Happy Saturday everybody! I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. Here in the U.S. we have a [rare] long weekend from the Labor Day holiday on Monday. I wanted to let you all know that a new folder of videos for Rokudan Giri, our fundamental six cuts, has been added in the Intermediate Kenjutsu course. Many thanks to Alex Taylor for the incredible videography and Kanji+Hiragana overlays on these videos. They're at a whole new level and I'm excited for you to see them and train along. The videos are available to all in-person students and distance students (both distance student subscription tiers).

"You will never plow a field by turning it over in your mind" I relate to this so much! For example when I don't do well with a particular kata in class I go over it again and again in my mind. Why did I screw up, again? What am I doing wrong? It can put me in a negative spiral. It is much better when I take a breath and actually do the kata and feel what is going on. Don't get me wrong, thinking about what I want to improve is important, but ultimately I have to actually do the thing I want to improve. So get out there and plow whatever field you need to work on!🙂

"The easiest way to get rid of a minus is to make it a plus." The Tao of Pooh. I like this quote because it is a reminder of how important it is to have a positive mindset. When something negative happens we can look for the lesson. How can I grow from whatever the situation is? If you have not read The Tao of Pooh I highly recommend it. The book explains Taoism through Winnie The Pooh and you learn how the different characters represent different aspects of Taoism.

A fun question for everyone; what is your training space? Is it somewhere separate from where you live? Is it the dojo itself or whenever the mood strikes you wherever you happen to be? What are some interesting places you’ve trained or places you make a point to train at? For me, I travel quite a bit for work these days so usually the type of hotel I find myself in will dictate what I focus on and whether or not I can tune in on class. When I’m home I usually clear a large space in the living room when the house hasn’t woken up yet and for interesting places, I’ve enjoyed finding a quiet spot or two in the mountains after work occasionally. Sometimes changing things up is a gift in and of itself. I think, for me at least, the objects we dedicate ourselves to signal the spirit of training. For example, the bokken/shinken is here, so here I may begin.

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a fantastic summer — hopefully cooler than ours here in Central California (103–109°F)! I wanted to update you on what's coming for the community, especially those of you in the Distance Student plans. First, I'll keep refining the free resources section. I know it can be hard to know what to study first and what to practice, so I'll work on giving clearer direction. The content in the free section is meant to help you get acquainted with Nami Ryu kenjutsu and help you decide whether you'd like to give distance training a shot. Remember, I'm just a DM away if you have questions. Second, I've been thinking about how to better support our distance students. Two things drove this: live classes are hard to coordinate across time zones (which is where recordings come in), and I want to give you everything you need to train well on your own. With that in mind, I'm upgrading the structure and resources for both distance student tiers: - VIP ($49/mo): Upgraded to a live, dedicated 45-minute class every Tuesday plus two Saturdays a month - six live classes total, each with one core focus. Recordings will be organized by kata, technique, or topic so they're easy to find. - Premium ($25/mo): Built for anyone with less time to train or a training schedule that works for solo training and limited live training. Includes 3 live classes per month plus access to recordings. A few more updates: - I'll be refreshing the Zoom links for each tier. Distance students please look for an email with the Zoom links. I will add the links for you in KO, too, so you can find them easily. - I'm scheduling a free 1-hour training in August, open to everyone. Date TBD. - Fresno dojo students are welcome to join the Tuesday and Saturday Zoom trainings and access the recordings too. These are scheduled outside our regular in-person dojo classes. If you have any questions about the VIP or Premium distance training please DM me or post a question below.