2007 Workout #67: Teaching Practice, also sparring practice…

Tonight got an unexpected chance to test-drive our lesson plan for Kickapoo with the white and yellow belts. We had shown Sensei Brewer our lesson plan, and he settled on the Fighting Spirit and Kiai handout that we had put together. He asked if we would test-drive it with the white and yellow belts because “they need this.”

So we did. and I took all the white belts and yellow belts into the other room, including one brand new one and I gave my speech on why fighting spirit is important both in and out of the dojo and kiai as a tool to practice good fighting spirit. made some good points and we practiced having the kids kiai and then decided to put the lesson to work in the form of some three time sparring (at Sensei Brewer’s request).

The new kid was shy, so I coaxed him out onto the floor to do some sparring drills with me. He had previously taken lessons at the Boy’s Club, and he was just a little overwhelmed by the colored belts and the general clamor that takes place before class. It turns out that his mom went to high school with my sister, and her brother and I were in grade school together. Once again, its a small world and her son ended up making it through the entire first class after he got to punch on me for awhile. Its amazing what a big confidence booster it is punching a “big scary” black belt in the stomach.

At the end, I was glad we got to go through the class preview. We knocked a few rough edges off of our speech and got some good results out of the white and yellow belts. I was a little concerned that I wasn’t getting much of a workout, but that all changed during second class.

We did sparring drills for 45 minutes straight. We started with three to five time attack, which went pretty well then we moved on to one time attack. I had some good exchanges with several different people, , , and Erbe to name just a few. My kicks were really working for me, and I landed a few solid ones during one time attack while practicing some of Sensei Brewer’s recent sen training.

I’m happy to report that I am currently icing my shin. Of all people, Hennessey-san caught my side thrust kick with an elbow (it was actually an early inward block) right alongside my shinbone. It swelled up a knot the size of a golf ball and my foot went numb almost immediately after, now its really sore to even move my foot. We shall see if I need to get the cane out tomorrow.

It was a good workout by anyone’s standards!!