Sword and the martial artist pt.2

By Richard San

I did’nt begin serious sword trainning until I became a blackbelt some 20 years ago, there had been opportunities before then to try a lesson in sword, but i think i had little interest then as young martial artist, too busy learning and training in Karate, which I thought then was all that mattered, how mistaken I was!
To me now all these years later, I can’t ever imagine a week when I’m not practicing or teaching sword, to feel the beauty of a cut, to keep striving for the patience to move as one with the blade in hand, to connect stance with the mind and with the cut, too be as one in a fluid act, all in the endless moment…that is the beauty of sword.

But i think the patience for sword and compassion for yourself is the most important thing you need to learn if you begin serious training in sword, for the frustrations that come with it are many! For you are ever no more than a breath away from a bad cut, a bad draw or clumsy re-sheath, and that i think this is it’s fascination for the high grades within our dojo who study this art. For sword is an unforgiving subject, if you enter the dojo distracted or tired to practice karate or aikido, then you can usualy over the period of the lesson find your focus again, you may even channel your frustrations in to the power of the strike or the throw, but with sword, to have a mind elsewhere can be disastrous or at the least embarrassing!
For the sword is like a mirror, it reflects and then magnifies your moods and the state of your spirit. The old joke in the dojo, is that a student in love always does better sword!

This is why i think new students of sword struggle so much, they feel nervous of this weapon in their hand and so become tense and anxious, then they make the awkward movements and mistakes that make them feel even more tense, and so the vicious circle continues. They feel sword should be a way to write poetry with the body, but first they must learn to hold the pen that is sword! This will always take time, and it is the job of the instructor to relax and put the student at ease. For wanting to be good at sword is often the problem, the old teachers always said that; in sword you must first cut the ego before you may become a master of sword.  So with much practice a student might one day, release the art that lies within their body, and through sword find themselves painting beauty with the very tip of their sword! But all is patience.

This then to me is the endless mystery and challenge of teaching and practicing sword. It is the ultimate tool of expression for a student of the martial arts, sword will become the grindstone that will sharpen the focus of the mind, and it is this focus that is the ultimate weapon of martial artist, it will make his Karate better, his Aikido better and i believe with time…his life better.

So I might of been slow to find the sword, but i intend to be holding it for a long time to come!