Saturday bokken work
Some notes on the kata:
In terms of stance, the weight is shifted forward, knees bent, on balls of feet. This is different from open-hand, where the weight tends to be 50-50 on each feet.
For shomen, the wrists should break on the cut. The leading hand is actually the pommel hand. When chambered, the point should be pointing up, not down.
For 3 and 4, keep the bokken pointing at uke as long as possible, while the bokken’s movement is being led by the lower hand. In fact, the point of the bokken should be a fixed point until it gets pulled back by the leading pommel hand. In the parrying position, the hands should be above your head, so you can see uke through your arms, i.e., vision isn’t occluded by the hands and handle of the bokken.
In all of these, and 7 and 8 in particular, any foot movement is small. The smaller the better, since you don’t want to create space from uke, which uke can take advantage of with a full cut. It’s also very easy to subconsciously move side-to-side instead of towards a back corner; definitely move to the corner. It’s not necessary to switch feet when counterattacking on 7.
For 9 and 10, the bokken, sort of like in 3 and 4, should be kept pointing at uke’s throat, and the bokken’s point should be fixed while it rotates to parry. Again, the counterattack should be forward, without stepping back.