Training Journal

A journal of my martial arts training

Tag: steel

  • WCoS

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    Class with Kaiden Steelwind, Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Miriam a couple times through while Steelwind reviewed Bryce and Jesse’s respective white rope requirements, and then I worked with Steelwind on a few upper rank requirements (advanced blocks, cutting pattern 3, kata san).

    After a break, we started with 100 continuous cuts (myself 2H steel) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. Steelwind the led a posture/awareness drill, placing cups of water on our heads and then moving and -ultimately- cutting. Next I setup pels, first in standard zigzag pattern, then in an asterisk formation. We finished with some machinegun drill, first with any upper full circle attack, then with neck or leg full circles.

  • WCoS Event – Best of the Best

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    I travelled to the San Francisco bay area for the 2026 Best of the Best (BotB) tournament, held at Arata Farm in Half Moon Bay. There were – including myself – 14 competitors this year. The weather was bright sunny, on the warm side. They ran two rings again in order to get through it quickly. I didn’t win, and I did not check my matches yet, but I estimate my average was around 50%.

    Sadly, my camera overheated in the sun and shut off, so for the first time since 2009 I did not capture a full video record of the tournament.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Bryce. Stretch and requirements. I started with Jesse, reviewing the cutting patterns and draw cuts. I then worked with Bryce, reviewing cutting patterns, the Samurai, and his 13th move, Defense Chop (which I took a note to review with Head Kaiden Gad next weekend at Best of the Best). As a class we did a study session on The Lightning, a new move for Bryce to bring him to 15 total. Jesse has 19 and still needs one more at some point.

    After break, we did 100 full circle cuts with steel (myself 2H), followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. I had us pick up boffers and do some multi-opponent drilling, putting one person in the middle between the two ukes/opponents which then took turns making a single attack that the middle person would block or evade and/or counter. The attacks were effectively non-stop, like the non-stop battle, keeping us moving and working on the flow of identifying and eliminating threats. I then moved three pels into an outer triangle with us three inside rotating non-stop through then gambit-style, first clockwise, then after a pause, we went again counter-clockwise. Finally I shifted the three pels in closer and we took turns being in the middle, making some 20 – 30 attacks amongst the three pels.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Derek. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Derek’s requirements, continuing to refresh his memory and refine his technique. With Jesse I reviewed a few items of his choice. As a class we did a focus session on The I Move, one of the moves Derek had previously learned but forgot.

    After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (2H steel myself and Jesse), Refined Strikes, Advanced Response training, and finished with some Add-On.

  • WCoS

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    Class with just Kaiden Severer, unfortunately no other students made it for his visit. Stretch and we went through the Silver Chain requirements using our steel. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts, Refined Strikes, multi-opponent pel drills, and finished with some Silent Sword.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Focus session on The Mantis. After the break, 100 full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), refined strikes, advanced response training, and move builder.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and our respective requirements (I solo’d while they worked together). Study session on Mantis followed by Tradition. After a break, we did 100 cuts (me 2H steel), did some focus work on stance and movement, a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective full requirements. Took a break. Started second half with continuous full circle cuts (myself 200 steel 2H, 100 for Miriam). Did a study session on Thorn, then a few rounds of Refined Strikes applying Basic Cuts to focus on quality and differentiation. Next were several sets of Advanced Response Training, and we finished with a few rounds of Add-On.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), refined strikes, dagger training and dagger refined strikes, advanced response training, and finished with unarmored parry.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Worked with Bryce on his 13th move and The Samurai. Reviewed Miriam’s requirements. As a class we did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 2. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (2h steel for me), several sets of Refined Strikes, several passes of Advanced Response training, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.

    Conditions: Medium rain and muddy.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. First class of 2026, stretch followed by requirements. I reviewed each student as well as going through all of my own requirements with Jesse. For each of them, we discussed what requirements they are lacking for their next rank and what we need to be working on with them over the next 3 – 6 months. During the break, we reviewed some of the various rank requirements. In particular, Miriam needs more matches, Bryce needs matches, dagger throwing, dodging 2, and a couple more moves, and Jesse needs one more move and his 20 minute non-stop. The first half ran long, so in the second half we only got in 100 full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and one round of unarmored switch parry for each of them.

    Temp was around 40 degrees and not raining.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements, then a review of The Mantis. After the break, we did 100 cuts (myself 2H steel), several rounds of Adv Response Training, and finished with a few rounds of Blind Man’s Boffer, the final set being with 2 lives.

