There is a saying: “the sword that saves man kills man . " The sword is a tool for killing. No matter whose hands it is in. If you want to master a sword, then you must be at peace with death, both your own and someone else’s. You cannot move at superhuman speeds just because you know how to use a sword. It does not make you faster or give you some kind of power. A sword is a special chunk of metal. The skills you learn after many hours of practice with a qualified teacher do not open up a floodgate of secret energy within you. Nothing, not even the samurai, is unbound by the laws of Physics and Geometry when a sword is used correctly. You can’t cut through trees in one slice. And if you try you’ll probably ruin your sword, the cutting you see in movies is either faked or done with bamboo, which can be cut at such.
Stand facing forward, you can define four quadrants easily (think of this as though you’re facing north, even if your not): north, south, east, and west. Now think about the four sub-quadrants, called octants: Northwest, northeast southwest, and southeast. These make up a total of eight ways. You can do a simple exercise to learn them, too. Stand with your right foot forward, left foot back, pointed out to your left, they shouldn’t be too far apart, but they shouldn’t be too close together, either. Now step with your right foot and bring your left foot so that you’re exactly like you were before. That’s one, or north. Here comes the hard part: the pivoting technique. Examine your stance, with as little effort as possible, turn to the stronger side. In swordsmanship, a strong-side turn is simply turning to the side that will make you use lesser amount of effort when compared to the otherwise. (Whilst turning otherwise is called back-turn or weak-side turn. ) If your right foot is forward, pivot back to your left, vice versa. Now step in with your leading foot and turn back to your first direction. That’s called Zango. Two directions of movement, and that’s also how you do the eight ways. Move through on a strong side pivot to 3, which comes instead of the redirect north. Do zango. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are a little different. From 4, turn 45 degrees to your strong side by sliding your back foot (in this case, your right) in to face the fifth way. Zango from this and do the same to reach 7 and 8. When you hit 8, you should be easily be able to turn back to one. Do that 1000 times. If you want something a little more interesting, try stepping backwards instead of forwards. Then combine the two by doing both. That is Hachi Kata (Method of Doing 8 [ways], or Hachi Do (lit. Eight way).
Take the sword (still sheathed) in your left hand, blade side up (outside of the curve facing up) and by the upper part of the saya (sheath). Pull it up against your left side as though it were in your Obi (belt). Grasp (don’t grab) the Nakago (hilt) right below the Tsuba (hand-guard), and pull straight out, as though you were using the Nakagojiri (very end of the hilt, the end cap) to hit your opponents stomach. STOP THERE. Imagine yourself in samurai armor. How would you stop from cutting your webbing and/or arm? Step your left foot back as you draw out and move the sword in an arc over, and point the tip as though you were pointing it at the chest of an enemy as tall as you. Set the saya aside and put your left hand on the nakagojiri, so the the bottom of your hand ends at the end of the sword. To look like you know what you’re doing, rotate the blade to the Ura (left) by a few degrees. Congrats, you’re now in right-foot-forward-center(or middle)-guard position.
Stand in Center guard with your right foot lead. Now raise the sword up, so that it’s blade points about 45 degrees behind you (i. e. straight up would be 90, straight back would be 0). This is Right foot forward upper position. Stand in right foot upper, and move the blade down, until it forms a 45 degree angle pointing down, don’t move your shoulders off your center. This is right foot lower position. Move to right foot upper and step your left foot in so that it is in the lead and your right foot is pointed to your right side, do this without moving the sword. This is left foot upper. Move the sword out to the side of your head, pointed about 15 degrees off of the 90, but don’t hold it right next to your head, because you’re still wearing a helmet, and a wide one at that. This is left foot lead, middle. Square up your body, while still keeping your right foot behind, and your left foot forward, move the handle of the sword to your center, while the blade is still pushed back. This is left foot forward lower.
