We held a three-hour jodo training event on Saturday, April 12th, and welcomed jodoka from across three states!
It was an excellent afternoon of training and learning. Nate England Sensei, 5th Dan, joined us from the Kosho School of Karate in Cincinnati, Ohio to lead the event, and Laurence Smith Sensei, 3rd Dan, from Chicago’s Kogetsukai pitched in to assist. Some of the group were preparing for an upcoming rank test, while the rest of us were simply looking to sharpen up technique and work different timing and distancing with folks we don’t normally get to train with.
We took some time to work kihon in both sotai dosa (paired practice) and tandoku dosa (individual practice), which provided a great warmup for the kata portion of the training. I see a lot of jodoka concentrating on just test curriculum for the Shinto Muso-ryu seitei standards, but getting more reps in the kihon, especially the sotai dosa, really helps sharpen up the whole thing. Furthermore, the sotai dosa also helps reveal bad habits in ma-ai, or the spacing between opponents, especially on the tachi (sword) side.
