Class Notes – Hanbo

The guys brought sticks this week, so we did some hanbo.

What I taught them was:

1. Bo furi gata – even though this is more a bo technique, it is useful for getting the people used to the shifting of grip along the various parts of the stick that characterizes Kukishin stickwork.
2. Figure-8s, one-handed – the movement actually comes out in Kukishin Hanbo Chuden (mid-level) techniques, in at least 2 out of the 4. So it’s a good movement to have under your belt.
3. Stepping offline against a jodan tsuki (high-level attack) – go for the ribs.
4. Stepping offline and dealing with a gedan tsuki – whack the hand.

I also demo-ed the first two waza from Hatsumi Soke‘s book on hanbo. We didn’t really have enough time to work on them, but I showed them anyway so the guys would know what to expect in future stick training sessions.

I don’t think we’ll return to stick techniques so soon, but I really want to take a few months to work on them sometime next year. That would probably mean making my Tuesday class more exclusive (less beginner-friendly), but I feel I bear my regular students the responsibility of doing my best for advancing their budo skills also. I’ll chew on that and see how it goes from here!  

 

Junjie
俊傑 (Shunketsu)
Singapore

 

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