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.

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.

Richmond (Shima Dojo) Class 8/29/2006

The ninja summit was the previous weekend and everyone had a good time. This was my first class at the Bujinkan Shima Dojo although I've attended several events there in the past so I am familiar with the dojo and it's family. Guest instruction was performed by Skip, one of Papa-san's students. He hung around for a few days after the summit. The usual suspects were in attendance. Skip went through the same routine he has for class back home. We started with ukemi including breakfalls. Then we went through several different kamae. Next was sanshin and kihon happo. After that we did a couple of koto ryu techniques which is Skip's favorite ryu. After class Dave and I faced off with padded bokkens.

I had a good time and feel very comfortable being back in Richmond. I'm looking forward to training with old and new friends.

Gambatte.

Arlington Class - 8/22/2006

Roger just returned from Japan and it was he, Lauren, and myself. Forget everything you think you know about taijutsu. That is not how's it done over there these days. OK, it's not quite like that but it is really different to me. That may not say much though since I've never been to Japan or trained with any of the Japanese shihan. Shizen no kamae is different. In self defense shizen is the most useful kamae. That particularly isn't news but what is news is that the other kamae are really just transitions from one shizen to the next. Actually, that isn't news either. That principle has always been known but it just doesn't seem to be practiced and I guess the reason for that is in my experience ichimonji is the dominate kamae and not shizen. Seiza no kamae is the same as shizen no kamae.

Attacking while retreating is important. Move in to strike at the same time you're evading your uke's attack. Even when evading maintain/claim that space you normally would have open. It's as simple as extending an arm. Control the rhythm of the fight. Attack in between beats. One of my previous instructions taught this also and that has been the only other time I've heard this point. Ikken hasso (one fist inifite ways) is important. Using the feet like hands is important. Especially when doing suwari gata. Spinning kicks are cool. One of my previous instructors did them and I loved it. I think I saw Kacem do a couple at a seminar before too.

If you want to be the best mimic the best.

Gambatte dattebayo.

Arlington Class - 8/17/2006

So summer is pretty much over and that's fine by me. The weather in July was too hot. For this class though it was just right. In attendance were me, Tim, Sam, Lauren, Daniel (new dude with previous experience), and Tony (dude with alot of other MA experience and watched and talked more than trained). While waiting on Lauren we did the regular ukemi. Once she was ready to go we did the Shiraishi-sensi style zempo and koho kaitens, and sokuho kaiten. The difference with this sokuho kaiten though was we didn't point our foot in the direction of the roll. The point being to simulate tripping over something. That requires you to roll from a higher point than usual. Then we did two variations of moving from shizen to ichimonji to oten. The first one was typical: from shizen, drop back into ichimonji then oten away. The second was sliding one foot back first to check the environment then moving into ichimonji then oten. We also did a koho kaiten as part of the oten.

The focus was and has been teachings from Shiraishi-sensi. He's got a simple rule when it comes to taijutsu: footwork first, then spine work, then hand work. Another rule is to take 'baby' steps. And another more general training rule is to give yourself options and mobility. With those in mind here are the techniques we attempted.

1. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Raise both hands up to meet uke's as you shift your weight back to one side. Step back into ichimonji on the other side as you raise your outside elbow applying an armbar. That same arm should be able to grab uke's opposite wrist. If not hang on with the other hand. The uke's hands should be in front of you still. Shift into the uke and with the free/rear hand lightly grab the shoulder. Move your rear foot back slightly to create an open space. Drop down to the knee closest to the uke and pull them into that open space.
   


2. 
   Uke: Kumiuchi.
   Tori: Kumiuchi. With your weight on your rear foot place your front foot in line with your rear. Shift your weight onto your front foot as you drive your elbow into the base of the uke's sternum. Extend your hand into uke's face as you blade yourself as if doing some sanshin. With your rear hand hold onto uke's wrist as you bring your rear foot forward and place it to the outside of the uke's foot. Give yourself some space with that foot placement because you'll be dropping down to that knee. Rotate to drop down to that knee. The rotation should apply an armbar with your shoulder. Pull the uke's wrist/hand to the inside of your hip. The knee/leg you drop down to could lock the uke's knee.
   


3. 
   Uke: Kumiuchi.
   Tori: Kumichi. Take a small step towards uke with your rear foot. Place the same side hand onto uke's shoulder. This provides cover. Fudo ken uke's face in an upward motion. With the same side foot lightly kick uke's knee. Place that foot down in the space between uke's feet. Fudo ken again to uke's face with the same hand. Follow through with an elbow strike. With your rear leg create an opening for the uke to fall into. After the elbow strike "punch" straight to the ground bringing uke into that space. That one, two, three combo should be a smooth continuous flow.
   


4. 
   Uke: Kumiuchi.
   Tori: Kumiuchi. With the rear hand raise the uke's elbow slightly. Do this by keeping your elbows in and turing your spine in that direction. Bring your other hand over and hold the uke's forearm/wrist. Keep your elbow raised. Shift forward and reach over your arm to lightly grab the uke's nearest shoulder. Rotate your spine towards uke as you urate shuto the neck. Bring that hand under your arm holding the shoulder and grab the back of the arm. Create and opening with your rear leg. Drop to the knee closest to the uke pulling the uke into that space.
   


5. 
   Uke: Seiza no kamae.
   Tori: Fudoza no kamae. Uke lunges for a lapel grab or tsuki. Rock back receiving with the same side hand. Your feet should unfold so that the same side foot is on top. Use the bottom foot to keep them at bay and use the top to move the knee off the line of attack just enough to expose the armpit. Sokuyaku keri right into the armpit. Use your foot or knee to apply an armbar to lay the uke onto their stomach. Do as you please from there.
   

Clearly there is a theme here. Create spaces that you pull the uke into. This is done by following the three rules and taking baby steps. Or not.

Gambatte.

