Class with Joshua, Jesse A, Elijah and Jesse B. Sal, Chris and Steven all called out. Stretch, then requirements once through. After a break, we started with a multi-opponent drill. I had constructed a four-opponent kata for bunkai (roughly, “application”) during the break, and as we resumed I taught it to the students.

The person in the middle (Primary) starts with The Tradition as an attacker comes in with a head attack, then the Primary pivots 180 right with a thrust toward a second attacker that is closing from behind. The second attacker begins to step back, evading the thrust and Primary completes Dragons Tail. A third attacker attacks from Primary’s right with a neck cut to Primary’s left. Primary rises in right stance with a left head/neck block, making it a deflection to dash the third attackers blade to the side, causing the third attacker to begin to retreat. Primary cross steps in with a short chop to the neck or temple. The fourth attacker comes from behind with a left leg attack. Primary rotates 180 with a downward leg block, then continues the sword arc combined with a cross step diagonally left and forward to make a counter leg attack. With all four opponents down, Primary rotates 90 to the left, returning to the original orientation.

We cycled everyone through the center (Primary) position, taking turns as the various opponent roles. The key focus that I stressed was on flow, precision technique and economy of motion, not on speed.
We then moved to a multi-point machinegun drill (triangle, Jesse B having had to step out due to an issue with his knee). All targets were open, though each opponent had to signal they were coming (kiai or equivalent) before making their attack. We finished with linear two-attack machinegun drill, still with all targets open.