Saturday night training site

Thanks to David Douglas we have a place to train on Saturday nights.  We will be training at the LDS church at Polk avenue and Kingston drive in Ogden.  If you head east on 36th street then turn north on Polk avenue, you will see it right away.  The access to a room with extremely high ceilings we now have calls for more practice of bikenjutsu and maybe a naginata technique or two.  Hope to see everyone there Saturday at 7 p.m.

Training Interruption

Starting on April 23^rd, the downstairs of the community center will be closed as it will be used for storage of furniture moved from the, soon to be demolished, promontory tower. Saturday, April 21^st will be the last day we will be able to train at the community center for about the next four months. We are working to find an alternative location until the community center becomes available again at the start of the fall semester.

Congratulations Brooklynn

The Haruka Dojo sends congratulations to Brooklynn Opheikens on her successful test for the 5^th kyu in Genbukan Ninpo Bugei Taijutsu. We look forward to more progress from her in the future as she prepares for the formidable 4^th kyu.

Congratulations, David

The Haruka Dojo would like to congratulate David Smith on his successful test for the 6^th kyu in Genbukan Ninpo Bugei Taijutsu. We look forward to more progress from him in the future as well as from the rest of the students in the dojo.

Quote for the new year

I thought I would start off the dojo's blog for the year with a quote from a practitioner of a related style:


"The way of the sword does not belong to any one type of person, knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." Christa Jacobson

Hopefully, in the coming year we will be able to share our art with several new faces as well as some familiar ones who haven't been practicing for a while.

Christmas Eve

Just a quick note to let everyone know the Haruka Dojo will be calling off classes on Saturday, December 24th.  To end the year on a positive note, classes will be held on Saturday December 31st for those diligent practitioners who want to fit one more day of practice into 2011.

Cutting from daijodan

Cutting from daijodan with the katana seems like it should be simple enough, swing the sword straight down at your opponent. There are a number of subtle points the swordsman needs to take into account to make an effective cut. One factor to take into consideration is the footwork. The step one takes when cutting with a katana is smaller than the lunge a fencer takes with their weapon. Keeping one's balance and being able to deliver power with one's cut is better facilitated with a smaller step. Gripping the sword is fairly straightforward with the right hand near the top of the tsuka and the left hand near the bottom. The proper gripping of a sword is well illustrated in the Genbukan Ninpo BugeiBiken-Jutsu Kyukyu-Gata DVD. During the daijodan cut, the hands rotate on the tuska. This motion is often explained to students as, “wringing water out of a washcloth.” The problem with this description is that it can cause a student to over-rotate their wrists. The idea is to rotate the palms over the back of the tsuka to better transfer force into the cut. This concept and others pertaining to gripping the katana are explained well by Nicklaus Suino in his article, “Properly Gripping the Sword in Muso JikidenEishin-ryu Iaido,” from the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Volume 15, Number 2. Oh, and while bearing all that in mind, remember to not over-think it and just make the cut.