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.

A little on fighting spirit

Again, a late post, and again, with good reason. The weekend was spent away from my little burrow, until very late in the night of Sunday to Monday.

Last Monday, and the one this week, I held the training in iaido, and chose to focus on the ZNKR Seitei gata, that is, the twelve kata that are sort of international and common ground for the majority of iaidoka in the world. The Swedish National Championships are coming up and though I can't be bothered worrying about more than taking at least one flag (it's possible to have zero, one, two or three in a match, as there are a maximum of three in one match), or fighting for a medal in the sandan (third dan) class, I am going to fight for the Fighting Spirit award. That, to me, means more than any medal - a medal means "merely" technical superiority, a good show, a good match... but the Fighting Spirit award, well, that means one beat everyone else, in one's class or the whole competition, depending on how many they hand out. And that one has a good grasp of the technique, and that what is most important, which are, maai, mind of iai and, well, fighting spirit, is something that one has to a greater extent than anything else.
I realised that it means this to me when I won it two years ago.

Nevertheless... I must be proficient in the technicalities of the Seitei Gata, and so I chose to focus on three last week, and three other kata this week. It is good to see the other participants become better during one lesson! Very rewarding, for me and hopefully also for them.
Wednesday saw our sister club in Linköping send three participants to a very rewarding koryu practice, where, although our sensei focused on helping them, I still found useful new knowledge.

Tuesday and Thursday saw Kali practice with different foci. Yet, in that martial art, since everything is linked in different ways, the more time I spend on it, the more it is like a big, multi-layered jigsaw-puzzle coming together. With or without weapons, the movements are similar, for all the right reasons. I'm happy to say that despite heavy use of arms and shoulders, my muscle soreness wasn't too bad!

I've been looking around for a pair of running shoes, so as not to ruin my rather nice pair of sandals. A friend gave me an old pair of fairly battered sneakers (some kind of Nike ones) which I am aching to go out and try. I'm planning on having my first run in them on Friday - I want to step up my training regime to have a run every other day at least, but I know I need to be a little careful, my knee have been acting up as well as my shoulder, and with new shoes and after the forced winter hiatus on running... It pays to be careful.
Am also possibly going to look into the idea of "chi running" or whatever the name was... sounded fairly similar to barefoot style running, but some kind of a variant. I spoke with a friend you see, and, I'll get back to you on that matter...


Regarding what I wrote about earlier, the fighting spirit thing - it is important to have the right mindset, whatever one is training. It will be far less efficient if one is merely slugging on, going through the motions, no matter what one is training! To me, going to the gym is akin to torture. Boring, drab, uninspiring. I have tried using a mindset of "but it will benefit my iaido!" but that has not worked. In martial arts, I can directly link action to result, I know that what I do is useful, or, in the case of iaido, damn cool because I'm waving a flippin' katana around (to speak loosely and rather carelessly here). There's something about martial arts that not only gives my body exercise, but also my mind. Straightens it out, helps me focus. I can see a direct use of what I do.
And with martial arts, well, they are martial, aren't they? Fighting is in their nature, self-defence or what ever you wish to call it. In iaido it is ever so important to have that fighting spirit, not showing it by facial expressions, but by exuding it. You have no (physical) opponent. Yet it must be clearly seen that you are fighting an opponent. You must act at all times as if you were a warrior, not a fighter, and a warrior at ease with their skill and awareness. Zanshin! And when there is violence, you give it your all, without losing focus, poise, control or awareness. Perfect focus. Perfection.
The idea of a Fighting Spirit award is immensely satisfying to me. All too often, that part of iaido falls by the wayside. Mind is important! Mind is even more important than body! With the right mindset, your life will be right. And with the help of said mindset, I walk the streets more safely, I train Kali Sikaran with greater focus and reward, and I live my everyday life a better way.

...I got a bit philosophical there.
So, how do you find that a mindset can affect training? Do you have good examples, bad examples, examples from ordinary gymming, from martial arts? Tell me, I am curious!

