Class with Bryce. Once through his requirements. 100 full circle cuts, Add-on, 1-attack unarmored parry. I am training nearly exclusively with my 1-hander, presently.
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I traveled to Redding, CA to participate in the gladiator style fighting exhibition event for the Shasta Renaissance Faire. I was only able to attend the Saturday portion this year, unfortunately. We fought at 11am and 2pm. I did one handed exclusively, both steel and boken.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and his White Rope requirements once through, with me doing the same (also in one handed). A bit of a study on Akira, then a break. After the break, I started us with some stand long jump (leap frog) and kneeling-advance decap cuts down and back to get our quads fully engaged, then we did 100 full circle cuts (me one-handed steel). Followed with a bit of blind practice, with one of blind and more or less stationary as the other moved about them, where the blind one must continue to face the moving target. Finished with three attack parry, adding that Bryce had to call and identify all contact, working on his marshalling.
(again, as noted, I went all one-handed this class)
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. Reviewed his Basic Strikes and Kata Ich a bit more. After a break, did 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), some one-attack and three-attack parry, and finished with some add-on (me using 1-handed). Just before closing, I discussed a little on the evasion technique basics of “opening the door” to rotate out of the way of a linear attack.
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Class with Bryce. Once through requirements, some refined strikes and one attack parry.
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I journeyed to Arata's Farm in Half Moon Bay for the annual Best of the Best tournament. At final count, there were 14 competitors this year,making for a long and somewhat gueling day (about 7 hours for the tournament, which started around noon, an hour late, and I had arrived around 8:30, an hour ahead of the requested arrival time). Head Kaiden Gad won first place with over a 90% win. My final tally is TBD. Generally, I had several very good matches, and I had some disappointing matches, but over all I felt good about the tournament and marshaling. I'd still like to see the Western Circle learn more from other martial schools regarding good martialing techniques for tournaments in particular.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements, then a focus session on Kill the Tiger. After a break, we did a focus session on stance and movement, not dragging feet but rather floating them, then spent some time serving slow to moderate upper attacks to practice Offensive Defense responses. Finished with a couple rounds of Refined Strikes.
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Special session with Ross (Hayward Dojo). Steel only as we're both steel ranked. Went right into our requirements, he using one handed due to a somewhat recent arm injury, I with my two handed mostly, though I switched to one handed occasionally to aid in demonstrating technique, etc. As we went through requirements, I paused us to analyze and discuss various points, providing him a variety of feedback that he can take back with him to his primary Kaiden.
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Class with Bryce, back at Multnomah Community Arts Center (for the summer at least). I talked a little about using the right tool for the situation, differentiating between different sword combat styles based on blade and opponent types. Stretch and once through his requirements, then some focus work on his neck and thrust blocks, and some discussion on movement with foot and body alignment. After a break, refined strikes, 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), then donned helmets and gloves for remainder, doing lightly armored advanced response training, Add-on, and Switch parry.
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Class with Bryce, started off talking about angles and geometry. Stretch and both our requirements. 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), Refined Strikes, and a bit of unarmored one-attack parry.
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Class with Bryce. Reviewed his white rope requirements, with additional focus on cutting pattern 2. In the second half, did 100 full circle cuts (myself with steel), some advanced response training, and light unarmored 1-attack parry.
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Class with Bryce. Went through his white rope requirements, Cutting Pattern 2, and got in 15 one-on-one matches.
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Class with Bryce. Both of our requirements full through, went over Cutting Pattern 2, did 100 full circle cuts (myself with steel), and some drills.
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Class with Bryce, and Rob watched a second class. Full requirements through for both of us, took a break, then did 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), then some rounds of Add-On, followed by some balance 1+ roaming the curbs and benches in the area. Finished with a brief review of Kata Ich, then a preview of Kata Ni (had intended Cutting Pattern 2, but misdirected myself).
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Class with Bryce, and Rob observed his first class. Bryce's requirements once through with me matching, then spent some time working more in-depth on Kill the Tiger. Break for a bit, then a few rounds of Refined Strikes. Got into armor and had 20 one-on-one matches. For me, my regular two hander broke around the 12th match, so I switched to my long sword boken for 4 matches, then back to an alternate two hander for a couple matches, and for the final, I faced him with two daggers (I've been thinking a bit about double long dagger technique).
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We ended up with another extended break due to illnesses and scheduling issues. Picking back up class with Bryce today. Full requirements for both of us and unarmored parry.
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First class of 2019 with Bryce. Full requirements for both of us, some refined strikes and unarmored parry.
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Bryce and I traveled up to Tacoma for a special combined class, lead by Kaiden Brennan and with myself as guest assistant Kaiden. We paired off, Bryce with Kaiden Brennan, myself with Patrick, and went through our respective requirements. I went through all of mine, so Patrick got to repeat his seven moves a few times each, and he got an introduction to a few upper moves that he may not have been exposed to previously.After a short break, I lead a short bit regarding movement, focusing on good control through the use of our quads and hips. Kaiden Brennan then moved us into some pell and gamut work with a couple posts he has that offer several leather tabs and a slot. After another short break, we round-robined sparring, facing each of the others for 10 matches each (thus 30 total, and Brennan and I wielded steel with each other), and finished with 5 multi opponent matches (not enough to call it a melee).
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. Focus session on The Illusion and how to improve closing with an opponent, or entering the ma. Break, then helmets and gloves for the second half. Started with one attack, then three attack light armor parry. Moved into Centered Cuts, then some very light sparring that, with the light armor, I said we'd not log and treat more as advanced parry.
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Class with Bryce, back at CHRC. Stretch and once through his requirements. Focus session on Jumping Tiger 1. Break, then Refined Strikes, 100 full circle cuts (myself wih steel), some Add-On, and finished with some 3-attack Parry.
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Class with Bryce at my house. Either Bryce or I couldn't make the last few, but finally got class back on schedule. Stretch and went through our respective requirements. Took a break to setup for pumpkin cutting, then spent the second half targeting a couple pumpkins set up slightly under head level, and then cutting pieces tossed at us, with the final few rounds including Dodging 1 as we cut.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. We then did an in-depth on Kill the Tiger, adding it to his set of practiced moves. After a short break, we got in 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, and several unarmored one-attack parry rounds.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through both our requirements. Short break, then 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), and then spent a while creating combos and trying them out.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. Spent a little time on Kata Ichi. Took a short break, then did 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), followed by a few rounds of two-attack add-on, and one of three-attack add-on. Finished up with a short bit of unarmored light three-attack parry.
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For the second day of the event, the morning melees were 10 steel and 10 boken, and the afternoon was 10 steel after which we had some one-on-one boken since there was only one boken-only fighter remaining.