2007 Workout #68: Kickapoo #4…

Tonight and I had the esteemed pleasure of teaching the Kickapoo club. Erbe-san showed up to help, and Cathy was there to assist also. Checking homework went pretty well, however it seems that “KIAI” was omitted from the word search so we gave them credit if they got everything else. The majority of the students got all three stars, however there were a few that didn’t do their homework.

We had Cathy run warmups and after that we launched into a basic review. I decided to use a method that I created while I was teaching kids in Macomb… it was the roots of what would become The Ampitheater of Pain, however it was a little less intense for younger viewers.

The class was split into two lines, and one side got to watch the other side to 10 techniques (5 down, 5 back) and then a calisthenic of my choosing. The job of the other side was to watch and see if they could find any ways to make their own technique better. It went pretty well, and I introduced the concept of kiai and fighting spirit a bit during the workout.

Then I got to give my talk about fighting spirit, kiai, and why it was important. It went well, the kids listened, and they asked a few very good questions. They had loud kiais by the end of the first class, and I felt like they understood why fighting spirit is important.

Then it was ‘s turn to teach jab and reverse punch. He did one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen teaching kids jab and reverse punch. He started by showing them how to rotate their hips in front stance, and then he isolated just the reverse punch part. We did probably 30-40 of those, and then kids were getting it! They were rotating their hips and everything! Without too much effort, they switched to the jab instead of the reverse punch and they were really getting it well by the end of the class.

While we were doing that drill, our buddy David was struggling with his bad side and I saw something that gave me an idea. I saw that he was pretty able to swing his elbow around, so I told him that I had an idea for him to try with his other hand instead of trying to punch. After class I showed him how to do an elbow strike with that side, using the same hip action that had taught during the class. He said “like this?” WHACKWHACKWHACKWHACK and threw four elbow strikes in rapid succession. Hopefully that will work out well for him, he seemed happy with it.

It was a pretty incredible class. The kids did great, we both felt very confident about our performance in the drivers seat, and much fun was had by all. I may sign up for a few more classes out there, it was a lot of fun.