NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 2017
Words from President
Dear Naginata Friends,
The European Naginata Seminar will be held the 11th and 12th of November in Rotterdam. I hope to see most of you there. It is our yearly opportunity to express and practice together and time to review all the events of the ending year and prepare the coming one.
ENF is growing and you are all practicing with passion, sharing experience and practice is certainly our best strenght to evolve.
Do not hesitate to send your questions to our technical director or our president, they will do their best to answer to it as fast as possible.
You will find their contact details here http://www.naginata-federation.eu/who-we-are/
Everyone holds a luminous jewel,
All embrace a precious gem;
If you do not turn your attention
Around and look within,
You will wander from home
With a hidden treasure.
— Dogen (1200-1253)
Technical Tips
Technical tips from Yasui Midori sensei:
“The way to progress is to keep on practicing. Continuation is powerful. One improves by practicing the correct basics (kihon) repeatedly.” In other words, one should never give up, but instead keep on practicing as continuation is a powerful tool to improve in Naginata. Make sure to practice correct basics repeatedly. Now, based on the kanji sensei used, it is evident she puts emphasis on the correctness of the kihon. In other words, it is not a matter of quantity alone, but also the quality of what one practices. Sensei wrote 正しい, which literally means ‘correct’. So, what sensei says is you should keep on practicing correct technique, even if “just the basics”, and you shall see improvement from there. My reflection on this is to carefully listen to the sensei when they teach you, take your own notes of what sensei said, implement what sensei taught you, and keep on working from there. It does not matter if what you were given “only” had to do with ashi-sabaki, for instance. Because in the work of repeatedly improving one’s correct form lies improvement of Naginata overall.
-Translation E. Sandqvist