videos: training in the Jizaikan

[Aiki Lee]

I truly believe I am my own worst critic. I've decided to post videos of my training in the Jizaikan, since I havent before. I feel as though I am putting myself at some risk by posting my face and real name on this forum, but I feel as though the majority of the people I talk with on this forum are mature and helpful individuals so I will post them. These videos were taken during the summer. Please keep in mind that I see a lot of corrections I still need to make and am always working to imrpove.

In the first video. My training partners and I (I am the big guy with the dark brown hair) have just finished around 4 hours of training. We are bush tired, but the teacher wanted to film us doing free response. It is a non coreographed practice at about 40% speed.

The second video is part of our 3rd degree black belt test. Matt, Mike, Vance, and me (Lee) must defend ourselves and "defeat" the founder of our system in an intelligent fashion. Swordwork at this stage is still fairly basic and Mr. Maienza is attacking us with basic sword cuts and is not trying to actively defeat us, just hit us with a boken. The test is at 100% speed and is not coreographed. I don't know if you can see the tension in the air, but it was definitely there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYcrRHJh78o&feature=related

So there ya go. I have a lot of training still to do, but I feel as though I have come a long way from cowering in fear from the school bully.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Congrats on your sandan!

I noticed that in the sword test, everyone stayed mostly in hasso no kamae. Is that the 'ready' position (for lack of a better term) in your ryu?

Also, what does the blue gi with the white belt signify?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[Aiki Lee]

We took hasso no kamae because it would be easiest to defend from. We were forbidden to take an overly defensive posture such as gedan, seigan, chudan, and ichi and we could feel the pressure from our instructor so we couldn't immediately take the offensive. Hasso seemed the best option. Jodan and dai jodan seemed too risky to start with and ryu sui left us vunerable as well. With hasso we could be sure he would only attack our opposite side and we could defend low or high easily.

Mr. Maienza originally wore a white gi with a white belt. The idea was that when u reach the end of our system you go back to the begining signifying that the warriors path never ends and true mastery is a life long endevour. However, new people would get confused and think he was a beginner because he wore a white belt (despite the fact it has 10 stripes and a title on it). So to lessen the confusion instructors above 5th dan wear blue gi.

Thanks for commenting!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Thanks for the response! And thanks for sharing the vids. Though given your namesake and avatar, I was expecting something more akin to Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.

Daniel

 

[Aiki Lee]

Ha! That will always be the dream!