Springfield Class - 8/8/2006

Tim picked me up and then we picked up Lauren and headed to Jong's. Jong and Gino were there. The weather has been nice lately. The mosquitoes were not though. We started with the usual ukemi: zempo, koho, and yoko nagare. Jong had us doing koho kaiten alittle bit differently. Usually when I do koho kaiten when the roll is complete to get into gedan ichimonji I swing the free leg around to the front. Jong had us come up already in that kamae. It was a bit awkward because usually when I roll the forward leg becomes the rear knee that is planted and to get into kamae without moving my other foot I have to move that knee. To do that type of roll you have to extend your foot out and shift your body onto that rear knee as you come up.

After the ukemi we did a round of sanshin no kata and then worked on some kihon happo. First we did regular omote gyaku. Then we did it without using our hands. This was really just an exercise on taking the uke's balance. Musha dori was next. That was it for straight kihon happo.

We did a few of moves from a lapel grab with a punch. For each of these you moved into ichimonji as if applying an uke nagashi to the inside of the incoming punch. First was using your forearm/elbow to deflect the incoming punch and using your hand in their face to take their balance while applying omote gyaku. Second was doing the same thing with your forearm but using omote gyaku to pull the uke closer to you and with your free arm applying musha dori to the uke's free arm. Third was the same move with the forearm except rotate back towards the uke as if doing the gyokko ryu omote gyaku and then using your other hand move the uke's elbow up like musha dori and rotate back to your originial position. Takeori is good here. The fourth and final move was the same with the forearm except this time you went straight in with an urate shuto to the collar area to take the balance.

After that Lauren showed a koto ryu thing we've done before at her place. The uke and tori are walking towards each other. Once you're in range do an omote shuto to the arm or neck, move across in front of the victim, apply another omote shuto, then koho tobi. I can see this being done to a sword carrying samurai. The first strike would be to disable their arm from drawing the sword and on the second strike you could draw their sword with your free hand as you leap away. Or not. Who knows.

Good times.

Springfield Class - 7/25/2006

Me, Tim, and Bhanu went to Jong's class last night. It was Bhanu's first time, Tim's second, and my first in a while. Jong and Gino were there and a new girl named Kristen from Illinois or Indiana; I don't remember which.

We started with ukemi; basic zempo, koho, and sokuho kaiten. I've been neglecting my ukemi lately and the ground there isn't as comfortable as it is at my place so my body didn't like it at first. It didn't take long to get back into the flow though. After that we did the sanshin gokyo no kata. Kristen did ka and ku slightly differently. Bhanu did them all differently. Haha, just kidding man. After that we did three kihon moves: omote gyaku, hon gyaku, and oni kudaki. To finish the evening we did two exercises involving taking the balance.

1. 
   Uke: Diajodan shomengiri.
   Tori: From shizen no kamae. Step forward to the inside of the cut and maintain shizen no kamae. Step across in front of the uke taking their space and capturing their arms with your arm. Capture from below. Keep your shoulders facing the uke when you step in front of them. With your free hand you can affect the spine using the uke's shoulder or head. Also apply appropiate footwork.
   


2. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Use the uke's elbows to take their balance.
   

I had a good time. It was nice training with them again since it's been over a month since I was there last. Gino was promoted to 8th kyu so congratulations to him. This Sunday me, Tim, and Bhanu might do some paint balling. That'll be a different kind of training. Gambatte!

Columbia Class - 7/25/2006

First actual class I've been to in a while. Most of my training lately has been at home with one, maybe two other people, hence no posts. Last night was an actual class though hence this post.

After wasting 20 minutes or so driving around trying to find the spot and getting all sorts of mis-direction we finally arrived. Class had already begun and I'm assuming some ukemi took place. What was covered was two techniques from the last seminar with Kacem: sei on and I think sui sha. There was another technique in between those but I don't remember it being shown at the seminar. This was really great because we got to work on the fine points of the techinques.

1. 
   Uke comes in and grabs kumiuchi. As uke is coming in drop into ichimonji on the inside of the attack while applying a boshiken to the side of the neck and pulling the uke's sleeve towards you. The timing is important. You must be moving into kamae before they touch you. Pulling the sleeve is important with the boshiken in the neck. Uke's balance most be loaded onto the front foot. Their torso should be curved away from you like they're sticking their ribs out for you. You must maintain ichinen with your whole body: legs, hips, and shoulders. Do hicho and kick downward at an angle to the side of the knee right above that knot on the tibia bone on the outside of the leg. It's like applying a shuto with your foot to the knee joint. Uke goes down and you follow as needed.
   


2. 
   I don't remember this second technique from the seminar. It's the same as the sei on except that either your kick doesn't work or you just opt not to do it. Step forward all the way behind the uke. Place your foot past the uke's rear foot. Go down onto that knee like you're doing gedan ichimonji. The foot you extended should hook around the uke's foot. As you kneel down you're throwing the uke over your hip and they should land flat on their back. It's important to have the first part down otherwise the second part will be crap.
   


3. 
   Uke's throws two punches and one kick alternating sides. Uke nagashi to the inside of each punch. When the kick comes hold onto the last punch grabbing the sleeve or forearm. Apply a gedan uke nagashi to the kick. Your distance should be medium length and your angle should be that your kamae is pointed towards the uke's spine straight on. Your kamae should be perpendicular to the uke's kamae. This requires sliding your foot over some from it's position after that last uke nagashi. It's kinda like going from a right ichimonji to a left. Strike down onto the uke's shoulder with happo ken and grab with your free hand. At the same time pull the uke's arm, using the shoulder attack and the hold you already have, to your hip as you slide your rear foot to your front foot. You should have the uke's weight onto their rear leg (the one the didn't kick) and you should be able to do hicho. As if doing hicho take your front foot and hook it around the uke's front foot; the one with no weight on it. This move is like the previous technique. Now kick up and out as if kicking someone's chin and at the same time rotate the arm/shoulder upwards like a bo. Once the uke is falling extend your leg to crush the groin. Sui sha means water wheel.
   

I had an excellent time. Gambatte!

