Class with Ivan and Hiroko. 100 cuts followed by review of standing iai 1 – 6. Some emphasis on good hand position and connection with the tsuka.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Ryan, Michael and Jessi. Seannah observed again. Stretch and then I went over The I Move, followed by requirements. I reviewed Michael’s progress and worked with Jessi, reviewing her head and neck cuts, adding decap and leg cuts. After the break, we had a special sparring night, holding a 5 minute non-stop battle for each fighter (myself, Dalton, Steven, Joshua and Sal, in that sequence). Everyone completed their five minutes, averaging 25 – 30 opponents each.
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Class led by Brad. Kihon review for the beginners, going over oi tsuki, gyaku tsuki, gedan barai, age uke, uchi uke, and tetsui uke. We went through Taikyoko Shodan a few times, then the upper ranks worked on Heian Sandan and Basai several times each.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Ryan, Michael, and Jessi. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, reviewing his requirements and adding Cutting Pattern 1, and I worked with Jessi going over Defensive Stance and Full Circle head and neck cuts. I also checked in with Joshua and went over Jodan stance, and I had Sal instruct Ryan on Jumping Tiger 1.
After the break, we had Balance 1 plus some altered terrain (significant mud) and the gamut target area, followed by a full round of Blind Man’s Boffer in the mud. -
Class led by Brad. Stretch and then more kihon for the new students. Reviewed front stance, front punch, down and up blocks, then covered inside and outside blocks and round kick.
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Class with Ivan. One step techniques 9 and 10, then a round of 3-attack parry to finish off the session.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Ferocitas, Dalton, Ryan and Michael. Jessi and Seannah both observed their second consecutive class. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, covering the rest of his blocks and how to go through his full set of requirements. I also touched bases with Sal and Ryan on one handed decap blocks. I finished the first half with a review of Thorn (a new move for Michael). After the break, we had one on one matches and a single melee. I had Steven marshal for the night. Conditions were quite muddy, but no rain during class.
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Class led by Brad. We had a couple new people and a couple regulars, so we did a kihon class, working on zenkutsudachi, oitsuki, gedan barai, age uke, and mae geri. We finished with Hedan Nidan.
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Class with Ivan. We worked through one step techniques 4 – 10, focusing on some detail aspects of stance, movement and targeting.
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Class with Sal, Joshua, Dalton, and Michael. Jesi and Sienna observed. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, reviewing his progress and covering thrust and head blocks as well as going over the six traditions. After the break, we did a focus session on stance and movement, then did 100 full circle cuts (boken). We moved into a few rounds of Refined Strikes, then a 360 Machinegun drill (head attacks only). We finished with cycling through Balance 1 and 2 and the target gamut.
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Class with Ivan. Worked on the Jo Kata for a bit, finished with one step techniques 1 – 4.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, and Michael. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, covering decap and leg cuts, reviewed The Lightning with Sal, Steven, and Joshua and then worked with Steven and Joshua on Kata Ni (a first for Joshua). After the break, we had 38 one on ones.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch and focus session on snap kicks, both front and side. Finished with some Heisn Nidan.
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Class with Steven, Joshua and Dalton. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Dalton first, including instructing him on Kill the Tiger. Next I worked with Steven and Joshua, instructing them on The Lightning. After a break, we did refined strikes, then a few rounds of Technique Add-On, and finished with building and trying out a few 3 – 5 technique combos. During the second half, I used the new 50″ over-all long sword / claymore boken that I crafted for Mike.
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Class led by Brad. Warmed up with light, slow jyu kumite, then rotated through practicing light jyu kumite and refereeing. We then did slow kata in the dark; Heian Shodan, Heien Yodan, Tekki Shodan, and Basai.
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Class with Ivan. We worked through Jo Kata a few times, then switched to katana to practice a few attack patterns, and finished with applying the attack patterns against each other with shinai.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Mike, and Ferocitas showed up for the second half. Stretch and requirements for the first half. I instructed Mike on defensive stance and full circle head and neck cuts. The second half we had one on one sparring and a couple melees.
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Class with Ivan. We worked through the Jo Kata in detail, tuning and improving, discussing application, etc.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, and Dalton. Mike observed a second time. After the stretch, I started with Jumping Tiger 2 (a new move for Dalton), then we moved into requirements. After a break, we did a gauntlet, first with static boken, then 1/8th speed boken attackers and boffer counter, then 1/4th speed attacks with boffer counter. We moved on to Refined Strikes, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch and then used light jiyu kumite to warm up. Went through Kanku several times, then Heian Yodan and Heian Nidan. Moved on to Jiyu ippon kumite and finished with bari-bari.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah and Dalton. Mike observed class. Stretch and requirements. After the break we had one on one sparring. There was a bit of mud, but everyone handled it pretty well.
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Class led by Brad. Started with slow-mo jiyu kumite to warm up, then went through Heian Nidan for a bit, then Kanku, and finished with Empi. Last bit of class we worked on ippon kumite.
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Class with Ivan. We went through Standing Iai 1, 2, 3, and 4b, taking our time and really focusing on stance.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton and Ryan. Stretch, some warmup jogging (temp in the 40’s), and requirements. I supervised Dalton and Ryan on their requirements, then finished with the whole class reviewing a few tips on The Tradition.
After the break, we took a short jog up the road and back, about a half mile, then did 100 full circle cuts. We then followed with several rounds of Refined Strikes and finished with machinegun drill for head or neck.