Nut Tree, Monday 04/09:
I have to keep reminding myself to have a simple beginning to the lesson, after the basic technique stuff. Nut Tree took upon himself the worst part of the lesson, where I was trying to figure out the best way to have him engage the blade with a bind and finish with a bind, though possibly into a different line.
Mistake I made was to immediately give him a choiced action without having worked much, barely at all on a simple, lateral and continuous bind in the four major lines. (6, 4, 8, 7…) Once he got comfortable controlling the blade with a continuous bind, then the finish became much easier. Finish this time was a lunge to the body if 6 or 4, and to the leg if 8.
Next lesson: to give multiple half step engagements with a bind and then choose where to counter-attack or fleche with a disengage if opponent wrestles the line. Also possibly with a beat-touch to hand if opponent withdraws and/or nothing but a short step forward to take the strip if opponent completely runs.
CrabCake, Monday 04/09:
I fixed my mistakes from NutTree’s lesson and the instruction went much smoother, but he has other issues of course, like the constant tension. That’s the usual grind though.
Next lesson same a NutTree, engage with bind, the either release-beat-touch to the hand, counterattack or fleche. I also think these binding actions might help cure the “Ninja-Crab 4″ disease of his… Need to keep providing alternatives to it.
I really should work on these binds more, hell, I should do them myself more… The repertoire we’re building needs them at least as a method to feed the opponent false information.
