Giho 34 Tsuka-Uchi Brush-up/ 柄打のブラッシュアップと稽古法

In the following, we are going to introduce points of improvement for tsukauchi and training methods for the movement for tsukauchi that have been passed down in Tenshinryuu.

Brush-up

Let’s brush up on 柄打 (tsuka’uchi). First, please have a look.
I pick up my sword with my right hand and then do tsukauchi. In this par of the technique, there are a lot of people who end up moving their balance way too far to the front.
What we want you to do here is to make sure your centre of balance goes between your left knee and your right toes and not any further to the front.
Just as mentioned in the video, it’s important to keep your right leg straight all the way from the tips of the toes to the knee. Also, please make sure that after doing the tsukauchi your body is perpendicular to the ground as your practising tsukauchi.

Movement training method

Ide-sensei has just addressed a point about tsukauchi, but I would like you to have a look at one thing about the training method of tsukauchi.
For the training method you are about see we’ll need some space. We would like those with access to a big room or a training hall to try it out.
First, I pick up my sword and perform the usual tsukauchi. From here, I slightly pull back my sword and go forward again as I perform tsukauchi one more time in a row.
One more time. I pick up my sword and perform tsukauchi. I pull back my sword a bit and hit one more time. Hitting and moving forward happen at the same time.
This has been a simple explanation.
For now, it’s important to practise that for a number of times. Also, it’s necessary to practise tsukauchi not only from 右置刀 (migiokigatana – having your sword on the right side), but also from 左置刀 (hidariokigatana – having your sword on the left side). And you should also practise this movement training method with the sword in your left hand.
If you have access to enough space, it would be great if you could try it.