Iaido Cutting Practice
I had my first attempt at cutting with a live blade tonight. It certainly makes a change from swinging a big lump of metal around and having to stop it yourself without hitting anything.
What was a surprise was just how easily a sharp blade will cut through something. Newbies like myself tend to use the blade like an axe, expecting resistance at the point the blade strikes the target. What actually happens is the blade slices clean through the mats with very little resistance at all, leaving you to try and stop it before it hits the floor or your foot! As you can see from the second shot, my end point is a little low…
My form doesn’t look too bad, which was another thing I found surprising, but it does need some work to come up to the standard of someone who has been practising for so long. Sensei Keith Rose, 5th Dan, demonstrates the right way to do it.
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