1. Did you understand it?
2. Did I forget to tell you something?
3. Hey, good one, I learned something talking about it.
I have been teaching Niten Ichiryu on Zoom each Sunday at 11am Eastern time, at the Seidokai zoom link and it’s my favourite hour of the week. Last Monday I taught two hours live at the seminar and it was the first time in quite a while.
I mentioned that I like questions, because of the three reasons above, but in a live class I didn’t really need questions for 1. and 2. That’s because I can see if you didn’t catch what I said, and I can see what I forgot to tell you. So very nice, but not really something that happens on Zoom classes where I’m watching ten or twelve screens at once, and there’s no partners.
But still, in a live class, it is fairly rare that I see something that teaches me a new thing. I usually need a question that throws me off, that makes me think, to learn.
On Zoom I rely entirely on questions.
So why all the fuss, just tell us how to do the kata and we’re done, right?
Well, yes if the shape of the kata is all you want. But you should not want that. A typical Niten kata will take maybe ten minutes to learn, and then where are you. They are not intended to be dance steps that you memorize, they are meant to be copied fast, and learned from for the rest of your life, or at least your Niten career.
Yesterday I wrote about the three levels of Kendo Federation Iai and Jodo kata, copy the steps, perfect the steps, then go beyond. These are usually done over years. In Niten, the first level is about five minutes, the second (perfection) might take a few months, and then you get into what I’ve called the “good stuff”.
Timing, distance, reading your partner, learning to move power from your foot to the tip of the sword, emotional control, that sort of thing. The good stuff.
Memorizing Niten kata is sort of a waste of time if you don’t go on from there. Zoom is excellent for learning the form of the kata, you don’t need much more, especially if you have some background in Japanese sword. But you need to ask questions to get the rest.
Why don’t I just tell you the rest? Because I don’t remember, because it’s in my bones, not in my head, because what I could put down, I have put down in a couple-three manuals you can go read. The rest you have to pull out of me, either by messing about (NOT messing up, but working away at it) in a live class, or, you guessed it, questions. I love questions, I can answer questions, historical, psychological, physiological, spiritual, I can answer them. If I haven’t answered your question before, I can usually feel the right answer as you ask it.
Is that too proud? Too arrogant? Look, I’ve been doing this stuff since 1980, I’ve had many amazing teachers, I’ve read and thought about this stuff for decades. It’s OK to ask me a question.
So ask.
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Sei Do Kai dojo Guelph:
Contact pam.sdk@gmail.com or https://www.thepamurai.com/ for details on live and zoom classes, for zoom classes, click the link at:
Zoom classes: [Tuesday Jodo at 7:30pm, Wednesday jodo, and Thursday iaido, Friday Jodo Canada Book Club (ZNKR book, check Jodo Canada events calendar), all at 7pm Eastern time, Sunday Niten Ichiryu at 11am Eastern time]
Live classes: (check with Pam during the summer): [Tuesday 9pm-10:30pm, Thursday 9-10:30pm Sunday 1:30pm-3:30pm]
Events: https://www.jodo-canada.ca/events
Free Books:
Seito Bugei Juku 