Attended Brent's class, Indes Western Martial Arts. Basic cardio warm up followed Brent taking myself and a couple other new folks through some basic stance and movement work. We then did a partner movement drill, named "the ear game" because you're trying to reposition to either side of your opponent, practincing lateral movement and distancing. Boston then took us new folks over the basic X or "infinite" cut (similar to WCoS neck cut, but shorter, coming from the shoulder, and less snap so as to lead with a more guarded hand position). They use steel straight away for much of their drilling, so I was using my 40" overall bastard sword most of the night, starting with this cutting. We then moved into another partner drill where you maintain blade contact with your opponents weapon and attempt to manuever to achieve and keep the line on your opponent.
Brent then introduced the night's primary lesson, the montague. The move involves countering your opponents direct line on your face by rotating your sword CW as you deflect left slightly, keeping your tip up enough to maintain engagement and control of your opponents blade, then rotate or lever the blade down to catch your opponent's blade in your back guard and drop your point into a thrust to either the mid section or the upper leg (inner thigh, I should think).
After practicing the move for a while, the class seperated into those that were geared for full sparring and those of us that weren't where we continued with the contact drill.
Tag: steel
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One on one review of requirements with Brennan (99% steel) this morning. We each had notes and thoughts for the other. His notes directly related to my techniques were:
- On battle stance, make certain to keep the hind elbow up.
- The draw cuts should be performed without bending the torso, particularly the vertical ones, instead using the legs, shoulders and arms.
- Expert blocks (instead of Advanced) include the vertical head blocks as well as two new augmented lower leg blocks (performed by putting the blade tip to the ground – I have some reservations about these and will have to inquire further).
- In the deflections, the 7th and 8th are a jodan flat slap (rather than edge on sweep I had been doing). pointed out a few things for me.
- I need to work on my cutting pattern 4 to cement the pattern and be able to teach it to others.
- The Tradition is now taught with an included clearing sweep/cut when rotating to face opponent at the end (which I had been aware of, and he recommended modifying my older technique to add it).
- I need to improve Kata Ni to be more crisp and concise.
- The opening Akira for Kata San uses two cross steps rather than a shuffle-and-cross-step, and then is followed by simply rotating on the lead (right) foot instead of having to do the stance shift I've been doing.
It was a good session and there were many more things that we discussed in general. I also got a chance to meet his student Patrick last night.
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Second day of the Ravenswood event. For the morning session we started with 15 steel melees and then held 10 bokken melees. For the afternoon, we were down some steel fighters so we began with round-robinned best-of-three steel duals and then held a number of bokken melees, most of them being team scenarios.
Afterward we packed everything back up, including Steven, Elijah and John (from Nevada dojo) helping to load and return the straw bales. -
First day of my Ravenswood Coliseum event. Yesterday Elijah and Michael helped me pick up straw bales from a local rancher and setup our arena, and Sal brought his new structure for our enclosure. We didn’t have enough steel fighters for melees in the morning, so Kaiden David, Ryan E.B. and I round-robinned some steel best-of-three duals and then we moved to bokken melees to include the rest of the present fighters. The afternoon melees included the additional fighters from the bay area, so we started with 10 steel melees, then followed with 10 bokken melees. In the evening, I hosted a feast at my mother’s house.
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I attended the Best of the Best 2014 tournament today, taking 3rd out of the eight competitors present (Steel Wind, Brennan, myself, Kris, David, Sal, Patrick, and Blight, plus Gad fought but was not competing).
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Final class at the current Redding Dojo location, attended by Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, and Dalton. Stretch and requirements, myself with Sal. After a break, we started with three circuits through the gamut and doing kneeling advance down the dojo and back, then 200 full circle cuts (Sal and I did 100 iron sword, 100 steel, and I had Steven do 100 steel, the other 100 bokken). While catching our breath, we did a couple lengths of forward cross-steps in stance and a couple lengths backward cross-steps in stance, then a few minutes of moving around the dojo in stance. Next I setup balance 1 and 2, and we finished with a full round of Blind Man’s Boffer.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Elijah, Dalton, Caleb, and Michael. Stretch and requirements. I instructed Caleb and Michael on The Tradition, and then after requirements did a review of the Tradition with the whole class. After the break, we had one on one sparring and a single melee.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Dalton, and Caleb. Michael observed due to injury. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Caleb, reviewing everything he knows and adding the I move. Before the break, I did a review/focus session with the whole class on I move.