Arlington Class - 7/1/2006

The weather was nice and we had a good number of people. Two of them were new guys. We did a lot of different things and I'll try to remember them all. We started with the usual ukemi but with a couple of twists. One was doing a back roll into the prone position. The idea being you had a firearm pointed at someone the entire time. The second was doing yoko nagare but instead of taking whichever foot you normally start with take the other, rotate it 90 degrees and step back with it then roll.

We then did some simple muto dori where you just move to either side of the sword and cover the hand. We then took this a step further with taking down the uke. Roger then showed a specific movement:

Uke: Diajodan shomen giri.
Tori: Shizen no kamae. Step forward to the outside and extend your forward arm to catch uke's arm. Rotate toward uke and take them down. You can bring both arms underneath uke's arms and clamp down on them like a praying mantis, take their balance then devour them.

We worked on a few different uke nagashi/ichimonji exercises. One was something we've done before where you initially move your foot back for ichimonji while keeping your body in shizen no kamae. You would be moving your foot before uke's attack. Then when the attack comes you simply shift back into ichimonji, do dojan uke, shift over your front leg, yoko aruki with the rear foot twisting your body and omoto shuto. Keeping the spin straight was stressed here. That means keeping your head facing forward at all times so when rotating your spine your head moves too.

Next we did uke nagashi with a whip-like motion of the arm. We also did it with more of a circular/90 degree step instead of the usual 45 degree step back. The last one we did was a regular uke nagashi but with a leaping omote shuto to the arm. We also did a three hit combo: uke nagashi, shifting punch with the other arm, then using the twisting/yoko aruki action we practiced earlier to deliver the omoto shuto.

That's all I can remember at the moment. Gambatte!

Arlington Class - 6/24/2006

It was a pretty nice day; kinda cloudy and not too hot. There were only five of us making it the smallest class of Lauren's that I've attended. The majority were newbies too. We covered a lot of stuff and I'll try to remember it all.

As usual we started with ukemi. One thing we did differently was forced ourselves to do zempo kaiten when our leading foot was not pointing in the direction we were going. It was basically sokuho kaiten from shizen no kamae.

Next we did three basic tehodoki moves from a same side wrist grab. The focus being just getting the hand free and using taijutsu.

1. Move to the outside. Later we continued this to apply an armbar and throw. I don't know the name of that technique.


2. Rotate your hand to gain position for something like ura gyaku, etc.


3. Lower your body and position your hand parallel to uke's forearm and raise up as you lock the elbow and then do something like ganseki nage.

We also did some balance breaking exercises. The only one I can remember is taking the shoulder. I don't remember what the setup was.

1. 
   Uke: Tsuki to face.
   Tori: Uke nagashi to the inside, shift in and from hicho attack both legs. It seemed to work best if you mirrored the position of the uke's feet. That way when you move into hicho you'll be in the center of their open legs.
   


2. 
   Uke: Double handed lapel grab.
   Tori: Cover with both hands then replace your hands with your elbows. Use the elbows for control. Lower your body, use taijutsu, and strike with the free hands.
   


3. 
   Uke: Single hand lapel grab and tsuki.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Cover with the same side hand. When the punch comes receive it with your other hand. Guide it to the uke's other hand and capture both hands. Use your elbow to control and strike with your other free hand.
   

There are probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting and if they come to me I'll edit this. Good times as usual. Gambatte!

Round Hill Class - 6/22/2006

Another new student introduced to the art and Brian's class. His class is starting to fill out nicely. Too bad when fall arrives all the newbies will be gone. We started with zempo kaiten from shizen no kamae. Some of us also did it in the middle of sanpo (natural walking). Sokuho kaiten wrapped up the ukemi. We then did ka/hi no kata and fu no kata of the sanshin no kata. Next we worked on two of the kihon happo: omote gyaku and urate gyaku. We also had hon gyaku as an option when doing urate gyaku. Mixed throughout were little bits of ashi sabaki (footwork control) and sokuho ukemi to help apply and receive the gyakus. Good times were had by all. Gambatte!

Columbia Class - 6/19/2006

Last night was a special treat. We attended Jeff's class in Columbia, MD. I trained with Jeff for a little while back around September but stopped because it's so far away and I was new to the area and still feeling it out. Since Tim showed up I've been showing him around and last night was Jeff's class. We had a great time and will probably attend his class regularly. We covered the following basic material:

1. Zempo kaiten.


2. Tachi nagare.


3. Zempo kaiten into tachi nagare.


4. Uke nagashi omo and ura.


5. From a lapel grab moving back into ichimonji, shift forward and move into the other side ichimonji while applying urate gyaku and attacking the nearest leg with the knee. Keep your elbows in line as cover. When applying urate gyaku lower your body and keep your free hand resting on uke's elbow.


6. From a lapel grab moving back into ichimonji, shifting forward and moving into the other side ichimonji while applying urate gyaku and attacking the nearest leg with the knee. Keep your elbows in line as cover. Bring your free hand underneath uke's arm to apply hon gyaku.
   


7. Same as the previous two except at the end move into hicho no kamae to swept the leg. You must have the uke's balance right for the hicho to swept the leg. If you don't from hicho kick the uke's face.
   


8. 
   Uke: Seiza no kamae. Lapel grab.
   Tori: Fudoza no kamae. Immediately rise up and kick uke's face. With the opposite hand you can swat the lapel grab out of the way by bringing it up like ichimonji.
   

Good times!

Arlington Class - 6/10/2006

I actually made it to a Saturday class! Woohoo! Lauren and Roger recently arrived from Japan so I knew we would be doing something new. It was nice training with them again and it was nice training with Stu 'cause he's been MIA for a while. Things to keep in mind: move your head and spine together; move your feet first, then spine, then hands; your weight shifts from toe to heel on each foot, taking balance is shifting weight onto toes or heels of both feet.

The ukemi was different but the same. We did three different rolls, two forward and one backward.

1. 
   From shizen slide one foot back at a 45 degree angle. Shift your weight and turn around. This is similar to one of the regular nagare rolls we do from ichimonji. As you lower your body touch the ground with your lead hand. With your other hand touch the ground behind your first hand so your wrists are crossed. Touch your knee then roll.
   


