During today’s class, I covered our absolute beginner knife defence, introducing the worst-case scenario: you are in range, do not have your guard or fence up, and the stab is on the way. The defence worked well and stood up to a little pressure testing. We found it hard not to revert to the lastContinue reading “2nd August 2025 Class Reflections”
Tag Archives: Class Reflections
20 May 2023 Class Reflections
Sword Class A small group of us meet early on Saturday, in remembrance of our late teacher, Bancroft, to work on the swordplay he taught us. This week we held a sword class where we covered knife and how it relates to our sword training and blade vs empty hands-training. We wanted to check ifContinue reading “20 May 2023 Class Reflections”
6/7 May 2023 Class Reflections
Saturday started a little differently as I woke up with a back spasm. Which was probably a result of some grappling. This meant I missed sword sparring. After rehab exercises and some yoga flows, I could train in and teach my class. KORA Class We did a quick ten-minute review of some things James, myContinue reading “6/7 May 2023 Class Reflections”
Solo Training
Not so long ago, in 2020 and 2021, a large proportion of our training was solo work due to the pandemic. In my training group, having a mixture of traditional and modern arts, we made significant gains despite not having training partners, which seems almost contradictory to most coaches. Like most people, we used zoomContinue reading “Solo Training”
16/17 July 2022 Class Reflections
The training program for today should have been Ilustrisimo sword training. The plan was to do an hour of Sera and then an hour of clinch work. What we ended up doing was me training sword work solo followed by two hours of Sera; that’s how it works out sometimes, you pencil in a programContinue reading “16/17 July 2022 Class Reflections”
9 July 2022 Class Reflections
Third group class back after six weeks off due to holidays and research in Spain. Minimal numbers this week as lots of people are either away or dealing with emergencies. Bancroft came early, and we worked about an hour and a half on the Ilustrisimo sword. We got to train outside instead of my garageContinue reading “9 July 2022 Class Reflections”
2 July 2022 Class Reflections
Second group class back after six weeks off due to holidays and research in Spain. The first hour was me as the student learning sword in medium-range, a range I don’t like playing in. Slight improvement since I changed my grip on my training sword, and I have also been working on relaxing as IContinue reading “2 July 2022 Class Reflections”
25 June 2022 Class Reflections
Back to class after four or five weeks off doing research and some travel to Spain. The first class back is all about getting back what I call class conditioning. Experience has shown me that you lose a bit of conditioning every day you are away. A PTI in the military once told me thatContinue reading “25 June 2022 Class Reflections”
Logging Flight Time
Throughout the 1970s, 1980’s and 1990’s I logged every martial arts training opportunity and workout session, tracking the total number of minutes each month. At some point in the early 2000s, I gave up, probably because I was no longer competing. I also lost all my training logs during a house move, which means IContinue reading “Logging Flight Time”
Effective Grip Training Methods for Martial Artists
Fangs for the memory… Most of history’s warriors accepted that you needed skills in stand up, clinch and ground to be successful. It’s been a core concept in my KORA curriculum since it was a mixture of Combatives, Muay Thai and Judo over thirty-five years ago. Whether we seek it or not grappling happens, andContinue reading “Effective Grip Training Methods for Martial Artists”
Killick Off Road Arts 