Hokushin Shinoh Ryu Iaido - Bendigo

Travel safe and best wishes Chrystol Sensei and Glenda.

End of day 1. Well done everyone.

Thanks to all for another great parade! Did you spot us?

Thanks to Rafa and Meg from Fisica - Transformation Through Movement for the fantastic workshop tonight. It was a really great session, and I’m sure it gave everybody a lot to think about!

Forging the Budo Kokoro
https://peterboylan.substack.com/p/forging-the-budo-kokoro

"Achieving a great mental condition is at least as difficult as achieving a great physical condition. It doesn’t magically happen. You have to lay the foundation by ingraining the physical stuff so deeply that you don’t need to allocate any mental space to doing the techniques. Then you can start working on the higher level stuff."

Forging the Budo Kokoro Developing the heart and mind for budo

This Friday during our training we are running a workshop with Rafa Caetano of Fisica - https://www.fisica.com.au

There will be no additional cost to students for this session.

Here is a description of the event from Rafa.

"Iaido technique is often refined through repetition — adjusting grip, timing, and positioning over time.

But beneath every cut, transition, and stance is something more fundamental: how your body organises itself to produce movement.

In this special session, I’ll introduce key principles of applied biomechanics to help you better understand how posture, weight transfer, and tension management influence balance, stability, control, and efficiency in your practice.

The goal isn’t to change your style — it’s to give you a clearer framework for how your body generates and absorbs force, so your training can feel more stable, more connected, and more sustainable over time.

Suitable for practitioners of all levels. No prior biomechanics knowledge required."

Cultivating Inner Wisdom Through Iaido

From https://ploiestikenjutsu.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/the-path-of-iaido-achieving-inner-wisdom-through-swordsmanship/

"Like the mirror, which does not alter or add to the reflected image, Iaido teaches us to observe our inner reality without distortion. This attitude of honesty toward oneself contributes to developing a calm mind and a balanced spirit – essential elements not only in training but also in daily life."

Cultivating Inner Wisdom Through Iaido Iaido means both mastering sword techniques and embarking on an inner journey toward self-knowledge and spiritual balance. A profound symbol that can accompany us on this path is Yata no Kagami & #8…

This was shared with my by my friend who is a Kendoka - it definitely applies to Iaido as well.

Motivation in Kendo Motivation in Kendokendostar.com

The Living Art Within the Forms
https://www.mjersg.org/post/the-living-art-within-the-forms

"In the context of Iaido, kata is more than a collection of moves. They are also a language - a grammar of posture, timing, distance, rhythm, breathing, metsuke, perception and more. Kata encodes lessons passed down since ancient times."

The Living Art Within the Forms IntroductionThe concept of Shu-Ha-Ri (守破离) is an interesting one. Read at-is, it seems to convey an opposing meaning simultaneously. Yet they are of the same path. Kata as Language, Kata as VesselsIn the context of Iaido, kata is more than a collection of moves. They are also a language - a gr...