Class with Bryce. He has completed his first boken, finally attaching the pommel and wrapping the hilt. It has a couple inches on the loaner I had provided him initially, so there may be a small adjustment period. Stretch and once through his requirements. Refined strikes a few times each to work on getting him used to his new boken. 100 full cirlce cuts with dominant hand, 50 more with off hand. Several rounds of Add-On, with a five-attack limit (i.e. aggressor gets three including final blow, defender gets two). We each designed one combo and tried them out. Put on helmet and mitts and did some light armored 1 attack parry, spent some time on a tangent about alternatives to backing straight away from an opponent, and finished with some light armored 3 attack parry (me with the longsword).

I did everything with my returned one hander tonight except where noted.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and both our requirements. A few rounds of Refined Strikes. Took a short break and put on helmet and gloves, then did parry. Started with me using one hander and shield to give Bryce an idea of what its like to face shield, then switched so he had the shield and I was just with a one hander. Both sets we did 1-attack parry, 3-attack parry, and Switch parry. Put away the shield and finished with 3-attack parry and Open parry, him with his one hander and me with my two hander (bastard sword).

Class with Bryce. Stretch and then once through our requirements (his green braid and my silver chain, so he repeated his practiced moves a few times). A couple rounds of Add-On and once each of Refined Strikes. Setup for Balance 1+ and worked that for a while.

Class with Bryce. Stretch, reviewed his requirements, 100 full circle cuts (boken), a few rounds of add-on, sparred 15 matches (started one handed but broke my boken around 5th match so finished with two handed).

Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his Green Braid requirements, with me doing them, too. Several rounds of Advanced Response training. 100 full circle cuts (boken). A couple rounds of Refined Strikes. A bit of 1-attack, 3-attack, and Switch Parry.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and a couple times through his requirements. A couple rounds of Refined Strikes. 100 full circle cuts (boken). 20 one-on-one matches (me two handed).

No students, no class. Did a little bit of personal training, 100 full circle cuts (boken) and going through katas ich, ni and san.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements (me matching). 100 full circle cuts (boken). Refined strikes a couple times each. Sparring 15 matches.
Almost had all-weather, but the rains stopped just before class started. Made it warm and muggy.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and then reviewed his requirements. Then went back through each of his five practiced moves. Did some refined strikes, then broke to get get into armor. 21 matches, me with 2-handed in prep for Best of the Best (been using 1-handed typically to improve that and match him for better instruction).

Generally, with lower ranking fighters, I am less likely to be injured when sparring to win versus when I am sparring to instruct. Sparring to instruct means I spend more time on the defense, which increases the chance of bad blocks or clash. We would have gone more matches tonight, but after a couple good hits to my dominant hand (fingers of), I needed to call it so I could get some ice on it.

We took the previous week off and today was the first back on a Thursday schedule. Next week we'll move it form 6pm to a 6:30pm start both in prep for more students and to allow time for me to get home for gear between work and class.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and then once through his requirements. Focus session on Jumping Tiger 1. Refined Strikes. Esculating parry, doing 1-attack, 3-attack, and Switch including auto-switch on death.

Class with Bryce, back at the Commonwealth Lake Park again. Stretch followed by a full run through of both our requirements (his green braid, mine silver chain, so he got to repeat his 5 moves 5 times each). We then did a focus on Jumping Tiger 2 and The Tradition, and then a couple rounds of Refined Strikes. We took a break and got into armor and then had 15 one-on-one matches (me fighting one-handed and left as we were missing a set of protective gloves).

Class with Bryce. Stretch and reviewed his requirements. Did a study session on The Mantis and The Tradition. 100 full circle cuts (boken). Finished with a relatively short introduction to hand to hand (Shotokan Karate), covering front stance (zenkutsodachi), front punch (oitsuki), and the four basic blocks: down (gedan barai), inside (uchi uke), outside (ude uke), and rising (age uke).

Class with Bryce. Short day today, just got right to it. Reviewed his requirements, some refined strikes, some Advanced Response training, 100 full circle on our good arm and another 50 full circle with our off hand, and finished with 3-attack parry, Switch parry, and Open parry (unarmored centered cuts).

Class with Bryce. Stretch followed by going through his requirements. I then taught him my Cutting Pattern 4, including a brief introduction to the techniques involved (mostly the thrust deflection). We then did a few rounds of Refined Strikes followed by 100 full circle cuts, and finished with a progression of 1-attack parry, 3-attack parry, and Switch parry.

Class with Bryce. Stretch and his requirements once through. Instructed him on Gad's Sword Disarming Move. Refined Strikes, 100 full circle cuts (boken, one-handed), Balance 1.

Class with Bryce. Stretch followed by review of requirements. Did some focus time on his newest practiced moves, the I Move and the Tradition. A few iterations of Refined Strikes, then took a break to armor up. 15 boken matches, three with me using two handed, one with me using two sword, the rest one handed.