Dave's Last Class @ Shima Dojo 12/19/2006

Supposedly last class before he moves to Colorado...today. For his last class we covered the basics of the rokushakubo: how to spin, strikes up, down and sideways to the head (I forget the Japanese terms), strikes to the do, two different ashi barai, a basic receive from a daijodan attack and a kata combining a number of those movements both solo and with a uke armed with a boken. Then we covered some basic restraints that can be applied from omote gyaku and urate gyaku. After that it was a simple counter to omote gyaku then pizza, soda, and cake and the obligatory group photo. Good luck in Colorado. I hope everything goes well and come back every now and then to share your experiences.

Gambatte!

Richmond Class (Doug) 12/5/2006

In preparation for the Shima Dojo DKMS Review this weekend we did each technique of Shinden Fudo Ryu.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Doug) 11/28/2006

Congratulations to the new shodans. Class was standard fare with sanshin no kata then the kihon happo and koshi kihon sanpo. Good stuff.

Gambatte.

Richmond (Doug) 11/2/2006

Forgot to post this one...

We started with the sanshin no kata, then moved into doing the kihon happo blindfolded, which was great because I always enjoy training that way. After that Larry and I got suited up in our makeshift samuari armor (i.e. TKD chest pad, mits, shin, and forearm guards). We did some ukemi then a few SFR kata. Good times.

Gambatte!

Richmond (Me) Class 10/24/2006

I covered the material from the seminar Doug Norman gave last Saturday. Thanks to Doug for giving me the opportunity to share and to everyone in attendance for being there.

頑張って

武神館道場忍術

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Richmond (Dave) Class 10/23/2006

Dave covered some taijutsu from the last Ohio (L. Molitor) seminar and the last DC (J. Christian & R. Flanagan) seminar. We covered several different approaches to the Shinden Fudo Ryu Musan kata among other things.

Uke: Tsuki to stomach.
Tori: Receive to the inside with gedan uke nagashi. Shift forwad with a fudo ken to the face as if doing chi no kata as you raise the arm to pass underneath it. Rotate 180 degrees as you pass underneath. Drop your weight as you shuto the back of uke's arm.

• When you take the uke down you drop to your front knee and catch the uke's arm against your hip. You can also snake your arm around like ganseki nage to help restrain the uke.
  


• When you move underneath the arm continue to spin and switch hands so you're facing the same direction you started but you're holding the uke's wrist with the other hand. Use the uke's wrist to pull him off balance. You can use your rear foot to aid in this.
  


• Capture the arm like ganseki nage as you shift forward after receiving the tsuki. With the other foot step forward to the inside of the uke's space and lock the uke's arm out with muso dori. With the rear foot kick the uke's leg that is in front of you as you step through for ganseki oshi.
  


• Same as above except the uke begins to take ukemi and you prevent that by moving further to the side laying the uke out flat.
  


• We also worked on locking the spine up and taking the balance by placing one hand on the shoulder and moving the uke in various directions (mostly downward) to remove all "play" in the spine.
  


• We also worked on taking the balance from kumiuch by moving the uke's balance around a small area searching for a breaking point.
  

Richmond (Dave @ Doug's) Class 10/19/2006

Dave continued with the sword material. The focus here was koto ryu sword which had a lot of iaijutsu. I believe this was everything.

1. From a kneeling position (left knee down) leap up and draw with dogiri switching your kamae. Keep torso straight and cut before your feet land.
   


2. 
   Uke and tori are walking towards each other on the right side. At the right distance draw to the neck, move into hasso no kamae and cut down to the closest knee. The attack to the neck is really just to take the uke back and off balance.
   


3. 
   Same as above except after the inital cut yoko aruki and move into kasumi no kamae. Cut down to the closest knee and noto as you move 360 degrees to view your surroundings.
   


4. 
   Same as above except at the right distance draw the blade underhanded cutting with dogiri. Rotate the blade to cut shomengiri as your rotate to the outside. Regrip the tsuka and drop your weight as you cut the neck.
   


5. 
   Same as the first one above except you're walking on the left side of the uke. At the right moment step in front of the uke as you draw cutting the neck, move into hasso no kamae and cut closest knee.
   


6. 
   Same as the first above except the uke reacts by raising the tsuka as a guard. Advance and cut either leg.
   


7. 
   Same as above except you are receiving the attack. You guard with the tsuka then throw your weight and sword downward. When your sword is pointed towards the ground draw it. When you raise up tsuki to the neck.
   


