SITTING and SWORDS

A beautiful evening in the backyard dojo. First, swords. Then, sitting. Zen threaded through it all.

SWORD MEDITATION

The weather today was perfect—76º Fahrenheit and finally a departure from the gray and gloom. It was a good day to get barefoot in the backyard dojo and do some sword meditation and suburi (drills).

It's been five months since I broke my humerus and my arm is starting to feel "normal" again more often than not. It's good to have a sword in my hand again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 顎

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of 顎 (ago / jaw), my "Musashi oar" suburito.



I took advantage of some rare late-fall sunshine in the backyard dojo today to celebrate with it.



We ran through some suburi (practice swings), as well as shonen sozoku (literally "true awareness," a series of kamae (stances)).

UPGRADED MARTY

I now have new and renewed equipment for the backyard dojo. I made my standing bag (Marty) into a hanging bag by adding paracord, a carabiner, and a couple of ratchet tie-down straps. It was stuff I already had, so there was no cost to upgrade.



Add in some MMA gloves and it's time for a new workout in my rotation. Kickboxing and combat sprints!

SWORD DRILLS

Sword drills in some beautiful warm late-spring weather.

Time: twilight. Location: backyard dojo.



Stance: waki-gamae.



Cut: gyaku-gesa.

SHADOW WARRIOR

Shadow warrior in the backyard dojo.

ETHER

There is Good, not Evil in the Ether
There is Wisdom
There is Reason
There is the Way
The Mind, Empty

—the close of The Ether Scroll by Miyamoto Musashi

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The weather has been slowly warming up. Winter shifts to spring.

The weather has also been mostly dry, allowing me plenty of time in the backyard dojo.

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I've been working on various techniques, forms, and waza. 

I was recently introduced to reverse grip draws (gyakute-nuki, reverse hand grip draw; and yunde-nuki, bow hand draw, with the left hand!) and enjoy trying to perfect them. Additionally, they provide variation in the draws, which means fewer problems assoicated with repetitive motion.

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Visualization is another "technique" I've been focusing upon—thinking about and dreaming about clean lines earlier, and then implementing them now.

CLEAN LINES

The main reason I take photos during my training is to be able to check and correct my form and positioning and movements. For the past couple of weeks, I've experienced shoulder pain. Ice, naproxen, and rest helped, but I also realized that I was leaning into my draws, which was causing extra strain and stress on my shoulder. Seeing what I was doing wrong, with photos and a mirror, helped me to correct my draws and work on "clean lines" throughout each waza. In turn, that helped to diminish and alleviate the pain. I also found a couple of warm-up exercises and stretches to keep my shoulder relaxed rather than rigid.

CROCUS MOJO

Backyard dojo crocus mojo.

SWORD DRILLS

Sword drills and draws in full uniform. Uwagi, upper uniform. Tattsuke hakama, trousers with kyahan himo (legging straps). Kaku obi, iaido belt. Jika-tabi, divided toe boots.



Nukitsuke, drawing cut.



Kirioroshi, downward cut.



Kissaki (sword point) tsuki, thrust.



Nōtō, resheathing.

FLOW

Flow. In the backyard dojo.

I spent a lot of time with people the past two days, so some down time was needed. A long nap. Sword work in the winter sunshine.

THE WAY

I am slowly finding my path, figuring out my journey, along The Way. As much as I liked karate, I love iaido and qigong. Karate provided me fundamentals that I continue to practice, but I enjoy the movements of the yi jin jing series and sword work with my iaito and suburito in ways that I cannot quite properly put into words. I look forward to drawing and swinging and sheathing shita/舌 and ago/顎 each day.

Everything about working with them is prayer. Putting on my belt and gi and hakama is prayer: arming myself with the clothes of righteousness. Preparing to enter the backyard dojo is prayer: gratitude and respect. The meditation of forging a new body and new spirit in repetitive drills is prayer: thankfulness for the opportunity to push back against the void. Routine and ritual. Mystery and mysticism. Dancing before the Lord. Grounding myself in God.

CALM / MOVEMENT

This morning, I practiced qigong and iaido in the backyard dojo, enjoying some winter sunshine (pictured above).

