Special class with Kaiden Gad today, and I handed over my sword book for review. Vea and I reviewed Silver Chain requirements with Gad at the Half Moon Bay dojo. We went over Battle Stance, the 9 deflections (with steel), and reviewed some of the advanced blocks, plus I discussed some of my ideas regarding head blocks. Gad suggested I do a full write-up and submit to the council for review. We went over several new practiced moves:
– Aku (and Flying Aku): From shinkageryu with sword vertical, make and arching thrust to the chest
– Shadow: From defensive stance, make a decap, pull back, pause for a reaction, and then chop
– Gad’s Bane: From warriors stance, make a leap to close distance while making a pinwheel full circle cut to the neck
– Rolling Thunder: From battle stance, make a high right to left feint followed by a right to left torso draw cut, returning to battle stance
– Spike: From defensive stance, thrust one handed to the face (generally, eye opposing dominate hand)
After a break, we reviewed some notes on sword and shield, including modifications/application for The Tradition, Thorn, Dragons Tail, The I Move, and Jumping Tiger 1.
We finished with some hand to hand training, with Gad getting a sense of my current hand to hand level and then covering two restraints, a take down, and some tips on escapes.