Class recap...

It seems my Intel group is quickly becoming a black belt club! New people aren't joining and the regulars have been advancing nicely into dan ranks, so that now I am faced with having an almost all black belt group. I don't mind at all, since it means we can let go and play without having to constantly revisit basic material. I do constantly cover basics, since those need constant development, but I don't have to spend time having to explain the same things over and over. Having a regular revolving door of new people all the time means having to re-explain those things, too.

The downside is that I do see a number of new faces peeking in on us, obviously enjoying what they see, but I wonder how many are too intimidated to come in or think the class is only for advanced students. Oh well, I guess maybe the right person will take that chance and step in regardless. The first test is the door, apparently.

Last night I covered more yoroi (armor) principles, keeping in the current theme of our Kukishinden Ryu. We drilled some high and low blocking strikes using the kote, which is the armor that covers the forearm and back of the hand. We explored the posture of Kosei no Kamae, which is similar to the upward forearm block from karate. But, there are many small differences which play significantly in the real battlefield application of the posture.

Survival on the battlefield was the primary concept I focused on, which included always moving your position, having awareness of surroundings, keeping good balance and being able to move in such a way to allow for deliverance of power without giving up balance and strategic positioning. The techniques were less important as was control of the space and balance.

Most of the techniques centered around Kumi Uchi, which is a classic jujutsu starting hold. You hold your partner's right elbow with your left hand and, with your right hand, grasp your partner's right shoulder. Your partner mirrors your hold on you as well and both of you have the intent of push/pull to take balance, using footwork to adjust the angle of your body.

When in armor, you cannot grasp the lapel because the breastplate will not allow it. So, you grasp the strapping or edge of the breastplate up at the point between their outer pectoral muscle and shoulder, in that 'dip' above the arm pit area. No matter how tight they pull back their shoulders to flatten their shirt, this area of their shirt will always be loose enough to secure a hold. In armor, this point is always open enough to get your fingers in to hold. But, you also have to be careful not to trap your fingers, too!

We practiced doing some basic off balancing and takedowns from this position. We didn't do throws, as in judo, but more of simple balance taking and toppling. This involved controlling the two points grabbed and finding the unsupported angles to push and pull the upper torso, while moving in different angles with the legs, to produce an almost effortless technique to topple the person. Then, I showed a counter where you do the same thing in response to their action and you topple them instead.

Next, we looked at using Kumi Uchi as a base while another person did a straight punch to the held person's head. First we did this from the right side, then the left side. Using the same principles of finding the unsupported angles to move around the grabbing attacker, I showed how you could easily use the person as a shield while evading the punch. I threw in some extra goodies which involved snuffing out the grabbing attacker by using chokes, neck breaks and even some killing techniques with concealed knives. This was a side lesson I normally wouldn't show, but because I had all my senior guys there, I decided to give them some of that training.

To amp things up a bit, I had the punching attacker wear a boxing glove and attempt to really nail the held person in the side of the head. This added a nice dynamic to the training, each person really moving out of the way out of fear of getting punched hard. The grabbing partner was instructed to really try and hold them so they couldn't easily slip by. They had to have good angles and use correct technique to break the balance of their grabbing attacker in order to have the space to avoid the punch. It was a good experiment that paid off well.

We continued along this same line of techniques, all with an emphasis on feeling and realism. They enjoyed it very much and the higher level required to find the effortlessness to the techniques was a good growth curve.

Finally, I decided to show some techniques involving the same kind of two person attack, but ended with both attackers in arm locks and being leveraged to the ground. This was a good stretch for these guys, both in learning and in their arms! Again, they had to really know how to slip out of the danger space and move into safe spaces while controlling the balance of both attackers with as little effort as possible. Resistance was used and the significance of the strategic and technical concepts became abundantly clear. Any error meant one of the attackers easly slipped out of the hold and could continue the attack. It was a good lesson.

We ended class tired and satisfied.