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I spent my spring break doing all my homework for Japanese class for the next two months. It was a pain, but it's going to be so nice to only have homework for one class to do each week. I also had a job interview that went very well, but I have a feeling it will be awhile before I hear back from them.
Training tonight was the first time I've seen M. and C. for weeks. I ended up training with C. and what we were working on was muko dori and a bunch of other dori (found on pages 136 onwards in the book by soke, Unarmed Fighting Techniques of the Samurai. All this stuff is taken straight from the ancient scrolls so the kanji is really old and I have no idea what any of it means *L*). We've been doing a lot of this unarmed fighting against someone with a sword recently. It can be a bit trying on the nerves sometimes since someone's always trying to hit you with a stick *L* One move today was really difficult since it involved... well, it's hard to explain. Basically, the person cuts down from jodan and you step slightly to the left and forward, the left hand is under the right one and blocking the sword hand, the right one is up higher, aiming for a shuto to the neck (it looks like a loose ichimonji). That was just the basic part though, the advanced thing to do was to do the move while taking all the space and sort of, forcing it on your opponent, like you're gathering it up around your hands and pushing it in their face. If it works, they lean back and are thoroughly intimidated. If it doesn't, the move still works, but not with that sort of... pressure you're supposed to be placing on your opponent. I found it exhausting to do properly since it felt like I was pushing my own energy at the person and in order to do that, you really had to stop worrying about the sword heading for your head and just go for it. A lot of our other techniques focused on removing the sword from the person's hands by going for the gaps between their fingers and twisting in those two opposing directions. I tend to get impatient and just yank the damn thing out *sheepish* The new problem I had tonight was that the final moves often involved taking the sword by putting your hand on top of the hand of the person holding the sword. This instinctively strikes me as counter-intuitive (cause a) they tighten their grip when they feel you and b) how can they let go if you're hanging on to their hand), but it works anyway so long as you move in the right direction using three directions. I just have to keep drilling into my head that it does work even though my logic says it won't. One reverse sword removal where you had to go in on the person rather than out really puzzled me too. I could get it sometimes, but other times it just got all mixed up in my head (I'll blame it on dyslexia methinks).
C. and I were really beating on each other at times, though it really wasn't our fault that a lot of the moves ended up being bruising. Kicks and strong grips to the under side of your upper arm invariably result in bruises, at least for me, so it's no surprise I'm sporting a few right now. I actually really liked the move that did the bruising cause you were basically sticking your right arm into the space between the person's right arm and the sword (after avoiding the sword strike). With your elbow blocking the sword from moving (from the inside) you just grabbed a handful of flesh on the person's underarm and squeezed - neither C. nor I hung onto the sword for long after that. We did one move which involve avoiding the strike, blocking their hands with your left hand, then sort of pulling your upper arm back, and striking it forward with your palm flat and fingers pointed at their eyes (it looks like a striking cobra imo). Next strike was a open fist, then a closed boshiken, but since I'm short and C. is not, I couldn't reach for the second strike very well so we modified it to a hard, sideways strike of the knuckles down the middle of the chest. The time I did it right, Jack was watching (C. grunted in pain and I enthusiastically relieved him of his sword in such a way that would have removed some of his head had the sword been real). Jack laughed and said that I'm the perfect definition of 'buyu' (which means warrior friend), and that if you looked it up on wikipedia, you'd find my picture. There's a bit of sarcasm there, but he thinks it's hilarious that I'm so 'tough' (in his words).
Training tonight was the first time I've seen M. and C. for weeks. I ended up training with C. and what we were working on was muko dori and a bunch of other dori (found on pages 136 onwards in the book by soke, Unarmed Fighting Techniques of the Samurai. All this stuff is taken straight from the ancient scrolls so the kanji is really old and I have no idea what any of it means *L*). We've been doing a lot of this unarmed fighting against someone with a sword recently. It can be a bit trying on the nerves sometimes since someone's always trying to hit you with a stick *L* One move today was really difficult since it involved... well, it's hard to explain. Basically, the person cuts down from jodan and you step slightly to the left and forward, the left hand is under the right one and blocking the sword hand, the right one is up higher, aiming for a shuto to the neck (it looks like a loose ichimonji). That was just the basic part though, the advanced thing to do was to do the move while taking all the space and sort of, forcing it on your opponent, like you're gathering it up around your hands and pushing it in their face. If it works, they lean back and are thoroughly intimidated. If it doesn't, the move still works, but not with that sort of... pressure you're supposed to be placing on your opponent. I found it exhausting to do properly since it felt like I was pushing my own energy at the person and in order to do that, you really had to stop worrying about the sword heading for your head and just go for it. A lot of our other techniques focused on removing the sword from the person's hands by going for the gaps between their fingers and twisting in those two opposing directions. I tend to get impatient and just yank the damn thing out *sheepish* The new problem I had tonight was that the final moves often involved taking the sword by putting your hand on top of the hand of the person holding the sword. This instinctively strikes me as counter-intuitive (cause a) they tighten their grip when they feel you and b) how can they let go if you're hanging on to their hand), but it works anyway so long as you move in the right direction using three directions. I just have to keep drilling into my head that it does work even though my logic says it won't. One reverse sword removal where you had to go in on the person rather than out really puzzled me too. I could get it sometimes, but other times it just got all mixed up in my head (I'll blame it on dyslexia methinks).
C. and I were really beating on each other at times, though it really wasn't our fault that a lot of the moves ended up being bruising. Kicks and strong grips to the under side of your upper arm invariably result in bruises, at least for me, so it's no surprise I'm sporting a few right now. I actually really liked the move that did the bruising cause you were basically sticking your right arm into the space between the person's right arm and the sword (after avoiding the sword strike). With your elbow blocking the sword from moving (from the inside) you just grabbed a handful of flesh on the person's underarm and squeezed - neither C. nor I hung onto the sword for long after that. We did one move which involve avoiding the strike, blocking their hands with your left hand, then sort of pulling your upper arm back, and striking it forward with your palm flat and fingers pointed at their eyes (it looks like a striking cobra imo). Next strike was a open fist, then a closed boshiken, but since I'm short and C. is not, I couldn't reach for the second strike very well so we modified it to a hard, sideways strike of the knuckles down the middle of the chest. The time I did it right, Jack was watching (C. grunted in pain and I enthusiastically relieved him of his sword in such a way that would have removed some of his head had the sword been real). Jack laughed and said that I'm the perfect definition of 'buyu' (which means warrior friend), and that if you looked it up on wikipedia, you'd find my picture. There's a bit of sarcasm there, but he thinks it's hilarious that I'm so 'tough' (in his words).
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