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.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements, then I worked on Basic Strikes with Steven, Joshua and Jesse. At the end of break, Sal and I did Cutting Patterns 1, 2 and 3 with steel. The second half of class we rotated through a few partners of Refined Strikes and thrust practice, then had Balance 1 and 2 to finish up.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch, then focus drills on the “standing leg” principle. Finished with a few times through on taikioko shodan.
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Class with Hiroko, Ivan and Mark. Mark has done another kendo school over a decade ago. His work schedule won’t permit training often, but he should be around. We went over basic stance, defensive posture, cuts to head (men), temple, wrist (kote) and waist (do), and blocking the head before we ran out of time.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. During seiza, I spoke about awareness as a broad spectrum, ranging from awareness of your own internal body to the immediate surroundings, to remembering key aspects of spaces that you have left, and even to time and events past, present and pending. Stretch and requirements once through. I then instructed on Defense Cut, a new move for some. After break, we worked on Kata Ich, then I instructed on The Illusion. I covered how to handle a threat from either side when in defensive stance, and then finished with a little more Kata Ich.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch followed by a focus class on application of escapes as seen in a few of the kata (Heian Shodan, Heian Sandon, couple others).
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Class led by Brad. Stretch and kihon (tendo kata?). Several times through Tekki Shodan. Finished with some ippon kumite.
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Workout with Steven.
Two cycles (30sec/60sec) of:
– Burpee – four punches, drop and four alpines, four pushups with lateral extension alternating sidesThree cycles of:
– Bulgarian squats (10/leg)
– Burpee – two pushups, two pullups (30sec)
– Ab roller (30 sec) -
Class led by Brad. Stretch with pushups and bulgarian squats. Sanbon kumite at quarter to half speed to work on good technique. Heian katas shodan through godan (1-5).
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Class with Ivan. Standing Iai 1 – 8. One step techniques 1 – 6.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch followed by learning Kanku and going through it a few times. Finished with a few partners of sanbon kumite.
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Class with Hiroko and Ivan. Standing Iai 5, 6 and 8. Advanced parry with defender/attacker/observer role rotation. Open parry with role switch when the attacker pauses.
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Class led by Brad. Stretch, then kicking drills against the pads. Front snap kick, side thrust kick, side snap kick, and round house kick. We finished with several times through on Tekki Shodan.
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Class with Hiroko and Ivan. Hiroko and I warmed up with kneeling iai 1, 2 and 5, then Ivan joined us and we finished with standing iai 1, 2 and 6. We then switched to shinai and went over partner drills 1 – 6 for the remaining time.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Joshua, Steven, Jesse and Joe. Stretch and requirements once through. During the break, Joshua, Steven and Jesse took their Green Braid evaluations. After the break, I setup an altered terrain gauntlet which we first used to verbally guide a blind man, then reused with boken along the sides and a boffer at the end as we rotated through turns going through the gauntlet with a boffer in hand, three cycles with each cycle increasing from static pose to quarter speed attack to third speed attack. We finished with several rounds of Blind Man’s Boffer.
This was the final class for 2011, classes will resume January 31st, 2012.
