Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie, Joe called out. Stretch and requirements once through, plus a focus session on movement. After the break, we had one on one matches totaling 38 matches.
Tag: wcos
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Class with Hiroko. I took this class to go over the Western Circle of Swordfighter’s basic cuts and blocks in order to contrast them with the Myo Sim Kendo cuts and blocks. I covered all basic full circle cuts (head, neck, decap, leg), basic thrust, and the corresponding blocks.
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Special session at the Redding Dojo so that Head Kaiden Gad may observe the dojo. Class with Gad, Sal, Chris, Nate, Joe and Charlie. Stretch and requirements, followed by a focus session on Thorn, with particular attention to good clean movement and full pull-back and thrust. After a break, we rotated through several partners for Refined Strikes, then did Evasion, and finished with several rounds of the parry variation with attacker/defender/watcher.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, and Charlie. Stretch and requirements once through, then a focus session on The Mantis, discussing the finer points of distance, timing, cut control, and movement. After a break, during which Sal and I both tested our new steel with cutting pattern 1, we rotated through four partners for refined strikes (plus watched one round), then against rotated through three rounds of light closed parry (i.e. attacker calling “switch”). We finished with a round robin of machinegun drill with head or neck target.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Joe called out. Stretch and 100 cuts (with steel), then requirements twice through ( I reviewed Sal and Chris). After a break, we had 24 one-on-ones, 5 multi-opponent matches for Sal, and 3 mini-melees (last man standing).
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Joe called out ill. Stretch, followed by a focus session on Jumping Tiger 1, including a discussion on the advanced wrapping technique and its benefits and pitfalls. Requirements once through (myself with Charlie), then a change of partners and repeat of 10 practiced moves (myself with Chris). After a break, we rotated through each partner for Refined Strikes, then did sanbon (three-attack parry with counter) with the attacker making any high attack, and finished with some specific attack patterns that the defender had to work with and find an appropriate response to (Mantis, Illusion/Double-Chop, and leg/leg/head/decap).
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Class with Sal and Chris. I reviewed their requirements with each of them individually, then after a break they had 25 matches between the two of them (I only marshaled due to a healing injury).
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Requirements twice through (I worked with Chris, then Charlie). During the break, I set up balance 1 and 2, which we went through for a while, then rotated partners for Refined Strikes and finished with my new variable partner Parry drill.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Joe. Stretch and once through requirements (Sal/Chris and Joe/me). Break to armor up, then 53 one-on-one matches using a best of 5 format (three ai uchi forcing tie breakers).
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Stretch and requirements twice through. After a break, we did some awareness/reaction training with a small circle tossing a ball, first allowing to focus on each other, then just using peripheral as we focused on the center of the circle. Next we did several rounds of Refined Strikes with multiple partners and I ended with the multi-opponent parry drill (defender/attacker/watcher), which half way through I introduced a new twist where the watcher can attack either the current attacker or defender by calling out their name, so that the order changes up and theres another level of awareness added.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie (Chris and Charlie were late). Requirements once through, a break during which we got into armor, and then 47 one on one matches between Sal, Chris and I using a “Best of 3” format for circle ownership (two ai-uchis, Charlie logged due to personal injury).
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Class with Sal and Chris (late). It had snowed, leaving a centimeter or so on the ground and it was still quite cold and with a couple intermittent spates of rain. Quick stretch and requirements with Sal, then worked with Chris on cutting patterns, several moves and kata ich. After a break, we did my new rotational parry both directions, then tried it with daggers and finally had several rounds of unarmored dagger sparring.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Joe called out. Stretch and requirements once through (Sal with Charlie, Chris and I). Break and armored, then 33 one on one matches total.
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First class of 2011 with Sal, Chris, and Charlie. Jesse has moved south. I postponed class an hour tonight due to conflicting schedules, and as the first class in a month, I kept it relatively low key. We went through requirements a couple times, and I pointed out a few things from my training with Brennan. I ended with a parry variation where there is a defender, an attacker, and a watcher. The watcher calls “switch” and then begins attacking the previous aggressor, causing all three roles to shift. Since we had four people, I put one on the thrust rings initially. After a few rotations, I added the fourth as a second watcher and had us switching off more rapidly.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate and Charlie. Joe and Jesse called out. Charlie had the best attendance percent for the year at 88% (30 of 34 possible classes), while Sal came in second at 85% and had the highest attendance total of 41 of the total 48 classes held this year. After a stretch, we did 100 cuts, then I went over The Mantis (new to Charlie and Nate). Once through requirements and then a break. After the break, I instructed on Gad’s Sword Disarming Move and we rotated through all the possible partners to practice it. Next we took up steel and did 50 full circle cuts with the steel to contrast with boken. Following was a balance contest on a 6″ square caber with Sal as victor, and last a leaping contest with Nate as victor.
This concludes the 2010 season. The dojo will be closed for three or four weeks. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, Charlie and Jesse. Joe called out. Stretch and requirements twice through with different partners. I worked with Charlie and Chris. After a break, we had one on one sparring followed by three melees. Jesse got his first 13 sparring matches tonight from myself, Sal and Charlie.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Joe, Charlie and Jesse. Requirements twice through. I did focus sessions with Jesse (including teaching the I Move), and Joe. After a break, we had three circles of unarmored 3, 4, and 5 attack parry, the focus being attack combinations and good cuts, blocks and control. Initially I did armored (open) parry with Jesse, then we joined the rotations of partners. After the parry, we did a machinegun drill where each attacker made two attacks of any kind they have been instructed on.
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Class with Sal, Nate, Charlie, Joe, and Jesse. 100 full circle cuts, then requirements a couple (or few) times through with alternate partners for everyone but Sal. I worked with Sal separately reviewing his requirements and adding kata ni. During a break, I did unarmored parry with Jesse, then after the break we had a total of 29 one on one matches (with Jesse logging).
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, Joe and Jesse. While in seiza, spoke about yielding vs not yielding. Stretch and 100 (+20) full circle cuts (boken), then requirements twice through for most of the students. I worked with Jesse, giving him The Illusion and reviewing his progress, as well as working with Nate on basic cuts and briefly with Chris.
After the break, we had Balance 1 and 2, and then we did elevated Cutting Pattern 1, followed by some elevated practiced moves of each students choice from among their repertoire. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie and Jesse. During seiza, I talked about judging appropriate contact levels for combat, when and where to use light, medium and full contact, and I quized them on target areas for different levels. We went through requirements once, then I re-paired them for once more through cutting pattern 1 and seven moves of their choice. After the break, we had 32 one-on-one matches, using a best-of-three format (two ai uchis).
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, Charlie and Jesse. I paired the other students by rank and worked with Jesse, reviewing his basic cuts and blocks, and then instructing him on thrust and thrust block. I then paired Jesse with Charlie, Nate with Chris, and reviewed Sal’s White Rope requirements.
After a break, we had sparring with 33 one-on-one matches and three five-fighter melees, the last in semi-dark (one light). -
Second day at Arata, with 7 steel fighters and 1 steel choreographer (Sal, green braid). Two sets of 15 rounds.Weather today included bouts of light right, making for light mud in the arena.