The Master, The Disciple, and banging the stupid out of each other.

The last blog was basically me thinking out loud about how to generate more students.  Not so much to make tons of cash (which would be nice) but more so to have people to train with.

While I am still working on how to do that, I have decided that as long as one person is willing to show up and train, I will be willing to teach just one person.

That is great on paper, but working a 2 hour lesson plan you developed for a class of 10 – 20 students with just 1 student basically turns into 2 guys beating the hell out of each other for 2 hours.  I decided that if I want to be able to walk the next day, I better come up with alternate lesson plans.

History, literature, and cinema are all filled with stories of the “Master” training the “disciple”

I wonder if I can talk Lise into letting me shoot arrows at her?

I wonder if the Karate school’s insurance would cover it?

I have found that re-examining the fundamentals from a different perspective can be very successful in one on one training.  Working the heavy bag hard, then the practical application with me, or working counter ambush tactics on a wing chung dummy, then using those same tactics to defend against live attacks helps make connections between Bunkai (internal mechanics) and Oyo (application) making both stronger (and its fun).

One of the best ways I have found to teach just one student, is working the fundamentals of Kenjutsu and their relationship to Taijustu.

Doing 100 shomenuchi strikes re-enforces the mechanics of weight transfer, structure, and motion also needed in modern close quarter combatives.  It is hard work, but far easier on your body than say taking 100 falls from Osoto Otoshi, or tapping out from 100 Hadaka Jime’s

As much as I love Kenjutsu, it hasn’t been a “live” art in over 100 years.  That’s a lot of time for bullshit to creep in.  However, one on one training can be a great opportunity cut the bullshit back out.  Or as Rory wrote about - Getting out the stupid

http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/2011/07/getting-stupid-out.html

On Saturday Chad and I were working on Hiraki (opening) motion.  This motion is used in Batto Jutsu to move off line and draw into a perry in on motion (very cool counter ambush training).  In kata form it works against shomenuchi (linear over head strike) every time.  Shomenuchi and Yokomen Uchi (circular strike) start exactly the same way.  When Chad and I moved away from kata training and more into live training the Hiraki rising block was not near strong enough to perry / deflect a circular strike (see 100 years of Dojo vs. real sword fighting).

“Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear”

 - Thomas Jefferson

Better to pressure test techniques in the Dojo than place blind faith in something that may get you killed.

So we decided to bang it out.  In order to kill each other (with out actually killing each other) we had to swap out our oak bokkens for different training tools I used a Batto bokken

Chad used an action Action Flex bokken

Now armed with the Action Flex Chad could go balls out trying to “cut” me with out having to worry about cracking my skull.

We discovered that the core Hiraki motion still works very well.  The key difference being instead of trying to draw and perry in one motion, I would pull the entire saya (sword sheath) out of my belt to deflect the force of the strike (creating solid structure between you and danger = good J).  After that I could draw and cut in one motion (solid Batto Jutsu) or use the hilt to end the confrontation (over in 3)

Granted it is very unlikely I’ll ever walk down the street with a sword in my belt.  Even less so that at that very moment another guy in America in the 21^st century will jump out and attack me with a sword of his own.  That doesn’t mean we should train “unrealistic” situations in unrealistic ways.  If you are going to do it (train Koryu / Old school) do it as if your life depended on it.  

The lessons we learned from the sword that lonely Saturday will have direct benefit to our empty hand modern close quarter combatives training.

It changed the way I teach Kenjutsu, which was a direct benefit for me.  So if one student is willing to train it is defiantly in the Teachers best interest to be there to teach

Train hard, train smart, be safe

You posse the power of the glow, the glow, the glow….