Warmup followed by some break-fall practice on the mats. Moved on to forward roll and backward rolls (on the mats as well). The class separated into those with kumite gear and those without, and those with (incl me) did a few rounds of light kumite having to stay within the wrestling ring printed on the mats.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective requirements. Took a little tangent into Myo Sim Kendo and went over the three basic drawing techniques and the blocks available with the up-draw/down-strike.
After a break during which we got into armor, we had 18 one-on-one matches. I did the first 9 two-handed, the second 9 one-handed.
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Brief warm up stretch and straight into bojutsu. Worked extensively on Shihan Nuke (sp?).
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective full requirements. Took a break. Started second half with continuous full circle cuts (myself 200 steel 2H, 100 for Miriam). Did a study session on Thorn, then a few rounds of Refined Strikes applying Basic Cuts to focus on quality and differentiation. Next were several sets of Advanced Response Training, and we finished with a few rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Study session on The Tradition. After the break, we had a total of 50 1-on-1 sparring matches. I swapped around between 2H (HNH), 1H, and full 2H longsword to give them different styles of opponents.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), refined strikes, dagger training and dagger refined strikes, advanced response training, and finished with unarmored parry.
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Special post-quarter “open dojo” session. Unfortunately I missed the altered time and missed the first 20ish minutes. Worked on Seisan some, but especially worked on the first bo kata, getting it down pretty well, besides the name which continues to elude me.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and full through our respective requirements. After a break, we got in 15 1-on-1 matches.
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Stretch and kihon. Worked primarily on kata Seisan.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Worked with Bryce on his 13th move and The Samurai. Reviewed Miriam’s requirements. As a class we did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 2. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (2h steel for me), several sets of Refined Strikes, several passes of Advanced Response training, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
Conditions: Medium rain and muddy.
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Standard burpees and stretch/warmup. Kihon and timed bag work. After a break, we did timed free sparring, 30 second and 60 second bouts, and wrapped up with an empi vs block back-and-forth drill.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch, reviewed Miriam’s requirements, and worked with Bryce on his 13th move (“defense chop”) and a new move for him, The Samurai, which we adapted for his one hand style. We all reviewed The Mantis a bit and then took a break. In the second half we got in 30 one-on-one matches total.
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Standard burpees and stretch/warmup. Sanchin a couple times (Frank Sensei attempted to work with me 1-on-1 on the side a bit). After the break, I worked with the group focused on the first bo kata (something like “Shihan Nukite”, but that’s not quite right). It repeats four times, with a quarter left turn between each.
My rough understanding of the kata:
Starting heisoku-dachi with bo in right hand, the left takes hold above and you step right moto-dachi with a CW chudan uke, pull back to heisoku-dachi and righthand sliding back, then switch dominate hand and strike (head/collar) left moto-dachi. Repeat once more right moto-dachi. Chudan uke and pull back to naihanchi-dachi, switch to overgrip and block down. Right hand up to ear and press vertically left, rotate bo 180 and press back right, and block directly down again. Right-left-right kote strike, block down once more. Block horizontally high, switch right hand grip, and strike/block 180 CW geidan to right zenkutsu-dachi. Vertical 180 kote/chin strike. 180 CCW head/collar strike. “Figure 8” staff wheeling, finish right moto-dachi. Right face thrust. Step right leg back, left moto-dachi, staff along right of body, and begin repeat.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. First class of 2026, stretch followed by requirements. I reviewed each student as well as going through all of my own requirements with Jesse. For each of them, we discussed what requirements they are lacking for their next rank and what we need to be working on with them over the next 3 – 6 months. During the break, we reviewed some of the various rank requirements. In particular, Miriam needs more matches, Bryce needs matches, dagger throwing, dodging 2, and a couple more moves, and Jesse needs one more move and his 20 minute non-stop. The first half ran long, so in the second half we only got in 100 full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and one round of unarmored switch parry for each of them.
Temp was around 40 degrees and not raining.
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Burpees, stretch, warmup. Once through Seisan, and then several repetitions of Ananku.
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Burpees, stretch, kihon warmup. Started learning Sanchin, continued on Naihanchi. After the break, started learning one of the bo kata (missed the name).
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Stretch, warmup, kihon. Worked on learning Naihanchi Sandan and then putting the complete Naihanchi together (shodan, nidan, & sandan with no stop).
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Warmup and kihon, including a technique new to me. I missed the name, but it is a palmed scooping motion described as “slapping water” and similar to the leg sweep in Basai. Second half was kumite related drills, working on evasions, defenses, and light kumite, and finishing with dealing with one handed or two handed grabs from the front.
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I began with the intermediate class today. It is technically a combined intermediate and advanced class, which is good. Each class they go through warm up and kihon in the first half and then the second half follows a three week rotation: karate, bojutsu, kumite. I had not brought my bo, and there were insufficient loaners, so sensei tasked another intermediate to work with myself and one other on Naihanchi Nidan.
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I attended my first night of Shorin Ryu karate at the Cedar Hills Community Rec Center tonight. Shotokan evolved from Shorin Ryu, so they are relatively similar. I signed up for the intermediate class figuring I’d be able to follow along adequately, but the sensei’s requested I start at the beginner class to check where I’ll fit best. It is only an hour long class and predominately more of a kids class, but I brought the sempai energy to help Frank Sensei demonstrate how a student should train. I also learned the few differences between my Shotokan Tekki Shodan and their Naihanchi Shodan. It was good to get back to a formal instruction, after after class Frank Sensei invited me to continue next week in the intermediate class.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements, then a review of The Mantis. After the break, we did 100 cuts (myself 2H steel), several rounds of Adv Response Training, and finished with a few rounds of Blind Man’s Boffer, the final set being with 2 lives.
This concludes 2025 classes, they will resume early 2026.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements (I reviewed Miriam’s Green Braid requirements, matching her). Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. Break. 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself 2H steel). Several rounds of Refined Strikes. We finished the night with a long session of gourd cutting, as is tradition after Halloween. I alternately used my bear pommeled HNH, a couple different 1H, my katana, and my saw bladed axe (all blunted steel). We started with stationary targets at roughly head height, then moved on to cut the chunks tossed at us.
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Class with Jesse and Miriam. Stretch and then reviewed some of Jesse’s requirements, followed by all of Miriam’s requirements. We all did a study on The Mantis. After a break, we did our 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We did a few sets of Advanced Response Training and finished with one round each of me with Jesse and then Miriam for Add-On.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Worked on Miriam’s two handed technique, reviewed Bryce’s practiced moves including his 13th move. We did a study on Jumping Tiger 1 and then took a break.
In the second half we started with 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel). We then had a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We finished with a combo gambit of Balance 1 & 2 with refined strikes pels intermixed along the course.