Class with Bryce. Stretch and full through our respective requirements. Short study session on Jumping Tiger 2. After a break, we did our 100 continue cuts, both with steel (myself 2H), then a few passes at the pels with a focus on going fast though still enough control to not damage the pels. We did several sets of Advanced Response training, trading roles, and finished with reviewing kata’s ichi and ni with our steel, a couple times each.
Tag: wcos
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Class with Jesse and Bryce. Stretch, then we did a round robin three person requirements with one person demonstrating as the other two watched and provided a single point of feedback per section. After a break, we did 100 cuts (myself 2H steel), a few rounds of Add-On, and wrapped with a few rounds of Silent Bokken.
During the first half, I left the dojo lights off. At this season, the sun set just as class began, so it got progressively darker until it was just shy of full night as we completed requirements. The bats came out and were swooping around and between us, keeping the worst of the mosquitoes at bay and the night sounds took over.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements (I paired them and soloed my own). We did a study on The Mantis. After a break, we did our customer 100 continuous cuts (myself 2H steel), then spent more time working on The Mantis using pels for targets, after which we did a few rounds of Refined Strikes. I talked about katas and their purpose, and then gave us roughly 10 minutes to go off and each create our own kata of roughly 6 – 10 techniques on our own, after which we came back together and took turns demonstrating the kata, having the other two guess at the themes or lessons the kata is intended to work on, describe our intended lessons, and demonstrate one more time. We finished with a couple rounds of Add-On, me facing each of them once.
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Class with Jesse and Derek. Stretch and requirements review with Derek, then targeted review with Jesse on his sword + dagger reqs. As a class we did a focus session on Thorn, a new move for Derek. After a break, we did 100 continuous cuts (me and Jesse 2H steel), a few rounds of Refined Strikes, a few rounds of Advanced Response training, and wrapped up with a couple Add-Ons.
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Class with Jesse and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. As a class we did a focus session on Mantis. After the break, we got in 24 one on one matches. Jesse and I used steel for ours, and for me personally through out all of my matches I used variously my HNH two handed (2H), one handed (1H), sword + dagger (SD), or long sword (LS).
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Class with Kaiden Steelwind, Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Miriam a couple times through while Steelwind reviewed Bryce and Jesse’s respective white rope requirements, and then I worked with Steelwind on a few upper rank requirements (advanced blocks, cutting pattern 3, kata san).
After a break, we started with 100 continuous cuts (myself 2H steel) followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. Steelwind the led a posture/awareness drill, placing cups of water on our heads and then moving and -ultimately- cutting. Next I setup pels, first in standard zigzag pattern, then in an asterisk formation. We finished with some machinegun drill, first with any upper full circle attack, then with neck or leg full circles.
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I travelled to the San Francisco bay area for the 2026 Best of the Best (BotB) tournament, held at Arata Farm in Half Moon Bay. There were – including myself – 14 competitors this year. The weather was bright sunny, on the warm side. They ran two rings again in order to get through it quickly. I didn’t win, and I did not check my matches yet, but I estimate my average was around 50%.
Sadly, my camera overheated in the sun and shut off, so for the first time since 2009 I did not capture a full video record of the tournament.
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Class with Jesse and Bryce. Stretch and requirements. I started with Jesse, reviewing the cutting patterns and draw cuts. I then worked with Bryce, reviewing cutting patterns, the Samurai, and his 13th move, Defense Chop (which I took a note to review with Head Kaiden Gad next weekend at Best of the Best). As a class we did a study session on The Lightning, a new move for Bryce to bring him to 15 total. Jesse has 19 and still needs one more at some point.
After break, we did 100 full circle cuts with steel (myself 2H), followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes. I had us pick up boffers and do some multi-opponent drilling, putting one person in the middle between the two ukes/opponents which then took turns making a single attack that the middle person would block or evade and/or counter. The attacks were effectively non-stop, like the non-stop battle, keeping us moving and working on the flow of identifying and eliminating threats. I then moved three pels into an outer triangle with us three inside rotating non-stop through then gambit-style, first clockwise, then after a pause, we went again counter-clockwise. Finally I shifted the three pels in closer and we took turns being in the middle, making some 20 – 30 attacks amongst the three pels.
