Mogishinsa

Last Sunday we had mogishinsa, a simulation grading. It's very helpful to practice in front of others and get feedback before the actual grading; and besides is there a better way to learn than public humiliation, which is to hear about all your mistakes in front of everybody. After that you’ll remember always, or so one would assume.

Grading can sometimes - or should I say every time - be a bit tense experience. It's funny how your heart starts to race when your turn comes no matter how confident and relaxed you felt just a few moments earlier.

Mogishinsa offers a great opportunity to observe your reactions so that you won't hopefully panic when it is the real thing. It also gives some sort of consolation to see others just as nervous as you are.

Takada Sensei reminded us to be especially careful with so called beginner's mistakes, the things you take for granted, for example you might start to wonder does Shohatsutô begin with left or right foot or with which hand do you hold a sword when you're in seiza/walking/bowing and so on.

During practice grading everything was done like in a real situation except that same grade students performed together instead of individual performance. In Takada Sensei's Dôjô everyone even in kyû grading performs alone no matter how many students there are.

10 minutes before starting the simulation we got a list of 5 katas we would have to memorize and perform. My trick was to remember the katas by their ordinal number rather than name. For example instead of memorizing: Tôhô Korantô, Shohatsutô, Ataritô, Gyakutô, Nukiuchi; I memorized 1, 1, 4, 8, 11. For me numbers are just easier to remember. I'm sure we all have our own methods.

Takada Sensei didn't just check did we remember the katas but did we remember all the bows, how did we handle the sword and so on. Takada Sensei also told a few examples of previous gradings how some students had performed very well during practice and until last minutes before the grading but in the actual situation they had made some easy mistakes such as started with wrong foot, pulled the sword from its sheath too early/late or forgot to bow to judges.

Mogishinsa really gives you a chance to check have you learnt everything by heart or do you hesitate when you're supposed to know all the maneuvers (bowing, sword handling) by yourself.