Sticky Bo

Wonderful weapons class today. I noticed that our chief instructor usually does not teach weapons class. I think in the time that I've been at the dojo, and because I don't always go to class, I have only seen him teach one weapons class. I think he prefers to teach open hand.

Our "regular" instructor taught a wonderful class today. Yes, it was very basic. We reviewed a few of the suburi for bo and some for jo, and saw the connection between the two. Nice. We also practiced the two (three and four, I think) suburi as partner practice. They go together nicely with one as uke and the other as nage. Uke would strike three times, nage would block and end with a wrist cut. My partner and I were going all the way back and fourth on the mat, so each would get in five or six cuts before we had to stop. At first we were just going through the two suburi, then we held ourselves to the three strikes and the one cut before we changed roles. Sensei had the two of us show the rest of the class (I guess) how it was "supposed" to look, although he still had some corrections to make. Mostly we were using a part of the blade that was a little too far back, rather than just the few inches at the top of the bo.

After, we practiced the 31 jo kata. I like that kata. I need to learn it on my own through YouTube, I suppose, because I'd like to be able to practice the entire kata on my own. Right now I know the first six moves. It doesn't sound like much, and it certainly doesn't seem like much, but it is a start. And we all have to start somewhere.