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Using chain

This weekend we worked on bojutsu and worked basics with the bo. Saturday we practiced mainly Oni Kudaki using the bo and Sunday we did Gansake Nage with the bo. As always the key to everything we did was in proper angles distance and timing. Imagine that!

I appreciate Tom showing us why something we are trying to do isn’t working the way we want. He will say, “look at your angle” or “your back foot is going the wrong direction” or “move your hand up to keep Uke’s hand in place”. Gosh I love training!

well, now to work on my angles a bit more

Today we worked on Musha Dori. I appreciate our teacher. He is patient with those of us who are new to this art and can pin-point just where we are off in our Distance, Angles and Timing. He teaches us to observe the shape of Uke’s body with the techniques of the Kihon Happo so we will learn to recognise when to use what technique. Today we worked on various uses of Musha Dori

I didn’t go to the castle this weekend. The snow was very bad on Saturday. I started out to go and found that the roads were atrocious so I turned around and went back home.

Sunday training was, as always, fantastic! We worked on punching, rolls, body movement and angles. Tom brought out one of his favorite props for training in body movement. a stick and some rope to isolate the body movement. See the following pictures. The stick keeps the body centered as we moved through kamae and the Sanshin exercise

Saturday we trained outside in the open at the Squires Castle Park. The weather was clear, but crisp and cold. We did our usual Sanshin exercise and then we worked on Oni Kudaki with a cane. Tom purchased some training canes and brought one to class to demonstrate how to use it as an extension of our taijutsu. Very cool class! We worked on angles and timing to get the cane in place to grasp the elbow and of course, distance was also a main ingredient as always.

Sunday we trained for about three hours. We began with our usual Sanshin and Kaiten. To make working on our Ukemi and Kaiten more interesting Tom spread training knives all over the floor and told us to practice picking up a weapon as we rolled. It was a fun way to work on this important aspect of our Taijutsu. After our normal exercises we worked on ways to remove an attacker from beating another person. We made use of the Karate School’s standing bags to emulate a person being attacked. We also used a heavy bag on the floor for the same purpose. It was a fun and interesting class. Below are some pictures from today’s training:

This week we began our new updated training schedule. We switched outdoor training at the castle to Saturdays, and indoor training at the Kenpo school to Sundays. I like this new schedule because it frees us up to run over on Sundays when we can stay.

Saturday we trained outside, but in the shelter of the castle, which at least protected us from the wind chill a bit. We worked on basic footwork. It was a great class. We had a first time visitor who was not aware that the training was outside. The poor guy had on a hoodie sweatshirt and canvas shoes! It was only about 20 degrees outside so he was very cold. I gave him a pair of “Hot Hands” hand warmers, Mike loaned him gloves, Tom loaned him a scarf. I offered him an Army jacket, but he decided not to use that. Somehow, the poor guy made it through the two hours! I enjoyed the class and feel like I am learning something at every class.

Sunday we went over our scheduled time by more than an hour. We trained for over three hours and it seemed like no more than an hour! For the first hour we did our Sanshin warmup, and then kaiten. We went into our training in the Kihon Happo and then for the last hour we had fun with practicing what ever we wanted within the kihon. It was a great class!

Today we worked on Oni Kudaki using various openings and presentations. I got a better understanding of the timing and distance in the kukan for Oni Kudaki in today’s class. The last time we worked with Oni Kudaki we worked mostly on the angles. I am still smoothing out old karate habits and learning to flow. Tom talked about using multiple strikes while not losing contact and keeping our movements smooth while we are controlling uke. He is also working with me on using my legs. It was another very good class. My classmate, Mike was promoted to 9th Kyu today.

It has now been about a year that I have been training with Tom Hilliard. There are now three of us, regular students who meet together to train on Saturdays and Sundays.

Today we trained at Squires Castle as we normally do on Sundays. Tom decided that due to the clothes that some of us were wearing, it would be best to go inside the castle as we did for our last couple of outdoor classes, rather than rolling around on the ground in the snow where we would get soaked. The temperature was slightly below freezing. The castle is a stone shell with only openings for doors and windows, and no real roof. It is a unique stone building on sprawling grounds at a park called the North Chagrin Reservation.

After our normal Sanshin exercise, we went right into practicing Oni Kudaki with one another. It was great! It was freezing and there was actually ice spots to beware of on the concrete floor in the castle where we had to be careful not to slip. We worked back and forth and kept warm by staying very active. Tom spent a lot of time explaining why we do things the way we do, and why we don’t do some things that others do. The Kuden is very important so we all listen and take note of the things that Tom has learned in almost 20 years of training in this art.