Misc
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I attended the Saturday practice led by Mori Sensei. Primarily basics and kata in preparation for upcoming testing.
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Last day of training for Kai, he’s moving away. Lynette and Hiroko were also in attendance. We ended with some machine gun drills.
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No other students showed for Kendo today so I spent my time covering my Red Rope requirements for WCoS, including some focus work on my 13th move, “Splinter”, and some shadow boxing Centered Cuts.
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I ordered some kote (kendo sparring gloves) and a new shinai from E-BOGU today. I dislike the style of kendo gloves, but I will need them to continue in this art, and I hope to prod some of the other students into getting some as they will improve their wrist and arm positioning in practices. The shinai is a specialized style with the lower section of the tsuka (handle/grip) being oval, providing a more natural and real grip which thereby provides more control. I look forward to recieving it and seeing how it works for me.
Links to specific products:
– “Obaru” Shinai
– Leather and Fabric Kote -
Today’s class was just Lynette, Kai and myself. We warmed up with the kneeling iais one through four, then worked on standing iai one. Kai is picking up the new skills very quickly and doing quite well. For the last part of our session, we did machine gun drills with head cuts, then with either temple cut. It would have been better with even one or two more students to keep the line flowing, but it was a good drill none the less and both Kai and Lynette seemed to appreciate and learn from it.
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Full class today consisting of Hiroko, Lynette, Kai, Nate and myself. We reviewed basic cuts and blocks quickly, then I paired the other four and we worked on the cutting pattern 1 for a bit. Last we worked on kneeling iai one through four.
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Today I trained one on one with Gad. He reviewed my Red Rope requirements with me. I need to work a lot on my Refined Strikes and Centered Cuts. We then armored up and fought a number of rounds of single combat. A significant reason for this was to attempt to use my new 13th move, “Splinter”. Unfortunately, it is designed specifically against Defensive Stance, which is not his favored stance, and though he most tried to use that stance, I still found it difficult to work in my move, which has a distinctive begining, in such a way that it would not be anticipated (as much). Despite this, of the three or so moves I have created, it is still probably the best and I will continue to work on it. A critical component to increasing its success will be making it into one motion instead of two.
(battle log to be added)
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With vacations, alternate training, etc going on, today there was just Kai and myself. We reviewed the cuts and blocks from last week, then practiced with the Cutting Pattern 1 a bit. I then covered Kneeling Iai 1 through 4. His previous martial arts training is serving him well and he is picking up the new skills quickly. Once I feel he is comfortable with the cuts, blocks and first four kneeling iai, we’ll start on standing iai one through three.
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Today’s students were Nate and Kai. It was Nate’s second class and Kai’s first, however Kai has had training in multiple martial arts. With just the two of them, we were able to cover all the basic cuts and blocks, then put it together with the adapted Cutting Pattern 1.
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Today’s class was composed of Hiroko and Lynette. We did standing iai one, two and three to warm up, then practiced free fighting techniques one through six.
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Today was a wood and steel day of combat at the Half Moon Bay dojo. The focus was on one-on-one sparring, though we had several melees, too. I worked on my 13th move some and successfully applied my new one, which I currently call Splinter. Additionally, Gad reviewed my Red Rope requirements with me. There was a correction to my Kata Ni, and the final target on my Jumping Tiger 2 and Mantis was shallow, but otherwise it went fine. He suggested I practice on my own two or three times a week and arrange to meet with him later in January to spar and work more on my 13th move, which I must successfully use three times in combat to meet my requirement. If all goes well, I will test for my Red Rope at the February event. During todays combat, I garnered an additional 40 matches or so, which I will log later.
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Standing iai and free fighting techniques 1 – 6.
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(no details for this day)
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We reviewed standing iai one, two and three today to warm up, then did some work with the cutting pattern. As we worked through the cutting pattern, I made some refinements to the footwork, using a cross-step advance for the wrist and waist attacks (advance in kneeling stance for the second waist cut). This makes the attacks more agressive and helps work on combat movement.
I also brought in some padded practice weapons today, though we did not use them this time. We will likely begin using them as a precursor to shanai sparring, allowing us to spar more heavily while we obtain more protective gear.(no class last week due to holidays)
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I have concluded that with less than an hour available to us, it is simply not enough time to do a full requirements warm up still address specific skills and techniques, so I have backed away from the requirements at the beginning of each class.
