Oh Advanced Class, We Hardly Knew Ye...

We had our last meeting of Advanced Unarmed and Taihenjutsu today--what a long strange trip it's been. Highlights of our last day:

• Stretching
• Acrobatic Showing Off
• Rehearsal
• Performing Fights For Film

What do I mean? Well,

There's some fake throws:

And a nasty fake punch-out:

And a side roll variation:

And here's a preview of the choreography they made the past few classes:

You guys rocked! Thanks so much for a great class. You are SO GOOD! :D ~Jenn

VoWoD
~Vocal Warmup of the Day~

All vocal warmups found on the Daily Cross-Swords have been officially approved by Monaco J. Snackcracker (seen above) prior to posting.

Enjoy and use these freely in your own classes and venues!

Today: Special thanks to our cat, the inspiration for this VoWoD -

“She is a sleek and tubular culinary sleuth.”

~Jason

Week 5

This is me and BQC owner Mary, playing around with "Combat Yoga." No, we're not serious; it's just for fun.

There's a thing that happens when a long month comes around at the Boulder Quest Center (one of the places where I get paid to beat up young people): it's called "Week 5."

Everyone who habitually takes classes is allowed to bring a friend to any level class, wear "civilian" clothing, and do off-topic stuff besides the normal To-Shin Do curriculum.

If any of my Stage Combat buddies would like to trek up to Boulder and join me in some ninja shenanigans this coming week (July 28 - Aug.2), let me know.

~Jenn

Boulder Quest Center: http://www.boulderquest.com/

Class 7/24

Here's the scoop on class 7/24 (most of it observed by lunching kids--BTW, they really loved it. One boy in particular turns tome with shining eyes and says. "I love this!" Future actor-combatant!)

• Roll, fall review: on squishy and rollout mats. Partnered and solo.
• Sword evasions and decision-making
• Roll to arm yourself (padded sword grabbing)
• Fight rehearsal
• added 3-person to 4-person fight and showed it off to the observers
• showed other secrets by request: kneeling face kick, head slam, choke, etc.

We'll be filming our advanced fights next week, and it's our last meeting :(. Save a couple bucks so we can go out and celebrate afterwards.

See you then! ~Jenn

Twelfth Night Kids Part Deux

Think I'm crazy for putting swords into those kids' hands? Oh ye of little faith...

How awesome were they at learning the first half of the rapier drill?? I'm still in awe. Here's how class went went for these guys on 7/24:

• Warmup: Jenn's Killer Warrior Sequence + Lunges
• PVC Sword-making party (some of them really looked cool!)
• Footwork: advance, retreat, pass fwd, pass back, lunge
• SAFD Rapier Drill Part One: moves 1-5 (see Chapter 6 of the book)
• Footwork + Drill + Overhead corps-a-corps
• Show-and-tell with the real steel rapiers, and drill demo
• Showing off our drills in partners. We can see how this will fit in Twelfth Night quite well!

Then, a bunch of them stayed to watch the Advanced Class do their thing. Very fun stuff! Overall, I'm sure you'll agree that this experience was a complete and total blast. Thanks to Chris, Ken, and Nick for helping with this phase of the workshop--I know the kids had a great time, and your help was invaluable.

~Jenn

Twelfth Night kids Part One

OMG. How. Much. Fun. Was. That??

What a blast we had with Natalie's Twelfth Night cast of pre-teens on 7/22! Here's what we did:

• Warmup: Crazy Insane Burpee Sequence (one girl remarks: "This is kind of like yoga." Yes. Yes it is.)
• Falls: Forward, Backward, Captain Kirk. Lots of practice getting the falls quiet.
• Pushes, Grapples, and isolation
• Hair/Ear Pull
• Basic choke (from face-to-face)
• Straight Punch
• Straight Slap
• Cool-Down: Ninja Dodge-Disk! This was the funnest thing in the universe, and the kids got to practice isolation to boot!

Reminder: Chapter 3 is taihenjutsu, Chapter 4 is unarmed techniques in the book. :) Thanks so very much to Ken and Nick for stopping by and being awesome demonstrators and kid-wranglers. There was a very small blond child that was wandering around taking pictures as well--I have a feeling he'll be a photojournalist when he grows up. Anyway, I bet he took some seriously cool shots. I'll check Natalie's website and see if any go up there.

Thanks again, and I'll see y'all ARMED on Thursday! ~Jenn

Injuries

I thought I'd put in my two cents' worth on Advanced Taihenjutsu, theatrical combat, and martial arts.

I hope everyone in the Advanced Summer Class noticed the different language I used when we went through the Stage Combat basic skills (falling, rolling, unarmed basics) and the Stunt Work skills (break falls, fake throws, air break falls). I used this specific different language for a good reason--and also brought out the squishy mat, I'm sure you noticed, for reasons as well.

I had this conversation with one of the head instructors at the Boulder Quest Center yesterday, and I thought it needed reinforcing: when you fall for reals, even if you fall correctly, you will feel it.

There are countless anecdotes, from Jason's dislocated shoulder about five years ago to my bruised heel from Monday. The fact is: if you know how to do good taihenjutsu, you can save yourself from paralysis or death. BUT! If you find yourself falling and you actually fall, you will get hurt. That's what falling down does--it hurts. If you're good at it, the hurt won't be mortal. If you hear of anyone ever telling you they fell off their motorcycle at 60 mph and they were totally fine because they know "ninjitsu," be oh so very skeptical. At the same time, think about those folks like me and Jason that can actually fall very well, and hear about the pain it still causes.

The Advanced Class learned some really fun stuff this summer. Most of it they will never ever do on a stage. If they ever have an opportunity to do these elaborate moves, it will NOT be on a regular stage, but on a crash pad off-camera. Or a stunt-stage, that has springs or pads or built-in squishy mats. Remember I have 11 years martial arts experience and I am still limping from Monday, and that was on dojo mats. And it was a good fall!

I guess I felt the need for a Safety Note, like the ones in my book. I know a lot of those in the Advanced Class liked to take the basics they learned from the MSCD course and throw them around in the school hallways, quads, and (sigh) other classes. Those skills they're learning now are way too dangerous to mess with like this.

~Jenn

P.S. This is a great article re: the dichotomy between theatrical and "real" combat. It's called "Ne'er the Twain," about stage combat and martial arts. Check it out: http://www.thearma.org/essays/twain.htm