Kaiden Gad made the Half Moon Bay dojo available to me and invited two other students, Vea and Patrick, to get in some additional sparring so that I could attempt to meet my Red Rope 13th Move requirement and Patrick could get in more of his battles for his Green Braid requirements. During the course of the session, I tried my newest 13th move, “Splinter”, and also tried “Dragon’s Bite” and, after some review and analysis by Gad, “Phantom”. Ultimately, over the course of 35 one-on-one battles, I successfully used Splinter a few times, bringing my total count to five.
During Gad’s review of my requirements, I forgot the body blocks, both during Advanced Blocks and during Cutting Pattern 1. Also, as the test is very formal, I should bow between every kata. For the Traditions, we now state all six, including the previously “unspoken” tradition of Sanctuary. If I correct these minor items, there is no reason why I should not otherwise pass my Red Rope test.
However, before I test, I also need to upgrade my armor. I need to improve or get an all new body armor that includes better should protection and some upper arm protection; I need a better, longer tare; I need a new helmet; and I need to resurface what I can, avoiding the use of black tape in favor of leathers and similar. Last, I must make or obtain at least a couple quality and complete boken.
One other item I found note worthy was that neither Vea nor Patrick carried daggers. I asked Patrick and Gad about this and they said that many of the newer members do not typically carry daggers as lockups are infrequent and, from my observation, they tend to rely on the “three hit” rule instead (i.e. three solid strikes with fists or alternate objects to the head is considered enough to subdue or otherwise incapacitate an opponent). Personally, having a long dagger (or two) is useful as an off hand weapon and more effective in a lock-up.