Tonight, Bud touched on a Koto Ryu technique and then threw us a twist on defense against a knife.

Shi Haku – Catch a Rhythm.

What I learned.  I am inclined to say it teaches the principle on catching an attacker’s rhythm but duh….so I think about how.  Lets say Uke isn’t holding his arms out senselessly and is actually trying to punch you as many times as he can.  This attack is most important or you totally miss the feeling and for me the feeling came when I was uke.  I punched at Tori then followed it quickly with another punch, As I am sending a third punch, Tori attempts to blast me with a sokuyaku to butsumetsu.  The only way to avoid the kick when you are punching with intent is to try to make your body into a C and lean forward exposing your head.  Now I am sure someone will eventually believe that with proper taijutsu they can reduce or eliminate exposing their head.  Sure, but if you do, then you aren’t being honest with the attack.  What I mean is, this assault is very “fire” and they are crashing in on your space.  You start to get that oh shit feeling because you were just barely missed twice by punches and you know you can’t defend against this onslaught forever.  This same feeling must have been felt by infantry when they were being charged by cavalry.  So what happens next….the pikes come up and the Cavalry either dumps their horse or they get impaled. Rhythm is captured.  Bud commented that SKH used to teach that this kick was only a feigned kick but the infantry’s pikes weren’t feinged…that junk was a very real threat.  We began toying with the idea that the kick was for real and you intended on it landing and Uke HAD to avoid the hit….that’s why the follow up fudoken is next.  After a bit, I felt more comfortable setting up the kick with a Shako ken immediately after blocking a punch.  Then I realized that it doesn’t matter which strike sets up the other.  The point is the interruption occurs, allowing the reactionary attack.  I guess that is a roundabout way, but for now, this is how I understand it.

Bud no Kamae, part 2

In an ideal world we hope to always be able to step offline, punish the attacker’s arm and move in for a finish.  Bud showed us, that even rondori at slow speed, proves it is nearly impossible to not get cut in a knife fight.  He always says things such as, “You’re gonna get cut”, “Don’t worry about it, keep on going” and tonight’s phrase “The point isn’t to keep yourself from getting cut…  The point is to keep you from getting cut so bad, that it stops the fight.”

Bud ran us through a couple blocking drills, which I will discuss later, and then corrected our dojo behavior.  He pointed out how Uke would normally leave the attacking arm hanging out there after the attack.  Enter any Aikido video…uke runs in holding out an arm to be thrown by.  Bud wanted us to make sure that our attacks, out and back in, were the same timing and that we only went as fast as we could learn from.  So, how did more realistic stabbing change the dynamics of the fight?  Tons of…Block, block, oh shit the knife is still there! With dojo syndrome removed you gained more respect for the situation.  You realize just how dangerous this encounter would be, which is a recurring theme when Bud has a knife.

For ease of words I’ll refer to the defensive strike as a block even though it evolved into more of a strike later on.  Initially it was very earthy.  In the simplest form, he showed us to provide the attacker something to crash into.  This was the simplest and quickest movement possible to save yourself from these close range attacks.  Bud then showed how this was approximately 2/3^rds faster than the attack and that slight amount of time is what makes this effective.  Given a little more distance…more traditional fighting distance rather than a wrestling distance, we started to strike the forearms of the attacker.  This spine twisting movement felt very wind like but it was a devastating hit that beat the attack so it was fire as well.  This was my big lesson of the night.  I had always really enjoyed earthy strikes but tonight flowing from wind to fire to water was wicked.  If I had to describe the feeling I would use a vicious pit bull on a leash.  The dog holds his ground and none dare to come near, but he is chained down.  Last night showed me the benefit of releasing that chain.  To be able to quickly move out of danger, respond with such force that an advantage is taken which provides you time to analyze a counter attack.  Bud’s “steam” feeling was something else and something I will dwell on later.

Comparing the two blocks, Dave actually came up with a very interesting point.  If you choose to stick with an earthy feeling with your blocks, it crashes but both parties are standing there in a 50/50 fight.  The only benefit is if the attacker has weak arms and can’t take a little pain, otherwise there is none to slight advantage obtained.  Dave said that every time he blocked and was going to counter, the knife was back in front of him and he had to keep blocking and never got to counter.  He then changed to what Bud was showing us, the Steam style block.  When Uke attacked, the block crashes with a Koto Ryu like pull that brings them to their toes or at least forces them to take a step to keep from leaning over.  Dave exploited this error.

I toyed around with left or right direction, meaning twisting to crash against the attack as instructed or twisting to go with the direction of the attack….because we don’t live in a perfect world and I am not perfect with my taijutsu.  I wanted to see what would happen if I screwed up and went the wrong way.  Going with the attack, obviously lost the crashing blow but it gained a huge advantage on angling.  I was able to transition into some Koto Ryu techniques I remembered from William’s class.  When we went over these techniques, I believe they were from the 2^nd scroll, I was undecided on if I liked the feeling of them or not.  Some were complicated as hell where some were super easy but accuracy was a must.  For example, try punching the back of the hand when they are stabbing you.  Sure it would hurt like hell but realistically…try punching a snake in the head when he is striking…I just dunno about that.  It would work great but I think you have to really be on top of your game, it’s not for new people.  This was my first exposure to these techniques so I know my opinion will change.  I only bring this up because putting things into perspective, Bud no kamae is an immediate like.  It just works, it takes little skill, the more skill you have the more devastating it is but still it works for everyone.  It is a total no brainer.