Class with Miriam, Ben, and Derek. Stretch and then had Miriam and Ben do requirements while I worked with Derek, adding head, neck, and decap blocks. I reviewed Cutting Pattern 1 with Miriam and Ben, pointing out distancing and footwork. We then all did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1, a new move for Derek. After the break, we started with 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself two hand steel), then I had us do a short 2×3 Tabata set of Kneeling Advance and regular Burpees. I followed that with a four pass of running the length of the dojo to attack a pel, run to the other side and attack, and then run to the far side again. With finished out with a simple Balance 1 course and wrapped class with several minutes of seiza to just take some time for awareness, both of ourselves and our surroundings.
Tag: steel
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Class with Miriam and Ben. Stretch and I had them go through requirements together while I supervised and provided feedback. We then took time to work on Thorn and I Move more. After a break, we did continuous full circle cuts (myself with steel, and I added extra weight to the end of their bokkens to add momentum feedback), then a couple rounds of Advanced Response training. Following that was a round of Refined Strikes, and then we finished with a simpler course of Balance 1.
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Class with Jesse B, Ben, and Derek. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Derek, adding the rest of his cuts and thrust, then worked with Ben to refine his techniques, particularly his full circles and his neck blocks. I then reviewed The I Move with the class. After a break, we did combat movement followed by 100 continuous full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel). I then set up 4 pels in a small circle and we rotated around the outside making strikes against “the defenders”, and then I inverted it so the pels were the outer ring and we were rotating on the inside striking them. We finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, Miriam, Ben, and Derek started tonight. After the stretch, I paired Miriam with Bryce, Ben with Jesse, and I instructed Derek on Defensive Stance, Head Cut, and Neck Cut. I also took time to review Cutting Pattern 1 with each of Miriam and Ben. As a class, we did a study of The I Move again, a new move for Ben and Derek. After the break we had 33 one on one matches.
Conditions were intermittent rain torrents.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Miriam. Derek observed their second class. Stretch and requirements, and then a focus on Thorn again. After the break, Jesse and I had 5 bokken matches and 10 steel matches, then we left our armor on for the remainder (except helmet and mitts). We discussed some of the lessons observed in the sparring, then the class did 100 continuous full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel), then a few rounds of Refined Strikes.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, Risa, Chris, Miriam, and Ben. Derek observed his first class. Stretch and requirements. Paired the other four off while I worked with Miriam and Ben on the requirements format and improving their Cutting Pattern 1. Brought the class back together for a focus session on Thorn. After the break, we worked on stance and combat movement, Advanced Response Training, Pel Gambit, Machine Gun Drill (Head/Decap), and finished with 100 continuous full circle cuts (steel for Jesse and I).
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, Chris, Miriam, and Ben. Stretch and requirements. I paired Jesse with Ben to review basics and then teach Cutting Pattern 1 while I worked with Miriam to review her basics and add Decap Block and Leg Block. We all reviewed Jumping Tiger 2 (learned in case of Miriam and Ben). After the break, we did our 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel), machine gun drill for Neck target, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, Chris, and Ben. Stretch and requirements. Worked with Ben on improving current skills and added Decap and Leg blocks. Reviewed some of Chris’ technique. After requirements did a study session on Jumping Tiger 1. After the break, we did 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel), followed by several rounds of Refined Strikes (I worked with Ben some, then had him do the rest with a pel). We finished with a round of machine gun drill, doing just head attacks/blocks.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, Chris, Miriam, and Ben, last of this year. Only Bryce had to call out. Stretch and requirements. I moved about working with nearly all of the students at least a little. I reviewed Ben and added Leg Cuts. I reviewed Miriam and added Neck Blocks. I reviewed Cutting Pattern 3 with Jesse. Worked on a couple moves with Risa. As a class we continued to drill on Jumping Tiger 1, and those that have it, also Jumping Tiger 2. After the break, we each had a turn in Blind Man’s Boffer, then everyone took up steel for pumpkin cutting. I posted sugar pumpkins on a post and we took turns having at them, as well as a couple slightly larger white pumpkins, then the ranked students had a chance at cutting chunks that were lobbed at them.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, Miriam, and Ben. Stretch and requirements, placed Jesse and Bryce together while I worked with Miriam and Ben. Instructed Miriam on Head Block, and Ben on Decap Cut. After requirements, we all reviewed Jumping Tiger 1 some more. We got gear on during the break and Jesse, Bryce, and I had a total of 24 one on matches amongst us.
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Class with Jesse B, Bryce, and Miriam. Ben had their second observation. Stretch and requirements, paired Jesse and Bryce while I worked with Miriam. We reviewed her current techniques and I instructed her on Decap and Leg full circle cuts. I also worked with Jesse B on Cutting Pattern 3 more. We then all reviewed Jumping Tiger 1, including instructing Miriam on it. After the break, during which we geared up, we had a number of one-on-one matches, and then finished with three multi-opponent matches.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Miriam, starting her on 1-handed sword tonight, going over Defensive Stance and Full Circle Head and Neck cuts, and Bryce worked solo mostly, though I joined him for his cutting patterns and reviewed a few of his practiced moves. After the break, we did continuous full circle cuts (me 100 steel, bryce 100 bokken, miriam 50 bokken). Next we did Refined Strikes, Bryce with me and I had Miriam practice her few cuts with one of the pels. We did a couple rounds of Advanced Response training, and then finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Jesse B, Belladonna, Bryce, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements. I placed Bryce and Risa together, Chris with Jesse, and I reviewed Belladonna. We then did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1. After the break, during which I scattered bricks and sundry about the dojo for altered terrain for the enter second half of class, we started with 100 continuous full circle cuts (Jesse, Belladonna, and I with steel), then machine gun drill, first just head cuts, then just neck or leg cuts. We finished with an elimination round of Add-On with a max of 10 exchanges.
