So, if you know me (and by know I mean more than just we met once and/or we’ve communicated more than once since we were in highschool), have a look for me on Facebook.  Better yet, rather than pseudo-conversationalism through blogs, tweets, and the like, just pick up the phone and call.  Cheers.

“Pain is color-blind.”

We happened upon this expression during training last night…

- Color as measured by experience?
- Color as a function of complexion?
- Color as a function of nuanced style?

It is also a great teacher.

Grappling! Not to be confused with grappa or gravity, the duration of this evening (at least while I was there) was spent grappling.

A: Opponent tries to throw you
D: You counter-throw
A: Opponent counters back and brings you to the ground
D: Then what? You could counter-roll or do any number of things. As soon as someone lays hands to you, your entire attitude during the confrontation needs to change. The person who walks away alive is the one who had more will. Just ponder all the stories of confrontations for centuries where someone (or a group) was outmanned, outgunned, etc., and yet he/she/they won the battle. Fight to survive, and you may live.

Good ukemi will enable you to move to a position sooner than your opponent expects it, which can give you leverage in both time and space to produce a counter.

We worked on simple basics (basically, simple techniques) this evening. Much attention was paid to angles and symmetry of limbs in relation to technique (e.g. the magic triangle of musha-dori).

Moving onto sword work, we used a combination of soft daisho and steel swords. The general technique/idea explored was the idea of ‘dancing’ in front of the opponent to draw him in with his cut (dancing = capoeira-esque). The dance is a trance. Then, we moved onto the scenario in which you are retreating and your opponent gives chase with two to three cuts. How do you defend against that with no blade of your own? (Luck + Skill) The same principles of taijutsu apply; footwork, timing, and distance. For anyone who practices with soft daisho, try cutting at your opponent with a metal blade; you will find that the blade behaves much differently than leather-wrapped bamboo. Cuts are precise in as much as they are certain (unlike the feeling/ability with soft swords to use them like foils…real swords have a weight of their own).

Knife
Rotating of the spine to generate defense and power as a slash comes to your throat. Once you have stayed clear of the first strike, your footwork should enable you to have complete control of what happens next.

Sword
Get behind the blade! An opponent with a short sword has an advantage over you if you have a long sword, for his draw will be faster as he does not have the length of blade to travel in the scabbard as you do. As you draw:
1) either step/leap back and bring your sword on line (in seigan)
2) turn the sword blade into your body, kneel, and then bring the blade across your oncoming opponent’s lower leg. Practice this draw A LOT because you are turning the blade into your body as you draw it out of the scabbard.

We often talk about the difference between living and dying as being the width of a piece of paper. To wit, read the following AP story and draw your own conclusions.

Hidden Technique
Part of the ‘secret’ of Budo is the generation of internal power without it being outwardly obvious, and storing that internal energy just prior to a strike. For the latter half of class (I only made it in for about 40 minutes this evening), we simply worked from ichimongi no kamai…precision strikes, opening up ‘channels’ within the body, using footwork to generate power (not just arms), having the body work as one unit, storing energy in your spine, striking from ichimongi and then turning the ‘second move’ into just about anything you desire (all pathways are open). If your ichimongi is “good,” you don’t really need to move from it at all. If you opponent is fixated on your head as a target, he’ll walk right into your fist. If you think ichimongi is ‘easy,’ try striking as a cat would; when your opponent’s punch comes in, strike it as you leap out a considerable distance (you are the own best judge of that distance relative to where your opponent is when he strikes, where he will be after you attack his striking arm, where you think he will be for a response, and where you should be to receive/give).

Good day. We worked with swords this evening. The specific techinique involves an attacker drawing a sword; the defense is as follows:

1) If you have the stones, come in to stop the sword from being drawn.
2) If you step in, but your opponent can pull the sword out into seigan, obviously you don’t want to be at the tip. This leaves you with several options:
a) Don’t be in no man’s land (like tennis!). This is a sure way to get cut.
b) Slap the sword with the flat of your hand while moving in. Yes, it is possible to have your hand parallel to the sword without being cut.
c) “Hold your opponent 1″ There is a mid-way point between you and your opponent such that he must raise his sword into daijodan in order to reach out and strike you. As he lifts into daijodan, move in and strike as his hands are above his head.
d) “Hold your opponent 2″ Same mid-way point…opponent moves into daijodan and strikes; step out of the way and disarm.

