Richmond (Dave @ Shima) Class 9/26/2006

Doug was unavailable for some reason so Dave took over. We pretty much covered the same stuff from Monday and the previous week. Most of that material has been a review from the recent NJ seminar. A quick list of the material covered most of which is on the 9/18 post:

1. 
   Koku
   


2. 
   Koku henka. Also in 9/18 post. When the kick comes receive it lightly with your leg. That means don't avoid it and kick back but instead catch it with your leg. Holding onto the uke's arm you can drop to your rear knee rotating away from the uke taking them down. TRY: I wonder if you can get the arm to come under the extended leg and tie 'em up that way.
   


3. 
   Also in 9/18 post.
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Receive to the inside step forward with an omote shuto to the neck, place your hand on the shoulder and use your eblow to take the uke's balance by the chin. You can step behind with an osoto like movement if necessary. This was also practiced from two punches.
   


4. 
   Also in 9/18 post.
   Uke: Tsuki to face x2.
   Tori: Receive to the inside on the first, on the second move forward so you're parallel with the uke. Kick one or both legs. These kicks are like the ones Roger showed and this move is similiar to one from a Kaceminar.
   


5. 
   Also in 9/18 post.
   Bo vs. sword techniques.
   


6. 
   Moguri Gata. Also in 9/18 post. Matt showed pulling the uke's arm as you drive your boshiken into the kyusho where the thigh meets the groin. Ouch!
   

I think that was pretty much it.

Gambatte!

Richmond (Dave) Class 9/25/2006

Lately Dave and I have been doing some randori with padded bokkens and safety goggles. When we're not trying to kill each other we do free flowing defenses from a specific attack. After the tori has tried a few the uke will then change the attack slightly or counter the tori's attack. We strive to get a rhythm of unknown attacks and defenses where we are flowing naturally with each other. Good fun. Once inside we briefly covered the first four kata from shinden fudo ryu for Tim. Dave mentioned with shiden fudo ryu you want to use your right hand for most of the techniques or use only hand if not the right. The point being one hand is always controlling your sword...I think. I have to double check on that. Then we went over koku and some material from the latest seminar. What exactly, I don't remember. We also went over a flowing/throwing technique Dave was shown last time he was in Roanoke. It went like this: Uke comes in with a double lapel grab. The tori raises the uke's elbows/arms up creating a sort of bubble and rotating/disappearing within that space so the uke throws himself more or less. Not an easy thing to "get" having not been there when it was shown. We spent some more time with the fourth kata uryu from shiden fudo ryu since Dave and I both saw the Sean Askew version of it online. Good stuff there. Make sure to crank that wrist. :-)

Gambatte!

Richmond Deep Run Park 9/23/2006

This Saturday lesson is lead by Daryl and I'll be assisting whenever I can. Shane was there and a new girl with experience in other arts whose name is Taya or something. We covered basic principles of uke nagashi and ukemi.

1. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Drop back into ichimonji no kamae and allow the hand to move from the hip straight up to the kyusho on the uke's arm. The point being this was a simple receive.
   


2. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Move straight into the uke using your forearm to deflect the attack upward. The point of this was to show a different kind of "uke nagashi" where you're not receiving away but receiving forward. Sort of the opposite of the previous one.
   


3. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Receive to the inside of the attack at a long distance. Catch the wrist lightly with the front hand and shift to the outside rotating the wrist upwards and disrupting the uke's balance. The point here is to stay out of reach of the uke while taking the balance using a single point of contact.
   


4. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Move to the outside of the punch catching the wrist with the rear hand. Move in applying takeori and optionally sweeping the leg. The takeori could be moved into omote gyaku. This is sort of the opposite of the previous one.
   

I think that was pretty much it. With all of these it was important to maintain your space and ensure that your movements are having an effect on the uke. After that we covered basic ukemi and otoshi.

Gambatte!

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/21/2006

Since an entire weekend has passed since this class took place chances are good I'll leave something out. Here's goes...

