Skip to main content

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 ๐Ÿ˜“). 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 YUGAERI. No better, no worse. 

Which means that when I'm dropping the bow, the fault is probably a momentary and infrequent failure as opposed to a subconscious attempt at improving YUGAERI. The plus side of learning this is that my subconscious has no need to make such an attempt any more either.

Other notes, the bow still causes me to bring my whole right arm toward the left at DAISAN some times. I need to put a bit more conscious thought into holding that.

Additionally, I need to continue the rotation in the right arm.

A point that was brought up from the Vancouver seminar by one of the attendees was also to keep my YUNDE "flat" when raising the bow and through to release.

And lastly, my ENSOU isn't round enough according to one SEMPAI. This may be an over correction. One of the instructors in the past had told me to extend my ENSOU out more. Which means my arms straighten a bit. One problem with memory is accuracy though. I remember the advice, but I don't remember the exact shape of my arms before and after the advice. So I can only assume that I have over assimilated that advice as time has gone on. 

I also recorded myself with the GOMUYUMI in the basement and my shinsa timing is going to need some of work. I'm at or just above 3 minutes with the GOMUYUMI. And, with the GOMUYUMI I'm not actually doing TORIKAKE with a bow or working on a proper release/etc... so I have to assume actual times would be worse.

Lastly, from my garage session videos, I can see a lot of things improving. But I'm developing a tendency to not raise the bow straight up in UCHIOKOSHI.

We're coming down to the wire on shinsa prep. I've got 2 more Saturday classes before video recording.

I'll probably focus on TAIHAI practice + shinsa timing practice tonight. I like to relax my arms before dojo days and the timing is of critical importance right now. I'm going to go check my prior shinsa footage to get some rough timing markers as well. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kyudo Blog #2 - Shinsa Prep

So, we're well past my first year. I decided to take the video shinsa for shodan at the end of the year. We also, have a new cohort joining the dojo. Things are getting interesting. This journey has not been at all what I expected. First, I had expected Kyudo to be both more and less introspective. Our dojo focuses more on Taihai, or the ceremonial/performance aspect of the art. And that comes with a lot of concern for harmony and beauty as a group. Making movements up to shai (firing line) in unison as much as possible.  At the same time the focus on the self is infinitely more than I could have anticipated as well. Posture, breathing, form and movements. Everything seems to have a right way of doing it. And none of those "right ways" come naturally. Beyond that there is also etiquette. Even things you might not associate with the practice itself are a part it. And all of these things then also need to be in harmony with everything else. Needless to say, I have a long wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

AI Loops?

I've already made my arguments against AI on a financial level and on a technical level. Now they've started suggesting that you combine these catastrophes into one big, uber-catastrophe: don't even write prompts any more, just write loops! The hubris! AI is not ready. Period. I'm NOT saying that AI will NEVER be ready. I'm saying that, at the current moment, we're not there. Not even close. If you thought the crazy AWS bills of the past were something, wait until the first engineering teams start taking this advice. I guarantee you that it will be epic. A little part of me actually wants companies to just take this advice and let Claude run without any token caps. Why? Not because I want to see those companies fail, but because I want to see how fast Anthropic can destroy itself when these companies suddenly can't afford the bills which they need them to pay to keep the lights on. It would be short term pain for long term gain in the software industry. A me...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kyudo Blog - Closer to yugaeri.

A new format and process for my Kyudo posts. I'm going to start by summarizing before I write. This is to keep me on topic before I write. Then I'll provide glossary of Kyudo terms at the beginning, followed by the post.   Glossary: YUGAERI (ๅผ“่ฟ”ใ‚Š) - The way the bow rotates as the arrow is fired, bringing the string around to the outer forearm. TENOUCHI (ๆ‰‹ใฎๅ†…) - The proper way to grip the bow in Kyudo.  YUNDE (ๅผ“ๆ‰‹) - The (left) hand which holds the bow.  METE (้ฆฌๆ‰‹) - The (right) glove hand.  UCHIOKOSHI (ๆ‰“ใก่ตทใ“ใ—) -  The fourth stage of shooting in Kyudo where the bow is raised up above the head. HIKIWAKE (ๅผ•ใๅˆ†ใ‘) - This fifth stage of shooting in Kyudo, where the draw of the bow begins. DAISAN (ๅคงไธ‰) - A intermediate in stage during HIKIWAKE where there is a pause before proceeding into KAI. KAI (ไผš) - The sixth stage of shooting in Kyudo. Stretching out in forward and back into a full draw. HANARE (้›ขใ‚Œ) - The seventh stage of shooting in Kyudo. The point where the arrow is r...
Post a Comment
Read more