Training with Sal.
5 minute warm up, then alternating exercise turns, 4 cycles of:
– Lunge with medicine ball lat torque (10 each leg)
– burpee: 2 pushups, 4 punches (30 sec)
– plank slider (30 sec)
– jump rope (30 sec)
Category: Uncategorized
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Class with Sal, Chris and Joe. Stretch and once through requirements (Sal/Chris and Joe/me). Break to armor up, then 53 one-on-one matches using a best of 5 format (three ai uchi forcing tie breakers).
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Class with Hiroko and Ivan. Ivan and I did 100 cuts to warm up, then Hiroko joined us and we went through one step techniques 1 – 7.
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Workout with Sal.
30 seconds each exercise, 30 second rest, cycled through 4 times:
– Lateral lunge with 10lbs weight
– Pushup/Pullup burpee
– Slider crunch/oblique crunches/pike
– Divider hop (9″ bench, one foot on, one off – jumping from left to right) -
First workout with Sal. Four reps; Hip-pop squats (25lbs), horizontal pullups (x/12/12/x), bulgarian squats (10/leg), decline pushups (12/10/10/x)
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Stretch and requirements twice through. After a break, we did some awareness/reaction training with a small circle tossing a ball, first allowing to focus on each other, then just using peripheral as we focused on the center of the circle. Next we did several rounds of Refined Strikes with multiple partners and I ended with the multi-opponent parry drill (defender/attacker/watcher), which half way through I introduced a new twist where the watcher can attack either the current attacker or defender by calling out their name, so that the order changes up and theres another level of awareness added.
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Class with Ivan. 100 cuts, Refined Strikes (a targeting, control and movement drill), then one step techniques 1 – 3.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie (Chris and Charlie were late). Requirements once through, a break during which we got into armor, and then 47 one on one matches between Sal, Chris and I using a “Best of 3” format for circle ownership (two ai-uchis, Charlie logged due to personal injury).
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Special workshop with Curt Wvong, an SKA Yodan. We had most of the Redding SKA dojo regulars plus some from Chico, and one of Curt’s San Jose students. The training focused largely on gyaku tsuki (reverse punch), and how to apply it for a variety of ranges, stances, and targets. Some key lessons that I learned were to keep the hands and forearms targeted toward the opponent, rather then in a more contracted defensive position. Creating a target and making it available to your opponent so that they “have to attack”, and then using that to pre-emptively attack or to counter attack significantly improves your effectiveness. If you spend all your time with a tight defense, your opponent will attempt any number of attacks to try to find a hole, but if you intentionally create a hole, you know where they are going to attack. Another item was being able to attack from any stance. He quoted Musashi regarding how your fighting stance should be your everyday stance, and vice versa, or in other words, you should not need a special stance for a specific kind of attack, you should train to make the attack from any stance in order to be the most prepared and effective.
Some of the drills we did pointed out how to effectively apply the defensive position reached at the end of tetsui uke, how just standing in that position can deflect an incoming oi tsuki, and how to use timing and positioning to deflect an incoming jodan mai te or gyaku tsuki with your own. -
Class with Sal and Chris (late). It had snowed, leaving a centimeter or so on the ground and it was still quite cold and with a couple intermittent spates of rain. Quick stretch and requirements with Sal, then worked with Chris on cutting patterns, several moves and kata ich. After a break, we did my new rotational parry both directions, then tried it with daggers and finally had several rounds of unarmored dagger sparring.
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No one else showed up for class, so I practiced my cuts and blocks on my own a bit and experimented with a couple combinations. Also tried out my new kendogi.
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Class led by Hiroko. 200 kibidachi dips. Focus drills on good hip movement. Katas Heian Shodan and Heian Sandan.
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Special session with Hiroko, Ivan couldn’t make it. We warmed up with 50 cuts, some standing iai, and some one steps and free fighting techniques. We then video recorded each other performing all of our known techniques so we can send them to Master Shaw and Master DeBaun for review.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Joe called out. Stretch and requirements once through (Sal with Charlie, Chris and I). Break and armored, then 33 one on one matches total.
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Class with Hiroko, Craig and Aaron. Craig has had long experience with another school of kendo, Aaron has had no experience. We spent the session going over the basics of holding the katana, offensive and defensive stance, and the cuts and blocks for head and temple.
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First class of 2011 with Sal, Chris, and Charlie. Jesse has moved south. I postponed class an hour tonight due to conflicting schedules, and as the first class in a month, I kept it relatively low key. We went through requirements a couple times, and I pointed out a few things from my training with Brennan. I ended with a parry variation where there is a defender, an attacker, and a watcher. The watcher calls “switch” and then begins attacking the previous aggressor, causing all three roles to shift. Since we had four people, I put one on the thrust rings initially. After a few rotations, I added the fourth as a second watcher and had us switching off more rapidly.
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Class with Hiroko and Ivan. One hundred cuts with iaito. Switched to shinai and did a new version of parry, with an aggressor, a defender, and a watcher. When “switch” is called, the roles rotate: watcher to aggressor, aggressor to defender, defender to watcher. I initially tried with the defender caller switch, then changed to having the watcher call switch.
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Class led by Hiroko. Partner oi tsuki passes, then close ma kibi dachi punches/defense. Finished with sanbon kumite.
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Class with Ivan. Kneeling iai 1, Standing iai 1 – 8, One step techniques 1 – 4.
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I led warm up, then class led by Hiroko.
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One on one training with Brennen. Full requirements review with in depth analysis.
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Class led by Hiroko. Started with stretch and partner kihon with bags (oi tsuki, gyaku tsuki, mai geri, yoko geri kokome, mawashi gerri). January is kibidachi tsuki month, so we then worked on chudan and jodan oi tsuki in kibidachi, both individual, and then as a counter to an opponent making oi tsuki in zenkutso dachi.
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Class led by Brad. Oi tsuki pass-by drill with partners (chudan and jodan), then 3 punch oi tsuki ma drill with partner. Finished with Teki Shodan.
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Class led by Brad.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate and Charlie. Joe and Jesse called out. Charlie had the best attendance percent for the year at 88% (30 of 34 possible classes), while Sal came in second at 85% and had the highest attendance total of 41 of the total 48 classes held this year. After a stretch, we did 100 cuts, then I went over The Mantis (new to Charlie and Nate). Once through requirements and then a break. After the break, I instructed on Gad’s Sword Disarming Move and we rotated through all the possible partners to practice it. Next we took up steel and did 50 full circle cuts with the steel to contrast with boken. Following was a balance contest on a 6″ square caber with Sal as victor, and last a leaping contest with Nate as victor.
This concludes the 2010 season. The dojo will be closed for three or four weeks.