Shadows In Motion

Tonight’s bo class:

• Inside, outside, and raising blocks versus practice strikes
• Blocking using the reverse (behind) end of the bo staff
• Various striking routines
• Target practice by trying to poke the bo through a roll of tape that’s been tossed up.  I actually managed to get a few! :^O

That was tonight’s bo class in a brief nut shell.  Weapons class is one hour long and I am, after all, a complete beginner in kobudo.  It’s best to keep things simple for now.  Heck, I even asked if I should wear my green belt to kobudo since I’ve barely touched these weapons.

Regarding the nunchaku, I went back and forth about buying a set.  As far as the bo is concerned though I’ve known since the first day that this is a weapon that I want to train.

Sure I should train them both, but I could walk to the park with my bo without getting the cops in my business.  It would make jogging a little awkward, but it would be possible and I could even combine my jog with some kobudo kata practice.

It’ll be extra fun if it actually bothers to snow this year.  Bo practice in the snow covered park.  How awesome can life be in small moments, eh?

Kobudo yesterday was focused on the Bo.  This was a surprise since I went in expecting a nunchaku class and working on the second kata for that tool, but I’m not complaining.

My immediate reaction was that this is a weapon that I could seriously train in.  The other weapons are nice, and I do have previous nunchaku experience (just flashy stuff), but the bo simply clicks as a practical self-defense tool.  This is something that I could walk around with, in theory.  It’s solid, has a good reach, and it immediately felt good in my hands.  I can definitely see myself in the back yard practicing this on a regular basis, more so than the nunchaku.

I’m pretty much sold on it.

The activities in the class were super basic.  We covered how to do strikes from over head, the side, and from below.  How to do a couple of blocks, how to perform a couple of jabs, and practicing turning the bo in our hands without letting go with one hand.  How to hold the hands while striking, and so forth.  It was the “learning to crawl” class.

We also practiced jabbing the bo through a karate belt that had been tied into a loop. The person held the loop still, and then increased the difficulty by swinging it. I did alright with these, although I did stab the knot twice which sent the belt flying.  Oops. ^_^  Ah, being a newb has its own joys, doesn’t it?

Class ended with a practice routine where we used the bo to strike styrofoam blocks.  They were placed on top of four or five striking mats (I forget how many).  While the “goal” was to break it using either of the two styles of jabs that we learned, no one expected to actually break the blocks in this way.  This practice sesesion ended with each of us taking one solid side strike at the block, and someone did manage to snap one of the two blocks in half.

I nailed the mats twice during the entire practice session.  A lot of practice is going to be required before I can accurately add hip torque and other techniques to the strikes.  Doing so added a small rotation to the end of the staff which lead to the mats getting hit rather than the styrofoam.

Practice, practice, practice.  Not much else to it.

Friday = kobudo.  It’s back to the nunchaku training.

The first half of the class was focused on some very basic movements of the nunchaku, which I certainly can’t argue with doing.  The class opened with a simple approach to some of the movements from the first kata, and then moved into the kata itself.  We have a couple of young kids in the class and they seem to enjoy the exercise, and they’re also learning the first kata.

From there, we practiced blocking on a shinai and I had some fumbling foot work this evening.  As we know, my coordination isn’t so great, but I’m also still quite tired.. a little mixture of both means that my feet simply were not listening much this evening.  I kind of ‘got it’ after a bit, but I know that I can do better.

Gads I need sleep.  I am such an insomniac.

My fellow green belt and I started on the second nunchaku kata for the remainder of the class, which I found to be more interesting since it incorporates two kicks (a front snap kick and side thrust kick) as well as a lot more motion.  We’re about half-way through the second kata.  Fingers crossed that I’ll remember it, but I’ll practice with a towel or such tomorrow, as well.

On an unrelated note.  If anyone who I know (or knew from Facebook) tried to call me today, you have no caller ID info and you didn’t leave a message.  I can’t call you back.  It’s a shot in the dark to mention this here, but yeah…

8 PM and I feel like I could go to sleep already. -.-

Note:  Friday evening classes are specifically for kobudo and sword practice.

Tonight was about super basic nunchaku movements, and practicing nunchaku kihon no kata.  This was the first time that I’ve gone through the full kata, so of course my unfamiliar movements were uncoordinated.  Practicing this kata at home is going to be a little difficult since I don’t have a pair nunchaku, but I suspect that I’ll pick up a cheap pair.  Sensei suggested that I use my belt or a similar object to go through the basic motions for now.  That actually makes sense to mind (eg, a towel can be moved over the shoulder in a manner that’s reminiscent of nunchaku).

edit:

I forgot to mention the “game” that was played at the end.  Sensei throws 5 balls, we try to hit them with the chucks.  For the majority of this practice / game, my high score was 1 out of 5.  It reminded me of the brief clip of Bruce Lee playing ping-pong with his nunchaku.  That’s even more epic to me now.

At the end of the class, we began to play for push-ups.  The total number of misses from each student would be the number of push-ups that we do.  You bet I hit all 5.  So did the little kid that had managed to hit just 2 before.

It’s hilarious.  I was called a “hustler” because it seemed like I would get out of push-ups. xD  I got a kick out of that (and of course, no one got out of push-ups).

….but go figure that you put something “on the line”, and suddenly I figure out that I kind of do know how to aim. ^_~

On a side-but-related note, I wish that I had a wall-sized mirror.  I noticed a problem with my shiko dachi that I wouldn’t have noticed without it.

I attended the beginning nunchaku class this evening, and used a pair of foam training chucks since I haven’t had my own pair in quite a long time.  I actually have a history of using them, starting in grade school and lasting about 4 years or so.  That was all flash and looking cool, though… it was basically XMA-style stuff that I did back then before I knew anything about the existence of XMA.

This evening’s class used kihon kata ichi and some other movements, which I was a bit surprised to see in a beginning class (I thought that this was only the second beginner’s class, but I suspect that’s not the case).

Thankfully I have a history of spinning them around, so I mostly kept up.. I think.  Some of the movements did confuse me, of course, and I lost track of the order of nunchaku movements that we were doing to kihon kata ichi.  Again that’s no surprise, when considering that I have the short-term memory of a drunken gnat. :P

I think that I’ll catch on somewhat quickly with the class, but prior knowledge can be problematic as well.  Muscle memory from my prior experience still exists, so I sometimes find it difficult to move the nunchaku in certain ways without an extra twist, and my instinct is to keep my empty hand at a certain ready position of my own making rather than at a “proper” ready position.

In all though it was pretty good.  I learned the first half of “nunchaku kihon no kata”, and there are some additional movements that I could practice on my own as well if I had my own nunchaku.  I’m checking the prices of nunchaku online, and the prices seems very reasonable for some pairs (about $8 USD).

I’m mentally pretty tired (it’s not been a very good day) so I’m not sure how much sense I’m making in this post.

G’night, world.