The reasons for training

The shoulder seems to have settled into being trouble, but it is generally less painful than it was at first. Kali works better than iaido, possibly because of the lack of vertical lifting movements with heavy objects. Regardless, this Monday I had to forego the iaido practice. On Tuesday, I learned that blocking a rattan stick with the (in my case rather protruding) bone bump by your wrist is a bad move. On Thursday, I learned that blocking a rebounding rattan stick with your eyebrow is equally bad, if a little less short-term painful. My eye didn't swell shut, but it did look rather odd until I got to it with the Voltarol/Voltaren cream. Wednesday I had the opportunity to be a hardass, evil trainer with lots of nitpicking, when there was only one other more experienced practicioner at the iaido. I managed to get through the ZNKR kata, as well as all Shoden and Chuden kata I know, but it was good to be able to break it off and rest the shoulder with some nitpicking. The student I helped coach has, as so many, a great many tiny issues. One of his is that he is constantly talking back. Not necessarily arguing, but I am schooled in the Japanese way - you listen, nod, and do. But at times I allow him to speak, because he seems to need it in order for things to stick. We managed to fix a detail no one has noticed before - he kept his sword much too far pushed into his obi, too far to the left, which caused some awkwardness in his gripping the tsuka and drawing, and also made him sloppy with hikite/sayabiki, that is, drawing back his left hand to allow the katana out of the saya/scabbard. Having fixed this, much of his form instantly became better. I am always glad when I can iron such little creases out. And, I pushed for something which I personally am very aware of - when walking, or moving, I try to teach students to avoid bobbing up and down. This is not something the other teachers speak much about, but I have become a little audacious in my teaching, and am now pushing for this. No one has yet told me off so I suppose they are fine with it. I have been thinking again about motivation. Why do I do iaido, and why do I do kali sikaran? My reasons are different, but frustratingly intangible in a way. I am a perfectionist. That was one of the reasons I mentioned when my first iaido teacher asked me why I had come. The perfection in iaido spoke to me. Also, of course, swords are cool. I have been doing iaido for a very, very long time now. I feel an obligation to all the sensei before me, all those who have passed their knowledge on to me. It is forward reciprocity, which I am very keen on. I want to be fast, skilled and strong. I want my form to be perfect, so that when a situation arises (hypothetically, as always, who walks around with a sword in their belt these days?) my mind will not stop. I will move outside the kata and just act. And I pursue perfection, as I know I have many things to perfect yet. Iaido is closely tied to Zen buddhism, and since it is a do, it needs must be connected to my life, and vice versa, in a much stronger way than most people think martial arts is. But that is the way of it! A do is a way. It is not just a thing you go to and exercise. Kali sikaran is... enjoyable. Flexible. Full of variation. Physical. Changing. Evolving. It requires, in its proper form, the same no-mind and non-stopping-mind as iai or any martial art. It allows me to move beyond one weapon, allows me to broaden my perspective and when I drop the sword, if I do, I will still be highly armed and dangerous. I am a beginner and am yet able to remember that, and avoid being frustrated at my inability to do things perfectly at once. This is very good, as I like to be reminded that there is always more to learn. Yet there is still the politeness and the "practice WITH rather than AGAINST eachother" that I am so very fond of in Shorinji Kempo. Running is sheer enjoyment. It is something which I can feel strengthens my body every time I have the chance to do it, it cleans my mind, helps me keep it in the now or helps it roam, depending on what is needed at that moment. I am now able to run barefoot style in my big combat boots too, if only for limited distances, and it is not as comfortable, but still - I have changed my way of running and am better off for it. It is floating across the ground, instead of pounding it. I run because of freedom, exploration, stamina, strength, no-mind, its beneficial effects on everything else I do... I run because running makes me feel alive. Do you have different reasons for doing the various physical exercises you do, and/or what are those reasons?

