Training Journal

A journal of my martial arts training

  • First day of the new Portland Dojo, temporarily to be held at Commonwealth Lake Park. Bryce met me and we went over the format of the class, the desired commitment I'm looking for, one solid color for uniform, the three rules of swordsmanship, the six traditions, the defensive stance, and the six full circle cuts. I lent him a bastard sword boken for this week, but I will try to get him a one hander come next week and will join him in that style.

    Conditions: Perfect, roughly 70 degrees or a little under, dry for the present.

  • Solo training, went through my Silver Chain requirements with steel.

  • Class led by Brent. Stance tag, agility ladder, ear game. Broke into newer and experienced groups, the newer students working on basic cutting and basic guards, finishing with guard game.

  • Class led by Blaine. Stretch, then kihon kicks: yokogeri kiagi, yokogeri kokome, and mwashigeri. For each one, after the basic, we mixed in some combinations: yokogeri kiagi / mai te, yokogeri kiagi / mai te / gyakuzuki, mwashigeri / yokogeri kokome, mwashigeri / mai te / yokogeri kokome, front leg mwashigeri / backleg mwashigeri. We then did some 50% speed kumite with several partners, and finished with 5 Heian Shodan and 5 Heian Nidan.

  • Class led by Merv. Stretch, then a focus on kihone kicks (mwashigerri off the front leg, yokogerri kiagi, yokogerri kokome). We then had several partners for general jiyu kumite at roughly half speed. Finished with 10 Basai.

  • Class led by Brent. Began with stance tag, then agility ladder, then ear game. Moved into distance game, then winding game. The main drill today was play book followed by slow sparring. Everything was steel except distance game.

  • Class led by Blaine. Warm up and stretch. 15 Heian Shodan, 15 Heian Nidan. Worked on mwashigeri (back and front leg), yokogeri kiagi and kokome. Finished with a couple bouts of light jiyu kumite with kicks only.

  • Solo practice, went through all of my Silver Chain requirements (using steel). Included Kodiak and Dragons Bite, and started experimenting with a move tentatively named Vampire (right shuffle in right neck cut feignt spun into left back edge neck cut ("scorpian") with lateral shift to left stance).

    I am training in the park, and a guy (Daniel, I think) happened by and gave me a katana that has been sitting in his closet for a couple years ever since his friend gave it to him. I offered to teach him to use it, but he said he wasn't very interested and probably too busy. I provided him a contact method if he changes his mind.

  • Very brief stretch and a 5 minute walking warmup

    Three times through (slashes delimit differences between rounds) 30/30 HiiT set:
     – Forward lunge / Lateral lunge / Reverse lunge
     – Lat pull-down (30lb) / Lat pull-down (60lb) / Chest Press (80lb)
     – High knees in-place rapid jog
     – Ab roller

    Cool down with 5 minute walk

  • I journeyed down to the Hayward Dojo for a Day of Combat and to support Sal's 30 minute non-stop battle and Crimson Chain test, and I also was a part of Steel Wind's steel Red Rope test.
    We had a good number of fighters present, six in steel and several more in wood. It started with Sal's non-stop, then the main combat event was 5 wood matches, 5 steel matches, 5 wood matches, 5 steel matches, and 5(?) scenario wood matches.

  • Class led by Brent. Jog/etc warm up, agility ladder, ear game, distance game, and binding game. We then a "Playbook" drill, where with a partner you build a series of attacks and counters (i.e. I make the same unopposed attack three times in a row, then I repeat three again with my partner making the same counter, then three times again with me countering the counter, etc). We started at just attack and counter and worked our way up to four techniques total. Finished with some slow-motion sparring. Steel feder for all except distance game.

  • Class led by Merv. Stretch, then we started some in-depth work on oitsuki, gedan barai, and age uke, with a particular focus on shoulder connection, pullback connection, and torso position/rotation (which was remeniscient of a lot of what Oshima Sensei talked about when I was at a special workout at the Oshima Dojo several years ago). We then went through Heian Shodan 10+ times to work further on these aspects. The class was then split into upper and lower divisions and the uppers worked on Kanku, going first through slowly to examine specifics of each technique, then through another 6+ times regular, and then through Basai 3 times, and finally favorite kata (Heian Godan for me) a couple times.

  • Class led by Brent. Usual warmup and agility ladder. Ear game, binding game. Focus tonight was on grabbing and hand control technique.

