@David Teague I always enjoy getting videos from you and seeing you make progress! I know those side rolls can be a bit daunting. 😵‍💫

@David Teague all good. You might put the ukemi on hold because of the cold weather and move over to the indoor training.

@Vince Nunchuck Fitness it sounds like nunchaku is your signature weapon! I haven't worked with them much. They're illegal in Cali so I wasn't drawn to using them, even in my Shotokan days when they were used mostly for demonstrations. Very cool weapons, though. Do you typically use double nunchaku or one?

@Joanne Hunter in California we can't own "assault nunchaku". 😂

Look in Module 1: Beginning Resources > Training Weapons & Order Links

@Aaron Conrad great question! No, you don't need an obi to do suburi. Suburi are stand-alone practices only with the bokken. Once you want to practice drawing and sheathing the weapon you'll need an obi.

@Jacob Bear very cool! At some point I'll post some videos showing the direct correlation between the kenjutsu and tantojutsu techniques and classical jujutsu. I'm excited to post these videos for you soon.

@Josh Hanson welcome! I'm excited to also have you as a new distance student and officially welcome you into Nami Ryu Aiki Heiho!

@Aaron Conrad there are actually more styles than ours that use long tsuka. Nami ryu comes from Yanagi ryu, which was the family art of the Yoshida clan that was passed on to Don Angier Sensei. Yanagi ryu uses long handles. Our main influence for the past 18-20 years, however, has been the Kuroda family arts (Shinbukan), which was a branch of Shinkage ryu. In the Shinkage ryu lineage and many old "koryu" arts such as Kage ryu and Yagyu Shinkage ryu, you'll see longer tsuka. Longer handles offer better leverage (i.e., your hands are farther apart), plus good reach and balance for heavier, longer blades. In the Edo period, there was a standardization of swords (it became law), so the use of swords changed from being used on battlefields to being used for self defense and dueling. When swords became shorter/smaller, so did the handles, and long handles weren't necessary any longer. I'm not sure that the Shogunate purposefully enacted these laws to cripple old koryu arts, but in my opinion it could have had that effect. When the tool gets forcibly modified along with the context of using it, the techniques are bound to get modified. Maybe some of the kendo practitioners in the group will chime in, but I think you'll see the result of sword standardization in shinai, which has handle lengths based on age groups. Regarding schools that use shorter handles, I think that the Itto ryu has these techniques. I believe that their school developed many principles and techniques for indoor fighting. Considering that long-handled weapons aren't practical to use indoors, and handles can catch on kimono sleeves (I've had this happen!), I'd want a short-handled weapon, too! Thanks for being here and contributing, Aaaron! I'll post the bokken link soon, along with photos. I'm looking forward to your thoughts once you have a long-handled bokken. :)

@Aaron Conrad I forgot add a link to a video of the late Kuroda Tetsuzan Sensei (O-Sensei), who passed earlier this year. His son, Kuroda Yasumasa Sensei, now heads the ryuha. You can find more videos on YouTube but I thought I'd post one of O-Sensei showing kenjutsu kata. I'll note as a disclaimer that the Kuroda family arts can only be learned from the headmaster. Nami ryu Kenjutsu is it's own style of kenjutsu that is heavily influenced in both principles and techniques by the Komagawa Kaishin ryu (the Kuroda family kenjutsu style) and many of our instructors and students are members of the ryuha.