    This concludes 2025 classes, they will resume early 2026.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Miriam. Requirements and a study session on The I Move. During the break we armored up and got in 21 one-on-one sparring matches (Jesse and I using steel for ours, of course).

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements (I reviewed Miriam’s Green Braid requirements, matching her). Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. Break. 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself 2H steel). Several rounds of Refined Strikes. We finished the night with a long session of gourd cutting, as is tradition after Halloween. I alternately used my bear pommeled HNH, a couple different 1H, my katana, and my saw bladed axe (all blunted steel). We started with stationary targets at roughly head height, then moved on to cut the chunks tossed at us.

  • WCOS

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    Class with Jesse and Miriam. Stretch and then reviewed some of Jesse’s requirements, followed by all of Miriam’s requirements. We all did a study on The Mantis. After a break, we did our 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We did a few sets of Advanced Response Training and finished with one round each of me with Jesse and then Miriam for Add-On.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Worked on Miriam’s two handed technique, reviewed Bryce’s practiced moves including his 13th move. We did a study on Jumping Tiger 1 and then took a break.

    In the second half we started with 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel). We then had a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We finished with a combo gambit of Balance 1 & 2 with refined strikes pels intermixed along the course.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Miriam. Stretch and requirements.

    I worked with Miriam first, trying her on a 2 handed style to see if it will work out better for her. Its a bit late, she was so close to green braid, but I think it will be better for her in the long run, and so far she was positive about it.

    I then worked with Jesse to review any of his sword+dagger technique that he had questions on.

    As a class, we did a study/review on Mantis.

    After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel), some rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with multi-opponent pel gambit.

  • WCOS

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    Class with Bryce. Stretch and our respective requirements. 100 full circle cuts (me 2H steel). Refined Strikes, Advanced Response training, multi-opponent pel gambits.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Miriam. Reviewed Miriam’s requirements to bring her back up to speed since her hiatus, reviewed much of Jesse’s one handed requirements. We did a study session on The Tradition.

    After the break, we had 100 continuous cuts (me 2H steel), some rounds of Refined Strikes, and some rounds of Advanced Response Training. I wrapped up with a couple Move Builders.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse and Bryce. Had them go through requirements (Jesse chose to go through his second style 1-handed white rope reqs) while I went through mine solo. We then did a study of Double Chop, including discussing outside vs inside leg targets, merits and drawbacks when performed by a 1-hander, and some factors when bringing an off-hand dagger or shield into it.

    After the break we did 100 full circle cuts with our steel, a few rounds of Refined Strikes, several rounds of Advanced Response Training, and spent a while on a relatively short course of Balance 1 & 2.

    I wrapped up by introducing sword drawing techniques as taught by Myo Sim Kendo, with discussion on how they can be adapted to the blades Jesse and Bryce are using.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce. Our respective requirements full through. Skills & drills in the second half including 100 full circle cuts with steel and Balance 1 & 2.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Jesse. Our respective requirements full through. Skills and drills in the second half including 100 continuous full circle cuts with our steel.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce. Stretch and our respective requirements. Spent some time drilling on Kata Ni. After the break, started with 50 continuous full circle cuts (steel, myself 2H). Several rounds of Refined Strikes, then Add-On, and finished with some unarmored parry.

  • WCoS Event – Best of the Best 2025

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    I traveled to Half Moon Bay for this years Best of the Best tournament. Last year I had a strategy of matching my opponent’s style, i.e. if they were fighting with a two handed weapon, I did too (bastard sword), or if they fought with two weapons, I did (sword + dagger), or they fought one handed so did I. It worked okay, but I had a really poor overall win/loss ratio. This year I decided to just stick to my original, primary style, two handed bastard (aka hand and a half) sword. I’ll edit once I have stats, but I believe I did better than last year, at least.

  • WCoS

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    Class with Bryce and Rakta Nadi. Stretch and requirements (paired them and I soloed). Instructed Rakta Nadi on Jodan and advanced blocks (adv neck and thrust), reviewing for Bryce. After a break, we did 50 continuous full circle cuts with steel (myself 2h), then a few sets of refined strikes against the pels. Next was a several rounds of Advanced Response training, and we finished with a couple rounds of Add-On and one more of 2-attack Add-On.