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?

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.

Articles on barefoot style running

It is about time I wrote a bit about barefoot running again, so, that I will do.

This week saw little out of the ordinary. I was the senpai/sensei for Monday's iaido, managed again to tie in warm-up with the kata we later did, On Wednesday I was a careless klutz in iaido and managed to cut a small cut in my left middle finger - I will continue to badger everyone lifting a sword that is of less grade than I am to do their noto correctly; with fingers together and good hikite/sayabiki. (That is, the motion of putting the saya back onto the sword). Yes, you can cut yourself even with a mogito (not a shinken) - all you have to do is be careless and find that uttermost part of the tip.
Kali held a few challenges, and some of them I conquered quite well! I am very pleased that my knife-work and -defence is fairly decent for my level. Knife-fighting is definitely one of the things I'm most worried about if I would ever get dragged into one.

The Saturday SecurityFitness Open Mat was great as usual. I suspect I might have possibly impressed the instructor a little when I managed to get in behind his guard and hit him with the knife a few times, but, it wasn't really worth mentioning. I prefer finding out what I can do even better, instead of being complimented on something I did all right mostly by accident. So, a few bruises richer, I then took Saturday off from just about everything. Today I merely took a walk in the sunshine - I have to study, so I can't do much else, though the roads are really clearing up now!

And speaking of that: I want new shoes for running in. And I'd prefer not paying a thousand SEK just because they have a nice brand - I know good shoes are important, but I'm cautious nevertheless. I know what I want, but I can't pay crudloads for it, so if I AM going to buy something, I better read up on it. I'm thinking of finding some sort of running flats.

I ran into a few articles on the matter of barefoot running. There are apparently many styles and gurus and preachers and denigrators out there... and as usual, I try to avoid them. Yes, "Born to Run" is a bit evangelical in tone, but at least it is a fairly engaging read.
Now, this series of articles was made by a professional with a background in physiotherapy, and I'm going to drop you right at the end of the series - here - even though it is in Swedish. The little numbers in brackets lead almost all of them to English-language studies on barefoot- and ordinary running. Some are done by companies, others by those seeking an answer and therefore getting it, and so on. Apply caution!

What the series concludes with, in any case, is with an "it depends". It seems fairly certain that too much padding and oddities in shoes aren't too good, but that few people ought to go straight onto running with actual bare feet. The author runs "barefoot style" a few times a week, but mostly in the heel-down way. He is not convinced by anyone's arguments, but stays somewhere in the middle, with a firm "it depends".
There is a bit about marathon runners, a bit about the choice of shoes and a bit about injuries.
And here comes a, to me, interesting part: barefoot running significantly decreases stress and risk of injury on your knees. That is instead moved to lower down the leg, which can be deflected fairly well by good muscles, careful running and proper shoes for you - yes, you yourself, not anything hyped up. Try those shoes out, and don't just trust what people tell you. Shoes ought not to be constricting, too narrow, and, whenever you can, you should walk barefoot - indoors, for example, doing everyday things.
Some people, when faced with shoes with a thinner sole, began putting their feet down more to the middle of the foot, instead of the heel. This too lessens the strain on the knees and the force of the impact on the ground.

So, there were quite a lot of comments for people who said they'd rediscovered the joy of running, and no longer had trouble with their knees! And then there were those who didn't particularily like it, and were fine with running as usual.

One thing that interested me quite a bit was the talk about changes in performance and "economy of running". That is, the energy expenditure and whether your technique is energy effective... and so on. If I understood it correctly, that is. It seems it requires a wee bit extra expenditure of energy to run barefoot style, which, when it comes to running far, is of course a drawback. But as I do not compete, and run for the sheer joy of it, I find it an interesting detail at most. Something to remember, but not anything I will worry about.

Well, for me, the articles and the tests they referred to didn't change my mind about barefoot style running. It did remind me that "to each their own", but I think it is important to tell people that barefoot style running is an alternative. Maybe it won't be for them, but you can't know until you try, and as long as they go on and try past that first bump in the road that is building up the new muscles for it, I'll accept their declining to continue.

Have you read any articles on barefoot style running, and what positive and negative sides did you find in them? Were they well written, or were they more like propaganda? Did they change your mind?

See you next week!

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!