What did I teach today?

[bushido_man96]

That x-block covering motion shows up in our TKD moves, as crossing the arms prior to blocking or striking.

[bushido_man96]

11-18-09

Taught TKD class today. Was getting students ready for testing this Friday.

[JusticeZero]

Haven't updated this in awhile..

jogo ('sparring') - lots of discussion on not attacking defended targets blindly. Attack to force a response, or to hit an opened target, don't just fling attacks because you can. Half the class was basically a series of playing each other.

The other half was techniques from the floor. Then we went outside and practiced in the snow briefly. Always make sure to use your techniques in the worst your local environment can throw at you. This wasn't the worst, but it wasn't a mat either.

[JusticeZero]

Basic form on two movements. Minor improvement on one of them, after I hammered home the need of shifting weight instead of using muscle.

Practiced on my own after everyone left. Found, to a combination of my relief and annoyance, that my halfmoon kick, which I have been trying for a long time to be able to watch the target throughout and failing, is a kick that I do in fact sight with my eyes properly and look straight at the target with - but I can only see if my shirt is off, because even relatively tight shirts fall down in front of the sight line.

Last week I mostly had people practicing chaining defenses into attacks. This was mostly sequence drilling with short combinations I came up with while I was changing clothes. I did also practice getting people to sling their leg through low crescent kicks by swinging their arms, since they're using entirely too much leg in their kicks.

I tried not to work on much in the way of *high* kicking - so no paired exercizes, as much as those might have made sense - as my 10 y/o girl student was having female issues that day (and complaining vocally about them). Her level of preparedness for that was unclear, since she's 10. Not completely sure if that was a perfect call, never having had to personally deal with such and thus being less than clear on what restrictions are added by the need not to overstrain the required items of whatever type. (I wasn't about to ask, and it was omitted from the litany of complaints).

I did fulfil my promise to the main tenant of the space I use, and tell people not to dump them down the toilet, since he'd recently had to eat $1,700 in plumbing and repairs because of a toilet clog caused by tampons and pads and told me that I needed to tell people not to do that. Ah well, I don't pay all that much rent, so I am happy to jump at his reasonable demands. I got glared at, but as a rule everything else i'd said on any subject whatsoever had gotten me glared at, so no idea what to say about that.

[JusticeZero]

Ginga form:

Front knee forward; back leg you should be able to make a line from the ball of the foot to the hip joint that passes through the knee (that is pretty much where 'casual straight' is), don't slouch (which got translated into 'stick your chest out' in terms both cutesy and vulgar for the young female student, *not* by me but it did explain the concept well enough for her to understand..), importance of not excluding the center, running-horse position. Transitional positions are important.

Falling: Lots of having to repeat myself that yes, for this I need them to launch themselves ballistically through the movement to throw themselves over their hands and head and land on their feet with their hips; I generally stress not doing that, but it's about controlling an excess of kinetic energy, and they need to get it from somewhere. Next exercize: Stand looking out the window; find a point on the windowframe and keep the scenery outside of the window stationary with the windowframe, then move the hips in isolation, then anchor the hips and move the upper chest in isolation. Purpose: Develop skill in moving the spine as distinct units rather than as a block.

Frustration of the day: The revelation that the student whom I have been trying to fix the form of by likening movements to 'just stepping' with little success has, in fact, apparently WALKED a single step in their life; they ambulate through a different sort of shuffling movement that uses different mechanics, and seems to be both more tiring, less efficient, and corrosive to their posture.

Along these lines, I have been told that my focus on posture and body dynamics has made me more effective at curing body aches and pain than regular visits to a chiropractor, as well as more affordable. Very cool.