  • Class led by John. Kihon, ippon kumite, basai x 10+, teki x 10+

  • I caught the first half of a judging workshop. The focus was on longpoint rules, with side nights about PDX longsword rules. Some key points were the use of a gated point system going: touch, target, quality, control. A touch will pause/stop the match but is worth zero points. Targets worth points are only head and body. Included is a system of recognizing opponent followup attacks that reduce or negate victory points. In general, I was fairly happy with the system though it lacks a few targets that I consider good but they consider either too dangerous to the opponent or too  open to counter-attack or mutual blows.

  • Class led by Brent. Usual warm up (jog/slide/grapevine), and then I joined on the agility ladder group. We primarily went over the zornhaus some more, as well as working various of the usual drills.

  • Class led by John. Stretch and kihon with a focus on blocks with reverse punch counter and a few other combinations. etc

  • Class led by Brent. Standard Jog+ warmup, then I did the agility ladder with the experienced students while Brent was working on stance with the newer students. Agility ladder is a 20-ish foot webbing and plastic rung ladder spread on the floor that we pass over in various stepping and hopping patterns. We progressed through ear game, three rounds with the third holding swords and being mindful of distance (measure), into a measure and evasion drill (permitted one cut which opponent may attempt to evade and make one counter cut), into cutting drills practicing a short-up/long-up/long-down and a short-scorpion/long-down pattern.
    We then reviewed the primary lesson of the night, using zornhaus to counter oberhaus. As the opponent cuts on the diagonal from their shoulder toward your neck (oberhaus), you counter cut placing your blade on an upward slanting line directed at your opponents face while switching stance (triangle stepping) off the line of attack. You are then free to thrust their head or throat before they react.
    We practiced this for a while, then formed a few pits where the experienced did some sparring and the newer, myself included, worked a bit more on this technique.

  • Class led by Brent. Warmed up with "Stance Tag", then he took the newer students through the basic stance drills (advance and retreat in left stance, then right, then strafing in left, and then strafing in right, then some stance switching and zig zag patterns). Next was the ear game, then basic cutting drilling, this time doing the X cut pattern, an under/over pattern, and a right/left temple pattern. Following this was the We moved into the bind drill of keeping the swords engaged and seeking an advantage. The main technique study today was a review of the montague followed by an introduction to a counter for montague. After working through those for a bit, the newer folks want back to the contact drilling while the upper folks sparred. Today I did everything with borrowed steel feder.

  • Solo practice, went through all of my Silver Chain requirements (using steel).

  • Class led by Merv. Stretch followed by 51 Basai. That was it. Some by count, some slow, some normal, but 51 basai total with a brief discussion of application of some of the moves at the end of class.

  • Attended Brent's class, Indes Western Martial Arts. Basic cardio warm up followed Brent taking myself and a couple other new folks through some basic stance and movement work. We then did a partner movement drill, named "the ear game" because you're trying to reposition to either side of your opponent, practincing lateral movement and distancing. Boston then took us new folks over the basic X or "infinite" cut (similar to WCoS neck cut, but shorter, coming from the shoulder, and less snap so as to lead with a more guarded hand position). They use steel straight away for much of their drilling, so I was using my 40" overall bastard sword most of the night, starting with this cutting. We then moved into another partner drill where you maintain blade contact with your opponents weapon and attempt to manuever to achieve and keep the line on your opponent.
    Brent then introduced the night's primary lesson, the montague. The move involves countering your opponents direct line on your face by rotating your sword CW as you deflect left slightly, keeping your tip up enough to maintain engagement and control of your opponents blade, then rotate or lever the blade down to catch your opponent's blade in your back guard and drop your point into a thrust to either the mid section or the upper leg (inner thigh, I should think).
    After practicing the move for a while, the class seperated into those that were geared for full sparring and those of us that weren't where we continued with the contact drill.

  • Solo training. Went through my Silver Chain requirements and did 100 full circle cuts, all in steel.

  • Class led by Merv. Stretch and high repetition kihon, with focus on some of the problem areas that the seniors had noted in last weeks grading. Finished with three Heian Nidan and three Heian Yodan.

  • Tonight I observed the Indes Western Martial Arts class, a school of long sword combat. They have a more regimented format than Swordguild, though are otherwise fairly similar, as might be expected of two HEMA affiliated schools. I spoke with the main instructor for a bit after class and have decided to give his class a go.