Cam Findlay

Posts Tagged ‘Iaido’

After some good talks with the co-ordinator at the Brooklyn Community Centre in Wellington and having found another like-minded Iaidoka, we will be running an introductory Iaido workshop on the 19th June.

More information and registration at: www.wellington-iaido.com

All going well, regular weekly classes should be starting in mid to late July.

UPDATE: Thanks to those who attended the workshop last Saturday, keep checking back for regular training times TBA.

Last Thursday and Friday (8-9 Oct) I was lucky enough to be part of the very first national New Zealand Iaido Seminar held at the Auckland Kendo Club in of course…. Auckland.
It was a 2 day intensive training, grading and a good opportunity to network and meet the others throughout New Zealand swinging a sword in this age old martial art.

The plans moving forward are to start building numbers and really promoting Iaido in NZ and I am hoping that I can add my knowledge of social networking and online communities to work towards this.

Thursday saw a full day of training and learning some new kata in the Kendo Federation Seitei Iaido which consists of 12 kata (I know up to number 11 at the moment!)
It is interesting learning from others as each teacher does seem to put their own knowledge and spin on each kata.  At the end of it all I think gathering as much knowledge as you can from as many teachers as you can and then combining that with what feels natural with your own movement and focus is the way to go.

Thursday evening I dug deep despite extreme tiredness and a rather painful toe injury I performed the best I could at the grading and came away with a 2nd Kyu (ni-kyu) grading! A jump of 8 grades as I had been previously ungraded.

Friday saw more training and a Shiai (competition) and something even more fun… getting to invent our own kata!

The “build your own” kata concoctions were all very interesting with one of our (chch) dojos students ideas using an umbrella as a sword took it top marks.

The 2 days were a great challenge that everyone who attended met and got something out of…

Before I left for Auckland I flicked to a random page in my copy of Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s “Hagakure” (a classic Japanese warrior code text) and thinking back on it now it shared some insight into the days ahead, it read:

The talented rise to the challenge-
There is a saying, “As the water rises the boat rises”. When a person of talent … encounters a difficulty, his [or her] heart rises to meet the challenge, and the greater the challenge the more he [or she] is spurred to take it on. – Hagakure, Book 2, Line 42

Rather fitting I think! A big thanks to all those at Auckland Kendo as to all those who attended the Seminar. Look forward to next year!

Righto here are the questions Tom Matthews proposed last week:

1. Name one thing/activity you could do that would make a difference to your management/leadership ratio?
2. How self-responsible are you in your life?
3. To be 20% more self-responsible, what would you have to change?
4. Complete the ‘survey packet’ (handed out at the lecture) and record your reflections on your present levels of engagement and service.

Will need to have a quick refresh through the notes from that lecture which was talking about differences in historical views of leadership to new ideas and theories of what a leader is.

Most importantly it seems that personal leadership is most important…as how can one lead others if one cannot even lead oneself properly.

The ideas of the 3 stages of “Waking up”, “Standing Up”, “Making Choices” and “Self-Responsibility” i think really resonated with me… I feel I have always had a great deal of self awareness and if I want to get something done I put things in motion and do it. Deciding to head back to university after 7 years of doing other things and working was one of these personal leadership moments.

Anyway… class tomorrow I need to get some reading done!  Tom seems to have posted up a personal values questionnaire on the university intranet which looks like it could be something interesting to fill out and see what the tests say I value…

I will attempt to blog post on the above questions over the weekend, hopefully after Iaido training when I am always at my most relaxed and focused… perhaps I will attain some secret enlightenment of Ki Ken Tai no Ichi… then again… I think I need a lifetime of practice before that kicks in.