8. 
   Same as the first above except you are armed with metsubushi. At an appropiate distance throw the metusbushi then draw and attack. This was also done with senbanshuriken and boshuriken. The senbanshuriken were thrown with the hand moving in an upward arc from the hip to the target.
   

Richmond (Dave @ Doug's) Class 10/17/2006

Dave attended the Luke Molitor seminar last weekend in Ohio and he covered that material. I think this was everything.

1. 
   Uke: Attacks with diajodan shomen giri.
   Tori: From seigan shift to the inside cut to the kote, shift to the left cutting the other kote, finish with do-giri.
   


2. 
   Uke: Attacks with diajodan shomen giri.
   Tori: From seigan shift to the outside then move in switching your feet and doing a push cut across the arms affecting the balance. Hook the bottom of the tsuka on the inside of the uke's front elbow. Rotate in front of the uke trapping their front arm against your body and under your right arm. Continue with a kesa giri to the neck.
   


3. 
   Same as above except once you're in reach around and grab the mune and drive the blade into the uke's neck.
   


4. 
   Uke: Attacks with diajodan shomen giri.
   Tori: From seigan shift to the outside with your blade on top of the uke's blade. Rotate your blade so the mune is down as you move the uke's blade to your left affecting the uke's balance. Your blade should be guarding you. Rotate it back so the mune is down. Your blade should be underneath the uke's as you move into daijodan "throwing" the uke's blade away from you and over the uke exposing his side. Finish with do-giri.
   


5. 
   Uke: Tsuki to chest.
   Tori: From seigan shift to the left and receive with jodan uke. Use your elbow and body to "throw" the uke's blade back and away as your stand up for kesa giri or do-giri.
   


6. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face with spear.
   Tori: Seigan no kamae. Shift to one side and cut the fingers or kote. I idea is the blade sticks to the shaft.
   


7. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face with spear.
   Tori: Seigan no kamae. Shift to the right and cut into the spear, blade gets stuck. Brace the tsuka against your hip and reach under grabbing the mune securing the spear. Shift to the left to upset uke's balance and attack with the shoto.
   


8. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face with spear.
   Tori: Seigan no kamae. Receive to the right with jodan uke. Grab the spear with your left hand. Rotate to your right 360 degrees maintaining contact with your back against the staff and cut one handed do-giri.
   


9. 
   Shiho Giri
   From hasso no kamae. Do giri, do giri, then tsuki or shomen giri.
   

Richmond (Dave @ Doug's) Class 10/12/2006

Dave attended the seminar Lauren hosted so he went over that material. What I remember...

Receiving punches with your elbows down and your hands up lightly touching the uke's arm with your elbow. I'm not sure about the weight distribution on the feet but I think it was more forward.

1. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Move to the inside with ichimonji no kamae and receive with your forward arm/elbow. Holding onto the arm shift forward along your line taking the uke's balance and doing yoko aruki with your rear foot stepping behind your front instead of the usual way of stepping in front. Three variations were done from here. 1) Apply ganseki nage as you drop to your rear knee. 2) Apply musha dori. 3) After moving forward move back in the opposite direction moving the uke's arm up and shoulder down so that the uke twists and the uke's back is towards you.
   


2. 
   We did an exercise on taking the uke's balance using the movements in the technique above. After the yoko aruki you place the uke's hand on your knee to keep him from falling.
   


3. 
   Koku
   The difference here was when the kick comes you twist to avoid it and spring right back to catch the foot/leg with your knee/foot. You have to be quick with this movement.
   


4. 
   Renyo
   I don't remember anything being different about this kata except more emphasis was put on using your elbow to lock the uke's arm and control him.
   

Richmond (Doug) Class 9/28/2006

It has been few days now but I'll try my best to recall what happened after the ukemi and sanshin...

1. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Grab the flesh behind the elbow to control the uke. Use the uke's elbows to take the balance. If they attempt to kick you should be able to take them off balance easily.
   


2. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face, same side kick to stomach, opposite hand tsuki to stomach.
   Tori: Step to the outside with ichimonji no kamae and perform an uke nagashi to the outside of the elblow. With your free hand lightly touch the uke's wrist. Slightly evade the kick sorta like in koku. Perform a gedan uke nagashi with the free hand to the incoming punch. Apply omote gyaku. EDIT: There is a shuto to the neck before the omote gyaku and this is called saka nagare. Thanks Dave.
   

That's really all I can remember. That and Matt showing me how to do backflips. I won't be training this week but when I'm back I'll have backflips down within a week. :-)

Gambatte!

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.