Class with Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Sal, Charlie and Chris all called out. Stretch and requirements three times through, rotating each of the students through a session with me. After a break, we did Balance 1 and 2 for a while, then moved to rotating stations of full circle cuts, Refined Strikes, and thrust ring practice, completing two circuits (total of 150 full circle cuts for me).
Tag: wcos
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I worked with Gad and Vea today on requirements. Gad reviewed both Vea and myself for our upcoming intended Crimson Chain test. It was also an opportunity for me to check a few things with Gad regarding left-handed vs right-handed students, and some technique questions. In total, we reviewed my Steel Red Rope requirements, Boken (one-handed) White Rope requirements (for the Complete Blade), and Boken (two-handed) Crimson Chain requirements.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. After the stretch, I instructed on the updated Dragon’s Tail, then paired people off for requirements. I initially worked with Sal, instructing him on Cutting Pattern 3, then with Charlie instructing him on Cutting Pattern 2, after which I paired them together for requirements while I walked the class. After a break, we got into armor and had one on one sparring for all students. Steven, Joshua and Jesse each had three matches with me, followed by three with Sal. Sal, Chris and I filled in matches between while the loaner armor was exchanged.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements a couple times through. I worked with Charlie, instructing him on his first two chop cuts and the advanced thrust, and I worked with Steven, instructing him on Double Thrust.
After the break, we did light armored parry. I started with Sal, going over what I wanted from him, then split us to take pair once with each of the other students, with me taking the three newer students prior to passing them over to Sal. We finished with some machinegun drill using any head, neck, or decap cut.
After the main class, Sal and I took up our steel and reviewed five of his practiced moves and then went through cutting pattern 1 a couple times. -
Class with Sal, Charlie, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Steven going through all his requirements, then did unarmored parry with Steven, Joshua and Jesse, each. After a break, Sal and I did armored steel parry, then Sal, Charlie and I had 24 one on one matches and a final last man standing match for the three of us.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements. I went through Sal’s requirements first, then Joshua, then Jesse, and then instructed Steven, Joshua and Jesse on The Tradition. After a break, I started with dagger and knife training, talking about the differences between them as well as how weapons are everywhere, they don’t have to have a blade, and moving on to targets and how to approach them. We completed the section with dagger refined strikes, then moved back to boken for refined strikes and finished class with machine gun drill with any head, neck or decap attack. Everyone cycled through as defender, and then Sal and I had one further stint making counter attacks after the defense.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Joshua and Jesse. While in seiza, briefly spoke about how you generally do not get to choose when or where to fight, so the best you can do is prepare for any circumstance. I went over The Mantis (new for Steven, Joshua, and Jesse) and we went through requirements a couple times.
After the break, Sal and I did armored steel parry, then Sal, Chris, Charlie and I had one on one boken matches. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Steven, Joshua and Jesse. Seiza and stretch. Paired Chris and Joshua, Charlie and Jesse, myself with Steven and Sal on his own initially, then put Steven with Sal and swapped Joshua and Jesse while I did my own requirements.
Near the end of the break, Sal and I did some steel cutting patterns 1 and 2, then the class did 200 full circle cuts (myself and sal with our iron swords), followed by a few rounds of Refined Strikes, and we finished with machine gun drill with just head cuts/blocks. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements. Initially Chris and Charlie with Sal supervising while I worked with Joshua and Jesse. I then moved Joshua over to Charlie, Chris with Sal, and I continued with Jesse. After a break, Sal and I did some steel requirements (cuts, blocks, cutting patterns), then we had one-on-one boken matches for the remainder of class.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Joshua and Jesse. Stretch and requirements, Sal supervising Chris and Charlie while I worked with Joshua and Jesse reviewing what they have learned and discussing the six traditions. At the end of the break, I reviewed Sal in steel, going through cuts, blocks and cutting patterns. In the second half, we did five sets of continuous full circle cuts, passing the iron sword to each student for one of the sets while Sal and I traded his back and forth. 300 boken and 100 iron sword for myself and Sal, 400 boken and 30 – 50 iron sword for the others. We finished with a round of Blind Man’s Boffer.
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Sal, Sabrina and I traveled to the Half Moon Bay dojo today and I had my 20 minutes non-stop battle with six opponents (Sabrina, Beth, Sal, Vea, Blight, and Gad). Risa logged and a friend of Blight recorded the video. By initial tally, there were just short of 250 opponents, with my win ratio about 20%. It was exhausting, but I stuck to my preferred two handed sword. Truly the worst part was simply being unable to hold my arms out or make an effective and timely swing, the rest of my body was more or less able to continue.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Steven, and Joshua. Jesse observed his second consecutive. Stretch and requirements. I paired Chris and Steven, Sal on his own but assisting them if needed, and I instructed Joshua on stance and head and neck cuts and blocks. I also instructed Steven on Thorn after reviewing his progress. After a break, we had 25 matches of one on ones (Sal, Chris and I) as well as Sal’s final 5 blind matches (with shinai).
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie and Steven. Stretch and requirements. I worked with Steven, reviewing his basic cuts and blocks, cutting pattern 1, and instructed him on his first practiced move, Jumping Tiger 1. I also reviewed Sal’s Kata Ni. After a break, we cycled twice through a three station drill loop: refined strikes, cutting pattern 1 on a beam, thrust rings. Since the first two were partner drills, we effectively did each of them twice per cycle.
I closed the class and then Sal and I had 25 one on one matches, 10 of which were blind matches for Sal (with shinai). -
Class with Sal, Chris and Steven. Joshua observed a second consecutive class. Stretch and requirements. I paired Sal and Chris while I worked with Steven, instructing on Cutting Pattern 1, basic thrust, and thrust block. I also spoke with him on the six traditions, explaining them, and I worked briefly with Sal regarding some notes he had from training with Kaiden Gad. There were some minor differences in the practiced moves that he wanted to discuss. The Casper we practice has a shift off-line, where as Gad’s simply moves in relying more on speed and the opponents reaction. The original Tradition focused on getting close and making a good torso draw, but as practiced by Gad, the new one changes the draw cut into more of a chop cut with follow-through draw and is followed by a leg cut for more assured victory.
After a break, we had a total of 60 matches, 50 of which were with Sal as one of the opponents in order to assist him with reaching his training goals. Of those, 10 of the pairs came from 5 multi-opponent matches with Chris and I against Sal (each one Sal would take out Chris, and I would take out Sal).Conditions: Hot evening, still around 86 at 9:30pm when we finished.
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Class with Sal, Chris, and Charlie. Steven observed a second time. I spoke with him at the end and he stated his intention to begin class next week. We had a brief stretch and then went through requirements once (I reviewed Sal), then switched and I review Charlie with the other two did their practiced moves. After a break, we had one on one matches using a best-of-five approach.
The weather was intermittent heavy rain with some hail at one point, and the dojo was fairly muddy despite the straw hay layer.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Joe called out, Steven observed. Stretch and requirements twice through. After the break, both to provide a extra breadth in experience, and to prep for the upcoming special session on Monday, I gave an introduction to the basic cuts and blocks in Myo Sim Kendo, and instructed on Kneeling Iai 1 and Standing Iai 1.
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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.
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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).