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Class with Bryce and Risa tonight, and Miriyam observed their second class. Stretch and had Bryce and Risa go through requirements while I reviewed mine solo. We then briefly touched on Cutting Pattern 2 review, and then did a study session on The Tradition. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel), refined strikes against the pels, then refined strikes with an uke, and finished with several rounds of Advanced Response training.
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Miriyam observed class. Stretch and had Jesse and Chris go through requirements, then took Chris aside and administered his Green Braid Evaluation. We then reviewed Thorn for a bit before taking a break. After the break, we had a total of 28 1-on-1 matches.
Conditions ranged from moist to hard rain throughout the class, though footing in the dojo was fine, it hasn’t been continuously wet enough to get overly soggy yet, plus the opened up main space provides a better quality hardpack.
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Class with Jesse B and Risa. Stretch, after which I reviewed each of their reqs up through cutting patterns, then paired them to go through practiced moves and kata while I observed. We did a study session on Double Thrust, focusing especially on the footwork and movement.
After the break, we started with 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel). We then then scattered the balance materials (bricks, cabers, smaller cinder blocks, and some trimmed tree trunks and large limbs) around the dojo space and spent a while doing “The Floor is Lava” (Balance 1), first with no bokken, then carrying the bokken, and then lastly we took turns so we could practice blocks and cuts. We finished with a three person variant of silent sword (I opted for boffer for this first time).
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Stretch and observed them going through their respective requirements together. Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. During the break, got our sparring gear on and then had 24 total matches (Jesse and I using steel, and I used my one hander for all matches).
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements (I paired Jesse with Chris, and I matched Risa on White Rope reqs). We then did a focus session on The Mantis. After the break, we did 100 full circle cuts (Jesse and I with steel) and then a couple rounds of advanced response training. We finished with dagger training, reviewing the critical targets and then doing Refined Strikes with daggers.
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Class with Jesse B, Risa, and Chris. Stretch and requirements (Risa with Chris, myself with Jesse). Continued drilling The Tradition some more, working to build up that reflex and muscle memory. After the break, we had a total of 34 one on one matches. Jesse and I sparred each other with steel. I alternated sets of two handed and one handed. The temperature was somewhere in the 80s, which made for hot sweaty sparring, still pretty reasonable for mid summer.
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Class with Jesse B and Chris. Stretch and requirements (they worked together while I reviewed mine solo with two handed steel). I reviewed the six deflections with Jesse and then we all did a focus session on The Tradition. After the break, we did 100 full circle cuts (myself two hand steel (and Jesse)) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. We set down our boken and worked a bit on a drill passing just by your opponent, relating it back to The Tradition (among other things). We returned to our boken and I paired off alternately with Jesse and Chris for several rounds of Silent Boken.
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Class with Chris. Stretch and we both did his Green Braid requirements, then reviewed both Thorn and The Tradition for a bit. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (myself two handed steel), a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, a few rounds of Advanced Response training, and finished with a couple rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Risa. Gabby and Alex observed and are very interested so far. Stretch and requirements, then a review of The Illusion. During the break we got in gear, then in the second half had 33 one-on-one matches total. I alternated between my two handed style versus sword and dagger (noted in logs with asterisk), and Jesse and I did steel with each other and boken with Bryce.
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Class with Risa. Stretch and our respective requirements (I did mine with sword and dagger). We then worked on Akira for a while. After a break, we 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself one handed steel), then some unarmored parry (aka switch parry), followed by unarmored initiative parry (i.e. like centered cuts in that the role switches if there is a pause in the attacks). Wrapped up with Advanced Response Training using shinai.
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Class with Risa. Stretch and once through our respective requirements (I used one handed for everything tonight). Took a break, then did continuous full circle cuts (myself 100 steel one handed while holding my steel dagger in off hand). Next we did a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, then a couple rounds of Add-On, and we finished with boffer parry (one attack, three attack, and switch variants).
I had to cancel the last couple classes due to schedule conflicts.
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Class with Risa and Chris.
I ruminated on the nature of martial training, and indeed many sports, how we push ourselves outside our comfort zone in order to discover our true limits, whether it be environmental (rain, snow, heat, cold), physical (thousands of strikes, nonstop battles), or other.
Stretch and requirements once through (myself full solo reqs with steel). Focus session on The I Move. Break. 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel). Advanced Response training, Refined Strikes, and finished with round robin limited target parry (we stood in a triangle and defended from one direction and then attacked the other direction, started with just head to get the flow, then added neck, and finished with any of head, neck, or decap).