Bon Odori

Today a demonstration was performed by the school at the follow-up "bazaar" for the Bon Odori festival in Stockton temple.

Pictured: Mr. Albrecht and his assistant are preparing to p4wn dudes in samurai armor.

Class 2007/07/26 (Thu)

Pretty interesting class today. After the requisite conditioning, kicks on bag, and kamae no kata we went to drills. First was the defence against a low punch, starting with a hicho-like hand position. Second was the defence against a lapel grab. In both cases there were some less than obvious details that were paramount. In the second one, for example, it was essential a) to squat and come close, so as not to use your hand muscles in arm strength contest, but use your legs, and b) take the space out for the throw. The grab drill also places a premium at relaxation, which is my weak point. In this case it's especially counter-intuitive to relax when someone is attacking you. But the most interesting part was the merge (of stances) and continuation.

I did not have a chance to work it on the street, but at least in free sparring (and tournaments) it's essential to keep coming up with something. You can't just do one, two, three strikes and then stop. Here, too, it's essential to keep the pressure, react to counters, set up the situation and win. We are told to string techniques together for this. The trouble is, my repertoire is just too limited, and I cannot recognize the situations to know what to apply. And I feel that I lack a lot of floor time. In the space of an hour we might do 5 to 10 turns of each "drill". That's not enough for a slow learner like myself.

We have a new adult white belt, his name is Matt. He has some experience, I can see him taking and holding lower postures easily. On the other hand, he does not seem to care for foot position much... Interestingly, most newcomers to this school seem to have had some training before.

No class this Saturday

There was no class this Saturday, because the little ones were going through their tests.