a few points to bear in mind.
1. Unless you are stuydying the Niten Ichi school then the sword will always be held with two hands, and ALWAYS left above right - regardless of what 'handed' you are.
2. the right hand grips the sword with the bottom three fingers, the left is used for control and direction, but is held extremely softly.
3. The sword is ALWAYS worn on the left - regardless of what 'handed' you are.
4. Try to avoid any noise when drawing the sword - or returning it to the saya - if there is noise your cutting the inside of the saya - with a real blade it will come through and cut your hand.
5. Avoid swords with plastic under the binding -they can snap at the handle and go through the nearest thing.
6. The saya is Never removed from the obi to attack with (ha ha ha) i have seen this sometimes and it truely is laughable!!
7. ALL cuts with a japanese sword are straight and at maximum arm extension, not chopping movement, and not changing direction mid cut, curved cuts do NOT work.
just a few things - but please try to find a real instructor - this will be hard due to all the fools pretending they know their stuff with a sword cause they are a black belt in some other art.
arts to look for are, Muso jikiden eishin ryu, muso shinden ryu, katori shinto ryu, niten ichi ryu, kendo kata, itto ryu, etc
cheers
chris
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