2006 Workout #77: Instructor Training…

Today was one of our annual instructor training sessions in Saint Louis. I’m going to hit the high points here, since a lot of good information was provided…

Session One: Sensei Taylor on Grappling

The first session was taught by Sensei Merlin Taylor from the Saint Louis dojo. The subject matter was related to how karate people can deal with grapplers (especially wrestlers), and it was JAM PACKED for content. My takeaways were very basic things like how to fall correctly and how to recover if knocked to the ground, as well as some good examples of how to counter some of the most commen wrestling stuff like headlocks and attacks from untrained people trying to take us down. The session was quite valuable, I could tell that there was about a two week seminar’s worth of stuff to tell and only an hour to tell it in. We need more of this style of instruction, it was just enough to whet the appetite.

Session Two: ‘s Patented Grab and Go

The second class was taught by our very own , relating to the elements of grabbing that we have been working on in recent classes. He did not disappoint today… he took the good stuff from the last week or two of classes, added some things, and provided a very knowledgable class on how to perform these techniques and get real value out of them. During this session, I got to spar with one of the Saint Louis black belts, who seemed to want to use his thumb a lot to grab and grab at my elbow. Both of these things have their place, but for the sake of this class it was making things a little difficult. I still ended up having fun, because the new wrinkles that this partner added to the sparring helped reinforce some of the technical details that has been working hard to teach us (keeping our distance by grabbing the wrist first, most of all).

Session Three: Sensei Harter on Kumite

During the third session, Sensei Harter taught us how to progressively instruct the concepts of free sparring to all ranks. There isn’t really much to say about this topic aside from the fact that I *REALLY* appreciated the roadmap of how to introduce the fundamentals like this. It was good detail, good drills, and a nice slant on topics that many of us tend to take for granted.

Session Four: Sensei Hassell’s Timing and Distance

This class was fun. Really fun. We got to work with timing and distance drills, and I was fortunate enough to get across from Oedewaldt, so we got a little rowdy as is our custom. I liked a lot of these drills because I like the intercepting timing and want to learn to get more out of it, and I now have some new tricks for the repitoire.

I did come out with a few bumps and bruises, but I also dished out a few so it all ends up pretty even. Good times.

Session Five: Black Belt Test Preparation with Sensei Hassell

The final session was the best. The nidan group (myself, Garls, Oedewaldt, and ) got another opportunity to prepare for our test with Sensei Hassell. He watched our kata, making both individual and group corrections. and I were somewhat taken aback at the superficial nature of the corrections that Sensei was making for our Sochin kata. I have to tuck my hips up slightly in order to straighten up my back, as well as be mindful of my rear leg. The rear leg problem isn’t one that I recall having in the past, it could’ve been a function of the hard workout and the floor but I’m going to keep an eye on it for awhile to be sure. I also had to revert to the original way we were opening the kata, as apparently Sensei Quinn’s interpretation is not necessarily the preferred method in Saint Louis. No problem, we were doing it the way Sensei Hassell wanted it before. Now we have two perspectives. 🙂

The hip correction was a big one for me, because apparently I’m not maintaining that tension during my sparring either. The simple correction that helped my kata and stance to straighten up also was made during the kumite section. As is our custom, the Pekin guys rocked and socked each other pretty good during this phase of the training. There were a few shining moments for everyone, and suffice it to say that I was feeling pretty good on the other side of it. Timing has always been good to me and it was with me this day. That’s all I’m going to say about that in open forums, if you want details come find me and I will tell you what went down. 🙂

Some of the corrections made on my dojomates made a huge difference… my good buddy was basically annihilating the countryside after he got his corrections fixed up. He needs to forget what he was shown when he spars me, that’d be great.

and I were able to make use of the lunch hour by knocking out five Sochin, and adding the two that we did completely through for Sensei Hassell that brings the total for the day to seven. In the end, we were happy to have done the five as it primed us for the other two we did for Sensei Hassell.

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Sochin Counter
Accomplished / Goal == Percent Complete
947 / 2000 == 47.35%
Average Kata per Workout: 13.53
Estimated Workouts Remaining: 78
Workouts that gained more than 1%: 22