Shadley Cuts

This was my first double cut. I was very pleased, ok it started up high and the cut is sposed to start from down low but hey... It was still able to illicit a.. erm.. a high I spose that I really like. I didnt think I'd be able to for a long while but well.. there it is.

Theres something about that snap snap that I love and that smirk on my face on the slo-mo shows that. The only thing I have to sort out is that I'm not 'diagonally upping' on the return cut. its on the horizontal plane. nevermind, its still progress and you gotta love Ozrics ;)

I've been having problems doing a certain cut as I've detailed before and I posted a video to youtube. I first got one response and then two more followed so I've edited this post to include those too. All three videos contain some really good points and I've managed to take it all on board and come out of it with a technique that Im working on now.

Fish and chip shops have em, indian restaurants have em. Oil containers. Sometimes they're drum shaped and metal though and you don't want those obviously, but sometimes they're plastic and they're a lot of fun for cutting.

If I had more I'd deffo chip them until there was nothing left rather than one big cut like this but it was fun to do. I had no idea exactly how sharp this sword was or how easily the plastic would part until after I'd cut it. It was a first milk carton moment all over again.

dead good fun.

I dont really have a lot anymore. I think thats because all the confidence I had, stemmed from drugs and alcohol and this overwhelming bravado that got me pretty much everything I wanted. But this is now and time has changed me. Im a better person but Im not without my wounds and it's been very hard to cope over the last however many years. I've had very little that has actually properly helped with the issues I had/have. Fortunately I have a handful of people who are worth their weight in gold and some who are worth twice that.

However, one of the things that cutting is teaching me is that really, if you put in the time and the effort, you get something back. Its not always tangible and it's not always something that other people appreciate or even f*cking understand, but whatever the hell it is, you have it. For me that's the ability to cut. Sure I have other things as well; I fix computers, I'm not bad with a balisong, I can still code in Pascal and my tuskamaki is making good progress but the thing that stands out the most is definitely the feeling I get from coming back inside after 20 minutes of dry cutting and knowing my angles are improving.

And now, the point of this post I spose.
Its a big step for me to post stuff online because my response to non constructive criticism has not been good in the past. I dont know if its a good thing that I'm posting videos but it feels good because itll help me improve in something that I enjoy more than anything I've tried my hand at for a long time. On the other hand, the internet is a place where I could get knocked back a lot.

spose it'll be a learning experience either way. ;)

The first part of the bottle curriculum. I post this here purely for posterity. Im aware its a boring video and so on but I want it on youtube so that one day I'll look back on this and remember how poor I used to be, how much better I am now and how much more improved ill be in the future.

This was a serious question I've had to ask and I thought the best idea would be to just say it. Im kind of awkward in the way I present myself, especially on camera, I dont normally do video but hey. I just wanted a straight answer. ;)

My upward diagonal cuts, starting on my lower right hand side and crossing to my upper left hand side seem awkward and restricted. ok, my technique isn't spot on for my other cuts but at least they don't feel weird. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I need it sorted. I wish there were more cutters near where I lived. I'm not used to not having someone better than I am in something I'm trying to learn.

Well, at last I've found a group of people interested in the same sort of thing as I am. The freestyle cutters are a group of people who practice swordsmanship using mainly the katana. It seems to be as intense as you want it to be, allowing you to dedicate as much or as little time as you want to it. I of course have the character defect of allowing myself to endlessly obsess; so I have and will be practicing regularly enough to enjoy all sorts of muscle related injuries. go me :)

I spent a fair amount of time deciding whether or not I wanted to be a part of it before picking up my favourite practice sword and making it out into the garden to unceremoniously lop a few bottles into pieces and pass the first part of the bottle curriculum (the part of the 'course' if you like, that involves 500ml bottles filled with water). The second part I'm saving up bottles for as I speak (and replacing a sword, but thats another story)

For quite a while before finding the FSC I was toying with the idea of iaido or kenjutsu but the outlay was prohibitively expensive and the relation of the form to the practice of using a sword seemed slightly disconnected or distanced. I appreciate that practice of form in iaido makes a better swordsperson but without the actual act of cutting something it seemed a half filled cup. The only other group I found was 'Ken Kai Ryu' which from my research and of course in my very humble opinion, seemed like a group of people opposed to outside influence, without any history, teaching their own kind of posturing and posing. Dont get me wrong, theres a place for posturing and posing, but it's not at the beginning when Im trying to seriously learn something.

Since attempting the bottle curriculum within the FSC I've been shown inadequacies in my own physique and my mental outlook that I've had to combat, thatI've pretty much had to face head on and sort out. My body is now stronger and faster and my outlook on things is more positive. As long as I have access to my swords and my garden, the rest of life seems to fall more into place than it did before. It's strange to think that something so small thing in the scheme of things could have such a profound effect on my life.