Class began with the usual sanshin no kata and ukemi. We practiced some additional ukemi, both zempo kaiten and koho kaiten, from urate gyaku and omote gyaku. We also did zempo otoshi, koho otoshi, and yoko otoshi from a light push. We expanded on the technique from last week where you evade the punch to the outside and grab the tricep and do an armbar. This time from two punches receive the first the same way and with the second also receive it to the outside but with your front hand strike the chin from below with a fudo ken/boshi ken/sanshitan ken then finish with an armbar.

From kumiuchi or double lapel grab rotate one of the uke's elbows upward toward the sky and bend the other one across the front of the uke. Turn your body away from them and either step across them to perform a little hip throw or step away taking their balance.

After this I think we covered the danshu and danshi kata but I don't remember how they went. Oh well.

Gamabatte!

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/20/2006

This was the largest class with 15 people including Doug. We did the usual sanshin no kata and ukemi. I'll try and recall the things we did.

1. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Barely move off the line of attack to the outside. Catch the wrist with the rear hand and grab the tricep muscle with the front hand. Roll it over and place it on the ground. When grabbing the muscle use your finger tips to grab first then roll it into your palm. Move as if punching the ground rather than pressing against the back of the arm.
   


2. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face two times.
   Tori: Receive the first to the inside. On the second one go for the rear arm and apply musha dori.
   


3. 
   Same as the previous one except when applying musha dori if it doesn't work switch to musou dori with a leg sweep/throw.
   

I'm pretty sure we did more but that's all I can remember.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Dave) Class 9/18/2006

Dave covered some material from a recent seminar. Some of it made sense, some didn't.

1. 
   Uke: Daijodan shomengiri
   Tori: Shizen, gedan or hira no kamae with staff. Step straight back into ichimonji to the outside of the cut striking down with the staff. Immediately flip the staff to strike down to the uke's head. Step around to strike the leg. I think the way it was orginially shown was the first step was across and in the path of the cut. Not sure about that. The uke could parry the second strike making the third necessary. We also practiced it receiving to the other side of the cut.
   


2. 
   Uke: Punch to face.
   Tori: Shizen with staff. Hold the staff with the same side hand as the attack and hold it so that you give the uke an openining. When the attack comes have the staff on the outside of the attack. Place the staff against the back of the arm and hold the staff with the other hand using your arm/elbow to bar the uke's arm. Now the uke is supposed to throw another punch and you then handle that and wrap the uke up with the staff. We had trouble with this one because depending on how you caught the arm and how hard or soft you barred the arm it changed the uke's attack options. One thing for sure though was you could just take the uke down using the armbar and staff to take out the leg. Kinda like tsuki iri from the stick fighing book.
   


3. 
   Uke: Diajodan shomengiri
   Tori: Hira with the staff. This is basically tsuki iri from the stick fighting book. The main point here was controlling the sword.
   


4. 
   Uke: Punch to face then kick. Same attack as for koku no kata.
   Tori: Receive the punch and just barely evade the kick so that you catch it with your thigh. Holding onto the punching arm and dropping down to your free leg take uke's balance. We also practiced applying a big omote gyaku from here.
   


5. 
   Uke: Two punches to the face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Receive to the inside of the first punch with ichimonji. On the second punch shift forward so you're standing next to the uke. With your rear leg kick each of the uke's legs then apply omote gyaku to the uke's rear hand.
   


6. 
   Moguri Gata
   Uke: Two punches to the face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Receive to the inside of the first punch with ichimonji. On the second punch go into a really low kamae as you step forward with a boshiken to the inside of the uke's rear leg. Step on that foot too.
   


7. 
   Uke: Front kick.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Rotate to the inside and catch the leg with your rear hand so the uke's leg is across your back. Use your free elbow against the uke's knee to take them down.
   

I think that was pretty much it. Hopefully we'll go over some more of this in Doug's class since they all went too.

Gambatte!

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/12/2006

Doug's class was more or less a repeat of the previous one on 9/7/2006. A new guy, Nick, who lives across the street and would occasionally watch through the window decided to come try it out. He has wrestling experience and is somewhat stocky and would be a good addition to the training. Hopefully he returns on a regular basis. It's not like he has to travel far. :-)

The differences in this class from the previous one were instead of koku we worked on renyo at the end. At the begining we worked on a couple of drills practicing evasion. We did ichimonji no kamae and hira no kamae from a punch; hira no kamae from shomen giri; jumonji no kamae from a punch; and jumonji no kamae from a karate style side kick.

