A Bit on Training but Mostly More Kendo Reading...Lowry and Twigger

This post started as a discussion about training and digressed into a discussion about books.

What I will cover today is what I am going to look for when I start reviewing videos of my suburi and then I am going to go off course and talk about two books that helped me with my Kendo - both provided me with an insight into mindset from two different directions.

The Discussion about Training: Suburi - What I am Looking Out For

Well I am through most of the cardio-training now and despite a mild addiction to spinning (a good thing), I am none the worse for wear.

I have been looking in two directions at the moment in terms of training.

One direction was in terms of suburi or Kendo specific training I've been making good friends with my suburi-to and working on men cuts including men cutting while in the horse stance.

I believe the cutting is getting better judging by what I can see in the reflection on our sliding door and by the shadows. The next phase is to film myself. I have a tripod and just bought a $1.99 bracket so that I can mount my iPhone on it.

Suburi - Good Habits to Gain, Bad Habits to Repair

What will I be looking at or for:

• opening swing - in particular how far back my kissaki (sword tip) and my tsukagashira (hilt butt) go
• shoulders - as I mentioned before I have a tendency to lift these (think of a shrugging action) which is a habit that needs to be fixed (it is a tell, also it is just tiring and slows me down)
• tenouchi (am I snapping my wrists and is there an obvious stop at the end of the cut)

I want to get a little more into bokken training so late last month I put an order in for Dave Lowry's Bokken: Art of the Japanese Sword a bit of a punt. (I just checked my order status and it should be here next week!)

The Bit About Books and Reading

Dave Lowry: Autumn Lightning

I have read Lowry's work before and have a lot of respect for him and his treatment of the martial arts.

When I was getting into Kendo I ordered and read Autumn Lightning which is an account of his study of Kenjutsu - unfortunately my copy is packed away somewhere but thanks to the miracle of Amazon I can reveal that I enjoyed it- I even wrote a review!

I am afraid at the moment my lasting memory of the book is how his Sensei taught him to sit on the toilet - suffice to say the posture is unconventional but functional, more to the point it means you are ready to leap into action if necessary.

There is much more to the book than this and this recollection does not do it justice.


Twigger: Bad Ass Aikido

While I am on the topic of good reads, try Robert Twigger's: Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons From The Tokyo Riot Police. I seen some reviews of this book and picked it up on a whim to read on a flight to Australia.

Twigger learns Aikido with the Tokyo Riot Police so on the face of it it does not seem very Kendo related but three words make it so: Tokyo Riot Police.

When I first started training, the Japanese Riot Police were a source of huge admiration to us for two reasons:

• they were paid to train in Kendo
• they were hard-arses Kendo wise - gi-geiko, kakari-geiko so tough you lost control of everything (I mean everything)

About the only thing that was madder (in a positive Kendo sense) than a Japanese Riot Police Kendoka was a Japanese Imperial Guard Kendoka (and by this I mean the police unit tasked to guard the Emperor of Japan).

So I bought Twigger's book to get an insight into the Tokyo Riot Police mindset. The discovery - these guys are bad-ass too.

And yes, I wrote an Amazon Review of that too! (It is probably one of the ways I remember what I have read.)

Note: I am no Aikido expert - I don't do it (although I do admire it) so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the Aikido in the book or its value for an Aikidoka.

Oh yeah, what was the second direction my training was taking?

I started this post talking about training and got into books. I said at the start I was looking at my training in two directions, and covered one - suburi and bokken training - here.

I will cover the other one - fitness and gym training - in my next post.

Recommendations for a Good Read?

If you have any good reading recommendations - Kendo, martial art, or mindset related, please feel free to share them in the comments section.

Until then.

Ganbatte.