My dojo recently participated in an annual Sword Fest held in Malvern, PA. Here are a couple clips of me at the Sword Fest for your perusal (or amusement). Right-click the following links for download; they are in mpeg format.

Solo kata (http://home.comcast.net/~sarahthecat/Jen_demo_6-11-05.mpg) (17.7 MB)

Tameshigiri (http://home.comcast.net/~sarahthecat/Jen_cutting01_6-11-05.mpg) (3.95 MB)

I tried tameshigiri (Japanese test cutting) for the first time that day, so please don't be too hard on me.

Look good to me. :)

Thank you for sharing.

Look good to me. :)

Thank you for sharing.

I agree that was very good. I don't know a whole lot about traditional weapons; however, it was definately pleasing to the eye.

V/R

Rick

Thank you. :asian:

I enjoyed both clips, I hope my technique is 1/2 that good someday.

Thank you very much for posting the clips, Swordlady! I enjoyed watching them.

Great clips, thanks for sharing. Where in Malvern was that? I work in Malvern. I wish I knew of the demo. What type of wood (I'm assuming wood, I have no idea) are you cutting thru?

PS - I love the Heineken truck driving past, great touch! :ultracool

that was awesome swordlady.....keep up the good work!!

Cool! I studied iaido for a while and loved it.

I cant download it for some reason

Great clips, thanks for sharing. Where in Malvern was that? I work in Malvern. I wish I knew of the demo. What type of wood (I'm assuming wood, I have no idea) are you cutting thru?

PS - I love the Heineken truck driving past, great touch! :ultracool
It was held in Burke Park. Here's the webpage with the info about Sword Fest: http://www.mafcenter.com/swordfest2005.htm

It was the second annual Sword Fest; the first one was last year.

I wasn't cutting through wood. They are straw mats - called tatami - soaked in water. Tatami omote is used in traditional Japanese test cutting, since it is no longer politically correct to practice test cutting on convicted criminals. ;-) You can read more about tatami omote here: http://www.tameshigiri.com/Omote.html

I cant download it for some reason
Hmm...that's odd...the links are working for me. Are you using a Broadband connection?

I cant download it for some reason
Files are in MPG format. What viewer software (OS, etc) are you running?

Thanks for the sight, very interesting. I hope to catch it next year.

Thank you for taking the time to post the clips. Very nice.

Respects,
Bill Parsons
Triangle Kenpo Institute

Nice clips Swordlady :asian:

Franco

Enjoyed the videos. Thank you. May I ask what sword you use for cutting?

Very nice clips

Thanks for putting them out there

Enjoyed the videos. Thank you. May I ask what sword you use for cutting?
It was a Last Legend Dragon katana (borrowed from a fellow student).

The angle and "Cleanness" of the cutting look great

How long have you worked the sword?

Todd

Is the noto you did standard? It looks a bit unusual to my eye. And I have to keep my reputation up as a pain in the posterior by pointing out that the last draw seemed to be almost in two stages. (But I bet you already know that. It is a lot harder to do it than spot it.)

I figured the humidity sometimes causes the sheath to "stick"

Very interesting. I always enjoy seeing different kata. I have done similar MJER kata and noticed slight differences in the chiburi and noto, which to me, are just as important in expressing the beauty of the art. Good work!

Is the noto you did standard? It looks a bit unusual to my eye. And I have to keep my reputation up as a pain in the posterior by pointing out that the last draw seemed to be almost in two stages. (But I bet you already know that. It is a lot harder to do it than spot it.)As The Kai pointed out, the blade was a bit stuck to the saya. I was using a new iaito, and the blade got a little stuck a couple times.

Todd: I've been studying Yagyu Shinkage Ryu for the past six months. I actually started nine years ago, but my sensei moved to New Jersey. I finally caught up with him last December. I have about a year's worth of training, including my brief stint back in 1996.

Really enjoyed the tameshigiri clip. Unfortunately i couldn't load the other clip. According to Web Tv, it had too much information for it to use. I guess too many MBs for its system. Boy I can't wait to upgrade to a notebook. Anyway, I did dabble in Iaido as part of my training in Kosho Ryu Kempo and enjoyed it alot. I hope to continue when I return to my training later this year. Hopefully by then I can move from a practice wooden bokken to a real one, not to mention purchasing the proper attire. Continued success and good luck......Steve