The beast has arrived + Ittoryu vs. Shinai Kendo

Yes, today our good friend E from England visited us for the first time this year. It's always nice to have him over as he brings a refreshed sense of enthusiasm and intensity. I say "beast" but it's nothing like that: he's very nice and giving. But like I might have mentioned before, he's very demanding to the guys. We had a fun, open practice today (normally devoted to a demo for kids but I kind of dropped the ball on that one), four of us going at it in rounds. Just open JiGeiko. Then Kwesi and I did some kata and E was all impressed by his progress and how quick he'd learned.

We then discussed a few very interesting aspects of modern vs. traditional Kendo. Mainly why Ittoryu puts so much emphasis on cutting with the body more or less immobile in front or on the side of the target, while modern Kendo stresses the importance of a physically obvious zanshin (body following through). E suggested that the new way could have been introduced to force the students to commit their back leg in the movement, and what better way to do that than by having their whole body follow through. I think this has a lot of validity. But my opinion is that there is no relationship between the 2. Long, suriashi after the cut was introduced simply as a way to avoid too much close quarter fighting: by having Aite go through Motodachi:
- maai is always easy to respect, once Aite goes past 3-4 steps away and turns, it's easy to be in proper maai
- Aite cannot bluff an attack that doesn't come from the hips
- Aite must commit if he's to reach the other end of the dojo...

Without teaching the "modern" way, I'm afraid we'd see a lot of brawls and bashing, and worse, attackers not going straight + with their hips.

Another thing we discussed is how by using a katana, you'd become more aware of the proper tenouchi and cutting angles (discussed do-waza). It really helps to feel that the weight of it forces you to focus your hit/cut and you can't just "flick your shinai" like E likes to say.