Special class held by Head Kaiden Gad at the new Hayward Dojo after the first day of the dojo build. I was paired with Kaiden Bone Finder for requirements, during which Gad made a few notes to me to bring back to my class.The leg target has moved back to the knee, rather than mid-thigh, as it is the optimal target to train to hit automatically. Dragons Tail should be practiced as a Straight Office move with the uke/partner making no movement at all. He also said I should make certain my students let me know when they complete their requirements so I may explicitly assign their next training task.
After the break, we worked on evasion. Gad, Bone Finder and I were assigned sections of the dojo and had the other students come in one at a time to face us as we made a series of cuts, with them evading to the best of the ability and only blocking if absolutely necessary.
Tag: wcos
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Class with Sal, Steven, Ferocitas, Elijah, Jesse, Antonio, Mary Ann. Ryan observed his second class. Stretch and requirements, including a group focus session on The Tradition. After the break, we did refined strikes, advanced training, and finished with blind mans boffer.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, Elijah, Jesse, Antonio and Mary Ann. Ryan observed his first class, and Antonio came early to work on making his first bokken (he has been using his own store-bought katana bokken). Stretch, and then a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1, after which we started on requirements. I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, reviewing their requirements, including instructing Mary Ann on The Tradition.
After the break, we had 33 one on one matches and 3 melees (of six fighters). -
Class with Sal, Steven, Elijah, Jesse B, and Antonio. Stretch and paired off, myself with Antonio, Sal with Jesse B, and Steven with Elijah. I reviewed Antonio’s progress and instructed him on adding the three types and six traditions to his requirements, and then finished by instructing him on The Tradition.
After the break, we had Balance 1 and 2+, which was a difficult Student’s Challenge course. I initiated t with two of the 6×6 square cabers elevated and end to end slashing across the dojo, then told them to build the rest. I made it through the first time, and was ultimately the first to make two consecutive passes, of which only Steven finally managed near the end, too. I then took up guardianship of the elevated cabers and every student that made it to the cabers faced me in light, controlled, unarmored sparring on the cabers. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Elijah, Antonio and Mary Ann. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Steven and Joshua, instructing on chop cuts, then worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, reviewing Jumping Tiger 1 and Thrust Block. After the break, we had one on one matches totaling 31.
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Class with Sal, Joshua and Ferocitas. Stretch and requirements the first half (Sal with Joshua, myself with Ferocitas). During the break I spoke with Ferocitas and Joshua separately regarding their paths post-white rope test. After the break, we worked on multi-opponent defense, rotating each of us through the center position with the other tree arrayed around them. We started with just head cuts/blocks and verbally announcing our attack, then moved to just a natural sound to initiate our attack (scuff, sniff, etc). We ended with natural sound and neck or leg attack. To finish class, we did 200 full circle cuts (wood).
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Class with Sal, Steven, Jesse A (Ferocitas), Jesse B, Antonio and Mary Ann. Elijah observed due to injury. Stretch followed by some frog burpies (one pass was a large forward leap, two pushups, the other pass was a large forward leap and lat twist and extend both sides). Requirements, with myself working with Antonio and Mary Ann to review their progress and add their first move, Jumping Tiger 1.
After the break, we had 44 one on one matches, including steel for Sal and I. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Jesse B, Antonio, and Mary Ann. Requirements the first half (I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio). Second half had three stations: cutting and thrust gamut, cutting pattern 1, and balance 1+. We rotated through a full rotation, then finished with 100 full circle cuts.
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Day Two of the sword fighting exhibition went much better. The weather was mostly overcast which cut the sun and temperature a lot. Kaiden Brennan had left Saturday evening, but Joshua was able to join us. We had a good morning and afternoon set of steel melees, followed by bokken, followed by a few more steel. Generally, everyone seemed to agree it had been a good event and weekend.
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Today was the first day of the Ravenswood Faire at Hawes Farm in Anderson, CA, which I arranged for the Western Circle to provide a sword fighting exhibition in the style of previous Arata Farms events. I could and should have been better prepared. It was very windy so we were unable to erect the canvas walls for the blind nor the awning to cut some of the copious Redding sun, and the fighting arena was not actually ready when we arrived, nor anyone in charge available. None the less, we got the hay bales arranged and started the fighting, running a set of steel melees, some wood, and a few final steel matches for the crowd that had gathered. Brennan, Dave and Faith had come in the day prior, and most of the Redding students were present. After the first set, Head Kaiden Gad arrived with Vea, Steel Wind, and Kris, bolstering our steel numbers to 8 (with Sal and myself) for the afternoon sets of melees, and for the bokken melees we had Steven, Jesse A, Jesse B, Elijah, and Chris join us. Faith, Sabrina, Mary Ann and Antonio helped out with logging, video, cameras, and crowd management.
