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.
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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).