Sunday at Shinbukan Dojo @ Brighton, UK Jun 2004.
01.
What
I missed in Kendo during my stay in Brighton, was slightly compensated
by another Japanese Sword Art - I picked up Iaido.
It was just a weekly practice, but on the first Sunday of every month,
members from the branch dojo (Portsmouth, Rochester, Southampton) will
join us in Brighton and have a mini-seminar.
Roughly speaking, Iaido is based on Form Practice (or kata, or something
like Taichi performed solo). A form has a set of "choreographic movement"
- scenerio of how many and at which direction was your opponent coming
at you, and wherther you are sitted or standing, etc.
We use practice swords (Iaito) which is just a blunt piece of metal.
02.
Another conversation about "My sword is bigger than your sword."
03.
Vic CookSensei, in all white, explaining a Kata.
04.
This day is quite crowded as we have internal kyu gradings (Dan grades are done
at national seminars).
We had about... 25-30 on the day, ranging from ungraded beginners (like
me) to a couple of 5th Dans, not to mention Cook Sensei himself is 7th Dan.