 Hello, my name is Sheehan Abbott, and my name is Tanaka Rika, and you can call me Shelby. And welcome to your second lesson at Learn the Sword on TGN-TV. And I'll be your guide to the Japanese language. Have you been working on your kihonkata this week? Kihonkata, the basics. Since your first lesson, you've probably been practicing now for a while, with broomstick in hand and still waiting on your bokuto, now you're starting to feel smoother and more rhythmic. With this confidence that you have from your practice from the first lesson, it is time to take this to the next level. Let's add a few more factors to the basic bones of kihonkata. With sword in hand, I'd like to talk to you about correct breathing. Correct breathing is one of the most important factors in the martial arts, especially learning the sword. If you can't breathe correctly, you will fatigue, and through that fatigue, your techniques won't be as good as they could. Let's spend a few minutes and talk about your kii. Kii, which is the shout of encouragement that has been used for centuries in the art of the sword. Ei, ya, tul! Let's create a breathing pattern you can work from. This kii will be regulated at this time only through your cuts. Every time you execute a cut or strike, you will practice a kii. With your newly found kii, I want you to use this over and over. Most people find it difficult to kii, because they're sort of embarrassed about barking out a loud ya, where everybody can hear it. But it regulates your body and your metabolism to run at a much better level. Moreover, it gives you the ability to see a little bit more vividly your opponent, and that is a very important factor when dealing with the sword. Let's take everything you learned in your last lesson and now add kii to it. Stand in a v stance, draw the sword into a chudan kamai, lift the sword up above your head into a migi jodan no kamai, execute a shinchoku giri wa yuki i. Bring the sword back to a center stance and return the sword and stand back into your v stance. Let's speed this up a bit. After a while of barking out kii, you will be able to feel the energy and strength as we are establishing our basic footprint and setting in our rope or muscle memory. Now it is time to add a bit of formality and protocol, such as the bow. The bow is a very important factor in Japanese martial arts and their culture. There are two basic bows the Japanese use. One is on your knees and the other one is standing. At this time we will only use the standing version, le. Le, the Japanese word to bow. Bowling must be done with correct timing rhythm to offer the greatest amount of respect. As a rule of thumb, a good bow lasts about three to four seconds. Here are a few things to take in consideration when you begin your bow. First, I want you to make and open up your chest very very wide. I don't want you to bow with your chin. I want you to bow with your chest out so your chest goes forward instead of your head going down. Second is when you bend and you bow there are different degrees you can bow at. Right at this time try to keep it at about 15 to 20 percent. Also note if you bend at the waist and not in the middle of your back you'll look consistent stronger and have a smoother bow. Let me demonstrate a bow. Stand up straight chest out hands at your side chin straight and bow one one thousand two one thousand three one thousand and four one thousand you come back up. Now let's add the bow to your keyhole your basic footprint and see what we have. To the Japanese, bowing is very very important. It's time to incorporate our second cut into the second lesson. This is a cut either used with one or two hands it is called a migi mayoku giri. Migi mayoku giri a right horizontal cut from nine o'clock to three o'clock. The first two aspects of the second lesson was your bow and your key eye. Now what we're doing is incorporating your migi mayoku giri cut into this. Since we have now incorporated two cuts into your keyhole kata I want you to understand that if we have two cuts we also need two key eyes and they will be a for the first one yaw for the second one. This horizontal cut is one of the first cuts taught in the hapogiti series. You grab the sword like you do with a shinchoku giri but instead of lifting it above your head and swinging down you come into your triangle you grasp the handle and you execute the cut horizontal from your left to your right executing a migi mayoku giri at regular speed. If you need to pause the camera and spend time going over these bits and pieces to understand the dynamics of the sword better the more you practice the better you will become the stronger your cuts will be and the easier it will be to go on to the next lesson. Let's take what we've learned from last week your basic keyhole add in the key eye the bow and the migi mayoku giri cut and let's see what our keyhole looks like today. Note the first cut is a one-handed cut and the second is a two-handed cut. Yaw! In this lesson we've learned how to bow breathe and cut better and your core is becoming stronger your balance and timing are getting better hopefully by your next lesson you will have a real bowkin in hand of course using the broomstick is fine but if you can go to a real bowkin you'll have a better feeling of using the sword and the better you will understand the art of the sword and the culture that surrounds it. I look forward to seeing you at our next lesson until then be well