Update after a while of quietude

It's been quiet here for the past two weeks, hasn't it? It is due to the phenomenon known as "midterms", which had me swearing and whinging quite a lot. Summarize and discuss the Viking Age in no more than two pages? For an archaeologist with a specialty in the area? I made it, of course, but it was a hard task. I haven't been avoiding my practice, though! That weekend did admittedly see me mostly sit still and study, but I took a few walks. Monday saw iaido practice, mostly koryu, and Wednesday also, although, I was the one to lead the beginner's training then, and consequently did not exert myself quite as much as usual. Not that I didn't do anything and just walked around shouting instructions, but it is a natural consequence that one doesn't do as much as a teacher as when one is a student. Tuesday meant Kali Sikaran, with a lot of stick fighting (escrima, if that sounds more familiar to you). I had a bit of trouble, I don't know why, but I felt somewhat craptastic and unfocused, no matter how much I tried. We focused mostly on one or two different "kapkas", I think they are named, which are sequences of hitting that can be used with or without weapons. It was very rewarding, and also, I was amused to feel sore in my torso muscles - I seldom do, but clearly these movements woke up muscles I don't use as much. We finished by an all-on-one, which meant everyone moved around one person with one mitt, and feigned a cross hit attack, to which the "attacked" responded with a certain sequence of blocks and strikes. It was great fun and very rewarding, though my defensive nature kicked in and I think I may have been a bit too good at avoiding getting fenced in at all... which wasn't really what the exercise was about. Next time, I'll try and stay put and just defend myself. Thursday we had one of the most senior Kali Sikaran practitioners there is, as a guest trainer. It was quite different. His charisma and way of leading is quite different from our usual one's. He divided the group, though, with the two most accomplished in one corner, and us other three (and our trainer) in another. It was a good choice, I think, as it meant the other two could really get some extra challenging practice! And I enjoyed very, very, very much to get the chance to practice with out trainer. He is a very good partner, and I find him very skilled at gauging and adapting to the skill level of those he trains with, while never giving an inch and always challenging you. Also, his way of explaining really works for me. The Katalong Guro showed us several long chains of attacks, defenses and so on, and we took them in quite large chunks before putting them together, or using a variaion. Very rewarding, but oh, I felt quite frustrated at my own ineptitude sometimes! Which, I must point out - was a good thing! Because, it reminded me of how one should deal with such setbacks and emotions. Not give in to them, but accept them, and transcend them in a way. Accept, and then grit your teeth and fight. Do, do again, and do it until you can do it correctly. Never sag and give up. Accept your ineptitude, listen to the trainer, try it this way and that, do it slowly and deliberately, until your body begins to understand what you want it to do. So I am very grateful for my ineptitude and frustration! It lead to something good. In the end, we were all quite cheerfully (though, of course, in a focused manner) blocking, attacking, kneeing and tumbling to the floor. It was very interesting, very challenging and I am happy I had the opportunity to train with a different trainer! And of course, the day after I felt a little sore in my muscles, as it should be! That, I expect, will also be the case tomorrow - it seems to take me about two days, or one and a half, to get the after-effects of a hard time's practice. And yesterday, I was the one to lead the iaido practice, and I wasn't a nice trainer yesterday. I started out a little tetchy, but with some good reason - standing around talking to the previous users of the hall in the dressing room is NOT what you should do five minutes into the practice time has begun. So I drove them, and myself, hard. Lots of things that had our legs beg for mercy, and then some more. And I had that as a bit of an underlying theme - use your thighs, and use them well, and use them all the time (I also had a bit of a focus on weight, as I consider 55% on the front leg, and 45% on the back leg, as being the very least of a proper weight distribution you can use in iaido. You want to be pressing forward, prepared to spring and never once let your weight fall onto your back foot). You need to use them to do proper iai, and when we finally went from excruciating (well, more so for them than for me, but I've got a head start) bokuto exercises to ordinary kata practice, I kept nagging them about this. And, I think it worked quite well, everyone did the five first Musou Shinden Ryu kata quite well in the end. But they looked a bit stiff-legged afterwards. It is so very important to use the thighs, and not just shuffle around on the floor. You have to really use those muscles, never once letting your body take the easy way out. In the end, I think the best thing we managed was to straighten a certain issue of balance and weight distribution out, in Inyoshintai. So, I am happy. I have practiced evil-sensei-happy-smile, so I think I'm getting quite good at being one. This weekend saw me travelling, and thus not much in the way of conventional practicing was done, but certainly a good amount of carrying and walking up stairs. No running to trains this time, though, but that is one spontaneous bit of exercise I can really, really do without, for the sake of my mental health. Tonight, it will be Kali again, yay! I hope we're not going to do too much Sikaran, though... my legs do feel what I did to them yesterday. Heheh. ...now that I think about it, my shoulder hasn't been giving me much trouble since yesterday. I must have done something right when focusing for cutting. And though my toe is certainly behind, it often bends and doesn't quite follow instructions, it no longer hurts constantly. I take this all for being a good set of things. What have you been doing these past weeks? Have you ever had periods of practice where you focus on one particular group of muscles?