During the break, I did unarmored parry with Caleb before we all got into armor.
After the break, we had one on one matches, and I also did armored parry with Caleb. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Elijah, Dalton, Michael and Caleb. Stretch and requirements. I supervised Michael and Caleb as they went through requirements.
After the break, we had 46 one on one matches. -
Class with Sal, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Michael, Caleb and Nick. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Nick instructing on blocks for head, neck and decap, and with Caleb instructing on blocks for head, neck, decap and leg. After the break, we had 38 one on one sparring matches.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Michael, and Nick. Caleb observed due to injury. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Nick, reviewing his cutting and adding thrust. I also moved through the class checking in with a few other students.
After a break, we started with 100 full circle cuts (Sal and I with steel), then I reviewed some forearm and grip strengthening exercises (waggling the sword in various directions and positions), followed by a gauntlet (static bokken first, then slow attack speed bokken). We finished with a final 100 full circle cuts (Sal and I steel again) including the gauntlet guides as altered terrain. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, and Dalton. Michael observed due to personal injury. Nick and Sarah also observed. Stretch and requirements in the first half. Initially Sal and I paired while the other four paired, and then I reviewed Dalton with an eye to his Green Braid.
After the break, we had one on one matches. It was still quite hot, so I set a max of 6 battles per fighter (i.e. two opponents). -
Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Michael and Caleb. Stretch and requirements. I covered defensive stance and head and neck full circle cuts with Caleb. After the break, we had one on one sparring.
I discussed class times with the students and will be moving to a 7:30 start time for the remainder of the summer, at least.
Conditions: Temperature was reported as 102 as class was starting.
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Second day of the coliseum event, hosted by me, held at the Ravenswood Faire in Weaverville. First bout with 7 steel melee and 7 wood melee. Steven got to join as a choreographed fighter in the steel. Second bout with 5 steel melee and 5 wood melee. Third bout with 5 steel melee and 5 wood melee.
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First day of the coliseum event, hosted by me, held at the Ravenswood Faire in Weaverville. First bout with 5 steel melee, 5 wood melee, and 5 more steel melee. Steven got to join as a choreographed fighter in the steel. Second bout with 5 steel melee and 5 wood melee. Ferocitas got to join as a choreographed fighter in the steel. Third bout with 5 steel melee and 5 wood melee.
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Class with Sal, Elijah, Dalton, Ryan, Michael, and Jessi. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Jessi, covering all full circle cuts and basic thrust plus head, neck and decap blocks. After the break, we had light contact 1 on 1 matches.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Ferocitas, Dalton, Ryan and Michael. Jessi and Seannah both observed their second consecutive class. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, covering the rest of his blocks and how to go through his full set of requirements. I also touched bases with Sal and Ryan on one handed decap blocks. I finished the first half with a review of Thorn (a new move for Michael). After the break, we had one on one matches and a single melee. I had Steven marshal for the night. Conditions were quite muddy, but no rain during class.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, and Michael. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Michael, covering decap and leg cuts, reviewed The Lightning with Sal, Steven, and Joshua and then worked with Steven and Joshua on Kata Ni (a first for Joshua). After the break, we had 38 one on ones.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton, Mike, and Ferocitas showed up for the second half. Stretch and requirements for the first half. I instructed Mike on defensive stance and full circle head and neck cuts. The second half we had one on one sparring and a couple melees.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah and Dalton. Mike observed class. Stretch and requirements. After the break we had one on one sparring. There was a bit of mud, but everyone handled it pretty well.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Dalton and Ryan. Stretch, some warmup jogging (temp in the 40’s), and requirements. I supervised Dalton and Ryan on their requirements, then finished with the whole class reviewing a few tips on The Tradition.
After the break, we took a short jog up the road and back, about a half mile, then did 100 full circle cuts. We then followed with several rounds of Refined Strikes and finished with machinegun drill for head or neck.