Odo no Sai Ichi – Kyoshi Baker

[Kyoshi Brent Baker]

On the first time through, I didn’t think it looked too bad. You wouldn’t know that I’d smashed myself in the knee with the back side of a wooden kama earlier that morning!

A couple of things that I noticed…

– On the overhead strikes to the front, it looks like I’m coming down with my palms up, rather than with the palm in and rolling it.
– Going to the sides, I wonder if I should stop on the middle blocks rather than just flowing through them. The flow feels good, but it’s hard to see the technique.
– On the sequences to the sides, my left head always feels significantly weaker than my right. It didn’t look as bad as it feels, but the technique on “rolling” the sai does seem more vague on the left-hand side.

Kyoshi

[Sensei Cathryn Gallione]

I think it looked good too! I concur with your thought on the flowing vs. pausing. I admire the flow; I am not super good at that, but I also know what you mean about showing technique. I do not know which is better. I also saw the overhead strike thing, and the technique on the sides does seem to be more precise on your right side. I think when you do the side sequence with your left hand, when you pull in before stabbing, your palm doesn’t turn all the way in (making the sai vertical) before turning up for the stab. Also, I think on a couple of your side strikes to the back your sai may not have turned completely vertical at the end of the strike.

[Author]

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