Budōkan Dōjō

Post training drinks. Martial arts is thirsty work! The Gate Darlington.
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Just starting to get some good mobility in my right knee now. Physio session yesterday is helping so hopefully not too long before I can kneel down again. Lee

Caption competition .....

Budokan Dojo .... real iaido training .... are you man* enough?
. .. ...
... *....or woman enough?
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Just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who gave up their Saturday to come and do the Iaido demonstration at the Tall Ships. Thank you especially to PJ for organising it and Brian for doing all the public speaking.
Our depth of practice really showed in a fabulous and very professional demonstration.
And it was great fun too! (As you can see in these pics from Sophie). Can't ask more than that.
... Looking forward to the next one.
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Fabulous photos of our iaido demonstration at the Tall Ships. Thank you very much to Draper for sharing these.

Huge thank you to Mark Ralston for these beautiful hand made sword bags. You are a very skilled man! 😍

Delighted to have been invited to perform an Iaido and Jodo demonstration at the Tall Ships in Sunderland on Saturday 14th July.
We will be performing on St Peter's stage near the Glass Centre at 5:30 pm.
Please like and share around anyone who might be interested in coming along to watch.

Just a quick post to encourage our membership to support the BKA Annual General Meeting Saturday the 21st of July at University of Warwick in Coventry CV4 7AL.
If you are interested in voting for the next BKA officer team, not is the time to make sure your voice is heard.
Hoping you are able to show your support to those taking on these difficult roles.

Congratulations to Mark Ralston, rob townson, Dek Bresnen and Brian Ford for their plethora of medals at last weekend's jodo championships. Superb result guys.

Excellent training tonight with Lee sensei at Durham Dojo. Got loads of individual in depth detail to play with. Can't wait to get back at it. Everyone asking to do that again next session. Thank you to everyone there for making it such a good session.

In our training sessions we often come across the term 'seme' which means to exert physical or mental pressure towards the opponent.
However, it's more complicated than that and we recently had a training session at our Durham Dojo which illustrated this point beautifully.
We were looking at a range of Seitei Kata in quick succession to establish common learning points which could be applied to all Kata. Seme was one of those common points but probably the hardest to implemen...t (at least it is currently the hardest on my own learning journey).
For example:
'Kenseme' which means keeping pressure on the opponent using the sword.
'Taiseme' which means keeping pressure on the opponent using the body.
'Kiseme' in which we attempt to hold our opponent back purely through the use of intent or spirit.
I believe that all 3 kinds of seme are used to varying degrees (plus a fourth which is used consistently in all kata called Miseme which means pressure from the eyes - alternatively referred to as Metsuke) in all our kata but it was interesting to see the three definitions of seme in direct comparison like that in a training session. It was equally interesting to see which kata were particularly useful as a training tool to work on specific forms of seme which could then be implemented in the rest of our training.
Thank you very much to Peter West Sensei who helped me with the correct use of the above Japanese terms.
Also thank you to Dave Draper for taking fabulous photos of the club members which I have made use of here.
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How to explain the unexplainable?!
For years we Budokan students have been taught to improve our kata through the use of hara.
'In the Japanese medical tradition and in Japanese martial arts traditions, the word Hara is used as a technical term for a specific area (physical/anatomical) or energy field (physiological/energetic) of the body. In the medical tradition of Japan, hara refers to the soft belly, i.e. the area defined vertically by the lower edge of the sternum and t...he upper edge of the pubis and laterally by the lower border of the ribcage and the anterior iliac crest respectively. It corresponds with that area of the peritoneum, which is not obscured by the ribcage, and thus more or less coincides with the viscera covered by the greater omentum.' (source Wikipedia) I have also seen it referred to as an 'Ocean of energy'.
For several months I have believed I was using my hara albeit sporadically in my limited 2nd and then 3rd dan capability.
I was wrong!
I was doing it aaaallllllll wrong! and making life so much harder than it needed to be.
I understood the theoretical concept of how hara should work ... and I understood theoretically which muscles I should be using (but wasn't!)... until I came across it by accident, sigh!
I am aware I still have a lot of learning to do just on use of hara let alone everything else Iaido has to teach me, but I love those moments when something I've spent months trying to do suddenly becomes easy and 'natural' as our Japanese sensei say.
I now have a renewed respect for all our teachers, those who teach us week in week out as well as those who travel hundreds of miles to share their knowledge. Teaching the technicalities of Iaido, which foot to put where, which angle to hold the sword, is comparatively easy. This alone can be information overload and can take many years to even attempt to do correctly but then add in the impossible task of teaching the unexplainable. Trying to explain how to use muscles you have never consciously used before in a movement not replicated anywhere else in life with no basis of comparison. Trying to explain concepts of the movement of energy or intent that you can't see or touch or adjust in the same way that you can adjust an elbow or the line of the hips.
The level of frustration and patience our teachers must have to deal with while trying to convey everything they want to share with us must be immense! Equally the level of happiness when they see a student have a light bulb moment must make up for all the hours of repetition! At least I hope they do, lol.
Here's to many more years of learning and light bulb moments on our collective Iaido journey!
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Just a quick reminder that iaido is not on tonight as the hall is closed for the bank holiday.

