Class with Rakta Nadi and Chris (Bryce called out). Stretch and requirements. I first reviewed a few basics with Chris, then paired him with Rakta Nadi for full requirements while I observed and went through some of my own requirements on my own. We then spent some time working more on The Tradition. During the break, Rakta Nadi and I armored up and then we had 32 matches.
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Class with Rakta Nadi and Chris (Bryce called out). Stretch and then I first reviewed Chris’ requirements while Rakta Nadi worked solo, then I paired them for another time through. We took a little time to work on The Tradition a bit more then paused for a break. Afterward, we started with some basic stance and combat movement, then 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel). I then had us arranged with two target pels and two opponents forming a box around a defender in the middle. The person in the middle alternated between receiving either head or neck attacks from the live opponents and delivering any attack against the pels. We then moved to a few rounds of Advanced Response Training, and finished with rotating through few rounds of Refined Strikes (with the unpaired fighter using the target pels again).
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Class with Chris and Bryce (late). Stretch and requirements. Focus session reviewing The Tradition some more. After a break, I set up the six target pels as a gamut gambit through which we made several passes, followed by a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, rotating partners since there were just the three of us. We finished with a couple round robin sets of Add-On.
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Kaiden Joseph made time to speak with me at length today, offering his thoughts and insights into how I may work through and past my current plateau. Some of the key take-aways from our conversation were:
- Challenge myself to grow in my regular class sparring by setting specific parameters to help me learn from failure as well as success, such as “for the next three matches, just attack immediately” or “for the next five matches, move only linearly” or “for the next three matches, never retreat”. The essence of this is to embrace losing matches in order to learn from them, rather than falling into the “tried and true” patterns.
- Make a conscious effort to change my cadence or rhythm. In my solo training, I can work this into refined strikes and gambit drills. I can also break up my requirements, instead of just going start to finish, jumble them to ensure they are not just rote, to help them be discrete units, tools that can be more easily intermixed. In sparring, apply variable speeds to be less predicable and break out of my opponents expectations and rhythms.
- If I choose to continue with my pursuit of Silver Chain, make it a 110% commitment. Go into the next contract with a plan regarding how to achieve the necessary sparring, and do it no matter what that takes. Silver Chain is looked on as more than just a skills rank, it is a rank where the holder should inspire others.
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Class with Jesse, Rakta Nadi, Bryce, and Chris. Alucard called out. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Chris initially, with Rakta Nadi and Jesse paired (Bryce messaged ahead, arrived late), then paired Jesse and Bryce while I observed Rakta Nadi and Chris. I then went through The Tradition, a new move for both Chris and Rakta Nadi. After a break, during which we got in armor and had a number of Best of Three 1-on-1 matches.
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Class with Bryce and Chris. Stretch and then had them go through their requirements while I practiced lightly on my own, interjecting on their training as needed. I then reviewed Thorn with them, as Kaiden The Severer had introduced Chris to it at the event, and also reviewed Jumping Tiger 2. After a break, we did some rounds of Add-On, rotating through every partner pairing twice.
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Day two, we got up at a reasonable hour, Kaiden The Severer and I prepared breakfast, then we held a training session. Kaiden The Severer started us with Refined Strikes, then I covered one of my favorite mantras, basic stance and combat movement followed by 50 continuous full circle cuts, after which I had us do machine gun drill with head or neck attacks, and Kaiden The Severer finished up with (blunt) steel cutting of overgrown zucchini gourds (kindly provided by the farm).
After we wrapped up, all the gourd bits were collected and we fed them to the farm boar and met their ducklings before packing up and heading out.
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Kaiden The Severer set up our first PNW event. I drove up with Bryce, arriving at the event site with plenty of time to spare. Set up the sword wall and my personal camp, then got ready for the day of sparring. We had a number of bokken melee, followed by bokken one-on-ones, each attendee holding a circle where they faced the other competitors for three matches each. We took a break for some lunch and finished up bokken one-on-one circles, then did a series of melee scenarios. We had some 4v4 team matches, some 4v4 Royalty Protection matches, and some 3v5 and 5v3 VIP Escort matches. Last, I had 5 steel 1-on-1’s with Kaiden The Severer and with Fanaticus, and gave Amanda and extra 5 bokken matches so she could experiment with naginata (myself using 1 handed sword).
Participants were Kaiden The Severer, myself, Ross, Fanaticus, Christy, Bryce, Amanda, Patrick, and Chris.
Afterward, we took a dip in the nearby creek and had dinner prepared mostly by The Severer, Chris, and Amanda. As we sat around the camp fire, we had smores and played with some light sabers I brought.
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Class with Bryce and Chris, Rakta Nadi called out, Alucard observed. Stretch and requirements, continuing to refine Chris’ basics and demonstration of requirements. Focus session on Jumping Tiger 2, Chris’ first practiced move. After the break, we did some move builder, and Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Bryce and Chris, Rakta Nadi called out. Stretch and worked on requirements. Instructed Chris on thrust and thrust block. After the break, combat movement, continuous full circle cuts, and then arranged us in a triangle, defending against and then delivering specific attacks; head/neck, neck/leg.
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Class with Chris, Bryce and Rakta Nadi called out. Stretch and then review of what he knows so far, then added leg cuts and blocks. After the break, I instructed him on Cutting Pattern 1, then we did a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Still trying to whittle down some numbers, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Another lunch break set of 100 FCC and 25 gambit passes
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Class with Bryce, Rakta Nadi and Chris called out. Stretch, his requirements once through, a focus on Mantis, break, sparring for 25 matches.
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Worked in a lunch time double set, 200 FCC and 50 gambit
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Pumped out my third set today, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Getting in my second set for the day, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Another morning set, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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Getting in another set before bed, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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Starting the weekend off strong, morning set of 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Got in another set before bed, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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First set directly after work, 100 FCC and 25 gambit passes
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Got in a second set this evening, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Continuing to try to finish training workbook as strong as reasonable, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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100 FCC, 25 gambit