I noticed in this technique that the first movement is VERY important (like setting a trap, you are already one step ahead of the next move); if your movement brings your opponent into an ‘elongated seigan,’ he is more likely to come up into daijodan and strike right away; if your first move is slightly further away, you can hold him in seigan, then hold him in daijodan, and then have the option of fight or flight as he brings the sword down.

Try these techniques with real swords (or swords with practice blades). You will find that the weight of the sword feels much different; you should also find that you will probably not brandish the sword as quickly as you would with a bokken, shinai, or leather-wrapped daisho. The sword must first travel out of the scabbard, and it is highly unlikely that your left hand will be immediately at the ready when the sword is out; you use your left hand to balance the scabbard as you draw.

Anyway, there are subtle timing interactions that are very interesting.

Tonight’s class was uncommonly acrobatic (the warmer it gets, the easier the limbs move). Lots of rolling in the beginning:

- rolling over metal sword
- rolling over three people crouched
- flipping over two stationary people (think of diving through)
- handstand flip (aided by extra belts!)

We then went into some randoori (randoori basically means that one person gets in the front of a line and the rest of the students attack that person; at the end of the line, the person up front switches, etc.), and essentially practiced basic gyakus but in an elaborate manner:
- Accelerate the pace of the oncoming attackers during the session, thereby eliminating time to ‘think’ about a technique
- Defend yourself using with one hand (literally) tied behind your back; watch the dynamics change, and how your footwork needs to be even better when one of your upper limbs is immobilized. It very much comes down to having your feet ahead of your opponent’s techique. When a gyaku is applied for example, you body position should be where your opponent is about to fall into, and not catching up to the fall.
- If you are going to the ground to bring your opponent to the ground, don’t move unnecessarily as you go to the ground; doing so can very easily unwork the technique quickly. Put another way, only do what you have to when you have to do it.

Practically speaking, for all the techniques that you can memorize, memorization is not the essence of a living art. The art lives if it moves and adapts; otherwise, techniques just become a historical reference.

Moving onto sword technique:
1) We worked on the ‘balance’ or ‘inflection’ point between where you attacker wants to attack you, where he doesn’t, where you purposely try to ‘bait’ your attacker into attacking you, and where you purposely do not want your attacker to attack. I also discovered in these techniques that with a wakizashi, if your general footwork and posture is correct from the beginning, the oncoming katana is surprisingly easy to defeat; simply outstretching your wakizashi will tag your opponent’s center line every time and you will not be cut (…reminder to check the angles of the blades in relation to time and distance at some point!).

2) The idea of stepping CCW 90 degrees (or so) and throwing the wakizashi over your shoulder; it basically is on its broadside and aligned with your opponent’s ginju.

Overall, understanding how to manipulate the sword in your hand/s (up to down, down to up, inside and out, cuts) is very important. And a real blade adds a certain precision and precise understanding of where and what your technique should evolve into!

Very small class this evening; some teaching, some training. Had the junior folks work on rolling, in particular, backwards rolls and overcoming fear of broken necks from rolling on either side. As an exercise, if someone is having a hard time rolling backwards on one side, apply omoto gyaku and help them pull through the roll. It will give them confidence that they can in fact roll in that direction.

Techniques
Kihon happo – Using good footwork will always replace muscling technique. If you apply good footwork (and good overall taijutsu), you will take the balance of your opponent; he or she will stop fighting you and start fighting gravity. Once gravity sinks in, very little effort is required.

Sanshin no kata – Developing the movement in ‘flow’ …the entire motion should be in one movement rather than snapshot parts.

Sword on sword – From hasso, lure in opponent to cut your left shoulder; as he cuts down, pivot the sword and cut his wrists, moving in as you do so to affect his balance.

Bo on sword – Down, up on one side, down, up on the other side, bring bo back, pivot bo on your hips to strike the legs, then bring the bo back up in horizontal twirl as if you attack your opponent’s head, then strike down again at his legs. If your bo work is good you may not need to go through the whole sequence. When defending a bo hit with a sword, it is generally a good idea to duck behind the sword if and when a strike comes towards your head; the bo can generate great power and can snap your sword or very easily drive through your defense if your head is at the same level. This is what we call “bad.”

On another note….
Every technique should feel new in that each technique should give you the opportunity to learn something new about yourself or about your opponent. The ‘take it for granted’ attitude (“oh, I know that”) misses the point of training; you are there to learn as much as you are there to teach. Your technique should be a reflection of you.