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.
Category: Uncategorized
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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.
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Class with Jesse and Miriam. Stretch and requirements.
I worked with Miriam first, trying her on a 2 handed style to see if it will work out better for her. Its a bit late, she was so close to green braid, but I think it will be better for her in the long run, and so far she was positive about it.
I then worked with Jesse to review any of his sword+dagger technique that he had questions on.
As a class, we did a study/review on Mantis.
After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel), some rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with multi-opponent pel gambit.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and our respective requirements. 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel). Refined Strikes, Advanced Response training, multi-opponent pel gambits.
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Class with Jesse and Miriam. Reviewed Miriam’s requirements to bring her back up to speed since her hiatus, reviewed much of Jesse’s one handed requirements. We did a study session on The Tradition.
After the break, we had 100 continuous cuts (me 2H steel), some rounds of Refined Strikes, and some rounds of Advanced Response Training. I wrapped up with a couple Move Builders.
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Class with Bryce. Requirements, drills.
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Class with Jesse and Bryce. Stretch and requirements (I paired them, jesse doing second style white rope reqs, and I soloed). We did some additional drilling on Mantis to keep working on the updated leg cut.
During the break Bryce and I geared up and in the second half we started with sparring (Jesse marshaling). We only got in 5 matches and then Bryce pulled his shoulder. We wrapped up class with Balance 1 & 2 (myself and Bryce still in armor).
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Class with Jesse and Bryce. Had them go through requirements (Jesse chose to go through his second style 1-handed white rope reqs) while I went through mine solo. We then did a study of Double Chop, including discussing outside vs inside leg targets, merits and drawbacks when performed by a 1-hander, and some factors when bringing an off-hand dagger or shield into it.
After the break we did 100 full circle cuts with our steel, a few rounds of Refined Strikes, several rounds of Advanced Response Training, and spent a while on a relatively short course of Balance 1 & 2.
I wrapped up by introducing sword drawing techniques as taught by Myo Sim Kendo, with discussion on how they can be adapted to the blades Jesse and Bryce are using.
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Class with Bryce. Our respective requirements full through. Skills & drills in the second half including 100 full circle cuts with steel and Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Jesse. Our respective requirements full through. Skills and drills in the second half including 100 continuous full circle cuts with our steel.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and our respective requirements. Spent some time drilling on Kata Ni. After the break, started with 50 continuous full circle cuts (steel, myself 2H). Several rounds of Refined Strikes, then Add-On, and finished with some unarmored parry.
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I traveled to Half Moon Bay for this years Best of the Best tournament. Last year I had a strategy of matching my opponent’s style, i.e. if they were fighting with a two handed weapon, I did too (bastard sword), or if they fought with two weapons, I did (sword + dagger), or they fought one handed so did I. It worked okay, but I had a really poor overall win/loss ratio. This year I decided to just stick to my original, primary style, two handed bastard (aka hand and a half) sword. I’ll edit once I have stats, but I believe I did better than last year, at least.
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Class with Bryce and Rakta Nadi. Stretch and requirements (paired them and I soloed). Instructed Rakta Nadi on Jodan and advanced blocks (adv neck and thrust), reviewing for Bryce. After a break, we did 50 continuous full circle cuts with steel (myself 2h), then a few sets of refined strikes against the pels. Next was a several rounds of Advanced Response training, and we finished with a couple rounds of Add-On and one more of 2-attack Add-On.