Class with Bryce. Quick stretch and once through on his requirements, then we geared up and had a total of 30 one-on-one matches (for me, 15 one-handed, 15 two-handed).
Tag: sword
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Class with Bryce. First class of 2018, we did a stretch and went through all of our respective requirements (green braid for him, silver chain for myself). He was gifted a blunted steel sword which I examined. The quality and feel appears good, though I cautioned it is a bit early in his training to be thinking much about steel. For continous full circle cuts it may however prove useful though I also cautioned to be aware of wrist strain and not overdue it due to possible injury (that being much more common with one handers). We then did unarmored parry, starting with 1-attack, then 3-attack, then Switch. We finished up with a couple rounds of add-on, making it several techniques each in before reaching an impasse.
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Class with Bryce. After class opening, I had us get into our full protective gear immediately, then we went through Bryce's Green Braid requirements (myself doing them, too). Afterward, we did 30 one-on-one matches. First 10 I did one handed and we used the complete near-halfcourt basketball space. The second 10 I went two handed and narrowed it to the key plus one side. The final 10 I went back to one handed and we did just the one side (no key). Stepping out of the boundaries were death for all of this.
This concludes the 2017 class year, we'll be in break until mid-January as holidays, vacations, etc proved last year that it wasn't worth trying to schedule a class here or there.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his requirements. I forgot he didn't have torso protection, so we just donned helmet, shins and gloves and did a lot of armored parry (1 attack, 3 attack, switch, and ended with one round of open parry).
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and our respective requirements in full. Advanced response training, Three-attack and four-attack light armor parry.
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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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Class with Bryce and Sarah. Stretch and requirements. With sarah, went over defensive stance and the head and neck basic cuts and blocks. Light armored parry with Bryce. Balance 1 & 2.
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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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Class with Bryce. He has completed his first boken, finally attaching the pommel and wrapping the hilt. It has a couple inches on the loaner I had provided him initially, so there may be a small adjustment period. Stretch and once through his requirements. Refined strikes a few times each to work on getting him used to his new boken. 100 full cirlce cuts with dominant hand, 50 more with off hand. Several rounds of Add-On, with a five-attack limit (i.e. aggressor gets three including final blow, defender gets two). We each designed one combo and tried them out. Put on helmet and mitts and did some light armored 1 attack parry, spent some time on a tangent about alternatives to backing straight away from an opponent, and finished with some light armored 3 attack parry (me with the longsword).
I did everything with my returned one hander tonight except where noted.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and both our requirements. A few rounds of Refined Strikes. Took a short break and put on helmet and gloves, then did parry. Started with me using one hander and shield to give Bryce an idea of what its like to face shield, then switched so he had the shield and I was just with a one hander. Both sets we did 1-attack parry, 3-attack parry, and Switch parry. Put away the shield and finished with 3-attack parry and Open parry, him with his one hander and me with my two hander (bastard sword).
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and then once through our requirements (his green braid and my silver chain, so he repeated his practiced moves a few times). A couple rounds of Add-On and once each of Refined Strikes. Setup for Balance 1+ and worked that for a while.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and reviewed his requirements. Instructed him on Jumping Tiger 2 and Dragons Tail to bring him up to 7 total practiced moves. Switched over to a full session of hand-to-hand training. Hit him with the knowledge firehose, going over Shotokan Karate technique; front stance, front lunge punch, reverse punch, jab, front snap kick, side thrust kick, low block, inside block, outside block, rising block. Went over a few common escapes, as well as falling and forward rolling (including with sword in hand). Finished up with a while doing light hand to hand sparring with just mitts, and a quick review of the sword disarming technique.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch, reviewed his requirements, 100 full circle cuts (boken), a few rounds of add-on, sparred 15 matches (started one handed but broke my boken around 5th match so finished with two handed).
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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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Class with Bryce. Stretch and once through his Green Braid requirements, with me doing them, too. Several rounds of Advanced Response training. 100 full circle cuts (boken). A couple rounds of Refined Strikes. A bit of 1-attack, 3-attack, and Switch Parry.
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Class with Bryce. Stretch and a couple times through his requirements. A couple rounds of Refined Strikes. 100 full circle cuts (boken). 20 one-on-one matches (me two handed).
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No students, no class. Did a little bit of personal training, 100 full circle cuts (boken) and going through katas ich, ni and san.