Training back with the senior teachers, especially Nagato sensei, was a great opportunity to also get a deeper understanding of some of the basics. During his 'budo chats' emphasised walking into better positions and not necessarily doing (wide) stances. I asked specifically about the 'kihon' wide stances and he said "I'm not doing them", "Soke isn't doing them", "I copy Soke, he's not doing them" and "they are useful for stretching" but "Im not doing them".
Nagato Sensei's movement and that of everyone has evolved over the last decades and it now looks like what we see. However, there are lots of videos from the 1990's where everyone is doing wider stances. As usual, there is no right or wrong answer and the situation will determine the response. But it will be good to practice walking and smaller stances to complement wider and more static stances.
In addition to training with Nagato and experimenting with wider stances, was practice with Furuta Sensei and getting to understand his 6-hands concept. Whilst we generally are accustomed to our 2 hands, we should include our elbows and shoulders too, as secondary and tertiary hands. By doing so, we can use our primary 'weapons' as and when needed and for more important things. Practicing using shoulders and elbows more requires understanding different positions and timing too. Someone is a lot closer to me and my elbows and even more so using my shoulders than if I can reach them with my hands.
There will be lots of things to go through over coming weeks and months. We've started already since November, experimenting with the 6-hands concept and also shorter, more mobile stances. In addition with practicing kyoketsu shoge, especially practicing getting it to loop so we can capture an opponent. Whilst it may not be something I'll use on a day-ti day basis, getting to understand the rope and how to throw it was great fun and required a couple of hours before really getting it and getting it to work every time.