2. 
   From shizen begin a regular back roll. Rotate your torso to the side with the extended leg and place both hands down on the ground. Swing your forward arm out in a big circle to propel the roll. The other hand should stay close to your head.
   


3. 
   From shizen with a hanbo step forward like a regular forward roll. Keep the bo parallel to your body. Take the forward hand and move it back towards your rear foot. The bo should be perpendicular to your body now. Roll forward.
   

A variety of techniques and principles were covered from the various Shihan.

1. 
   Uke: Shizen.
   Tori: Walk up and omote shuto one side of the neck or arm, step over and omote shuto the other side, then leap back.
   


2. 
   Uke: Shizen.
   Tori: Walk up and grab the clothing on both sides of the ribs. Apply boshiken with both hands to the ribs as you drive them down.
   


3. 
   Uke: Shizen.
   Tori: Walk up and strike with shuto/fudo ken and shikan ken at the same time to the neck/face while standing on uke's foot. Switch your feet and continue to stand on uke's foot and take him to the ground.
   


4. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Double lapel grab and head butt to eye. Drop to the ground and throw them over. I forget the name of this throw. Follow up with a choke.
   


5. 
   Uke: Shizen.
   Tori: Shizen. Slide one foot back and raise the same side hand at your hip. Lunge punch with the other hand to uke's face. The hand movement is a feint for the punch. Keep the spine straight and don't look at the uke.
   


6. 
   Uke: Applies previous movement
   Tori: Shizen. Slide one foot back and raise arms in gyokko ryu ichimonji. When the punch comes do sui no kata. The difference is when you move in for the omote shuto cross step into the uke. Rotate your spin away from the uke winding up for the omote shuto. Shuto should come from your forehead.
   

There was more that I'm having trouble remembering at the moment. I'll update this when I remember what we did.

Gabatte.

Foot work, spine work, hand work.

Round Hill Class - 6/8/2006

I made a surprise appearance at Brian's class and I brought newbies along. Seven is the largest I've seen that class get. In attendance were Brian, Brian, TJ, me, Tim, Banu, and Allison. Tim and Banu plan on attending regularly. We started with basic ukemi: zempo, koho, sokuho, and oten. Next we did three of the sanshin no kata: chi, sui, and fu. Brian then had me demostrate something, anything. I chose one of the simplest things we did on Tuesday: technique #2. Then we moved into something similar. From a lapel grab lightly cover move and back slightly into a very high level migi ichimonji and sokuyaku zempo geri to the nearest leg. The knee would be the most effective target but depending on the uke you may want to attack above the knee or the hip. The head then should be readily available for pummeling. We worked from this setup the whole night adding the usage of a tessen and a knife. We also added an uke nagashi which changed the foot work alittle. With the uke nagashi you moved into hidari ichimonji and you could do a variety of geri attacks. It was good times all around. Gambatte.

Springfield Class - 6/6/2006

This was Tim's first class and we were late so no ukemi for us. In attendance were Tim, Jong, Brian, and myself.

1. 
   Uke: Punch to face.
   Tori: Receive to the inside, omote shuto to neck, kick to the stomach, apply o-gyaku. With o-gyaku its important to swing the arm like a bo.
   



2. 
   Uke: Lapel grab and punch to face.
   Tori: Slightly turn away from the uke as they grab, put your arm over the grabbing hand trapping it and bending the arm at the elbow as you lower your body. Attack the head from here.
   



3. 
   Uke: Lapel grab and punch to face.
   Tori: Cover with the opposite side hand trapping it against the body. Rotate to the outside as you bring your forearm into their trapped arm and lower your body. You can drive their elbow into the ground and/or apply a pseudo mushadori. Urate gyakyu should be had from here.
   



4. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Gyokko ryu kata. Strike both hands to loosen grip as you drop back. Strike both wrists to open the arms and apply sokuyaku below the sternum. Uke comes back with a punch. Uke nagashi to the inside, shift over and omote shuto to neck, sokugyaku to the same spot.
   



5. 
   Uke: Lapel grab and punch to face.
   Tori: With the same side hand as the grab raise your hand to the inside of both attacks. Guide the punch with your hand and body down and under the grabbing arm and back into uke's face. You must move your feet to get proper positioning.
   



6. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Use the arms to shift the uke's balance left and right as you move back. When the uke loses balance and regains it shift to the other direction.
   



7. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab and push or pull.
   Tori: Maintain your balance, keep your back straight and pull the uke's elbows in to your body. Take balance and attack head.
   



8. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Raise one hand to the inside of one of uke's wrists and use the other hand to grab the opposite side elbow. Pull it across and in front of your body, rotate to the outside and apply mushadori.
   



9. 
   Uke: Double lapel grab.
   Tori: Bring one arm across on top of uke's arms and bring one of uke's elbows closer to your body. Then bring your elbow/forearm up to uke's head and take the balance using a circular motion. Attack neck and body.
   



10. 
    Uke: Lapel grab and punch to face.
    Tori: Deflect punch on the outside with your elbow and apply arm bar with your arm or theirs.
    



11. 
    Uke: Double lapel grab.
    Tori: Strike both hands to loosen grip, strike both wrists to open uke up, take uke's balance by trapping one foot and taking uke's hands behind his back.
    

Good times.

Kacem Seminar NYC May 27-28, 2006

I attended the seminar with a couple of friends and had a great time. I enjoy visiting the Big Apple and the training was great. I'm planning on seeing Kacem again in July when he visits DC. Good times, good times. :-)

Springfield Class - 5/23/2006

In attendance was Gino, Brian, Jong, and a new guy, Nick. Class started as usual with ukemi. Most of our ukemi was practiced from the kneeling or seated position. At this point Nick appeared so we switched to the basic zempo kaiten from ichimonji. We then went into the sanshin no kata. After that we pretty covered the same material from last week. Nick seemed to like it as stated he would return. It will be good to have him around because he has a different body type from everyone else.

