Day 2 at the WWW

Today's training at the WWW was excellent, albiet tiring, and I have a feeling my back isn't going to be liking me too much tomorrow. After a super-high impact warm-up (with well over 100 people involved) I went to my first class of the morning, which was broadsword training. Right at the beginning, the teacher said, 'If you do this right, your back will be way more sore than your arms' and I guess I must've been doing it right because my back was killing me by the end of it. Compared to the action katanas I'm used to using, even practice broadswords, are made of solid steel, and unbelievably heavy. I thought this was interesting because in Japan when you do sword choreography, the swords you do them with are extremely light, and you just act as if they are heavy. (Although admittedly that doesn't always work.) In the states, they just give you a fu--in heavy sword so you don't have to fake it.

It was also interesting because when my action teacher Yuji did the sword choreography for his firm Hollywood film, Way of the Warrior, after getting back to Japan he and his team thought the director and what not where nuts for making them go through the scenes using stell practice Katanas. (And if I recall, one person was actually hospitalized because he got one of them through the thigh), but I'm guessing this is why. Out here, it's just how they roll.

After that, I had a high falls class, in which we covered 3 different kinds of falls at two different heights, but I was told that once you have the 2m height falls down

the mechanics of falling and impact absorbtion are fundamentally the same all the way up to 50 ft. Hope i can try it sometime.

After that, it was back to sword training, but this time with wooden bokken. (Simulated Japanese Katana).

Lastly, but certainly not least, was another class on knife work. This one ended with a game in which the object was the cut your opponents across the hamstring and be the last one standing. Made it into the final match in the first round, and won the second. Lost the third round because one person distracted me (arguing my cut) and another silently slid up behind me and slashed me while I was distracted. I know it's just a game, but I'm still pissed at myself for falling for it.

After that was a hilarious comedy /sword fighting show by two of the masters. It was brilliantly funny. Not the easiest day on the back, but a great day nonetheless.