That was pretty much it.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Dave) Class 9/11/2006

Black belt class at Dave's with Daryl and myself. We started with some sanshin no kata against an uke. Chi, sui, fu, and ka were pretty much standard. There were sight variations with the strikes and take downs. Ku no kata was different in that when the attack came we used yoko aruki from hicho and kicked with the rear leg. It flowed really well and I'm happy to have it in my toolbox. After that we did ganseki nage because that's everyone's favorite kihon and we did a basic counter. Before you're about to be thrown dive into the space next to their leg and either clamp onto it or cover yourself with your free arm. With the other arm be sure to grab the uke's clothing or something to throw them. Hang onto them and follow up with kicks and whatnot. After that we did basic multiple attackers. The setup was the tori was in a corner with two uke's attacking with one punch from the front. Timing is important on this and also how well the uke's perform their role as an uke. The tori needs to evade the initial attack and determine if he wants to bait the next attack or just deal with each uke one at a time. Our focus was tangling the uke's up together. The tori had to be sure to protect himself from the first uke and still leave an opening for the second. That was fun. Next we went inside and did a basic ground fighting move. The tori is on the ground with the uke in between your legs with one arm on the ground about to hit you. With the closest hand hold onto the wrist. Pull yourself up to the uke and wrap your other arm around their shoulder and underneath their arm and grab your own wrist. The uke may attempt ukemi so have your legs wrapped around to prevent that. With your opposite side foot you can place it against the uke's knee to help pull yourself out from underneath. This is an armbar and a shoulder lock so you must maintain pressure as you're moving into position. After that we did some randori and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/7/2006

Last night we covered a nice range of basic material. We started the evening with zempo kaiten, gyaku zempo kaiten (?), and sokuho kaiten. Then we went back and forth across the dojo doing daijodan shomen giri. We weren't stepping through with the cut though we were keeping the same side kamae and cutting. This was to get the shoulders warmed up. Then we practiced some leaping which I haven't done in a while. Doug stood in the middle of the dojo with a kyoketsu shoge. He swung it around while we each took turns practicing tenchi tobi. We did three heights: ankle, knee, and hip. After that we practiced leaping forward and backward from ichimonji no kamae. Doug attacked our forward leg with a padded bo. First we did the standard koho tobi. Second was a koho tobi where we switched kamae. I guess that would be gyaku koho tobi. Finally we did gyaku zempo tobi. After that we paired up and went through omote gyaku, urate gyaku, and oni kudaki, switching partners with each kihon. We ended class with koku from Gyokko Ryu. Good times.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/5/2006

I've been to Doug's dojo many times and last night was my first class with Doug teaching. We started class off gathered in a circle and performed the sanshin no kata. After that we paired up and went through the koshi kihon sanpo. Doug had us practice it in the typical fashion and then with the uke having more intent with the purpose being that your distancing and timing should change to reflect the change in the uke's attack. He also had us be aware of additional strikes you can add or remove in the kata to suit the situation. Before each exercise he asked the class what the main point of the exercise was. For ichimonji it's moving your whole body and taking an angle off the line of attack. For jumonji it's using your legs and hips to shift off the line of attack and to shift into the counterattack. For hicho it's using your balance. I'm glad he brought these points up because it's one of those things that seems so obvious but unless it's specifically spelled out you may not see it. Or you may see it and not get that the point of the kata is to teach that specific 'thing'. I don't always make that connection but I think if you try to make these connections in your head the taijutsu becomes more alive because it won't be just muscle memory.

Gambatte

Richmond (Dave @ Shima) Class 8/31/2006

Tropical storm Ernesto is bringing alot of rain to our area and last night it brought much cooler temperatures which we all appreciated after this past weekend. Attendance was good last night. Richard showed up and Tim brought a friend with no previous ninpo experience. Dave taught class.

