Last night was a pretty laid back workout. McCabe-san and I got to beat the crap out of the youth. Everyone always says you have to make things fun for kids. Sometimes, you just have to make them do pushups, situps, and other things that are not fun so they understand how regular Karate technique can be fun by comparison.
McCabe-san seemed pleased with the result, we both felt like we were in control of the children even with the spastic additions that we have from time to time. We did a continuation of the jab/reverse punch drill that Sensei Brewer had us do, and then did some kicking and blocking drills. From there, we tried (somewhat successfully) to make the kids do Taikyoku Shodan in segments. The newest kid was having a hard time following, so McCabe-san helped him out a lot. The red belts need repeated and complete annihilation until they start following along. Right now there are three of them there that do not keep a stance unless you have both eyes directly on them, and this will not stand. I started sweeping them last night to prove the point that their stance needs to be better, it was only sinking in for one of them.
After this, I decided to let them try some basic partner drills, where one side punched and the other side got to step back and block. Neither side was close enough to touch each other, so it went well with no deaths. They did that with punches/rising blocks and front kicks/downward blocks. By that time class was over and I felt like we had accomplished something. I like having McCabe-san as my wing man, he’s a good bruiser to keep the kids in line.
The first class went long, and the second class started with Sensei Brewer going over the results from Saturday. Interestingly, he mentioned the godan thesis on arches. I never had any doubt that there was some grounding in fact for her topic, it just seems exceedingly granular for such an important exam. I also think that the stress of having this idea questioned wasn’t helping her clarity very much.
After the talk and some questions about the Shihan-kai, we moved into doing some sparring combinations a-la Saturday’s clinic. The workout was rounded out by the Heian katas, which was a nice capper to a pretty laid back night of Karate.
Tonight it’s Tasha and I in Mapleton and I’ve worked it out with Sensei Hartman so I get 15 minutes of sparring time before class. That is going to be fun! 🙂
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