sanno-sensei

It's interesting how similar yet how different Sanno-sensei and Tanaka-sensei are. Sanno-sensei started us off with basic cuts and we went through those for over an hour. He focused on balance and stability by having us take shorter steps and not reaching so much with the arms and upper body to draw and cut. He has a couple of interesting mottos:
"If you can't do two things at once, do them one at a time." So for example instead of cutting while moving forward, we stood in place and cut until we felt comfortable with the arc and angle of the blade, then tried it while moving. Also on the draw, we tried moving the hands to the sword and getting the right hand on the tsuka (sword handle) on the centerline (not over to the left) before moving the feet.

"Now we are developing technique, not using it." His point was, if you are really fighting, yes you want to get your shoulders into the cut, drive the sword deep into the opponent, maximize the power from the hips. But we aren't fighting, we're practicing. So take it slow, keep the body upright and stable, relax, don't worry about raw power so much as fine-tuning the movements, the coordination of the whole body. And THINK about what you're doing.

After the basics we went through two kata, shin and sa, again going over them detail by detail. Shin was passable, but sa needs serious work, especially drawing while turning and cutting out straight the opponent on the left.

I usually teach at Iidabashi on Thursdays, but this month Iidabashi is on Mondays, so I'll be able to come to Sanno-sensei's practice at least a few more times.