Training Log, September 18
Last night, bokuto waza and tori.
We warmed up with the 8-directions cutting kata (happogiri) and I had real trouble with my feet going where I wanted them to, particularly when leading with the left foot. Leading with the left foot is bizarre feeling when I have a sword in my hand(s); I would instinctively start with my right foot, then hesitate, maybe stutter step. For each step or slide, it seemed like I would take one and a half, trying to keep my feet in synch. It was doing this that I jammed my left big toe.
Also interesting was that turns were all to the open side, avoiding 270° turns. This is the second variation in the video linked-to above.
Bokken waza is interesting in that at times, it seems we're expected, as nage, not to use the sword that's in our hand. During the first technique, my blends were suboptimal, such that my partner could easily resist the throw, a kokyunage. When I realized I was meeting resistance and forcing my way through the throw, my instinct was to pivot in a way that brought the sweet spot of the bokuto across uke's neck. It was natural, required little effort on my part, and would effectively end the confrontation, but the outcome was a bad one, not in keeping with the principle of "imposing harmony" while minimizing damage to uke. A better blend, a deeper slide and pivot, ending shoulder-to-shoulder, would have resulted in a cleaner, safer (for uke) kokyunage, instead of decapitation.
This leads me to think about ukemi. We were training, and my partner was revealing a weakness in my technique to me by resisting. Because we were training and learning, this was a benevolent act on uke's part. Resistance, though, made him vulnerable to a more devastating technique, and the principle of shinkenshobu would have me apply the technique. Shinkenshobu seems to suggest that it's in uke's best interest to yield to the original technique to avoid the potentially-lethal follow-up. The other edge of the shinken is that I must strive to perfect technique, so that I'm not required to shift to a more damaging technique during the encounter.
During bokkentori, I noticed that the small turn applied to tsuka, which affected uke's balance, is very similar to the rotation Takeguchi sensei demonstrated during jotori at the Twin Cities Aikido Center Autumn Seminar.
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