Springfield Class - 5/16/2006

Traffic was not an issue this time so I arrived early enough to warm up. In attendance was Jong, Chris, and Brian. We started with the usual ukemi then we did the following:

1. 
   Uke: Lapel grab, punch to face.
   Tori: Don't worry about the lapel grab. When the punch comes reach over the arm that is holding you to either receive the punch or disrupt it by attacking the face. This traps the hand. Use your elbow to bend the uke's arm. The balance should be taken easily from here.
   


2. 
   Uke: Lapel grab, gun pointed at you.
   Tori: Rotate away from the attack and use your forward arm to bend the uke's arm at the elbow. Use your elbow to bend it. This bending of the elbow should take the uke off balance and bring him closer to you. The gun should be close enough to take control of it. Grab the uke's hand with your forward hand and use your other hand to leverage the gun as you rotate into the uke. This will peel the gun out of the uke's hold and give you control. The uke's trigger finger is highly likely to get trapped and broken whether it's in the trigger guard or not.
   


3. 
   Same as previous except bring the gun up to the throat and force the uke down with it. Control them as they fall and while they're on the ground.
   


4. 
   Seated version of the first technique.
   

The following were all actual kata. I believe it was the jutaijutsu portion of Shinden fudo ryu. I didn't get the names but I will later.

1. 
   Uke: Straight punch to face.
   Tori: Shizen no kamae. Receive to the inside in a jumonji or hira like kamae, not ichimonji. Your rear hand should be with the attacking hand and your forward hand on their should. Kick to the groin with the forward leg then apply o-gyaku and drop straight back. Go down to the knee as needed. You may also drive the uke into your rear knee or leap back with o-gyaku. Add strikes wherever appropriate. :-)
   


2. 
   Uke, Tori: Kumiuchi
   Tori: Shift to the left in ichimonji pulling uke off balance. At the same time use your right hand to pull their lapel across the neck. When the uke resists step in for a standard hip throw. When you move in don't grab the arm until you're in place. Grab the shoulder.
   


3. 
   Uke, Tori: Kumiuchi
   Tori: Similiar to the previous one except instead of moving back shift in. Twist the uke's torso with your hands. As they resist move your arms in a windmill motion as you rotate to the right. This movement is going with the uke's motion. Your left arm should be underneath the uke's arm and your right arm to the outside of the uke's arm or on the shoulder. Drop to one knee as you throw as needed.
   


4. 
   Uke, Tori: Kumiuchi
   Tori: During the struggle switch hand positions. With the hand on the lapel strike into the chest to off balance the uke. As they regain their balance use the momentum to rotate and throw. Again, control one of the shoulders.
   


5. 
   Uke: Straight punch to face.
   Tori: Receive to the inside and kick to the groin just like the other one. Immediately move into the kick-throw. Control the outside shoulder and pull the upper arm with your other hand (the one that received). I don't remember the name for this throw.
   


6. 
   Uke, Tori: Kumiuchi.
   Tori: Switch hand positions. With the outside hand attack the kyusho point on the inside of the bicep raising that arm. Draw your other hand across the throat/face to the opposite shoulder. Begin the armbar as you kick the leg closest to you out. At this point the armbar is there and you can drop to a knee.
   

In most of these holding onto the shoulder with one of your hands is preferred. Also, add additional strikes where applicable.

Richmond Sword Training - 05/13/06

I went down to Richmond for some sword training and sushi with the old gang. Good times. Photos are up in the flickr group. A link to the group is on the left under Links. Below is my birthday gift to my sister.

ninja monkey

Soke on BBC Three

Springfield Class - 5/8/2006

I didn't get any training done at all last week and was excited for this class. Due to heavy traffic I was about 40 minutes late so I couldn't do my usual warm-up. When I got there they were still rolling so they either started late or I missed something unique. I found what I missed was two promotions and some tree scaling. Brian from Brian F's class got his yon kyu and Brian from Jong's class got his shodan. Congratulations to them.

In attendance was Brian, Brian, Brian, Chris, Jong, Gino, and myself. It was good seeing Brian and Brian again since I stopped going to the Round Hill class for a while. It was even better actually training with them which I didn't really get to do in Round Hill. Sorry for breaking your glasses Brian.

Doing things with a shinden fudo ryu feeling was the topic of the evening as it will be for the rest of the year. From what Jong is saying this feeling is doing everything with less; less movement, less effort, a sort of less is more attitude. Sometimes its described as laziness. That's nothing new. What was new though were punches from the side. We were never facing the uke for the first two or three things we did.

1. 
   Uke: Straight punch to the face/head. The punch is blind sided.
   Tori: Shizen to the side of uke. Shift to the outside past the blow and strike to the body. The other hand is up as a guard or for an additional strike to the kidney or ribs. Jong stated the feeling to this is chi no kata. We also practiced it with footwork like chi no kata. That obviously changed the striking.
   


2. 
   Uke: Round/hook punch to the head. The punch is blind sided.
   Tori: Shizen to the side of uke. Rotate into hira no kamae or ichimonji no kamae facing the uke depending on the distance and strike the bicep with a fudo ken or shuto ken. You must get low to avoid being clocked. The timing of your strike is something I want to investigate.
   


3. 
   Uke: Round/hook punch to the head. The punch is blind sided.
   Tori: Shizen to the side of uke. Rotate into hira no kamae and get below the attack. You're basically ducking beneath the punch and striking upwards to the face. Take the balance and enjoy. Remember to keep your other hand alive!
   


4. 
   Uke: Straight punch to the gut.
   Tori: Shizen facing the uke. Receive the punch and "catch" it with one hand while throwing a fudo ken to the face. The "catch" is passive meaning you're hand is like a bucket and the fist lands "in" it. Scoop the hand out to the side, strike the arm upward, move underneath and continue the kata. I forget which one it is exactly. One from the first level of shinden fudo ryu.
   


5. 
   Uke: Lapel grab then punch to face.
   Tori: With the same side arm trap the hand with the upper portion of your arm and put your hand up in their face. This blocks their path for punching you. Do whatever.
   