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Class with Jesse and Derek. Stretch and requirements. I reviewed Derek’s requirements, continuing to refresh his memory and refine his technique. With Jesse I reviewed a few items of his choice. As a class we did a focus session on The I Move, one of the moves Derek had previously learned but forgot.
After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (2H steel myself and Jesse), Refined Strikes, Advanced Response training, and finished with some Add-On.
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Class with Bryce and Derek. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Derek, welcoming him back after his extended break, reviewing what he remembered and then starting to fill in the gaps and make adjustments. I then paired him with Bryce and they went through their respective requirements while I soloed my own. He remembered learning Jumping Tiger 1, 2, and The Tradition, so we took some time to work on Thorn, either a new move for Derek or a refresher.
After a break, we did 100 cuts (I just used my 1H bokken, but got in 100 right handed and another 50 left handed). Followed with a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and then multi-opponent pel work.
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Class with just Kaiden Severer, unfortunately no other students made it for his visit. Stretch and we went through the Silver Chain requirements using our steel. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts, Refined Strikes, multi-opponent pel drills, and finished with some Silent Sword.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements once through. Focus session on The Tradition. After the break, we logged 40 matches total.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Focus session on The Mantis. After the break, 100 full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), refined strikes, advanced response training, and move builder.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective requirements in full. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (I just did bokken tonight), a study in combat movement, a couple rounds of Refined Strikes, a few rounds of Add-On, several rounds of Advanced Response training, and finished with unarmored parry (standard, switch parry).
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and our respective requirements (I solo’d while they worked together). Study session on Mantis followed by Tradition. After a break, we did 100 cuts (me 2H steel), did some focus work on stance and movement, a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective requirements. Took a little tangent into Myo Sim Kendo and went over the three basic drawing techniques and the blocks available with the up-draw/down-strike.
After a break during which we got into armor, we had 18 one-on-one matches. I did the first 9 two-handed, the second 9 one-handed.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and our respective full requirements. Took a break. Started second half with continuous full circle cuts (myself 200 steel 2H, 100 for Miriam). Did a study session on Thorn, then a few rounds of Refined Strikes applying Basic Cuts to focus on quality and differentiation. Next were several sets of Advanced Response Training, and we finished with a few rounds of Add-On.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Study session on The Tradition. After the break, we had a total of 50 1-on-1 sparring matches. I swapped around between 2H (HNH), 1H, and full 2H longsword to give them different styles of opponents.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Study session on Jumping Tiger 2. After the break, we did 100 continuous full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), refined strikes, dagger training and dagger refined strikes, advanced response training, and finished with unarmored parry.
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Class with Miriam. Stretch and full through our respective requirements. After a break, we got in 15 1-on-1 matches.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch and requirements. Worked with Bryce on his 13th move and The Samurai. Reviewed Miriam’s requirements. As a class we did a focus session on Jumping Tiger 2. After a break, we did 100 full circle cuts (2h steel for me), several sets of Refined Strikes, several passes of Advanced Response training, and finished with Balance 1 & 2.
Conditions: Medium rain and muddy.
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Class with Bryce and Miriam. Stretch, reviewed Miriam’s requirements, and worked with Bryce on his 13th move (“defense chop”) and a new move for him, The Samurai, which we adapted for his one hand style. We all reviewed The Mantis a bit and then took a break. In the second half we got in 30 one-on-one matches total.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. First class of 2026, stretch followed by requirements. I reviewed each student as well as going through all of my own requirements with Jesse. For each of them, we discussed what requirements they are lacking for their next rank and what we need to be working on with them over the next 3 – 6 months. During the break, we reviewed some of the various rank requirements. In particular, Miriam needs more matches, Bryce needs matches, dagger throwing, dodging 2, and a couple more moves, and Jesse needs one more move and his 20 minute non-stop. The first half ran long, so in the second half we only got in 100 full circle cuts (myself 2H steel), a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and one round of unarmored switch parry for each of them.
Temp was around 40 degrees and not raining.
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Class with Jesse, Bryce, and Miriam. Stretch and requirements, then a review of The Mantis. After the break, we did 100 cuts (myself 2H steel), several rounds of Adv Response Training, and finished with a few rounds of Blind Man’s Boffer, the final set being with 2 lives.
This concludes 2025 classes, they will resume early 2026.
