The First day of class

Garin stood at the entrance of the academy, looking at all of the people practicing various things. He saw people practicing Kendo, and people meditating with their swords. He reached to his side. He had no sword. For that matter, he knew nothing about fighting with swords. He'd been a boxer in his life, and since then he'd learned a lot about incorporating kicks into his fighting from other guards and people he'd met over the last 200 years, but he wasn't a swordsman by any means.
He saw a man walking back and forth in front of a large group of students, shouting command words as they moved from one sword form to the next. It was actually kind of fascinating. Suddenly he felt an arm on his shoulder and automatically twisted away and lashed out. A firm hand caught the blow and the man attached to it smirked. "You need to work on your speed, boy. That may have cut it in the Rukongai, but here you'd be beaten easily."
Garin narrowed his eyes. "And who are you, then?" He attempted to extricate his hand and failed miserably. He yanked hard, and found it was much like trying to pull his arm out of hardened concrete. He could see in the man's face he was barely concealing a laugh.
"I'm an instructor here." Said the man with the iron grip as he finally let Garin's now throbbing hand free. "I teach the very basics of the sword." He put on a friendly smile now and extended his hand. Garin took a few steps back. There was no way he was going to willingly give the man his hand again.
"Well... I don't think I'm ready for even the basics." Said Garin. He motioned down at the empty spot on his side. He smiled. "Even out on the Rukongai, I was stronger then average in rRietsu, but I sucked at controlling it." The man smiled and walked over.
Waving for Garin to follow him, he began to walk towards an empty meditation mat. "Your Zanpakuto is like a part of your spirit. Most people get it simply as a part of becoming a Shinigami. Some however, like you, must learn to become more in tune with their spirits." He sat in the lotus position and motioned for Garin to do the same. He closed his eyes and positioned his hands in front of him and Garin followed as the man continued, "To call upon your Zanpakuto, you must first take it from your inner world."
Garin frowned, but closed his eyes and began to listen as the man began speaking in a soothing voice. Slowly he became dizzy and suddenly, He was sleeping!
At least, he assumed he must be sleeping. He was in a terrifying burning place and before him was a terrifying two headed dragon! It was roaring, but he couldn't hear any sounds at all! Suddenly he snapped back to reality. Sitting on his lap was a simple short sword. He believed they called it a Wakizashi.
"This is my Zanpakuto?" Garin asked, holding the short blade up. Great... Not only was he going to have to learn to use a sword, he'd have to learn to fight with a ridiculously tiny blade.
The man nodded at Garin's question. "Yes. You've managed to form your blade." Garin looked down. He still didn't remember forming the blade. He didn't do anything but almost wet himself before that Dragon!
He looked up, "What was that Dragon? Was I supposed to see that?" He noticed his voice was shaking. For that matter, so were his hands. What the hell WAS that thing!?
The man's eyebrows rose. "A Dragon you say?" He frowned. "Well, what what you saw was your inner world. Your inner world is a reflection of your spirit. That's pretty impressive. A Dragon..." The man shook his head. He got up and reached a hand down to help Garin. "Well, there's nothing for it. Time for the next lesson. Hardening your blade." He chuckled as he drew his own Zanpakuto and faced Garin.

The man stood at one end of a sparring mat, staring with his sword drawn and pointing at a downward angle before him. Garin walked onto the mat and drew his ridiculously short sword. This simply would not do. How was he supposed to fight against that long sword with this tiny one!?
"Understand. You can't do anything with your Zanpakuto at your current level. It will be cut to pieces on the battle field." The man said. With that said, the man charged Garin, swinging his sword fiercely! Garin swiftly brought up the sword to block, and watched in horror as it was cut in two! He stared at the stub of a sword he now held. "You see? You have no will behind your blade!"
Garin looked at him in confusion. "Will? What do you mean 'Will'?" He looked at the blade again, despairing. He really didn't want to have to face that dragon again. He hoped he wouldn't have to do that in order to repair the blade.
The man walked over to Garin. "A zanpakuto isn't like an ordinary sword. You can't just swing it around and expect it to cut something." He walked past Garin, swinging the sword randomly for example. "This blade is made up of your spirit. Because of that, in order for it to cut, block, or do anything, you have to focus on what you want."
He turned to Garin. "When you want to block, you must focus on blocking. When you want to attack, you must focus on cutting. If you do any less, you will fail every time." He raised his sword. "Now, cut me. Anywhere is fine. If you can cut me, we can move on to the next lesson."
Garin looked down at the severed blade and tried to concentrate on it reforming. He focused all his thoughts into having a complete sword. Suddenly, a flash of a two headed dragon! It's eyes were full of fury and it was shouting! What the HELL!? He fell to the ground and glanced around in horror, but the Dragon was gone. He looked down and saw his sword was whole again. So... It appeared he'd be seeing that Dragon again if he ever had to repair his blade. Apparently it had something to do with the sword.
He looked up at his opponent and raised the sword, ready to cut. He frowned. He was terrible with a sword, but he was really good with his fists. He shifted his grip on the blade then, so that the blade pointed downward instead of up. He could block the same way he would if her were boxing, and then deliver hits that would really do some damage with his fists...
He got into a fighting stance he had learned since coming to Soul Society which was designed for kickboxing rather than just boxing. He moved forward and began his attack, jabbing with the sword hand, and fighting with the man. He willed the blade to be strong and hard, and he was happy to see that it wasn't cut in half upon the first clash of a blade. The fight slowly began to accelerate with the swordsman really pushing him back.
"You don't like that sword much I see. It would seem that you see it as more of a hindrance then a help, but I assure you that's far from the truth." Said the instructor. He struck out and Garin brought up his sword arm to block! Sparks flew and Garin pushed forward, looking to make an opening to strike this guy down! His fist came forward and the man caught it easily. "You see. You're never going to cut me with your fists. You need your sword."
Garin grimaced. How was he going to cut this guy who was faster, stronger, and had better reach then him? He saw the man smiling and attacked with the blade again and again, striking at him just like a jab. Each jab was blocked easily, but then Garin dropped to the ground with a sweeping kick. The instructor leaped up, and Garin went to work! His grip shifted swiftly and he swung the sword as fast as he could! He just barely managed to nick the instructors left leg and the man stood laughing at this. "I see you've learned the lesson. You can block and cut with your Zanpakuto now. I'm done teaching you the basics. The rest you'll need to learn in classes and such."