Kihon Shibu 07/30/2007

Last night we started with performing the three basic kaiten (zenpo, sokuho, koho) in stride with your walk. After that I reintroduced jun nagare and introduced for the first time gyaku nagare. Naturally, that one was a bit more difficult because you're typically rolling from a higher position and therefore carrying a lot more momentum. As usual though if you break it down and practice slowly you'll get it.

Johnny then happened to mention cartwheels and since we were about at that place in the progression of ukemi I thought we'd go ahead and do them. We did migi and hidari oten from shizen no kamae and zenpo oten from ichimonji no kamae. Next was tenchi tobi from shizen no kamae. First we did two forms of ten tobi then chi tobi. After that we did zenpo tobi and koho tobi from ichimonji no kamae. Then we did zenpo, koho and sokuho tobi from shizen no kamae.

Next we revisited the chi, sui, and ka no katas of sanshin gogyo no kata and I introduced fu no kata. Then we did some uke/tori drills to practice the gedan uke since it was new. We did that from a low tsuki aimed at the stomach. We followed this with some jodan uke practice.

We wrapped up class by applying a counter attack to the uke's tsuki that incorporated basic atemi and taisabaki. Each attack was a tsuki to the face and each receive was done to the inside and outside. The first exercise was performing a jodan uke then moving through hicho no kamae to position for a sokugyakuken geri to the lower ribs (butsumetsu). The point here was being able to position yourself to perform an effective geri. The second exercise was performing a jodan uke then applying an omote shuto to the uke's arm as you switch from migi or hidari ichimonji no kamae taking the uke's balance with kamae and atemi. The point here was being able to fluidly switch from one ichimonji to another and properly place your lead foot/leg into position to affect the uke's balance.

Those last two exercises were a direct application of some of the taisabaki we practiced during the last class.

Gambatte!

Kihon Shibu 07/25/2007

First class in a while started off with a viewing of the Kobudo no Kihon dvd. I haven't seen the video before last night and didn't know exactly what it was about. To my surprise it covered pretty much everything the Richmond Kihon Shibu is about. Actually, that material was advanced for what I've been teaching lately. We're still in the very beginning stages. Last night was the first official class for the group and this is the first official blog post about it.

So the video lasted about an hour although it seemed much longer. Maybe that was because the first 30 minutes was spent doing everything possible to not look like a threat to Simon, the vicious guard dog. Actually, he's not vicious, as long as he likes you.

Again it was Johnny and myself and we started the night by first going over how to wear the gi and tie the obi. Then me moved into practicing zenpo kaiten, koho kaiten and sokuho kaiten from shizen no kamae. Next we practiced fudoken tsuki from ichimonji no kamae followed by zenpo kaiten. Then we practiced sokuyakuken zenpo geri from ichimonji no kamae. The focus here was maintaining the integrity of ichimonji as the atemi is performed. I also spoke briefly on hicho no kamae being the transitory kamae between the starting and ending ichimonji no kamae. The rest of the night was spent on taisabaki. We practiced two ways of switching between hidari and migi ichimonji no kamae. One where you stay in place and another where you advance forward. Then we practiced two forms of moving sideways in ichimonji no kamae. This lead nicely into moving forward and backward while switching between hidari and migi ichimonji no kamae. After that we practiced moving forward and backward without switching between hidari and migi by using yoko aruki. We practiced two forms of koho yoko aruki, one form of zenpo yoko aruki, and one form of naname koho yoko aruki, all from ichimonji no kamae.

I think that was about it. We went through a lot in about 1.5 hours and it went quickly. I can't wait to get back into the swing of training.

Gambatte!

Shima 07/17/2007

Class begun with sanshin gogyo no kata and then moved into practicing jumonji no kata from the koshi kihon sanpo. This was done in the usual format of the tori in the center with everyone else lined up to be uke. After that round we did it again slightly different. Now when the uke throws the first attack you forget about the uke nagashi and go straight for the boshiken. When the second attack comes you go straight for a fudoken tsuki to the face. Doug talked about the uke performing ukemi in response to the tori's atemi. Rather then being a tough guy and taking the punch, just go with it. So, when the uke was struck by the fudoken he or she would perform gyaku nagare, or gyaku zenpou kaiten. Optionally one could perform an oten. We noticed several opportunities to sneak kicks in as the uke would perform the ukemi but we didn't do that. I think it would be easier with the oten than the kaiten because less thought would be involved. With the oten one is likely to accidentally kick the tori but with the kaiten one has to think about kicking the tori.

Water break.

Next we moved into practicing tsuki komi, first with the boken, then empty hand, then with the rokushaku bo. With the boken and bo we did both versions, seimesen and shisen. It was nice to use a bo because everything lately has been sword or empty hand. Then we did tsuki kake with the boken. The boken and empty hand versions were the same as the last time so I won't go into that.

Uke and tori have a bo.

1. Seimesen Tsuki Komi with Rokushaku Bo
   Uke is in ihen or jodan no kamae and does the standard attack. Tori is in shizen no kamae. Step off the line of attack and angle the bo so that the uke's face runs into it.
   


2. Shisen Tsuki Komi with Rokushaku Bo
   Uke is in ihen or jodan no kamae and does the standard attack. Tori is in hira ichimonji no kamae. Step back and lightly parry the attack. Shift in to tsuki the uke in the face.
   

Gambatte!

1967 - America's First View of Ninja?

Edit: It has come to my attention from a reliable source that You Only Live Twice does NOT have Soke Masaaki Hatsumi in it or involved at all! So this whole post is BS. Oh well, it was a pretty cool movie anyway.

You Only Live Twice - The James Bond film released in 1967 in which Bond's mission takes him to Japan, turns him Japanese, and gives him a couple days of ninja training. Soke Masaaki Hatsumi served as a ninja advisor and according to the IMDB entry for the film he starred, uncredited, as the photo assistant on the train to the character Tiger Tanaka (cool name!). That was the reason I rented the film but when I watched it the first time I didn't recognize Soke at all. After learning which scene he was in I went back and captured these shots.

Man he's young! He is unrecognizable as Soke to me.




Here is the photo he was told to look into. The bad guy's boat is named Ninpo!



The film is standard Bond stuff but here are screen shots of things I found interesting or ninja related.

Successful Japanese guys have samurai armor in their offices.




Training time.











Machine gun jutsu.



You only live twice was an enjoyable film, to me at least. That may be because of my affinity for ninja and the Japanese culture so I gave it 4 out of 5 "shuriken" on netflix. It's worth a spot in your queue too.

Gambatte!