Iaido, The Way Of The Sword

I always love weapons class. And not just because you get to wave sticks that are generally sword shaped at each other with impunity :-p Weapons, at least melee weapons, are always interesting. Mostly because they drive. When you don't know what you're doing, you are pushing really hard at simple physics, have to think really hard about what you are doing, and generally feel like an idiot. The ultimate humbling experience :-p

However, once you have a base understanding of how they work, and how they should move, an entierly new world opens itself up. The cool part being that it isn't one you walk into willingly. A good understanding and familiarity will cause the weapon to drive itself. I was doing sword kata yesterday and finding myself breaking the movement by doing blocks and strikes that just basic movement said I should be doing. I didn't think about it, I just went to move, and the sword said go here. Pretty damn cool, and underlyingly disturbing all at the same time :-p

As Mona was stating on my previous post that it was nice to have an expectation of something mind blowing every time, but difficult to attain. I will freely admit that I don't always find something (although I think trying to think of something to write about them has helped a bit... I seem to pay more attention :-p). However, the weapons class always alerts me to how easy it is to just get into autopilot on something you are familiar with. You are so into it that you just do the motions you know to be right (even if it wasn't what was requested of you, which is a whole other philosophical bent :-p) that you don't pay attention to subtle details or things that may be trying to tell you something.

There was a really cool scene in a fantasy book that I think illustrates my point (or maybe I just love the analogy, I'm not sure which...). There was a religious sect (read: D and D clerics) that was militant when necessary. They were only allowed to use blunt weapons (traditionally hammers). When the new guy was ready for his "initiation", so had gone through all the necessary training and whatnot, he asked why they didn't use swords. He figured they were much easier, didn't require as much training (to use well anyway), and could do more damage. Plus, he already knew how to use one of those. So the elder in the group challenged him to a duel where the younger guy could use swords. After cutting the elder several times, he realized that the sword was guiding itself, and ended up slashing his own leg to regain control. This wound resulted in a silver scar which they all bore. It was an interesting analogy of how drastic some measures must be to break that pattern of familiarity. Although I don't advise cutting yourself unless you have a deity that will heal you in seconds and you memorized that spell this morning ;-)

Are you pondering what I'm pondering Pinky? I think so Brain, but why wouldn't you want to drive upside down while eating cheetos?