6. 
   Uke: Straight punch to face.
   Tori: Immediately bring your arms up, one receiving the blow the other with a fudo ken to the face. Do whatever. We did this last time I believe.
   

Training was fun and I had a good time. It was nice actually training with Brian and Brian. I hope they start coming more often.

Gambatte.

Interesting documentary.

1998 Tennessee Taikai Clip

Clips from upcoming Hatsumi movie.

Supposedly the entire movie will be available on this guy's website at the end of this month.

Arlington Class - 4/29/2006

I was out of town so I couldn't make class but I was thinking about training.

Springfield Class - 4/25/2006

Class was pretty small last night; just me, Jong, Brian, and Chris, who left only after about 30 minutes because of the threat of rain. When class begun we skipped ukemi and went right into the topic of the evening. Although, as usual before class I worked on ukemi, kamae, and stretching.

The first thing we did was worked on the basic punch but with a shinden fudo ryu feeling. So, from walking the punch is a natural part of the movement and flow of the walk. To me this is a basic taijutsu thing rather than a shinden fudo ryu thing but since shinden fudo ryu is about being natural and taijutsu is about natural body movement I guess they're one and the same.

The past couple of weeks we've been doing pretty much the same thing: henka from one or two basic movements.

1. 
   Uke: Punch to face.
   Tori: Immediately throw a sokuyaku geri and an urate shuto. The timing is such that when the geri contacts the uke will bring their neck/face to your shuto. Then apply ogyaku. Do ogyaku like you're spinning a bo. Prevent the uke from using ukemi. Jong pointed out that too much force with ogyaku will cause the uke to try and escape more then he usually would. It's best to lay the uke out flat on their stomach as much as possible.
   


2. 
   Uke: Punch to face.
   Tori: Maintain your space and immediately bring your hands up, one for guard and the other as a fudoken or boshiken to the face. With your free hand begin apply takeori the same way as doing ogyaku (spinning bo). Once the uke is on the toes immediately pull them down with an arm bar. A variation of this was instead of applying takeori just twist the wrist as you move under the arm. I actually didn't try it that way and will have to tonight.
   


3. 
   Same as the previous one only stand on their forward foot and take the balance without any joint locks.
   


4. 
   Uke: Hip throw.
   Tori: Probably the simplest counter is just taking your hand and putting it on the uke's face and taking the spine. Using the kyusho under the nose is very effective.
   


5. 
   Uke: Hip throw.
   Tori: Rotate to the outside freeing one of your arms. With the other begin omote gyaku. Apply omote gyaku as you rotate your body. We didn't practice it by keeping the uke's hand against your chest but I'll have to try it tonight.
   


6. 
   Uke: From seiza, lapel grab.
   Tori: From fudoza or normal legs crossed seating lean back with the grab, extend one of your legs to push your uke's forward knee away causing them to fall over then kick him.
   

That was pretty much it. We did the hip throw counter a few times with a tanto. The point to that was not cutting them unless they wanted to be cut. :-)

It never did rain and I had a good time.

Gambatte

Springfield Class - 4/18/2006

It was another beautiful evening and as usual before class I worked on ukemi, tobi and kamae. I also stretched! I don't stretch as often as I should and I'll make it a point to do so going forward.

Brian was back which was nice. Class began with the usual ukemi practice only this time we were on a slight hill and that changes things slightly. You can generate a lot of momentum rolling downhill and I like to do some sort of tobi, usually koho tobi, to bleed the energy off and slow down gracefully. Next we did basic sword evasion using ukemi again. A couple of things to keep in mind when doing this exercise. First, keep an eye on whomever is a threat. Second, don't immediately stand up after a roll. Assess the situation before performing your next move. Third, ukemi is sometimes used to create distance. For this exercise I feel it for both evading and creating distance. Choose the appropriate kaiten to create a safe distance between you and your opponent even if you're closing the distance to attack.

We covered a lot of material, most of it henka, and I'll try to recall everything.

Uke: Lapel grab, punch to face.
Tori: Using the same side arm move to the inside of the attack creating space by just putting your arm up in the way of the punch. This isn't a strike or anything, just an obstacle for your uke. The legs move kinda like hira no kamae or ichimonji no kamae. Hold onto the hand that has your lapel and drive the uke's arm down with the other hand. Attack the inside of the elbow and rotate your body taking the uke's balance to the outside of their forward foot. That's the nice way. The not-so-nice way simply adds a shuto ken, fudo ken, or shikan ken to the inside elbow. That hurts more, flows nicely, and I just like dakentaijutsu.

Uke: Scissor choke from behind.
Tori: Turn your head in the direction of where the space is. Lower your hips, hold onto your uke's arm and do a basic hip throw. Pretty straight forward.

Uke: Scissor choke from behind.
Tori: Turn your head in the direction of where the space is, place your hand in that space and anchor the uke's arm to you. Turn in that same direction as you go down to one knee. Be sure to take the uke's space.

The rest of the night we did henka off of a shinden fudo ryu kata. The base technique we started with was kinda like a combination of gekkan and maybe unjaku. I'll have to double check unjaku. Anyway, the uke was the same for all of them.

Uke: Punch to face or stomach.

Move to the inside with a bobi no kamae or kosei no kamae like movement, strike to the face with fudo ken or just place your hand up there. Sokuyaku geri to the stomach or groin and place your extended hand on the uke's shoulder. Your other hand should be holding the wrist your uke gave you. As you place your foot down bring the uke's shoulder down. This is very much like gekkan.

Next, move to the inside and boshi ken to the stomach. Next strike upwards either to the chin or under the upper arm. At the same time raise the extended arm up. These actions should give you space to move in. Holding onto the wrist move under the arm spinning around. There are two directions to take the uke from here. The preferred way is to align the arm with the shoulders and take the uke down with an armbar. The other way is if you're more behind the uke taking them straight back with an armbar. I believe this is less effective and should be used if you're going to make the uke fall onto this arm. The way you'd do that is by trapping their forward foot and pull them off balance.

The next one we did was my henka which was basically nichi geki.

Then we did basically the same movements from a punch to the stomach except this time you let the punch make contact.

