What did I teach today?

[JusticeZero]

Scheduling has been a mess, so we've just been working our way through Miller's Meditations on Violence chapter by chapter, with frequent discussions of the material covered. I'm heading to the studio later today though, if I can work the timing out.

[bushido_man96]

9-16-09

Taught class tonight. Didn't really focus on any one thing in particular tonight, but instead worked on covering all of the basics and one-steps. At the end of class, I encouraged the students to use the one-steps as templates to jump to different aspects and variations of self-defense.

[cathal]

I find the one-steps to be very effective in helping to teach hip movement. We can memorize multiple techniques, no more than 10, say, and then practice them without moving or even with one-steps.

[JusticeZero]

Music, some music theory. Form; the concept of the chest center of movement, which caused a rather large epiphany about power generation. I won't be repeating it here, because all the analogies were.. somewhat disturbing and inappropriate, but it was regarding the use of the pelvis for power generation, as related to african-inspired dance in popular culture.

[JusticeZero]

I was sick, and schedules are in flux, but I taught for a couple hours.. after warmups, I went straight into jogo (basically sparring) and broke after every match to break down what happenned. Younger student was panicking that I was throwing all these unfamiliar techniques at her, until I played the next person and she could see that I was only using half of the basic kicks and the most basic of movement.

Then after the break I had people rolling and auing around the room with their ankles tied together - legs are a lot of mass, and people get used to stepping - I needed to isolate the upper body for them for a bit. Teaching people to move with increasingly 'oddball' restrictions helps a lot on teaching movement skills.

[cathal]

That also helps with some of the deceptive movements, as well, yes?

[JusticeZero]

Yeah, learn how to move in lots of different ways and have lots of combinations of movements.

[bushido_man96]

10-7-09

Tonight, I spent a lot of time again on basics. Things are starting to move a bit smoother now, too. Also got started on new one-steps, since some of the students tested recently.

[bushido_man96]

10-14-09

Taught TKD again tonight. Basics mostly, but we went a bit faster than before, to get them moving more and thinking less about what they are doing. Also focuses on one-steps.

[JusticeZero]

Warmups, then had discussion of theory followed by free-movement guided by the goal of performing the skill, which was: "Seeing and moving into and through negative space: Don't fight the opponent, instead move to the places where they are not at and use that to move through/around them." Demonstrated how this technique naturally opened up a lot of very effective positions and angles, and how it was superior to focusing on the attacker themself; there is a principle where people move toward anything they focus on, and if the thing you are focusing on is an attack, then you're going to move into the shot.

Next was floor drills and demonstrations of the usefulness of kicking your body (in a step) instead of your foot in order to move quickly - instead of using the chamber to sling your foot, instead shift and slam your weight behind and turn it into a step in. Ran circles around them demoing this with circular kicks, then had them go up and down the room a few times.

Also: There are two common flinch reactions to flinging an offense in someone's face; either covering with both arms, or shying back. Showed how these were very close to two trained positions, and a couple of offenses out of those. (covering is similar to an X-block type movement to which I add a body drop into a squatting floor stance, and the shying is a side stancely offensive position that I try to hammer in to everyone to always attack or otherwise act out of, never just defend and reset.)