't so much not having anywhere to really focus my eyes on, it was more the fact that all around me seemed to be a blurr and instead confuse the eye.

I was in enough pain that I had to explain several times over the weekend that yes, I know I am doing a rather wonky cut, yes, my angle is wrong, but my shoulder is painful enough that most people would scream. I had liniment, Voltarol and Arnica salve and applied them all at every opportunity.

The ZNKR kata were gone through thoroughly, and there were actually one or two changes... none that I liked. In the number ten kata, there is now a mandatory little step after the first thrust, which I am having trouble implementing. I know Henry-sensei does it without any effort, but I've always just glided through that part, and never had to worry about taking some odd step to get back onto the "line" again.
We were nitpicked upon by various sensei, paired up and went through ZNKR kata ourselves and at the end of the day, were all thoroughly exhausted. I felt the first tinges of feeling rather lucky about being of such a reasonably high grade as I am, and I definitely felt lucky about actually getting some pointers here and there. It happens seldom... but I had a lot. Radakovitz-sensei especially seemed to zoom in on me quite often. I appreciated this a lot, and his explanations invariably made sense and made me try harder, try differently and try to better myself.

Friday saw more of the same but in a better hall, with wooden floor and better lighting. My shoulder almost had me give up entirely at the end of the day, and indeed, I did fewer kata and even skipped one or two entirely, to save myself for the Saturday. Regardless, I had by then got a lot of things to work with, and it was good trying to figure them out and change my forms.
The judges seminar for a lot of the afternoon gave some good advice and training for both senior and junior judges. There've been some policy changes there too. I did wriggle out of actually judging the competitions and gradings though - I don't think I'd have done a very good job, especially not with all those people watching intently. Panic attack anyone?
The very last hour that day, I caved in and said "to hell with pain" and did some koryu. That felt very good. I always cheer up when doing koryu. I tried to figure out which I would do if there were koryu allowed in the competition, but eventually, I wrote text messages to three sensei and asked them.
They, of course, on Saturday, all gave different answers...

As on Thursday, I fell asleep rather early, and despite the fairly hard floor I slept hard and long (well, until the alarm went off).
I felt I might not have got quite the warmup I'd have liked on Saturday but, I did well. After watching the godan matches, we sandan were up next, in the pool matches. And, to my pleasure, I did far better than I usually do, and went on to the knockout matches.

...for more on how iaido competitions work, ehm, I'm going to have to ask you to go to YouTube and Wikipedia. It's fairly easy but I tend to get lengthy in explanations. Quick one: Two squares, one red, one white. Three judges with two flags (one red, one white) each. After predetermined set of kata are done, judges raise flag for the iaidoka who did, in their opinion, best.

I was far less nervous than I usually am. Now, I don't get all flustered mentally, but, the body reacts in some nasty ways, with increased heartrate and other annoyances. It usually abates after one or two matches, which, really, one doesn't exactly have the time for... So I countered this by imagining that it was I who stepped forth to do the matches before it was my turn. Thus the body and mind had worked through the worst of the nervousness by the time I walked up to the starting line.

I did decent to really good iaido in my two pool matches, winning three flags in one, and none in the other (and that last one against the guy who came second in sandan class). We were set to do Ipponme Mae, Nanahonme Sanpogiri, Kyuhonme Soete-zuki, and in the knockout matches, one of our own choice (so naturally I went straight for koryu!) and four ZNKR kata.
After lunch and the advice from a fellow female iaidoka (can you imagine? There were TEN of us present at once! Or even eleven, I think! For one who's usually alone in the changing room, this was glorious. To be able to chat about iaido and kata and keikogi before and afterwards... it was great) to do Ukigumo rather than Seichuto (or Inyoshintai, which one sensei advised against because "the shorter the kata the less that can go wrong") since I had a flow that was apparently quite good, I was up against Jesper "Redbeard" Waldestål.
And I didn't care. I was so set on winning, killing, getting at least one flag, winning the Fighting Spirit prize, that I did absolutely great. Probably my best match ever.
My Ukigumo (a Chuden kata, no less! So something usually done only by yondan and up) was as flawless as I can get it (with my current skill level), and I even did well on the Seitei gata (ZNKR kata). "Had it only been the koryu kata, you'd have won without question," said my friend who'd helped advise me on which koryu kata to choose. And that cemented my good feeling. He's pretty much unbeatable anyway, and him being better at Seiteigata... I couldn't care much less! Koryu is where I excel and is what I like anyway!

