The Tameshigiri Seminar went very well. Our instructor Joe Byers joined us from Pensacola, Participants were : Nathalie Pugh Stephen and Shihan Travis Page from the Yoshukai Karate Dojo in Auburn, AL. Ron Swihart , aka "Vlad the Impaler" and myself from Dothan. Fred Ray could not attend as he was trying to prevent the nuclear holocaust, and Cody had forgotten that he was to work Saturday all day... He tried to join us on Sunday to finish the mats, but his car would not crank, or something ...
We cut 40 rolls of mats altogether, I used 2 beach matts rolled together for each target.
We mostly cut with Katanas, but also used a Wakizashi and Tanto.
Some cuts were easy, some not so much. Joe was of great help explaining some details of alignment and hips moves.
I believe the first thing to properly cut is to have a good sharp blade designed for this purpose, I am using a Paul Chen Practical XL Katana. This blade costs less than $300, but it is perfect for the job. Nathalie fell in love with it...
Second thing is proper technique. No matter how good the blade is, if the move is
wrong, the best blade will scallop the target, and bend...Third thing is, as usual, relaxation, let the blade do the work...
Shinkens are extremely sharp, and we were very careful to respect basic safety rules, hence we had minimum blood spill during the event and everybody went home intact.
We had a great time, and will probably organize an other session in the Spring, possibly in Auburn...
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