Because of the rain no one showed. Wusses. So Jong and I watched the Shindenfudo Ryu tape from 1993. I had never seen it before so it was very interesting to me. Plus, it's the theme this year so those techniques on the video are likely to appear in a future class or seminar. Plus, plus, the first two levels were covered at the March 11, 12 New York seminar with Arnaud Cousergue so it was great to see the material again done slightly different. After that we talked for a bit about Shindenfudo Ryu, then how some shihan perform so much with so little movement. We also watched a couple of the BTSD web clips. Again, this was stuff I'd never seen before so it was great for me. You can subscribe to these web clips for $9.99 a month and I asked Jong if he felt they were a good value and he said it was because the material you are seeing is as fresh as it gets. The clips I saw were recorded right there in the hombu. Sometimes they are at a shihan's dojo, outdoors, or in an apartment Jong says. Occasionally they feature other instructors as I saw on one episode. The techniques the guest showed were interesting and reminded me of some Takagiyoshin Ryu kata where you are walking towards someone and attacking as you pass. Good stuff but I wouldn't subscribe to the service especially when you can buy dvds of all the episodes for each year starting with 2003 (not on the BTSD site yet but info is in the forum). This I would most likely do because the quality is hopefully better and sometimes extra stuff is added. The episdoes are currently in Real Media format and nobody I know uses or likes Real. The clips I watched were coverted to mpeg4. If the format were changed to something like divx, h.264, or mpeg4 it would be more appealing but at the moment no thanks. I've got plenty of other things to work on.
After that we broke out the shinai and tried to hit each other! Seriously. First we took turns doing daijodan shomengiri. As one of us was performing it the other stood in front just out of reach and watched the sword, the hands, the shoulders, the torso, the legs, then the feet looking for any signs of the impending cut. After that we stood within cutting distance and did the cut with speed. First we moved to the side just getting out of the way. Then we moved forward closing the distance. Jong hit me once in the shoulder after I got jumpy and moved way before the attack. I got him once in the arm. It's a great exercise we'll have to perform on everyone else some time.
After that we BSed some more then I went home. It was good times as usual.
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