This is the last week of the 2015 Blitz, and what a surprising laboratory it has been so far. The best Blitz I have ever seen since I started to teach, at 1985. Makes me really happy.
Some admin staff before the coach talk:
We will practice as usual this week - Sunday and Wednesday at 18:00 in Gan Havradim, Jerusalem, and Tuesday and Thursday in AKBAN Tel Aviv. Next week is a different schedule, so stay in touch.
So, how did we do it? why was this years Blitz so different?
I sectioned the Randori into Arm locks, throws, arm locks and throws together, stand up and ground. The end of each two-hour session culminated in regular Ninjutsu randori that binds together all the sections. This allowed me to focus on each discipline separately and combine them together. Every Randori in this Blitz was watched by me, with input, debriefing and feedback done both on the spot, during the sessions and also afterwards, in video, delivered to the student by request.
This rigorous video debriefing, at such scale, is unique to our Academy and allows all levels of practitioners to watch their bouts, in slow motion, while I can dissect weak and strong points.
I used a special ranking system that allowed us setting goals and understanding our sectioned.
Everybody got better because of this, especially me, as a teacher with years of experience, I was confronted with a quantifiable data about weak and strong points in AKBAN traditional randori and possible ways of improving.
You can see a short example in the video I attached, but this video is just the tip of the iceberg. I edited and analyzed hundreds, literally, of Ninjutsu sparring sessions and delivered many of them to my students in a private channel.
The individual video debriefing and analysis will now be a weekly thing, all over the year, it was so beneficial.
Next Sunday, August the 30th, 18:00, at the Tel Aviv Honbu dojo, we will have the culminating event of this Blitz. We will engage in 120 randori sessions, each a minute long. So 120 minutes of extreme effort!
As we always say: Practice safely and keep on training.
Video of principles of analyzing randori session in the AKBAN Blitz
