The curriculum was all about hanbo. "Bo" is a "staff", and "han" is "half", so it's a "short stick". In reality a hanbo is about 110cm long, so it's longer than an escrima stick.
A stick, properly weilded, is a great force multiplier. We studied a few counters for common punches and I have to wonder just who would be dumb enough to attack bare-handed anyone weilds a stick. The stick allows for very effective counters and easy and natural continuations... It's just scary how unbalanced the situation is. Now, if someone assails me with a stick by swinging it wildly, I can range him and time him and then counter-punch or otherwise penetrate the stick's range and develop from there. But if he's not committing to swings and controls the stick, it gets difficult. Anyway, developing.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Class 2007/08/13 (Mon)
An interesting class today, a bit physical. After the warm-up and conditioning with abundance of kicks and, oddly, no push-ups, we went to work with focus mints first, X-ray sheets next. The X-ray sheet is used in reaction excercises. They are suddenly unfolded or dropped and you have to hit them quickly. I think I did well, all the Tae Kwon Do conditioning came in handy.
Speaking of which, modern TKD is very, very speed oriented. They constantly modify the art to perfect the speed of punches and kicks, and I have to say, it brings results. The art is reasonably easy to study, and proper application can defeat the majority of ham-fisted opponents, as long as you stay alert and do not get suckered into a close fight or, god forbid, grappling.
The Ninjutsu, as I see it after a couple of months of study, is a sort of tricky or intelligent art. I noticed that Mr. Albrecht easily moves quickly and changes deep postures quickly, but he is deeply into a sort of tactical flexibility and general applications.
Anyone who studied car driving knows that a human has a range of reaction time. A simple reaction takes about 0.2s. This is what we try to approach with X-ray sheets. A complex reaction, when a person has to select a course of action, can take all of 1.2s. Naturally, we do not have that much time in a fight. So, how can one be flexible?
I think the answer is two-fold: reactions must be simplified, and they must overlap. We have drills for the first reason. Old Ninjutsu did not have any drills, pupils developed their own approaches with partners. But it was recognized by Dr. Hatsumi that drills can be more effective. It's a part of how he said to teach in 10 years what he learned in 15 years. About overlap, it's when you continue to react even as your body is in motion. It's a bit tricky and I am not good at it.
Anyway, after the X-ray sheets we started working with wide open stance and opening the door, then moving on. It goes against a vertical strike with a weapon. Not as easy as it looks.
This week, classes end at 6 p.m. on Friday and there is no class on Saturday because of testing.
Speaking of which, modern TKD is very, very speed oriented. They constantly modify the art to perfect the speed of punches and kicks, and I have to say, it brings results. The art is reasonably easy to study, and proper application can defeat the majority of ham-fisted opponents, as long as you stay alert and do not get suckered into a close fight or, god forbid, grappling.
The Ninjutsu, as I see it after a couple of months of study, is a sort of tricky or intelligent art. I noticed that Mr. Albrecht easily moves quickly and changes deep postures quickly, but he is deeply into a sort of tactical flexibility and general applications.
Anyone who studied car driving knows that a human has a range of reaction time. A simple reaction takes about 0.2s. This is what we try to approach with X-ray sheets. A complex reaction, when a person has to select a course of action, can take all of 1.2s. Naturally, we do not have that much time in a fight. So, how can one be flexible?
I think the answer is two-fold: reactions must be simplified, and they must overlap. We have drills for the first reason. Old Ninjutsu did not have any drills, pupils developed their own approaches with partners. But it was recognized by Dr. Hatsumi that drills can be more effective. It's a part of how he said to teach in 10 years what he learned in 15 years. About overlap, it's when you continue to react even as your body is in motion. It's a bit tricky and I am not good at it.
Anyway, after the X-ray sheets we started working with wide open stance and opening the door, then moving on. It goes against a vertical strike with a weapon. Not as easy as it looks.
This week, classes end at 6 p.m. on Friday and there is no class on Saturday because of testing.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Class 2007/08/01 (Wed)
Interesting class today again. I'm going to scope it in order...
Mr. Albracht talked to the previous class (children) about shuriken. I always assumed that "shuri" stood for "throwing", but apparently it means "small". I knew that "ken" is "sword", or, rather, "blade". Mr. Albracht also mentioned that it can mean "fist". He said, by the way, that unauthorized posession of shuriken or nunchaki is a felony, whereas an unauthorized posession of a gun is a misdemeanor. California is such a nazi state. But after banning .50 cal rifles by Schwarznegger, nothing can surprise me. Soon keeping my Swiss Army knife is going to be a felony.
We have a new guy, Brian. He looks like a beer drinker with a hint of a pot belly, but his upper body strength is amazing. His bridge hand strike hurt my hand through a focus mint quite a bit. I would not want to mistake his punch or otherwise let him too close, it's going to be a one strike knock-out. It was a very good reminder what you can meet in the street. Brian has a tattoo "USMC" on his right arm, so I guess he joined the school to get back in shape. I'm sure he's going to have lots of stamina once his body readjusts to excercise.
Other points
- The raising punch, like before 1920s, versus modern, corkscrew motion.
- Siddiq hurt E.J. during a kicking excercise. E.J. was holding a bridge pad, and Siddiq somehow managed to connect with E.J.'s rib cage. I hope spleen wasn't torn, or E.J. can die from internal bleeding.
- Michelle graduated from yellow to orange belt.
UPDATE: I completely forgot to report that Mr. Albrecht mentioned plans to move out of the strip mall into a separate building with an outdoor training area. This is just awesome, although I wonder if he can afford it. Our tuition is not that high, comparatively speaking. I suppose pupils can help maintaining and housekeeping the new dojo as is the custom in Japan (or so I heard).
Mr. Albracht talked to the previous class (children) about shuriken. I always assumed that "shuri" stood for "throwing", but apparently it means "small". I knew that "ken" is "sword", or, rather, "blade". Mr. Albracht also mentioned that it can mean "fist". He said, by the way, that unauthorized posession of shuriken or nunchaki is a felony, whereas an unauthorized posession of a gun is a misdemeanor. California is such a nazi state. But after banning .50 cal rifles by Schwarznegger, nothing can surprise me. Soon keeping my Swiss Army knife is going to be a felony.
We have a new guy, Brian. He looks like a beer drinker with a hint of a pot belly, but his upper body strength is amazing. His bridge hand strike hurt my hand through a focus mint quite a bit. I would not want to mistake his punch or otherwise let him too close, it's going to be a one strike knock-out. It was a very good reminder what you can meet in the street. Brian has a tattoo "USMC" on his right arm, so I guess he joined the school to get back in shape. I'm sure he's going to have lots of stamina once his body readjusts to excercise.
Other points
- The raising punch, like before 1920s, versus modern, corkscrew motion.
- Siddiq hurt E.J. during a kicking excercise. E.J. was holding a bridge pad, and Siddiq somehow managed to connect with E.J.'s rib cage. I hope spleen wasn't torn, or E.J. can die from internal bleeding.
- Michelle graduated from yellow to orange belt.
UPDATE: I completely forgot to report that Mr. Albrecht mentioned plans to move out of the strip mall into a separate building with an outdoor training area. This is just awesome, although I wonder if he can afford it. Our tuition is not that high, comparatively speaking. I suppose pupils can help maintaining and housekeeping the new dojo as is the custom in Japan (or so I heard).
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