Class with Bryce and Chris, Rakta Nadi called out. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Chris first, then paired him with Bryce and went through my own requirements while they worked together, interjecting as needed. We spent some time working on Thorn, then took a break. After the break, we practiced combat movement, did 100 continuous Full Circle Cuts (me with steel), a few rounds of Move Builder (we each created a sequence), and finished with a single round of Refined Strikes.
Tag: portland dojo
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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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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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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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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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Class with Rakta Nadi, Bryce, and Chris. Stretch and requirements. After the break, we reviewed the primary targets and intent and I noted how the targets don’t necessarily change when using a dagger or knife, only the way in which you reach them. We then worked on combat movement, followed by continuous full circle cuts (50 for Chris, 100 for everyone else – just bokken for myself, I didn’t place my steel at hand). Next was several rounds of Refined Strikes and we finished with a few rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Bryce and Chris, Rakta Nadi called out. Stretch and requirements. Had Bryce go on his own while I reviewed Chris and instructed on neck cuts and head blocks, then I reviewed cutting patterns and moves with Bryce. After a break, we practiced combat movement and did continuous full circle cuts (100 steel for myself, 100 bokken for Bryce, 50 bokken for Chris), then took a jog (approx 0.6 miles) through the forest, followed by a few or so rounds of refined strikes, and finished with Balance 1.
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Class with Chris G, both Bryce and Rakta Nadi called out. Being his first night, we started by covering the Three Rules of Swordsmanship and the Six Traditions, then went through stance, how to hold the sword, and head cuts. In the second half, we practiced moving in stance (combat movement) and finished with Balance 1.
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Class with Bryce, and Chris G observed. Rakta Nadi called out due to work. Stretch and Bryce’s requirements, with me wielding one handed matching him on every technique. We then spent some time on Jumping Tiger 1, working on dropping into the second full circle instead of rebounding, and varying the final target between forearm and head or even clavicle. After a break, we did a couple rounds of Add-On, taking them up to easily 20 or so techniques before I would feed him one that was too difficult to defend against. We then did a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
Chris is so far very interested and will be back next week for his second observation.
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Class with Kaiden The Severer and Bryce. Stretch followed by requirements. First The Severer went through White Rope requirements with Bryce, then he and I stepped in together to cover the remaining requirements up to Silver Chain. After a break, we did a focus study on The Tradition, then a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with a couple rounds of restricted defense drilling, with opponents on either side taking turns making proscriptive attacks that the person in the middle had to defend against, first head or neck, the second round being neck or leg. It was a very good class, I always particularly enjoy training with The Severer, we have excellent discussions.
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Class with Rakta Nadi and Bryce tonight, shifted from Thurs to Monday due to conflicts. Stretch and had them pair for requirements while I observed. We then worked on Cutting Pattern 2 a bit more, myself pairing with each of them, and then did some focus on Mantis. After a break, we had one on one sparring matches, myself 15 with each of them, and a total of 43 for the night.
I challenged both Rakta Nadi and Bryce to 10 matches, but I did not achieve my 8 cathan goal with either. I need to continue working on retraining my defensive retreat into lateral offensive evasion, as well as improving my ability to strike between/around the defense.
Turns out Mondays work for Bryce now, and they are good for Rakta Nadi, so we’ll be shifting to Mondays as of the 28th.
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Class with Jesse B. Stretch and our respective requirements once through. Focus session on Double Chop. Break. Combat movement, continuous full circle cuts (100 for him, 150 for me), and then Sequence Builder (four ad hoc technique sequences).
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through our respective full requirements. Spent some time on movement, really focusing on length of stance and maintaining as we moved about. After the break, did our full circle cuts (150 for me, 100 for him), then did some sequence building, and finished with a flow drill where we had to continuously chain practiced moves with no pause.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and requirements for both of us full through. Focus sessions on Dragons Tail and Jumping Tiger 2. After the break, we worked out a couple ad hoc sequences each, followed by continuous full circle cutting (me 150, him 100), and finished with three more times through Kata Ich.
All steel for me, and I joined him on one handed for the dragons tail and sequence building.
My two sequences were:
Right defensive stance, cross step left neck cut, right advanced neck block, drop blade horizontal and torso draw, cross stepping through to the left.
Right defensive stance, I Move, cross step torso thrust, cross step low thrust (between legs / beside opponents forward right leg, with an opportunity top drop your right shoulder into opponent at same time to unbalance them), shuffle back with draw up and right across femoral, cross stepping back with a descending left-to-right clearing slash to disengage.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. Focus sessions on Kata Ich and on The Illusion. After a break, gambit against a grouping of three targets (I did 35 passes), followed by Balance 1 & 2 in the form of; walking forward and backward on the flattened and full round cabers with no sword, then standing on two edgewise bricks will cutting against a target, then standing on two endwise bricks cutting against the target, and finally advancing on the cabers into range and standing on the full round while cutting against a target. We wrapped up with continuous full circle cutting, 100 for him and 150 for myself. As usual, all steel for me.
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Class with Bryce and Jesse B (guesting). Stretch and then paired them for requirements while I went through mine solo and observed them. Focus session on The Illusion. After a break, I had three stations of two targets each, and we went through a number of rounds of Gambit (3 sets of 10, myself, as we rotated). I then reorganized the six targets into a Gauntlet Gambit where we did several or more passes through it (definitely more than 5, though I forgot to count exactly how many). We finished with Balance 1 & 2. All steel for me.
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Solo training because Bryce called out ill. Stretch, my Silver Chain requirements, some focus on Cutting Pattern 3, 100 Full Circle Cuts, and some Refined Strikes against one of the targets. All steel.
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Solo training (Bryce called out). Stretch, my requirements, focus on cutting patterns 3 & 4, 100 Full Circle Cuts. Focused on slower movement to examine quality and precision. All steel.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through Bryce’s requirements. Focus sessions on The Illusion and Jumping Tiger 1 & 2. After a break, we worked on multi-opponent gambit passes for a bit with two targets at 30 — 45 degrees, then going through the middle of four staggered targets. Finished with 100 Full Circle Cuts. Used my steel throughout.
Rakta Nadi has let me know he will be unable to attend for a while due to work.
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Class with Bryce, callout from Rakta Nadi. Stretch and we both did White Rope requirements, after which we did some focus work on The I Move and on The Tradition. A key focus was speed and movement, getting in and out of ma/measure effectively. After a break, we started with two-target gambit at 90 degrees, then a left-hand line of four-target gambit, and last a left-right staggered gauntlet-style four-target gambit. Next we did cuts and blocks while balancing first on end-wise retainer blocks, then on end-wise bricks. We finished with 100 Full Circle Cuts. As per usual, I used my new steel for everything.