Weapons Course - Sword

Chuldow has just held an Iaido course and gradings. Above is a shot of part of the grading that was undertaken by several Chuldow students with Miss Moss in the front of the picture.

The day started off with a warm up for all weapons students (Bo/Jo, Sai, Kama and Nunchaku were also taught, but more of these in the next post). After the warm up we all split into our respective groups for our own training with our own instructors.

First of all Mr Hauer took us through the bowing on process and explained the intricate nature and significance of each move and sword position. Then once we were bowed on came the dreaded knee walking, which is a section no one likes to do, but is an essential part of the process.

Then we learnt 5 stances and practiced them, repition is the best way to learn in many circumstances. Soon we had them up to speed, so we were then asked to work out which stance counter acted the other. This took a while to get my head round but once you have the general idea and get in the mindset it seems to fit together.

We also went through some bokken defences and evasion. It is funny that as soon as Mr Hauer stands in front of you with the foam bokken it seems to concentrate your mind like nothing else.

Before lunch we then practice our forms, each person going up to the required amount of forms required for their gradings.

During lunch we had a time to relax and discuss the finer points of the mornings training.

Above: Mike and Simon about to practice for gradings.

Below: Mr Hauer and Miss Rock go through advanced forms

The afternoon saw us going through some disengage and counters and the higher grades got to go through some advanced work, unarmed defence against the bokken being noteable and something I look forward to doing in the near future. See below Simon and Zoe doing this in their gradings.

And how did this move end up you might ask, well see below for the outcome, Simon can be seen putting alot of effort into the strike but Zoe had the upper hand and completed the defence in fine style.

Below: Doing the forms

Then came gradings, and I'm pleased to say we all passed, I was particularly nervous as this was my first grading in 17 years. The results as as folows I think, Josh passed 5th Kyu, Myself, Miss Moss and Martin Bell graduated to 4th Kyu, Simon and Zoe graduated to 3rd Kyu and Mr Reid graduated to 2nd Kyu.

Many thnks to the organisers of the event and to the instructors for the help and guidance during the day, and also a big thanks to my fellow students who really helped me during the day, I thenk we learnet a lot from each other.

Below: The Instructors on the day

See you at the next course

Further write ups will appear soon for the other weapons studied.