I travelled down to Redding for Kaiden Sal's public exhibition event at the Shasta Renaissance Faire. For the morning melees, we had 5 steel, 5 boken, 5 steel, and 5 boken. For the afternoon we had 10 steel and 10 boken. In the evening, after the feast, Head Kaiden Gad gathered many of us to play Hide the Belt.
Tag: steel
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Class with Bryce. Stretch followed by both our requirements. While doing my upper practiced moves, I had him repeat just his two new ones. Took a break, then did 100 full circle cuts (me with steel) followed by a couple rounds of Refined Strikes. We then did some Balance 1 for a bit and finally finished with a few rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and 50 full circle cuts, then he took his Green Braid evaluation, earning his rank. We then covered Basic Strikes, adding the two chop cuts and advanced thrust to his techniques, spending some time on repetition (during which I practiced all my cuts with steel), as well as covering Warrior Stance. We also spent time reviewing Kata Ich. After a break, we did armored parry (1 attack, 3 attack, and one round of Switch). I finished with a couple time through synchronous Kata Ich.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and full requirements (his and my full silver chain reqs). Focus session on Jumping tiger 2 and the Mantis. 100 full circle cuts (mine, steel). Unarmored parry (3 attack).
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I participatedin the 2018 Best of the Best tournament today. With 14 competitors, it was the largest tournament to date. My personal performance was erratic. I found myself too often falling back on old (bad) habbits, thinking too much, not applying the strategies I have been working out over the past several weeks. Over all, I had compliments on my quality of form and technique, but I ranked only middling, with both my former students Kaiden Sal and Steven doing better than I (which is both good and bad).
I did finally have my new steel helm, though unfortunately this was its inaugural debute,and I had some issues with the chain skirt binding on my neck and/or body armor and the visor binding on the bevor. However, I barely felt the head strikes, the padding work well, as did the four point harness mostly, though I may need to adjust the webbing toward the back of the head to make certain the helmet doesn't fall forward quite so much (which was contributing to the binding on the bevor). I also want to get some help bending the chin of the visor out further as I was only able to make minor improvement, and that would help with the binding, too. Head Kaiden Gad pointed out that I still need metal elbow and knee cops, so I can make that a goal for next year. -
Class with Bryce. Stretch and requirements. 100 full circle cuts (me 150 with steel), and 2 minutes of continuous offensive defense shadow boxing. Etc.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through Green Braid requirements. 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), and 2 minutes of continuous offensive defense shadow boxing. Took a break and got on armor, then had 15 one on one matches.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch, relooked at Sword Salute, requirements, stance and movement, 100 cuts (me with steel), refined strikes, sequence building.
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Special combined Portland and Seattle class at my place with guest Kaiden Brennan, Bryce, and Patrick. Stretch and requirements, pairing Bryce and Patrick to go through a couple times plus spend additional time on cutting pattern and specific practiced moves while Brennan and I went through our requirements using steel. Refined strikes. Break to armor up, then 60 one-on-one matches and 5 multi-opponent matches.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and full through my requirements and his. A few extended rounds of Add-On. Break and then 100 full circle cuts with steel (me 2-handed). Finished up with a few rounds of unarmored parry (1, 2, and switch).
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Second day of the faire event. More steel and boken melees.
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I journed down to Redding for Kaiden Sal's publish exhibition event. There was a mix of steel and wood melees.
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Today I participated in the all-steel 2017 Best of the Best tournament. This year the rule was you may only use your primary style of study, which mine is the bastard sword (hand and a half-ish, roughly 40" overall). There were 13 competitors to start, though two had to drop out due to injury (giving and receiving). I placed 3rd, which is fine, but I'll have to strive for better next year.
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One on one with Sal today as I had made my way down to Redding. We discussed how the Redding Dojo was progressing and then went through our Silver Chain requirements using steel. Key points for myself were:
* remember the final two carotid draw cuts,
* make certain the sword and foot are in sync for Lightning,
* adjust my range accordingly to my uke retreat in Whispering Wind,
* use the new ending on kata ichi (after the two neck blocks, make an advanced thrust block before turning with right leg block and the final head block),
* use the adjusted ending to kata ni (after dragons tail, use the Illusion for the 180, i.e. the sword comes up and over the head/shoulder before thrusting, not around the side as I have done in the past),
* and recite the six traditions, three types of moves, and three rules of swordsmanship in that specific order. -
I journeyed to the Hayward Dojo and participated in the 2016 Best of the Best tournament. Top rankings went to Gad, Gemini and Vea, however I was awarded recognition for my exhibited skills and versatility.
In addition to the tournament steel matches, I did 20 or so boken matches with a few of the lower ranks, too.