Personal Student

The training with A. is going well as she is practicing every lunchtime now and puts me to shame with her diligence.
In the old days, a martial arts master would take on board one or maybe two eager young proteges to learn his ancient ways. I am in no way claiming the throne of an old master – far from it - but who would have thought of all the people in the office, the only one keen to learn ko-budo is a 40-something mother of two with scoliosis!
It all began when my brand new katana arrived at the office and I unwrapped for a sneeky inspection.  Passing by was A and she was open mouthed in marvel at the sword. A few months went by and, perhaps being inspired by watching Last Samurai or Kill Bill, she asked if I could show her a few moves with the katana.
Sure no problem! Come to class and we will do some weapons. But A didnt want to learn any of our ju-jitsu, just the katana. She mentioned her scoliosis and busy out of office family life so I figured, sure why not?I lent her a bokken and over the next six or seven weeks, showed her the katana of 8 cuts kata step by step. She learnt it all by heart and has now moved on to nunchaku. I think she is really loving the weapons work but I may present her with the biggest challenge yet - weapons demonstration in front of a select group of co-workers. Let's see if the moves are as slick when the pressure mounts!