I did great. I did outstanding iaido, I got beat 3 flags to none and I felt great.

I helped the other person from my club Kensei to iron out some last little details on his kata, was miffed when he lost out but after the course of the succeeding matches I watched him in, figured out new things for him to work on.

The finals were exciting, really, and two women took the indisputably well deserved first places in Mudan and Shodan class. But other than that I wasn't too surprised at the winners, who are known to me since many years by now. Great iaido was had, and many good details setting the participants apart were noticed. Oh, and, of course, Jesper won, with Patrik, whom I lost to in the group/pool matches, came second. I only get beat by the best!

Sunday was interesting, with team competitions taking place. Me and Micke, Kensei One (and Only, spot the geek reference), were surprised but very happy to get second place in our group, as we were a two-person team rather than a full three-person team. We did great though. In knockout round one we were beat, but we could definitely have done worse. It's hard to beat such a good team as that one, and, they came second in total.

There was the usual bit of after-competition trotting around and receiving and giving advice and compliments, I was very pleased to see Micke without any greater difficulty passing his nidan grading, and then goodbyes were said.


Between matches and even when not competing oneself, it is hard to just sit still and do nothing, so, one gets a bokuto, or one's katana, and does a bit of warmup, or a bit of trying new things out... So, I was understandably physically exhausted on Sunday evening. And mentally, too - focusing so much during so many days, and being around people non stop, took its toll. I think it's good I didn't go directly back to my home, since now, I couldn't do any iaido on Monday even if I wanted...

My shoulder is still sore, still stupid. It was driven home to me that in order to progress in skill, I need and must have a new katana - shinken, preferably. Even with muscles enough to handle my current, I need it.
Having so many people tell me that in so many ways felt a lot like "Your body is not good enough, you need to change everything about it" though... and it actually hitting home (which it never does with me, and never really have). Ouch.
My knees are happier after so much exercise. I can tell I need to work more on exercises that strengthen the muscles around them

All in all, a good seminar and a good National Championships. I am very proud over how well I did.

Double the bad

I was tired and sleepy quite a lot of the past week, though I'm not certain why, as I was during the days even when I had slept well. Monday's iaido practice I got through on pure will, I had such an incredibly hard time concentrating! My thoughts ran away all over the place. It got better as time went, though in the end it became hard to keep again. Especially when my shoulder started acting up some more...
Which, by the way, ties in with Wednesday's practice. I don't know what I did, but I pulled at one of the ties of the only other participant's hakama (a beginner, whom I caught just before he left, as I was a wee bit late and it was a holiday so people turned back home when there wasn't anyone there on time - anyway, I showed him the way of tying your hakama) something felt like it tore in my left shoulder. I could do iaido, after some warmup and cautious stretching, but it hurt, and still does. I'm treating it as best I can with salves with Arnica in, and liniment, and Voltarol with diclofenac (spelling?). Occasionally drawbacks happen - nearly fell on the train and reflexively caught myself with the left arm, which hurt, and I have had to carry heavy things, which also made it worse... and so on.

It drives me a little mad, because it feels like I've almost lost the use of both my arms now. I don't know what to do if a doctor orders me to rest for more than about a week... and I know that my right shoulder didn't exactly get better even after half a year of rest. The pain isn't exactly identical though, giving me hope that the one in the left shoulder might just be a bit of a strain on some piece of the muscle connection to the bone or such.

Because of this injury, Thursday's Kali practice was also a bit more painful and less fun than I had hoped. Some movements with raised arms made the left shoulder hurt worse. I'm debating whether I should push and do some physical therapy exercises, or just leave it to rest as much as possible before the National Championships. I'm leaning towards the former. What do you think?
I do at least feel like I'm getting back my zanshin and correct "mind of iai", and am able to project a powerful fighting spirit again.

Since I was away over the weekend, this post is late. I don't mind however as I managed to go for a run in the perfect weather, with the calm sea beside and below me, and the beginnings of flowers and grass smelling sweet. I went only for fifteen minutes, again, to be careful with my legs. I've had no trouble today though, and my knees feel fine (though the left one's been acting up for a month or so!), so maybe I'll dare start running in the mornings soon? I'm not a morning person but having some zazen and a run to look forward to maybe it'll be easier to get up.