Class with Hiroko. Kneeling iai 1 – 8, One step techniques 1 – 8.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua and Elijah. Jesse called out. Stretch and requirements. Sal and I went through our cuts, blocks and cutting patterns, then he worked alone while Steven and Joshua paired and I worked with Elijah, reviewing his requirements and adding The I Move to his list. After a break, we had one on one sparring totaling 34 matches.
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Special class with Kaiden Gad today, and I handed over my sword book for review. Vea and I reviewed Silver Chain requirements with Gad at the Half Moon Bay dojo. We went over Battle Stance, the 9 deflections (with steel), and reviewed some of the advanced blocks, plus I discussed some of my ideas regarding head blocks. Gad suggested I do a full write-up and submit to the council for review. We went over several new practiced moves:
– Aku (and Flying Aku): From shinkageryu with sword vertical, make and arching thrust to the chest
– Shadow: From defensive stance, make a decap, pull back, pause for a reaction, and then chop
– Gad’s Bane: From warriors stance, make a leap to close distance while making a pinwheel full circle cut to the neck
– Rolling Thunder: From battle stance, make a high right to left feint followed by a right to left torso draw cut, returning to battle stance
– Spike: From defensive stance, thrust one handed to the face (generally, eye opposing dominate hand)
After a break, we reviewed some notes on sword and shield, including modifications/application for The Tradition, Thorn, Dragons Tail, The I Move, and Jumping Tiger 1.
We finished with some hand to hand training, with Gad getting a sense of my current hand to hand level and then covering two restraints, a take down, and some tips on escapes. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jesse and Elijah. Stretch and requirements (once through for Sal and I paired, twice through for the other four paired). While working with Sal, covered Draw Cuts and the first six deflections. Break, then fortress defense (defend a roughly one meter circle, back to a fence), first for just head or neck, then for any attack. Followed with 100 full circle cuts (Sal and I with steel). Finished with Balance 1 and 2.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Jesse and Elijah. Both Chris and Joshua called out. Stretch and requirements, then I reviewed The Mantis (new move for Elijah). After the break, we had one on one sparring totaling 21 matches.
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I had the opportunity to travel to the SKA headquarters dojo between Santa Barbara and Ventura to train with Shihan Oshima Sensei. There were two classes, first a morning Brown Belt practice lead specifically by Oshima Sensei, then an afternoon all-ranks session lead by Mori Sensei with a lot of input from Oshima Sensei.
During the Brown Belt practice, we did some kihon and reviewed the kata Basai. In the later session we did some more kihon, sanbon kumite, and my rank group worked on Heian Nidan. Notably, he corrected my initial Heian Nidan block, adjusting my upper (horizontal) arm to be a little lower in order to be much more effective. The principle difference that I felt internally was a transferring of the power from the the upper shoulder muscles to more of a core muscles focus. Some other key points were the importance of rounding the shoulders, focusing the strength forward, not backwards out the shoulder blades, and of placing the center of balance in the correct location in front and back stance to avoid sweep susceptibility and ensure smooth movement. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Steven, Joshua, Jesse and Elijah. In seiza and briefly introduced the issue of ensuring a victory is certain. Quick stretch, and then reviewed the various kill targets, and why they are a kill. We then began going through requirements, myself observing and correcting. I finished the first half with a few rounds of refined strikes.
After the break, I started with 200 full circle cuts (myself 100 with iron sword, the second 100 with steel). Elijah was all boken, everyone else had 100 with steel, 100 with boken. We finished with multi-opponent machinegun drill, first with head attack only, then a second round with head or neck attacks. -
First day of Shadowwood. There were a number of melee matches, with a field of 16 fighters. In addition to several last-fighter-standing matches, there was a two team match, a Hunger Games inspired match (half as many weapons as fighters in a pile at start), and an additional two-person team match where one had the last used weapon of the previous match, and the other started with none.
Before taking dinner, I tested for and received the rank of Crimson Chain and was awarded full Kaidenship. Details to follow in a separate log.
After the dinner, there were two castle sieges, for which I was on the attacking force both times (and died both times at the gate in our attempt to break through). -
Class with Sal, Chris, Joshua, Steven, Jesse and Elijah. Requirements for the first half, one on one sparring for the second half. During the break, I did unarmored parry with Elijah.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch, then kihon warm up. Focused on Heian Sandan several times through, then finished with sanbon kumite. After class, I reviewed all of my kata.
