Sensei’s Blog

We do a lot of different stuff in the club, we do Niten, Jikiden, SMR, Tanjo, Shinto, Kage, Keishi, Shindo Munen (Hosoda) and a couple of seitei. But to me we only do a few things, we do maai, we do tai sabaki, we cut, hit or thrust. We keep all that stuff separate because … Continue reading This is where you learn that – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

Just three of us in Niten class last evening, that's more like the summer class size I'm used to. We did Nito Seiho, something I wrote about not long ago so I won't repeat any notes. It was mostly kihon-kata anyway since we were learning the movements for the first time. I was sort of … Continue reading Back to front – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

The topic of habits comes up all the time when talking about kata based budo. Good habits, bad habits, how to break a habit. A habit is not the ability to do a complex movement, that's a movement pattern, something you gain the ability to do by "wearing it into the bones" but it's not … Continue reading Habits – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

The cottage now has a new closet/loft bed over the batteries in the dojo. Having finished that we had a couple practices just to warm up the floor for later in July when we do the Tombo Dojo Kage and Niten seminar. We went over Nito Seiho, Sessa and Aikuchi (Shikko). I often think these … Continue reading Niten Notes June 24-25 – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

I used to have a cheap fixed focus digital camera that was just perfect for shoving into or against holes so that I could get a look at what was inside the drainpipe, the old warehouse, or whatever. It was always a surprise, sometimes boring, sometimes interesting but always surprising. Kata are like that if … Continue reading What’s inside – 21 June 2017, Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

Just tipped into summer and we managed to get to the kodachi seiho, the short sword set of practice. In an effort to make the kodachi seem easy, we did some two-sword exercises to warm up. It didn't work. I'm not sure, but no matter how simple the kata, those learning them seem to have … Continue reading Niten Notes June 22 – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

Let's think about kamae, Musashi said that there are no kamae in his art, yet he immediately went on to describe five of them. Now, they were upper, middle, lower, right and left side which is sort of "going around the circle", like there are 8 directions of cutting, up down, right left and the … Continue reading Take a stance – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

A friend in Japan sent the following: "What to do when what the seniors are doing seems unnecessarily harmful? Squeezing the forearm where the pulse is, so hard it's leaving bruises and female students are being approached at work about possible domestic abuse? Yonkyo, in other words." Yonkyo indeed. First, I have an observation on … Continue reading Bruises: How students don’t learn – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo

More questions from my student which I probably won't answer well, but it gives us something to chat about. "The senior is always supposed to help the junior learn, so anytime I practise with a junior I am to ignore my own training for their sake and do my training later? Would this not require … Continue reading How do students learn? – Kim Taylor, Renshi, CI Sei Do Kai Guelph ON, Nanadan Iaido and Roukudan Jodo