Today we did a quick warm up with students choice of cuts, block, and multi-block and counter combinations. We then reviewed kneeling iai 1 through 7b and standing iai 1 through 3. I would have liked to have gone over kneeling iai 8, too, but I need to first review it further myself, using my previous notes to refresh my memory. -
Today I journeyed to Half Moon Bay in California for a WCoS event. The day portion of the event began some time in the afternoon, however I arrived close to 4 PM. I decided it would not be worth jumping into armor for just a few one on one matches before everyone stopped for dinner, though I later regretted not getting in those extra few battles. After the break, everyone geared up and we traveled to the Arrata Hay Bale Maze. Arriving near 7 PM, there was no moon though the sky was clear allowing a feeble starlight to barely illuminate once the eyes adjusted. Each fighter was given a glow stick and a tie to attach to their person, primarily for safety. Many simply attached it to the middle of their front, whether high or low, however I strategically attached mine to the left shoulder strap of my armor so that it could be worn externally, or tucked inside.
The first melee was a three-life (30sec res.) free for all with a few minutes to disperse into the maze. It had, of course, changed from the previous year’s incarnation. Once the battle was on, I quickly discovered that most of the fighters had immediately formed teams of two. I however had tucked my glowstick inside my armor and with sword held vertically by my body on the right, was able to move about at the ready without shedding any light to give myself away. This tactic was very successful in surprise, however I found that the glow sticks of my opponents coupled with the dark environment and some visibility issues with my own helmet grill had me misjudging distance. My first two offensive I took out one person, but the other two directly behind then took me at the same time. The second offensive was against a lone fighter and went well. The third I misjudged the distance and the pair took me in response. My last I managed to sneak close in an open space, then held still while my opponent walked right up to me unaware. Unfortunately, I again misjudged distance and only caught the last inch or two and in the ensuing exchange I was ultimately defeated.
The following melee was a two-team event in the central rotundra, then a two-team capture the flag through the maze, and last a general melee back in the rotundra again. The pure darkness continued to be an issue, causing a lack of proper distance gauging and an inability to detect incoming attacks to thence block.
I would very much have liked a couple more rounds of general melee in the maze, perhaps with some non-teaming rules to see how that would pan out, but it was a good night, if perhaps short. -
Today I started class with a lap on each of the basic cuts to get us warmed up, then one lap each of alternating left and right temple cuts and alt. left and right waist cuts (advancing in kneeling). I then created some patterns to generate openings (intiated response to use WCoS terminology). The first was right temple, left temple, right temple, left waist; the second I have currently forgotten (I’ll come back and fill it in if I recall it) ; the third was right temple, right temple, left wrist, right waist. After practicing these back and forth several times, we paired off with shanai and practiced the first and third patterns against each other. I felt it was a good class and I seemed that it really fostered some ideas in the others.
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Parry was the primary focus of today’s class. I started us with 1 attack, then 2 attack, and finally 3 attack. I spoke a bit on 3 attack, talking about setting up behavior patterns to create an opening (e.g. L temple, R temple, L waist). It was a good, high energy class.
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Lynette, Daryl and I worked through the green belt requirements today. I recently spoke briefly with Tom, our local sensei, relaying that the more advanced students could really benifit from even just ten or fifteen minutes of time learning one new technique, such as leg cuts or blocks, or relearnign or affirming one of the more advanced techniques covered near the end of the previous class Tom was running.
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Since March 9th I have been going once a week to an informal kendo class comprised of myself, a few other students from the original Kendo class, and a few new ones. The class met on Thursdays originally and switched to Fridays as of the 25th of August. Starting out, Hiroko and I took turns leading the class, however of late I lead class and we consult with each other on questions we are unsure of. Over the past few months, I have incorporated aspects of my Western Circle training, creating a cutting pattern #1 for the kendo class that is equivelent to the WCoS cutting pattern #1 and implementing WCoS training fundementals such as parry (one-attack sparring) and just recently the pairing off and demonstrating requirements as the warm up. I am pleased with the progress of the class and hope to start some light to medium sparring in the near future (with the kendo shanai, gloves, wrist protection, and helmets – throat protection and any other available protective gear will be recommended, though since it is shanai combat rather than boken, there is less worry of bodily damage).
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human haybale maze #2
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human haybale maze
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Castle and glade event