We skipped ukemi and went into the sanshin no kata; some of it anyway. We started with chi no kata. Starting from shoshin no kamae shift forward and step through with sanshitan ken. There should be a straight line from your rear foot up to your strike. The proper angle is probably 45 degrees. I don't know for sure but that angle appears alot in this art and if you look at a 90 degree triangle the hypotenuse is 45 degrees. There were three ways to move with the strike. 1) Step forward and through. 2) Switch step. 3) Step backward. After that we did sui no kata. With sui no kata Dave showed two different ways to move with the omote shuto. The first is stepping through like usual. The power comes from the rear leg and this is more linear. The second was like the switch step and the power comes more from swinging your rear leg around. This was more circular. After trying both the concensus was that the linear step was more powerful. Dave then showed how the circular step is perfect for when you have a knife. When using a knife keep it hidden when you receive. As you're moving in show the knife to your uke. If they react like a normal person would (i.e. lean back to get away) that exposes the neck and the cut is easy. Then I showed it with the concept that Roger brought back from Japan. The idea here was to keep your energy/focus moving forward. Even though your retreat to receive the attack you're attacking at the same time. This encompassed two concepts already shown. The footwork is linear and you can use your shuto just like the knife. Doug felt this was along the lines of Shinden Fudo Ryu. This lead into another way to do ichimonji from the koshi kihon sampo (i.e. sui no kata with a partner). Dave showed a Shiraishi way of doing it. With this you set yourself up before the attack by sliding your foot back. When the attack comes you receive but don't give up any ground. I've done with version with Lauren before.

I think that was it for the sanshin no kata. I'll try to recall all of the techniques we did.

1. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face
   Tori: Receive using the Shiraishi ichimonji. Shift to the outside taking the uke's balance by sliding your receiving arm into the inside of the uke's elbow. Then apply all sorts of daikentaijutsu and kihon happo (e.g. omote shuto neck, fudo ken ribs, boshi ken ribs, knee ribs, ganseki nage, musha dori).
   


2. 
   Same as the previous one except you have a katana. This time receive with the sword's tsuka by stepping back with the left foot. Shift over taking the balance like before. Strike to the face with the kashira (end of tsuka) as you draw or before you draw. To prevent the uke from drawing the blade use your thumb. Cut with kesa giri to the neck, do giri to the body, or drop to your knee cutting the uke's leg with kesa or do giri.
   


3. 
   Uke: Shizen no kamae
   Tori: Walking towards uke. At the right moment fudo ken to the stomach, shift in with an elbow strike to the chest (I forget the name of the spot), step around with the rear leg and omote shuto to the neck. Another option is to fudo ken to the stomach, elbow strike up to the chin, and elbow strike straight down to the collar bone.
   


4. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Jumonji no kamae. This was the jumonji from the koshi kihon sampo that Anthony showed at the summit. When the strike comes you move forward and to the outside to intercept the strike. Rotate to the outside using your front foot as the pivot point as you strike the face with the same hand. This movement is like one of the ichimonji moves we did earlier. A variant on this was doing a backfist strike to the face with your rear hand as you open your arms. This is the "Wolverine" kamae. You can also use your hands as if wearing shuko.
   

That's all I can remember at the moment. If anyone from class reads this and sees that I omitted some techniques let me know. Or if you remember something differently leave a comment. Good times.

Gambatte.

Edit: 9/05/2006
Dave emailed this.

The main point concerning the Sanshin I was trying to make:

Be aware with the switch step you can move forward or you can move
back. I think the most basic and important way for someone learning
basics is to switch step by stepping forward (meaning step back then
step forward). The back leg provides driving power coming up from the
Earth. This is not to say you cannot apply power other ways. The
other one is not wrong, just not basic _in my opinion_ . Engrain that
movement first then work on the switch step going backwards.

Kihon Happo - Ichimonji - Gyokko Ryu - circular movement - and
you

The principles of the Sanshin should feed in and prepare you for the
Kihon Happo. If you move your back leg as you strike the neck you are
abandoning a lesson from the Sanshin. The circular movement of Gyokko
Ryu is indeed still there if you are doing it correctly. A recent copy
of Ichimonji from the TenChinJin I was reading actually says to step
forward as you strike as well. If you hang your shuto strike on the
neck and spin the back leg it's like you need to use you weight for
power and this may work if you have a knife or are bigger than your
opponent. If the opponent is larger it may be better to drive with
your back leg planted. In general I think it's better to study the
'small man' Taijutsu no matter your size.