I traveled to Hayward to attend class led by Head Kaiden Gad. The Kaiden spoke on a few subjects, foremost on dedication and the amount of time needed to actually become skilled versus just subsisting with minor improvement. I was paired with Kaiden Kris for requirements, each of us going through our Silver Chain requirements. During this, Gad re-adjusted my “Akira” back to the standard two-handed finish and replaced “Gad’s Bane” with “The Raven”, a move similar to Akira but with a horizontal cut and the one handed release. He also made an order correction to my deflections, having the 5th deflection go from the left shoulder, the 6th from the right.
After a break, we reviewed dagger targeting and a few techniques. The focus was on opposite hand/foot stance (e.g. left stance, right hand). We practiced using the leading empty hand to block an income thrust to the outside of our body while countering, then grabbing the opponents empty lead hand to control them while moving behind with an attack. Gad also briefly covered moving inside an attack and countering up the center line and a hand/wrist torte for unarmed vs. armed to remove the opponents weapon.
After another break, we finished class with a round robin set of dagger sparring matches, facing each opponent three times.