After the exhibition, we returned to the Redding Dojo for a feast and to recoup. -
Class with Sal, Steven, Jesse A, Sabrina, Chris, Elijah, Jesse B, Antonio and Mary Ann. Stretch and requirements. I instructed Mary Ann and Antonio on thrust and all their basic blocks, reviewed Sabrina’s cuts and blocks, and then taught Cutting Pattern 1 to Mary Ann and Antonio. After the break, we had 58 one on one matches (with a focus on getting Jesse his remaining matches for his White Rope requirements) and 3 melees.
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Special session of one on one sparring at Sal’s house in order to get Joshua and Jesse A more battles.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, Sabrina, Elijah, Jesse B, Mary Ann and Antonio. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Mary Ann and Antonio, going through the six traditions, the three rules of swordsmanship, and all basic full circle cuts. After the break, we worked on stance and battle movement, finishing with an uncounted number of full circle cuts, then had balance 1 and 2.
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Class with Sal, Jesse A, Elijah, Jesse B, and Mary Ann. Antonio observed his second class. Stretch and then I worked with Mary Ann on stance and head, neck and decap cuts while the others went through their requirements. After the break, we armored up and had one on one sparring.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Chris, and Jesse B. Elijah was ill and observed, Mary Ann observed her second class, and Anthony observed his first class. Requirements once through and a break. After the break, we did five rounds of refined strikes, then advanced response training, and finished with Balance 1 and 2.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jessa A, Elijah, and Jesse B. Mary Ann observed her first class tonight, and Sabrina observed as well. Stretch and requirements, then a break. After the break, we had 61 one on one matches.
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I traveled to the Northern Reaches dojo in Gardnerville with four of my students for the 2013 Snow Event. There were 9 regular melees and 3 scenario melees, totaling 18 matches for myself with 4 melee wins. This was followed by additional 1 on 1 matches in the snow, of which I had 15. Back at the dojo that evening, a few had 18 more one on ones which I marshaled.
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Class with Steven, Joshua, Jesse A, Chris, Jesse B, Elijah (and Sal observed due to injury). Requirements in the first half, and I instructed Jesse B on Mantis. In the second half, we started with a few rotations of Refined Strikes, and then moved to a combination of machinegun drill (head/neck/decap) and gamut. The attackers rotated through attacking the defender and then three attacks on the gamut, and additionally the defender wore weights on their ankles to hinder movement, the focus being on defense without evasion (a la sandy or snowy terrain).
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Class with Steven, Joshua, Jesse A, Chris, and Elijah. Requirements during the first half (I worked with Chris), and then we had 43 one-on-one matches and 1 melee.
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I got the dojo ready but was unable to lead class, handing that off to Sal. No class next week at all due to my schedule conflict and Sal will be unavailable.
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Class with Joshua, Jesse A, Elijah, and Jesse B. Evan observed his first class. Stretch and requirements once through, then I reviewed the Tradition. During the break, we armored up and the second half we had 54 one on one sparring matches.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jesse A, Elijah, and Jesse B. Stretch and requirements once through. During the break, I setup four stations: thrust practice (hanging rings and a hay bale), two stations of Cutting Pattern 1 on square cabers, and a balance station of four round cabers in a square. We rotated through, one to the thrust practice and two to each other station. After, we finished with a full rotation of Refined Strikes.
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Class with Sal, Steven, Joshua, Jesse A, Elijah, and Jesse B. Stretch and requirements once through, plus I worked with Elijah and Jesse B a little once they finished their requirements. After the break, we had one on one sparring totaling 57 matches (Sal and mine were steel).
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Class with Sal, Joshua, Steven, Chris, Jesse A, and Jesse B. First class of 2013, started with a stretch and requirements. After requirements, we reviewed Thorn, then took a break. After the break, we started with 100 full circle cuts (wood), then did machinegun drill for head or neck, and finished with a two-defender/bi-polar non-stop machinegun drill for head, neck or decap.