Another variation was instead of taking the armbar and moving back behind the uke or out to the side of the uke you take the shoulder and move forward.

Another was when you spin around beneath the arm throw a sokugyaku geri to the stomach or inside hip/pelvis area and then apply the armbar with your knee.

I think that was pretty much it. I was exhausted after class and I'm not sure if it was because I didn't eat dinner beforehand or if I was just tired from the weekend and staying up late the night before. I don't know and it doesn't matter. Gambatte!

Round Hill Class - Thurs. 4/13/2006

Dojo rennovation has begun! Over the weekend Brian and Brian managed to take down one of the barn doors, put up a wall, and install a really large window. It's much nicer inside now because of all the light the window allows in.

It seemed class was only going have me, Brian, and Brian which was great because maybe we'd actually do something interested but no, not this time. Brian's cousins were visiting and joined us for class. That's fine. It only meant we'd do basic stuff:

• Zempo kaiten


• Koho kaiten


• Chi no kata


• Sui no kata.


• Evade daijodan shomengiri - Move to the side with hira no kamae
  Evade and disarm daijodan shomengiri - Move to the side with hira no kamae placing hands in position to remove the sword. Another version was when you move strike the outside hand to break the grip.


• Omote gyaku from a lapel grab.

That was pretty much it. Good times. I won't be attending this Saturday's class because I won't be in town. I'll still be training though by whoopin' on my sister. :D

Springfield Class - 4/11/2006

The weather was beautiful and since I arrived early I started working on ukemi and other fun stuff like running up trees, doing cartwheels while jogging, and dive rolling over the sidewalk. I even climbed into the tree we train near and surprised Jong and Lauren. Shame on them for not noticing me. :-)

Rolf, Gino, and Stu were there which was nice because it's been a while since we were all together. It also made for a good number of bodies to throw around. As usual we started with ukemi. Since we were outdoors we made use of the space. We started with low dive rolls (i.e. stretched out forward rolls), "falling" back rolls and forward rolls while picking up weapons. Then we did a little sword evasion with rolls.

We started the training with the uke doing a lapel grab while the tori used a concealed tanto to aid in performing urate gyaku or just about anything to stop the uke. The point was using the weapon not for cutting but for creating more leverage or general pain when receiving the uke.

Then we moved into something we've been doing a lot lately and that was counters to hip throws. Rolf was able to provide some judo insight into hip throws because of his previous judo experience. The thing with judo hip throws is that the balance isn't really taken until the throw is actually occurring. At least the balance isn't taken initially. It's just a different way to do things. Anyway, we did hip throws, and a series of counters:

(1) Hand to the lower back counter.
(2) Counter to (1) - Using your forward hand to take uke's spine.
(3) Counter to (2) - Trapping the arm, keeping it bent and unable to extend to take your spine. Also use your other arm to take the balance by the outside shoulder. Also, if they attack with the elbow you can move with it and apply an arm bar.
(4) When you're actually being thrown hold on, land feet first, use the momentum and pull with your outside hand to effectively throw the uke.

After all that Lauren showed some basic balance breaking movements related to ganseki nage. From kumiuchi drop back into ichimonji like movement, take uke's balance to the outside of their foot (on the pinkie toe), shift back in the other direction with ichimonji like movement, then move 45 degrees forward/right taking the balance. A variation was after the second ichimonji movement shifting forward to apply ganseki nage or ganseki otoshi to your uke's rear leg.

That was pretty much it. Until next time, gambatte.

Training Sat. 4/8/2006

I was out of town so no training for me. I did climb a bunch of trees today though. :-)

Round Hill Class - Thurs. 4/6/2006

There was no class but Brian invited us over to watch videos and discuss this Saturday's gathering. I didn't go.

Falls Church Class - Tues. 4/4/2006

We were indoors again although it would have been easier on the knees had we been outdoors. We had a vistor tonight too. My friend and old cohort Dave from Richmond was in the area so he swung by and evened out the class (just four of us). We started with the usual ukemi then Dave had to get all crazy and bust out the sword evasion. :-)

The first one was very basic. Tori is in ichimonji, uke is in diajodan and performs shomengiri, you step to the outside, do zempo kaiten, then zempo tobi with a boshiken to the kidney. Then came the fun stuff: rolling from fudoza. We tried rolling backwards at an angle on both sides then forward at an angle on both sides. The easiest and most natural was rolling backwards and to whichever side your lead foot was i.e. right foot forward roll backward and to the right.

After the ukemi we kept going with techniques from fudoza. We didn't do any specific kata but just played around with defending from fudoza. After about an hour we gave our knees a break and did similar movements on our feet. The feeling the entire evening was "receiving" and going with the flow.

There was one thing that was new to me. Uke throws a punch, you receive and move underneath the arm crouching down and pulling the uke over your body. This works really well if your uke is the same weight or less. If they are heavier it's abit harder and you have to do it really smoothly. You can use your free elbow to aid moving your uke over your back by lifting their legs.

I had a good time and was happy Dave was able to make it. He actually got to class before I did!

Arlington Class - Sat. 4/1/2006

The weather was perfect for my first Saturday class with the DC Bujinkan group. I had a really good time training outdoors with new and old training partners. We covered alot of different material and we'll see if I can recall it all.

When I arrived training had already begun. We worked on the beginning stages of ganseki nage taking the uke's balance and moving the arms. From the first step we worked on taking the balance by using yoko aruki moving behind the uke. From here you could probably move into musha dori. We didn't try that but I'd like to. I need to create a 'To Do' list of henka. :-)

Then we moved into applying a counter to the initial movement. The uke now becoming the tori by moving into musha dori. Depending on how you initiate ganseki nage this counter may or may not work. An important point to remember about musha dori is to bring your hip to the arm. We moved into another counter after that. This time when the opponent attempts musha dori you can rotate into them and effectively do a hip throw. You may be able to get musha dori on them at this point after/during the throw. We didn't do that but I'll add it to my list.