Really good nights training at Durham last night. Refreshed our Tachi Uchi no Kurai practice. The night just flew by and i got some hard practice in. Lee

The club has a new 4th dan. Well done to Sophie Ralston for passing her iaido 4th dan grading this weekend.

I had expected the 'Iaidobu Financial Report' to be an official report by a third party with neutral interest, not a one sided opinion piece filled with more political positioning than facts, figures and resolutions.
What are the implications for former bu officers?
Do we have a clear bottom line figure for how much the accounts are 'out' by as the report doesn't seem to state this?
... If so does this mean the iaido accounts are in the red? I'm not sure this can be the case given the recent announcement from the bucho saying that costs to attend seminars will be reduced to a more affordable level this year which implies that we are in profit.
What are the outcomes of the report? Are there any proposed actions (I found a distinct lack of clarity here) and if so what are they?
If there are no proposed actions then I have to question the point of the report other than to prevent anyone wanting to take up any voluntary positions in the BKA ever again for fear of witch hunting. Way to make friends and influence people guys!
I can't help but wonder - if the current iaido admin had put this much effort into promoting iaido, encouraging new membership and preventing the rift we now face with our Japanese Sensei - how different things could now be.
Ok so our accounts might be out. Large scale seminars are not easy to organise and manage. Even small scale events rarely balance up on paper. I'm not saying this should be swept under a carpet, I am saying that the bigger crime is the damage to our relations with Japan. Accounting errors can be forgiven. Losing the support of our patron sensei cannot be forgiven. These sensei have shown us immense dedication and this has just slapped them in the face. If a hammon doesn't speak loudly enough I don't know what will. Saying that we can still train with our sensei privately does not justify the appalling continuing behaviour of our current iaido admin and releasing reports like this just prolongs and exacerbates the problem. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
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I have been reading the latest missive from our Iaido Bucho and must admit to being quite dismayed. For many years now several, well, it must be admitted, Japanese gentlemen of now somewhat advancing years, have boarded planes from their home country, flown several thousand miles, several times a year, and given us their experience and their knowledge in iaido. But more than this. They gave us their friendship. they gave us their loyalty. They came at least once a year. every... year. and dragged us out of the iaido quagmire and made us the standard we are today. and yet.... and yet..... I read a report which is from our iaido bucho.... and hope not ratified by our chair .. that we jettisoned these teachers. Why? because of the vanity of the few. let's be honest I feel some sympathy for one of those who was hamoned. But rather than seeking a resolution with those Japanese teachers who have led us for so many years our iaido bu is now seeking to discard them. This is nothing short of appalling. Those involved in this, were this olden times, you would be invited to do the honourable thing by your families... but honour is old fashioned. And we see precious little of it in the BKA anymore. I am no longer interested in the fact that the current bucho has openly maligned the previous one and the previous treasurer. I am no longer bothered that the bucho has tried to remove me from this forum and then pretended he made a mistake. I am not bothered he sends me abusive emails ( which I didn't read anyway but my partner did and advised me to delete). But damn right I am bothered when several decent Japanese people, who have done their best for us for many years have felt the need to say what our bucho is doing is wrong, and our chair and our treasurer and we seem to ignore them. Really? I mean Really? delete this if you want admin people. But I stand by my views. I may not always be an easy person to get on with... but I always want the best for the BKA... and Iaido ... but most of all I want the best for my patron teacher. and I suspect that is echoed within MSR as well. I leave it up to others whether or not my post is polite and decent and erm honourable. We need to move forward and we cannot do this if we see reports that malign others who did their best. There is some good stuff from he current iaido admin group... indeed it seems much more organised... but it cannot keep maligning others. This has to stop. If the Iai bu wants to move forward we need another new broom.
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