Posted by Kaoru on May 28, 2004, 3:13 am, in reply to "Downloadable "Sword Kata" tutorial" No. There are no videos worth looking at, like you describe. By the way, you CANNOT teach yourself anything. You need to find a dojo. No matter what, you are just waving a sword around if you teach yourself. If you want instruction, please go here: http://www2.g-com.ne.jp/~japan/cgi-bin301/ikonboard.cgi You can ask me or anyone else there, for help finding a dojo. Until that time you get yourself in gear and do that, please get rid of the sword and get a bokuto for your safety. You have a VERY high risk of cutting yourself and even losing a finger messing around like that doing fancy "kata." That is NOT kata. I would also not advise you to perform with a sword. Should you be using a dangerous unsafe blade(Most likely you are.), you can kill someone if you lose control. The tsuka on those cheap blades(Anything less than about 350 dollars.) only have glued in blades. VERY unsafe. They DO wiggle loose, and can go flying right out of the tsuka and kill either you or a person watching. Not only that, those blades will most likely be 440 steel, and those are brittle actually, and can break very easily. Oh, by the way, NONE of the kata you see in videos if it is REAL sword kata is "basic." You have NO idea of the time it takes to perfect it. You can't learn it in a day, either. It may LOOK easy, but it is NOT. There are MANY little fine and minute details you have never even thought of or learned, because you have never been in a dojo before, I am sure. It takes literally years to even GET that good. And, it requires LOTS of patience and maturity and a desire to train very hard. You can end up practicing just one cut for almost an hour, because sensei didn't like how you did it and make you do the one movement again and again until it is right. And sometimes, it is just a part of the cut you are learning, such as hand position when in Jodan. Or, if you are in seiza, moving to make a cut from seiza, which is really hard. You can't learn any of this from a video or a book. It is taught through verbal commands and by demonstration and by showing the student how to move, when the sensei checks the student's form. You can't ask a book or video questions, and they can't answer back and teach you. it takes a lifetime to really learn a JSA, and it won't be accomplished the way you are going, if you wish to really learn. Until you have proper training in a dojo, you should never critique kata. Japanese Sword Arts are NOT about being flashy. That's not real swordsmanship. Real swordarts like Muso Shinden Ryu Iaido and Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido, Yagyu Shinkage Ryu Kenjutsu, Suio Ryu Kenjutsu, to name a few of the REAL and LEGIT JSA(Japanese Sword Art) that are hundreds of years old, are never flashy. They are full of serious and beautiful waza that can only be learned through serious study in a dojo with a qualified sensei, and well worth a person's time. I highly encourage you to find a dojo and watch a practice to see what real JSA is all about. You will be pleasantly amazed. For more information about these arts, please go here: If you just want to mess around for fun and not train, then by all means, do so. Just please don't claim to be a sword expert and practitioner. Without training under a qualified sensei, you can't claim any of that. Even then, you can't. It's bad etiquette. Please use a bokuto for your safety and put away the sword. You CAN get cut. Good luck. Kaoru
Hi,
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