Secret number 6 is about
clothes
There are lots of superstitious rituals involving clothes: football players who always wear the same socks, American football players who wear the same unwashed pants as long as they are on a winning streak and so on. If athletes who are paid loads of money for their performance believe in it, why should it be different in iaido?
Naturally I have been “seduced” by superstition, I am part of that group of people who do not believe in it but… you never know.
When I first started competing I used to wear black most of the times. At the first European Championships in Italy I decided to wear white: I had just bought a very nice white keikogi and I decided to use it, following the example of Andy, whom I have always seen competing in white.
So, after that first strange experience, that saw, by the way, my first victory at a European Championships, I always wore white; the same Hakama, the same Gi, in fact. Washed and pressed after each competition, of course… There’s a limit!
P.S. Also, I never get out of my Hakama and Keikogi during the day at a competition… No matter what
A fun story
At the European Championships in Paris in 2007 my love of white almost ended. In my first shiai, during the pools, with Cenginzalp, while standing up for Ukenagashi the Hakama got stuck under my foot, so there was a small flaw while I stood. I remember a flurry of emotions in my mind, from anger to hate for my Hakama. Luckily I won 2 to 1 that shiai, and I also won the Championships. The colour white had helped me once again.
Translated by Anna Rosolini