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I’m not one to typically participate in New Year resolutions or goals, but this year I did both. I had been thinking about a word that would potentially define my next year, when one of my coworkers led an exercise at our weekly staff meeting to do just that. The two words that emerged, both as individual concepts, but also as a phrase when combined, were calm and movement.

For me, I had the martial arts of qigong and iaido in mind with these words, but I think they also apply to other areas of my life.

Calm is about control during chaos. Quiet. A relaxed state of readiness. I will find this word, this concept, to be a challenge, especially since I can often be quick to anger. I accept that I need to be a better listener, less reactive, and slower to strike out (unless the moment calls for such).

Movement is once again about control. I was thinking that although movement if often forward, it doesn’t always have to be. Backward movement, retreat, shuffling to the side, yielding, and avoiding potential harm are all helpful movements that are not necessarily about progress, but are about preservation.

Calm movement is about awareness and economy. I had the Japanese concept of sen in mind. Initiative, but always knowing when to move and when to react because one is in a state of relaxed readiness.

To achieve these words/concepts as goals, I’ve been following two teachers/sensei online. The first is Shi Heng Yi, the current headmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe, for Yi Jin Jing qigong. The second is Kaz Kobayashi, of Samurai Kaz Arts, for iaido. What I appreciate about both sensei is that each embodies calm movement for me. And each has taken what I am attempting to learn and broken it down into intuitive and intriguing “chunks” that make training enjoyable and something I look forward to each day.

So here’s to a year of calm, movement, and calm movement in the backyard dojo and in the wider world.

SWORD DRILLS

Sword drills in the sun and snow of the backyard dojo. Working on "body geometry" and where things are supposed to be. (And where they are not.)

Hand placement. Angles of spine and limbs. Posture and stances. Alignment of the sword.

TRAINING

After all of the food of the holiday, as well as the aftermath of leftovers and leftovers and more leftovers, it was time to get back to training. Outdoors was freezing fog, so a little indoor workout was in order. The Yi Jin Jing set of qigong exercises set the tone. (Pictured is "Black Dragon Shows Its Claws.")



A sun break later in the morning meant "robing up" and practicing sword drills in the backyard dojo.

KIHON and KATA

Iaido in the backyard dojo. A hummingbird friend was visiting the feeder (and watching me), so whenever he came down to drink I froze in place until he went back up onto a nearby tree branch. My calves were cramping by the end of training.

Working on kihon (basics) and kata (forms).



Bonk! Learning the movements of uchi chiburi, the "strike blood flick."



Letting gravity do its work and swing the sword into position, while switching hands.



Resheathing the sword.



Practicing kirioroshi, the downward strike. I'm working on keeping it straight. The left hand is power; the right hand is control.



Tōrei, bowing to the sword.

BLACK GI

On the same day (yesterday) that my hakama arrived (in the morning), my new black gi also arrived (in the evening). My gi had been on backorder since April. Supply chain issues seem to have hit the martial arts uniform companies as hard as any other business.

I've been working diligently on mapping out the Heian Yondan kata, and, with the help of The Child, finally have the pattern in my body. Now I've got a mountain of fine tuning to climb.

HAKAMA

I ordered hakama (pleated pants) that are traditionally worn over a full gi (uniform) during iaido. I needed to take them on their initial wearing in the backyard dojo.



Nukitsuke, the drawing cut.



Kirioroshi, the downward cut.



The beginning of noto, resheathing the sword.



Thrusting of the sword during kissakigaeshi, a waza (techinque) of a different school of iaido. But I enjoy practicing it.



Practicing drawing the sword. Living out Miyamoto Musashi's notion of sen (initiative).

THE VOID

It's cold and damp and dark in the backyard dojo. My sprained finger hurts. My thighs ache from warmup exercises at yesterday's karate class. I'm tired. They are all excuses. Self-imposed limitations.

And 舌 beckons. So I set up the mat. We work together. Train. Turn off all of the things that oppose us and strike out at the void.

IAIDO

Drawing the sword in the backyard dojo. (I took the finger splint off for a few minutes.) I am having such a great time working with 舌 (shita) each day.

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This photo is a trick of perspective. I was near the fire, but not immediately above the flame.