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Class with Hiroko and Ivan. 100 cuts with iato to warm up, then switched to shinai. Did a few rounds of Refined Strikes, then a few rounds of partner drills 1 – 5.
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Class with Sal, Joshua, Steven, Jesse and Elijah. Stretch and requirements (Sal I did ours while the others did theirs twice). I reviewed Thorn (instructing Elijah on it), then we took a break. Sal I worked with steel, doing our cuts and blocks, cutting pattern 1 and cutting pattern 2, and finishing with refined strikes. Main class resumed with boken and we did a few rounds of refined strikes, then I went through two rounds of steel defense where the students got to hold steel and defend as I called out an attack and made that attack, several attacks in a row. When Sal came up in the line, we used the opportunity to do unarmored steel parry. We finished class with three training stations, two to a station: thrust rings, refined strikes, and cutting pattern 1 on a balance 1 beam. Rotating through to everyone had twice at each station.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch, then kihon in the form of Taikyoko Shodan several times through using the various basic blocks, then went through all the Heian katas, Tekki and Basai a couple or few times each.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Steven, and Joshua. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Chris’ White Rope requirements, then reviewed Steven. After the break, we had one on one sparring and ended with three melees.
Conditions tonight were wet, muddy and treacherous.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch and kihon warm up, then practiced Basai for a while going quarter-speed or slower. Finished with ippon kumite. Also at half to quarter speed.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jesse and Elijah. After the stretch, I worked with Elijah while the other four paired off for a requirements a couple times through. With Elijah, I reviewed his basics and I instructed him on thrust, thrust block and cutting pattern 1, as well as covered the three rules of swordsmanship and the six traditions. I moved Sal to working with him and covered cutting pattern 2 with the three green braids.
After a break, we did two hundred full circle cuts (100 with iron sword, except for Elijah), and then did machinegun drills, first for head attack, then for any upper attack (head/neck/decap). When Sal and I were defending, I permitted chop cuts from the students that know them. -
Class with Hiroko. We warmed up with 100 continuous cuts, then spent the rest of the time working on partner drills 1 – 5, trading back and forth on the initiator role.
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Class with Joshua, Jesse and Elijah. Megan and Sarah observed for their second time. Stretch, followed by requirements twice through for Joshua and Jesse while I worked with Elijah on review and adding decap and leg cuts and blocks. I then reviewed kata ich with Joshua and Jesse, as well as their choice of one move.
After the break, we had 20 matches of one-on-one sparring in light to moderate rain and mud (5 at a time, 10 each for Joshua and Jesse, and I went two handed for the first two sets, one handed for the second two). -
Class led by Brad. Stretch, then ippon kumite rotating through several opponents. Finished with focused training on Heian Nidan.
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Class with Steven, Joshua and Elijah (his first). Megan and Sarah observed, and Sal, Chris and Jesse called out. Stretch and requirements. Steven and Joshua went through requirement about 1.5 times while I instructed Elijah on defensive stance, head and neck full circle cuts, and head and neck blocks. I then instructed Steven and Joshua on Akira while Elijah worked on repetition.
After the break, we did machinegun drills for head and neck attacks, then balance 1 and 2.(No class the past few weeks due to some personal schedule conflicts)
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I provided a solo demonstration of Myo Sim Kendo at Shasta College as part of a cultural awareness event. I introduced the differences between boken, shinai and iato and katana, and then demonstrated kneeling iai 1 and 5, and standing iai 1, 5 and 7. As a solo demonstration, I was unable to go through any partner drills.
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Performed a demonstration of Myo Sim Kendo at the Shasta Mall as part of a cultural awareness exhibition. Hiroko, Ivan and I performed a few iai and demonstrated parry (1, 3, and open attack variations).
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Class with Hiroko, Ivan and Mark. Standing Iai 1, 5 and 6, gone through in detail for Mark’s benefit.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Steven and Joshua. This was a special night training session. There is no moon (new moon) so I took the class out to an area with grasses, light brush and trees, and no light sources. We did requirements once through, then switched partners and did cutting pattern 1 and a couple moves. After a break which I suggested using to further attune with the night, we moved to another section of the area with some good altered terrain and did light unarmored altered terrain parry, switching out for a few different partners. We finished with several rounds of light contact 50% speed (approx) unarmored melee.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch and then partner drills working on good mah awareness and use, with a focus on jiyu kumite application.