Class with Bryce, Rakta Nadi, and Chris. Final class for 2021. Stretch, 50 continuous full circle cuts to warm up (myself steel), and requirements. Focus study on The I Move. Blind Man’s Boffer. Armored up and had 1-on-1 sparring.
Tag: steel
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Class with Chris (Bryce called out). Stretch and reviewed his requirements, then did some focus work on The I Move and The Tradition. After a break, we did a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, followed by 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself steel). We then donned helmet and gloves and did light armored one attack parry (akin to silent sword), followed by switch parry. Finished with a couple more times through Cutting Pattern 1.
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Class with Jesse B and Chris (Bryce and Rakta Nadi called out). Stretch and requirements, starting with me reviewing Jesse’s most recent five moves, then having Jesse and Chris go through requirements while I soloed some of mine and observed and interjected on theirs. We then took some time to do a focus session on Thorn. After a break, we did 150 continuous full circle cuts (me with steel) in increments of 50 as well as 25 CFCC with iron sword. Followed with one round of Refined Strikes, and finished with pumpkin cutting using blunted steel, first against a standing post, then against chunks tossed at us.
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Class with Chris. Stretch and once through his requirements. I then instructed him on The I Move as his first Straight Offense move. After a break, I took some time to go through some hand to hand basics (stance, movement, front punch, and front kick). Chris has a background in some hand to hand already, so it was mostly review, nuance, and discussing application in a sword fight context. We got in some Refined Strikes and 100 Continuous Full Circle cuts (mine steel).
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Class with Chris, both Bryce and Rakta Nadi called out for health reasons. Stretch and once through our respective requirements (Chris repeating his practiced moves as I got through all of mine). After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (me with steel), refined strikes, bokken sword dance aka one attack parry (quarter speed, no circle), and finished with Balance 1.
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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.
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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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Day two, we got up at a reasonable hour, Kaiden The Severer and I prepared breakfast, then we held a training session. Kaiden The Severer started us with Refined Strikes, then I covered one of my favorite mantras, basic stance and combat movement followed by 50 continuous full circle cuts, after which I had us do machine gun drill with head or neck attacks, and Kaiden The Severer finished up with (blunt) steel cutting of overgrown zucchini gourds (kindly provided by the farm).
After we wrapped up, all the gourd bits were collected and we fed them to the farm boar and met their ducklings before packing up and heading out.
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Kaiden The Severer set up our first PNW event. I drove up with Bryce, arriving at the event site with plenty of time to spare. Set up the sword wall and my personal camp, then got ready for the day of sparring. We had a number of bokken melee, followed by bokken one-on-ones, each attendee holding a circle where they faced the other competitors for three matches each. We took a break for some lunch and finished up bokken one-on-one circles, then did a series of melee scenarios. We had some 4v4 team matches, some 4v4 Royalty Protection matches, and some 3v5 and 5v3 VIP Escort matches. Last, I had 5 steel 1-on-1’s with Kaiden The Severer and with Fanaticus, and gave Amanda and extra 5 bokken matches so she could experiment with naginata (myself using 1 handed sword).
Participants were Kaiden The Severer, myself, Ross, Fanaticus, Christy, Bryce, Amanda, Patrick, and Chris.
Afterward, we took a dip in the nearby creek and had dinner prepared mostly by The Severer, Chris, and Amanda. As we sat around the camp fire, we had smores and played with some light sabers I brought.
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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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Still trying to whittle down some numbers, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Another lunch break set of 100 FCC and 25 gambit passes
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Worked in a lunch time double set, 200 FCC and 50 gambit
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Pumped out my third set today, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Getting in my second set for the day, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Another morning set, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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Getting in another set before bed, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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Starting the weekend off strong, morning set of 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Got in another set before bed, 100 FCC, 25 gambit
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First set directly after work, 100 FCC and 25 gambit passes
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Got in a second set this evening, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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Continuing to try to finish training workbook as strong as reasonable, 100 FCC and 25 gambit
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100 FCC, 25 gambit
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100 FCC, 25 gambit
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I attended and competed in the 2021 Best of the Best tournament today.
The new arm and leg protective gear that I have fashioned worked well, they did not hinder my movements that I could discern and protected me well enough, though the thighs need additional work (they were incompletely padded and the sports shorts I used have padding only in area targeted for their original intended sport).
My win to loss ratio was pretty standard for me, which is to say, not particularly improved despite all the additional training. I anticipate this will be an issue in my Silver Chain test. After two decades of fighting largely defensively, it is very difficult to change my patterns and responses, it will take a lot more work, and a lot more sparring.
In addition to my 38 tournament matches (19 opponents twice), I got in another 25 bokken matches afterword before I had to stop due to finger injury. Unfortunately, 20 of the matches (10 with Danny, 10 with James) are unlogged and captured on camera at extreme distance, so outcomes will be difficult to determine. The last (roughly) 5 with with Requiem and I had an up close camera for record.