rawnshah's Page

For advanced cutters, such as those who have been shodan for a while in our class, I think a standing target is becoming too easy. Yes, there are certainly still many possible cuts that you and I can't do yet on a target that is in a fixed location. But there is a whole domain of cutting that requires a different set of skills that we don't practice as often.

If you've been to our cutting sessions, you may notice at the end of class, we sometimes toss the last small cutable pieces at the studen… Continue

It seemed like a long day (9am-1pm+) for cutting so I may not have all the details. Everyone certainly did better today. I think most people did quite good if not phenomenal today. I did record high speed videos but I never seem to find the time to edit and post them.

The best I saw today was Alex who is a yonkyu but was able to do a full (and nice) kihon-toho on a half goza. That's usually a nikkyu level cut. Charlie injured his palms and wasn't able to cut before they started bleeding so we h… Continue

It might have just been an off-day for folks but from what I saw last weekend, all the candidates for the next black belt level, myself included, do not seem ready for their next test. As cutting criteria again, you need to be proficient in those cuts, which to me means you should be able to do it not just once or twice but pretty much on command 60-90% of the time.

You should not have to think through the cuts but you can certainly do it at a careful pace (slow in between cuts). The worst is w… Continue

I purchased some sharpening stones from Nihonzashi to try out. They have a fairly large selection of stones from 100 to 8000 grit. This is based on the Japanese grit system, and all the stones are from Japan I believe. I only purchased a 1000/6000 combo stone, and a 3000 grit one, which are better for maintenance not hard core repair. The Japanese grit system is not the same as the US one (quite different actually). There is a conversion chart that I saw somewhere but you will need to be careful… Continue

I'm considering another cutting day on Sat the 24th starting around 9am at Himmel park. It usually goes on till noon. I need responses from people on who can attend and how much goza you need.

We have goza again. As before goza is $6 for a full piece/ $3 for half piece. I plan to cut about 9 goza myself and may have students from the high school class too, so I simply can't soak it all and bring it all in my car. (one plastic tub only fits about 16 before it breaks). For Andrew C and Andrew D,… Continue