Class with Sal, Steven, Ferocitas, Elijah, Jesse, Antonio, Mary Ann. Ryan observed his second class. Stretch and requirements, including a group focus session on The Tradition. After the break, we did refined strikes, advanced training, and finished with blind mans boffer.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, Elijah, Jesse, Antonio and Mary Ann. Ryan observed his first class, and Antonio came early to work on making his first bokken (he has been using his own store-bought katana bokken). Stretch, and then a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1, after which we started on requirements. I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, reviewing their requirements, including instructing Mary Ann on The Tradition.
After the break, we had 33 one on one matches and 3 melees (of six fighters). -
Class with Sal, Steven, Elijah, Jesse B, and Antonio. Stretch and paired off, myself with Antonio, Sal with Jesse B, and Steven with Elijah. I reviewed Antonio’s progress and instructed him on adding the three types and six traditions to his requirements, and then finished by instructing him on The Tradition.
After the break, we had Balance 1 and 2+, which was a difficult Student’s Challenge course. I initiated t with two of the 6×6 square cabers elevated and end to end slashing across the dojo, then told them to build the rest. I made it through the first time, and was ultimately the first to make two consecutive passes, of which only Steven finally managed near the end, too. I then took up guardianship of the elevated cabers and every student that made it to the cabers faced me in light, controlled, unarmored sparring on the cabers. -
Started my new workout schedule. Today was a random easing into things. Started with a three-parter: crouch, shoot out to push up position, 2 pushups, 10 mountain climbers, crouch, jump up to bars and two pull ups, drop and repeat until tired. I took a breather, then repeated again. Next was a set of squats with a 20 lbs weight while standing on the large unstable halfdome, then lateral twist squats on the half dome, then 15 hungarian squats on each leg. I finished with 20 fly machine at 100 lbs and 8 push up machine at 120 lbs (I think).
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Antonio and Mary Ann. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Steven and Joshua, instructing on chop cuts, then worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, reviewing Jumping Tiger 1 and Thrust Block. After the break, we had one on one matches totaling 31.
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Class with Sal, Joshua and Ferocitas. Stretch and requirements the first half (Sal with Joshua, myself with Ferocitas). During the break I spoke with Ferocitas and Joshua separately regarding their paths post-white rope test. After the break, we worked on multi-opponent defense, rotating each of us through the center position with the other tree arrayed around them. We started with just head cuts/blocks and verbally announcing our attack, then moved to just a natural sound to initiate our attack (scuff, sniff, etc). We ended with natural sound and neck or leg attack. To finish class, we did 200 full circle cuts (wood).
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Class with Sal, Steven, Jesse A (Ferocitas), Jesse B, Antonio and Mary Ann. Elijah observed due to injury. Stretch followed by some frog burpies (one pass was a large forward leap, two pushups, the other pass was a large forward leap and lat twist and extend both sides). Requirements, with myself working with Antonio and Mary Ann to review their progress and add their first move, Jumping Tiger 1.
After the break, we had 44 one on one matches, including steel for Sal and I. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Jesse B, Antonio, and Mary Ann. Requirements the first half (I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio). Second half had three stations: cutting and thrust gamut, cutting pattern 1, and balance 1+. We rotated through a full rotation, then finished with 100 full circle cuts.
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Day Two of the sword fighting exhibition went much better. The weather was mostly overcast which cut the sun and temperature a lot. Kaiden Brennan had left Saturday evening, but Joshua was able to join us. We had a good morning and afternoon set of steel melees, followed by bokken, followed by a few more steel. Generally, everyone seemed to agree it had been a good event and weekend.
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Today was the first day of the Ravenswood Faire at Hawes Farm in Anderson, CA, which I arranged for the Western Circle to provide a sword fighting exhibition in the style of previous Arata Farms events. I could and should have been better prepared. It was very windy so we were unable to erect the canvas walls for the blind nor the awning to cut some of the copious Redding sun, and the fighting arena was not actually ready when we arrived, nor anyone in charge available. None the less, we got the hay bales arranged and started the fighting, running a set of steel melees, some wood, and a few final steel matches for the crowd that had gathered. Brennan, Dave and Faith had come in the day prior, and most of the Redding students were present. After the first set, Head Kaiden Gad arrived with Vea, Steel Wind, and Kris, bolstering our steel numbers to 8 (with Sal and myself) for the afternoon sets of melees, and for the bokken melees we had Steven, Jesse A, Jesse B, Elijah, and Chris join us. Faith, Sabrina, Mary Ann and Antonio helped out with logging, video, cameras, and crowd management.
After the exhibition, we returned to the Redding Dojo for a feast and to recoup. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Jesse A, Sabrina, Chris, Elijah, Jesse B, Antonio and Mary Ann. Stretch and requirements. I instructed Mary Ann and Antonio on thrust and all their basic blocks, reviewed Sabrina’s cuts and blocks, and then taught Cutting Pattern 1 to Mary Ann and Antonio. After the break, we had 58 one on one matches (with a focus on getting Jesse his remaining matches for his White Rope requirements) and 3 melees.
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Special session of one on one sparring at Sal’s house in order to get Joshua and Jesse A more battles.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, Sabrina, Elijah, Jesse B, Mary Ann and Antonio. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, going through the six traditions, the three rules of swordsmanship, and all basic full circle cuts. After the break, we worked on stance and battle movement, finishing with an uncounted number of full circle cuts, then had balance 1 and 2.
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Class with Hiroko. We went through the Jo Kata a few times, then spent the rest of our time on light unarmored sparring at approximately half speed.
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Class with Sal, Jesse A, Elijah, Jesse B, and Mary Ann. Antonio observed his second class. Stretch and then I worked with Mary Ann on stance and head, neck and decap cuts while the others went through their requirements. After the break, we armored up and had one on one sparring.
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Workout with Jesse B (Sal standing in as coach only due to injury).
I did three 30/30 rounds of:
– squat-pop with 25lbs
– tricep dips
– high knee in-place jog
– seal walk pike -
Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, and Jesse B. Elijah was ill and observed, Mary Ann observed her second class, and Anthony observed his first class. Requirements once through and a break. After the break, we did five rounds of refined strikes, then advanced response training, and finished with Balance 1 and 2.
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Hiroko and I performed a kendo demonstration for the cultural awareness day at the local mall.
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Class with Hiroko. We reviewed our demo for Saturday twice, then worked a little longer on parry.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jessa A, Elijah, and Jesse B. Mary Ann observed her first class tonight, and Sabrina observed as well. Stretch and requirements, then a break. After the break, we had 61 one on one matches.
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I traveled to the Northern Reaches dojo in Gardnerville with four of my students for the 2013 Snow Event. There were 9 regular melees and 3 scenario melees, totaling 18 matches for myself with 4 melee wins. This was followed by additional 1 on 1 matches in the snow, of which I had 15. Back at the dojo that evening, a few had 18 more one on ones which I marshaled.