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).
Tag: wcos
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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.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, Joe, and Jesse. Twice through on requirements for everyone else while I worked with Jesse on review of his cuts and blocks from last week, and adding decap and leg cuts and blocks. After the break, we had Blind Man’s Boffer, Balance 1 & 2, and a combination of Balance 1 & 2 with a gamut provided by the students not currently running the course, initially as stationary targets, then as quarter speed attackers.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie and Jesse’s first night. Requirements twice through while I worked with Jesse on basic head and neck cuts and blocks. After the break, we had one on one matches with the addition that legs and arms were temporary wounds that healed in 3 – 5 seconds unless the opponent was killed with a good head, neck or torso cut.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie, Nate. Jesse observed a second time. Requirements twice through. After the break, we had round robin Refined Strikes and Dodging 1.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Charlie and Joe. Nate called out and Jesse observed class. Requirements twice through, then a focus session on The Tradition. After the break we had 30 “best of 3” one on ones and 5 melees.
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie. Nate called out. I discussed the upcoming October events and highly recommended trying to make it to at least one day or weekend. We then did requirements twice through, with me reviewing Sal and Chris for their White Rope requirements. After a break, we did an awareness and reaction drill, placing partners approximately twice-ma apart, and then either one could initiate an attack motion and the other tried to beat them to completion using a different cut or thrust. We faced each other student in turn, the final time incorporating a side step in the responder’s movement. We finished with Balance 1 and 2.
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I hosted a Day of Combat in Redding today. We have eight fighters on the field and a few guests. The event site had a variety of terrain available to us, so we started with 10 melees in a hollow/grove, then moved to a gravelly location for another 2 melees, followed by 2 melees in a rocky dry creek bed, and finished with one scenario melee of President in a slightly less rocky section of the creek bed where there was a lot of young willow growth. The temperature ranged from low 90s and up, possibly over 100 in the creek bed, however everyone stayed hydrated and there were no injuries besides the normal bruising.
Afterward, we reconvened at the Redding Dojo for food, a review of the video, and a little bit of Bushido Blade on the PS1. -
Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, Joe and Charlie. Discussed the upcoming event, quick stretch, then requirements twice through (I focused on Joe and Charlie). I then reviewed the I Move (new move for Joe) and we took a break. After the break, I did a multi directional machine gun drill, having two lines at about a 120 degree angle. alternating attackers from each line and rotating through each line. We started with just head cuts, then moved to any upper cut (head,neck, decap).
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, and Charlie. Joe called out, Sabrina has returned to Humboldt for school. During seiza I discussed the upcoming Labor Day Weekend event. We then had a short stretch and a drill practicing moving in good stance, using the thigh muscles rather than spring with toes/calves. Then we went through requirements twice, switching partners. During the break, I instructed Sal on Double Chop for his 12th move. After the break we had 35 matches total.
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Class with Sabrina, Sal, Chris, Nate and Charlie. Joe called out, no sign of Jeffery. Stretch and requirements twice through. I worked specifically with Charlie and Sabrina. After a break, we did machine gun drill with head or neck attacks, then rotated twice through several drill stations; cutting pattern 1 with partner on a grounded beam, two thrust hay bales, and two thrust rings (large and small).
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Class with Sal, Chris and Charlie (Sabrina, Nate and Joe called out). Stretch and requirements. I worked with Chris and Charlie individually on their requirements for White Rope and Green Braid, respectively, and instructed Charlie on Jumping Tiger 1. After a break, during which I reviewed rank requirements with Chris and Sal, we did Refined Strikes with each possible partner, 100 full circle cuts (mine with steel), and then Balance 1 & 2.
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Class with Sal, Sabrina, Nate, Joe and Charlie. Tonight was a dagger training night. I started with a discussion on how virtually anything can be a weapon, and on intelligent life and death choices, when to fight, and when to walk away. We then examined different styles and knives and daggers and discussed the differences, and then took some time practicing throwing boken daggers into hay bales, getting a sense of how length and heft change the rotation of a weapon. After a break, we put on helmet, gloves and gorgets and had one-on-one dagger matches, using best of three to cycle opponents. I concluded with a single four-way free for all match.
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I attended the Best of the Best this year. It was steel only this year, and there were only 10 competitor slots of which nine were allocated to previous champions and special guest fighters. I opted not to compete for the final slot and was thence asked to assist with the marshaling. I additionally fought some 35+ boken matches in the second circle after the primary tournament was over.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Nate, and Joe. Charlie and Sabrina called out. Stretch and requirements once through, then basic cuts and blocks and cutting pattern 1 once more. I then went over Double-Thrust and we took a break. The second half we had a total of 45 one on one matches.
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Class with Sal, Chris, Joe and Charlie tonight. Stretch and requirements twice through (Sal/Joe,Chris/Charlie;Sal/Charlie,Chris/Joe) while I provided adjustments. After a break, I instructed on Jumping Tiger 2, a new move for Joe and Charlie, then we did refined strikes a few times through, and finished with a series of boffer melees.
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Class with Sal, Sabrina, Nate, Chris, Joe and Charlie. Stretch and requirements. After a break, we had a total of 30 one on one matches.
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Class with Nate, Joe and Charlie. Stretch and requirements, first me with Nate and Charlie with Joe, then me with Charlie and Nate with Joe. After a break, we had Balance 1 with some thrusting bales and some light striding and leaping incorporated into it. We finished with refined strikes, pairing once with each of the others.
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Class with Chris, Nate, Joe and Charlie. Sal and Sabrina called out. Charlie and Joe came early again to work on their boken. Stretch and requirements, with Nate paired with Charlie and Chris paired with Joe. I roamed making corrections and improvements. I then did a focus session on Dragon’s Tail for all four of them. After a break, I did light armored parry followed by three light sparring matches (helmet and gloves) with Charlie and Joe, then had seven matches of light (full armor) sparring with all Charlie, Joe and Chris and six with Nate.
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Class with Sal, Sabrina, Chris, Nate, and Charlie. Joe called out sick. Stretch and paired requirements a couple-ish times through. I specifically worked with Sabrina on all requirements, Chris and strikes and blocks, and Sal on one handed variations. After a break, we did 200 full circle cuts, then machine gun drill for head and neck, and battle movement with altered terrain, and finished with altered terrain light unarmored parry.
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Class with Sabrina, Joe and Charlie, and both Sal and Chris called out. Stretch, 10 body builders, and then extended requirements sessions, pairing Sabrina with Charlie and myself with Joe, then switching Sabrina and I, going through all my requirements and working on improving their basics. After a break, we did a short set to three drill stations; (1) 100 full circle cuts, (2) Refined Strikes, (3) thrust rings. Everyone cycled twice to obtain 200 full circle cuts (myself with steel, 100 with two hands, 100 with one hander).