Little House In Ise

I read somewhere that Tiger Woods has reinvented his swing three times in his professional career. I don’t know golf but I have a concept of what reinventing a motion that you know very well might mean.

This morning I had the very great privilege to train directly with Yamamoto Shihan for an hour. I will admit to not knowing this man before class but from the first contact I realized that I had to learn more. In the course of one hour Sensei gave me more starting places, corrections and suggestions than I have had in ages. It will take me months, possibly years to truly do justice to what I he showed me today.

After class, a wizened little man with white hair, a toothy smile and an iron grip insisted that I show him what I had learned before I forgot it. His reinforcement of my earlier lesson, as painful as it was, helped and his happy cackle made it fun.

From today, I am re-inventing my “swing”. The people on the train must have thought I was a freak…