Then it was time for something completely different. From a punch you kept your ground but from twisting at the torso you shifted off the line of attack and immediately came back up with an uke nagashi in jumonji no kamae. The timing on this was important. You wanted to move immediately to get under the attack quickly and stop it by deflecting it upward. This should also take the uke's balance. From here moving into hira no kamae should be enough to put the uke on the ground. This is jumonji no kamae, so it should be practiced with an aggressive feeling.

The next thing was a variation on the previous exercise and it reminded me of the jumonji no kamae portion of muto dori and this is how I practiced it even though I think it was shown alittle differently. I need to ask exactly how this one went. As I practiced though it went like this: uke throws a punch to the face, tori steps off the line to the inside, then steps in with an omote shuto or fudo ken. You can bend the uke over your forward knee if you want.

Again, something completely different. You are in shizen no kamae and the uke does a "sucka punch" to your gut. You absorb the blow by bending over and catching the arm with your hands. It's important to have one of your forearms on top of your uke's forearm. This becomes an attack when you sink your weight. The feeling behind this exercise was to appear like you were attacked, which you were, but in the end to be the "winner." So, sinking your weight into the attack go down to the ground on one knee, or both, driving the uke's elbow into the ground. Depending on how you go down the uke's head may crash into your knee. There are a lot of variations for this movement. The main point is to absorb the punch. One thing that is fun is to jump alittle when you're hit and immediately to down to the ground all the while driving your forearm into theirs. Use gravity. It's also very easy to head butt the uke as you're doing down. The head butt is really you pulling the uke into your head with your dropping motion. So again, they're crashing into your attack. Omote gyaku and taki ori are two good moves to perform once on the ground depending on how your hands are positioned when the attack is received. Knees on the uke are always good. Aim for soft tissue and areas not supported by the skeleton.

That was about it. After class we walked over to Chipotle, had some burritos, thanked everyone, then parted ways. I'm looking forward to the next class which unfortunately won't be for a couple of weeks.

Round Hill Class - Thurs. 3/30/2006

I was really in the mood to do some ukemi so as soon as I was suited up I starting rolling around. I did just about every single roll I could think of and even something I'd never done before: zempo kaiten to oten (forward roll to cartwheel). I also threw a front handspring in there for fun because they're fun. When Brian showed up he asked us each to perform one of the rolls we were doing before he showed up and everyone had to do what was shown.

After that we were going to do some sojutsu (spear techniques) but since no one did their homework and made a spear we just worked with the bo. Brian had me show a couple of techniques without the bo and then we had to figure out how to incorporate the use of the bo. Since Shindenfudo Ryu is the theme this year and that's pretty much all I've been doing the past few weeks we started with nichi geki from a punch. With the bo it was pretty simple.

Uke: migi fudo ken
Tori: Shizen no kamae with bo in right hand. Step off to the inside and strike the arm with the bo. Bring the bo up smashing the other arm if it's there or just bring it up to the shoulder as you move into ichimonji no kamae taking the uke's balance. To me this wasn't really nichi geki because taking the balance with the legs wasn't applicable but it was nichi geki still because the uke is defeated the same way but only from a distance. This actually ties into something Jong said on Tuesday and I'll give my interpretation of what he said. If you view the techniques from the uke's perspective then how the uke ends up defines the technique more than how the tori performed it. Our nichi geki with the bo is a perfect example. I didn't perform the usual steps of nichi geki with my body but the uke ended up in the same position in the end.

The second technique was the second one from Shindenfudo Ryu: gekkan.

Uke: same
Tori: same except bring the bo up in an arching motion to strike the uke's head. This strike isn't a crushing blow to the face but more of a glazing blow up the forehead. Step in with the strike. This should cause the uke's head to go back. Keep the bo moving past the uke's head. At this point in gekkan you would have thrown a sokugyaku (kick with toes) to the groin or stomach area instead of stepping in but we skipped that and used the bow against the back of the head/neck to drive the uke to the ground as you stepped back into gedan ichimonji no kamae. You could also secure the uke's punching arm against your wrist and the bo. I didn't get to try that part against any other uke that evening but I want to practice it some more. I need to make some padded weapons.

Brian then talked about the jutte, who used it and why, then we did a simple defense against a sword cut (kesa giri). I had never touched one before and I don't think anyone else had either but I enjoyed working with it.

That was pretty much it. After class Brian talked about his plans for fixing up the dojo: installing windows, a door, and even a porch! It sounds like it'll be pretty nice once it's complete.

Springfield Class - Tues. 3/28/2006

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.

Round Hill Class - Thurs. 3/23/2006

Being the senior most student at this class and with Brian's leg not fully functional I've been guiding/teaching the training lately. Lately being the last couple of classes. I've only been to a handful of these classes so far but I'm trying to make it a regular thing. So, as usual we started with ukemi (breakfalls i.e. recieving with the body). I demostrated zempo (forward) and koho (backward) kaiten (roll) with an emphasis on slow and controlled movement. After that we had a special treat in throwing boshuriken! It was kinda pointless though 'cause no one knows what they're doing. It was good though 'cause I haven't thrown them in a while and I'm a bit rusty. The rest of the class was spent performing very basic tehodoki (wrist escapes).

• same side grab one hand - one escape
  
• cross grab one hand - one escape
  
• both hands grabbed - four escapes
  

This is enjoyable because it is geared towards the beginners and it allows me to get back to the basics which I feel are very important. It also gives me the chance to teach some things which I've been itching to do but haven't really had the opportunity to.

another old video

This one is from the 1970's and is kinda bizarre. The flips are cool though!

cool old video

I found this from this guy's blog and it's really interesting to me because we did this very technique last time I was at the Tidewater dojo.

first blog

So I finally decided to be like everyone else and create a blog. I'm slow. Just yesterday I created a myspace account. Why? Just because. Will I ever use it? Unlikely. The blog will get more use though especially after JeffA's (from karljay.com) great idea. Some interest was sparked after I posted a blog with a picture from a recent Bujinkan seminar I attended. Suggestions were made that I continue blogging about the training so here it is. There will be posts about other things too but the training will be my main focus.