A more detailed look at an iai practice

Tonight's iaido practice was a rather intensive one, and for me it was a bit like going back to another club in the way it wasdone. Warmup started with a bit too quick a run for my tastes - it is supposed to be a warmup, and one starts slow, and then builds on that. But I did not lead it, so I had to follow. It was a rather good, all-round practice, with a lot of cutting excercises. About 200 cuts were made, with our iaito, only in excercises, and not counting warmups or kata. After running and abit of limbering up, we made the regular owing and mokuso (a sort of meditation for focusing) and so on, and then we did warmup cutting. Here, again, the pace was too quick in the beginning, but I must also point out that my sword is rather heavy, and I cannot cut as quickly as I ought to, at least if one looks to the combination of heavy sword and my injured shoulder. Cutting can be done in many ways. From standing positions, to turning and cutting. It is good to make certain one varies it as much as possible. The kata for this practice was, to begin with, one from the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei (ZNKR) Seitei set of kata, number six, or ropponme: Morote-tsuki. After several repetitions (which was very good, as it allowed me to focus on it and go deeper into what I was doing and how and what I could do to make it better), we moved on to koryu, Musou Shinden Ryu Shoden kata, the first four, which are all from a sitting (seiza) position. I have been doing them for quite some time now, another there for as long if not longer, and the others for varying degrees of shorter time, between a few years to merely a few weeks. Why can iaidoka always practice with eachother? (More or less). Well, because regardless of how far you have come, the basics are always worth coming back to, again and again. And because there is no such thing as "leaving old kata behind". Now, there are many things to take into account when doing those seemingly simple kata. They are the four first, why would they be so complicated? Doesn't that sort of thing usually wait? No, not really. They contain several very important details. How you draw your sword is a basic skill, to do the essence of iai, and then protecting yourself when you lift your sword from nukitsuke to kiritsuke position... and so on. And the timing, especially - you cannot simply wave your sword around, you have to think about when, exactly, you do so. And the more you learn, the more you think, before something just fades away and becomes second nature (after which of course something new takes up the thoughts), and the more you use your muscles. Koryu requires more energy than Seitei kata, and I usually come away sweating quite profusely (which is uncommon for me!). The practice finished up with some cutting exercises again, standing still and moving, and then the usual wrapups. I took care to shower in cold water, as it really does make a difference (thank you Matthew of Genbukan Edinburgh for that insight!), and do some stretching. And eat a reasonably dark sandwich loaded with thin slices of ham, cheese and mushrooms. And then a half flapjack I had left since Saturday. And that, my readers, is why I am all cheery and babbling away. Before practice, I was half sick with terror and wanted to run home and hide again, but as soon as I get moving, it all falls into place!