The
Iaido Journal Mar 2007
Jeff Works on Cuts (and Goes to a Tournament)
copyright © 2007 Jeff Broderick, all rights reserved
Lately I've been having an issue with my cuts. I know how I'm
supposed to cut; also, Azuma sensei's cuts are notoriously good, so I
have a good example at all times. But I can't seem to get it right. I
may be worse now than I was in the past, or perhaps I'm just becoming
aware of some things I'm doing wrong.
The cut is supposed to
start from the tip. In other words, the first thing that should happen
is that the tip should move, and it should move upwards from
horizontal. If someone were to gently pinch the kissaki as you held the
sword horizontally above your head, the first thing that should happen
as you start to cut is that the kissaki would pop UP, and not forward
or diagonally. This means that you have to start the cut using your
little fingers.
But what I find happens is that, if I do this,
my wrists move into "shinite" -- essentially, the wrists are
over-extended forward into a weak position called "dead hand". So as my
sword makes contact with the forehead of my imaginary opponent, my
wrists are over-extended. Then my hands move in a soft, rounded finish
as I pull the sword into my tanden, instead of "accelerating firmly to
a stop" as it is supposed to do.
Add to this mixture some other
pointers that have been drilled into me lately. First, you should cut
in such a way that the kissaki goes from horizontal to the opponent's
forehead in the minimum possible amount of time. Thus, no wasted energy
cutting the air above your or your opponent's head. Also, I was told to
cut by pulling with the left hand, and pushing with the right hand in
an opposing fashion. When I did this, the teacher who told me said,
"Okay, now you're finally cutting correctly!"
But when I keep
those things in mind, all kinds of other bad things happen. My sword
pops around at the bottom of the cut, or finishes too far out from my
tanden, or the tip drops before the cut, or ... or ... or ...
I
would like to blame my crappy cuts on a few things. One is my weak,
spindly arms! (Well, for my body size, they're pretty weak.) Also, my
sword is very long (2.7) and pretty heavy. (1200 grams?) I'd like to
get a lighter sword but I don't know if that would help me. Another
problem is that the tsuka is thin, and it's hard to get a good grip on
it.
Maybe all of this is just excuse-making, I don't know.
Unfortunately, swords are pretty expensive, so it's not like I can
afford to buy a few swords and experiment with them. And there aren't
many people around here with similar-length swords that I could try
swinging. (Although one of the teachers today had a 2.65!)
With all that in mind, I attended the prefectural "Advanced Dan Holders
Seminar". Now that I'm
5th dan I get to attend this thing. It was really good, although I
spent most of the time wiping the sweat out of my eyes. There were
about 50 people there, 5th dan and up, and we focused on seitei iai
only. Azuma Sensei's "specialty" or focus is on balance, posture, and
turning. His whole idea is that this is 90% of iai. Most people can cut
pretty well but throw themselves off balance when they do so, for
example. Or maybe they have good posture when they're standing still,
but their balance falls apart when they are turning. So that's what we
worked on today. Of course, that's exactly my weak point (do I actually
HAVE a strong point??) so it was good for me.
After the morning
seminar, I was fixin' to go home when they started to announce
something about "Will the participants in the tournament this afternoon
please be sure to ..." Tournament? Why do they always have tournaments
that I never know about? Azuma Sensei approached me and told me that I
was joining the tournament; it was a team tournament and one of the
so-and-so team's members was unable to attend due to a last-minute
problem, so I was going to help them out by being the third member. Oh,
and by the way, I was to be the captain. Oh great!
I'm not sure
how it works, but I guess each team of 3 people can have one person of
up to 3rd dan, one of up to 4th dan, and one of up to 5th dan. So you
could have a team with 3rd, 4th, and 5th dan, or you could also have a
team with 3 3rd dans. The highest-ranked person is the captain. In
fact, last year's champions were the young kids in our dojo, who are (I
believe) 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dan. And they're all teenagers. And they're
all fantastic. Argh.
In the first round, I was just purely
focused on not dropping my tip before a cut. I was really nervous, and
I felt like I did really badly. But I won, 2 flags to 1! And our team
beat the other team 2 matches to 1, so we were through to the next
round. The second match I felt like I was much more relaxed. I had a
lot more zanshin, my cuts were more powerful, my balance was more
stable ... and I lost, 2 flags to 1. And our team lost, 2 matches to 1,
so we were finished. I felt kind of bad but I also felt like my
opponent was really good, so I lost "honestly" if you know what I mean.
At least I didn't lose in the first round like I usually do.
Afterwards,
Azuma Sensei came up to me looking pretty pissed off. "You know why you
lost? Because you dropped your tip. The first round, all your cuts were
okay and you didn't drop the tip. But then, in the second round, your
tip dropped every single time. All the judges said that your techniques
were really good except for that, but it's a basic error so you lost
almost automatically. I keep telling you to stop dropping your tip, and
you keep making the same mistake." After that I felt pretty bad. He's
right; I can keep my kissaki up if it's all I focus on ... but this
experience has shown me that, for the next little while, it's all I
SHOULD focus on, even if it feels like the rest of my techniques are
falling apart.
