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Kyudo - 2-Dan Shinsa Thoughts

A bit late on the retrospective but, I took a look at the video submitted for my 2-Dan shinsa and wanted to reflect a bit. Honestly, I think 50/50 or worse odds to pass. In a lot of ways, there was noticeable progress over my shodan testing. But the areas where it fell apart are the areas where the 2-Dan criteria does draw some specific attention. Here is what the IKYF Shinsa Regulation say about 2-Dan: Both the shooting form (Shakei) and formal movement (Taihai) should have good arrangement with evidence of spiritual energy (Kiryoku) in the application of the shooting technique (Shajitsu). There should be less uncertainty in the placing of the arrows (Yadokoro). The biggest things I think will hurt me are: Over shooting my walk up to SHAI Going over 3 minutes Pacing/Spiritual Energy Adjusting bow upward in KAI Shoulder up in UCHIOKOSHI Things which are improved: Aside from KAI, less wasted movement overall Achieved good amounts of YUGAERI on both arrows (full on HAYA) Both arrows para...
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Kyudo - Summary though to Sept 10th

Trying to keep up on these posts. Not doing great, but also not failing spectacularly either. Saturday was no practice due to the holiday, but a group of us did meet up and talk Kyudo over coffee. This time was more about how we integrate with the various communities (our own dojo, public, KAC, etc...). Was great to get a lot of different perspectives on how others describe Kyudo to others. Tuesday was lots of video shinsa practice. Worked on getting timing down to 3 minutes. My better runs come in at 2:54 and 2:58. Apparently the 3 minute thing is not a hard time limit. But complacency is bad because I was able to find at least one reference online from another dojo talking about video shinsa and mentioning 3 minutes as a target and 3:30 as where things really start to get penalized. Official confirmation I cannot find one way or another. But I can blow past 4 minutes if I'm not trying to up my pace. We had a number of the runs recorded. Problems I see: YATSUGAE - YUNDE drops cons...
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Kyudo - Summary through to August 28th

OK. Lots of feedback and lessons in the past several classes and garage sessions. At least half YUGAERI is like 100% now. Many more cases of full rotation and almost all of them are actually 75% or more.  I can't stress how much "don't try to get YUGAERI works". Fix the things you're told to fix and it will come. Will your SEMPAI/SENSEIS focus on a lot of other things before you start seeing progress? Probably. Most of us have more important form, posture or movement related issues that need to be fixed first. I say this because the one thing I did change, I thought would actually lead to me losing my rotation again. I've been dropping the bow a lot lately (sorry bow 😓). So, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't unconsciously allowing my grip to loosen or open at HANARE. Basically, pulling some of my focus on KAI from focusing on the progression into ZANSHIN and putting a little bit into making sure my grip remains unchanged. Did absolutely nothing to my YU...
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Kyudo - August 18th - (Dojo) Back and forth

Practice at the dojo last night was very "kyudo". Some things got better, some things got worse. I didn't shoot a ton of arrows. But, of the ones I did shoot almost every arrow went into the mato perfectly straight. I didn't hit my chest at all. But I dropped my bow twice. Well, the second time I technically caught it by the string before it fell. Either would be pretty disastrous for my 2-Dan shinsa.  We also did a quick TAIHAI at the end. And apparently my walking/pacing was GARBAGE. Not their words, but they are were being polite. I don't need to focus on entering and exiting the dojo for video shinsa. But I clearly need more practice in this area.  This whole thing highlights a few things. Shooting practice in the garage can improve my shooting. Apparently my form was generally looking better (still not there though), I was still getting a decent amount of YUGAERI, arrows were flying straighter, releases were more natural, etc...  I only practice with 1 arrow ...
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Kyudo - August 15-16 - Class and Garage

Class on Saturday was focusing on exercises to strengthen and correct movements and a bit of, what I would call "visualization practice". Which is, once again, not something I haven't been told in the past. For class, (the relevant part to this) we practiced TORIKAKE (grabbing the bow with the METE and setting the grip). We took quite a few turns at imagining exactly where we wanted our hands to end up and then attempting to move into that form without fidgeting. I hadn't realized how much faster some moves are when you don't waste time. This practice will be important for my shinsa, but also for everything else. Fast forward to today, and I started applying this to other areas of the HASSETSU where I was struggling. HIKIWAKI into DAISAN, then DAISAN into KAI and lastly, KAI into HANARE in particular.  At each stage I would focus on where I wanted to end and how I wanted to get there. From HIKIWAKE into DAISAN I was focused on getting my YUNDE rotated toward the t...
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Kyudo - Garage Practice - August 13th

Didn't spend a lot of time on practice last night. I have regular dojo practice on Saturday and didn't want to be sore/worn out for that. It is always better to have people who know more than myself to lean on. I can only fix the things which I can, see, know they're wrong, and know how and when they're fixed.  But I did want to try out a few things. And the focus of last night was a lot more on posture and trying to not be in the way of the bow so much that it hits when I get some rotation in the bow. I had a little bit of luck. I don't want to intentionally ruin my form in other ways just to correct this. It is akin to not intentionally chasing YUGAERI directly. Which means I still ended up hitting myself. But none of the hits were anywhere near as bad as the worst I'd received previously. In fact I they probably wouldn't even have bruised me for the most part. And as a bonus, when I was getting a decent amount of YUGAERI, I was barely getting hit at all....
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Kyudo - Garage Practice - August 12th

Today's lesson; it is always worthwhile to revisit old advice. For me Kyudo is a martial art where I'm not always ready to receive a piece of information. Either I don't fully understand or there are other things I need to fix first. My practice today was actually the culmination of a few different pieces of such advice. Some sliding into place and making room for new advances and others finally hitting home. The big items for today were: Posture Not extending my YUNDE too far out in DAISAN Raising the bow higher in DAISAN My primary objective this week has been fixing my draw. It is uneven and I pull my head and body back toward my METE during my draw. What I figured out last week was that the uneven draw (combined with the heavier bow) is a big part of the cause of that. When I'm drawing evenly, there is no need to compensate and the bow comes down cleaner and I stay more still. The first piece to fall in place was how far I was extending my YUNDE out during DAISAN. I...
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