What did you teach today?

[mal103]

I helped teach basics to 60 kids with various disabilities and learning difficulties.

A great day at Bath Uni with the Playground 2 Podium initiative.

[MasterPain]

I helped teach basics to 60 kids with various disabilities and learning difficulties.

A great day at Bath Uni with the Playground 2 Podium initiative.

That's awesome.

I ran a class on the Bujin system basics (Aikijutsu-type things) at my friendly neighborhood MMA gym tonight. Really like the spirit of sharing they have there.

[bushido_man96]

4/22/2013

Taught regular class, working on getting the kids to move a bit faster in basics. Did lots on forms and one-steps, too.

[bushido_man96]

4/29/2013

Our organization's tournament is coming up, and most of the students in the class are going to compete, so when doing forms, I tried to focus a few things for them, some hints to tweak things a bit.

Orange belts, I mainly hit on the importance of their stances, stretching out the front stance, pointing the front foot in the back stances, and keeping a good center of balance on the turns (Dan Gun and Bo Chung hyungs).

Lo green belt, focusing on stretching the front stance out just a bit more, keeping the back leg straight, and on a bit of timing issues going into the wedge blocks (Do San hyung).

Lo blue belt, helped shake out some timing and power issues in a section of the form doing back leg side kick, land into front stance and reverse elbow strike into palm, then turn to one-leg stance with hands in double forearm block position, then side kick and into reverse elbow strike to palm. To me, its the make or break section of the form (Yul Gok hyung).

Hi blue belt kids, mainly discussed with them the importance of focus on techniques and in the mind, and discipline when standing at attention and being ready. There is a section of the form where stances go from back to front, with back leg side kicks and palm pressing blocks, and made sure they understand the shifting in the stances (Joong Gun hyung).

The brown belts did pretty good. I had the hi brown belt work on pacing the form, fast techniques with just enough pause between to separate them. Also, with the flying side kick, focusing on jumping more up and less forward on the kick, which helps the landing (Choong Moo hyung). Lo brown, some help with the mountain blocks (W blocks) and driving the back foot forward on the front stances (Toi Gye hyung).

1st dans, broke down the section of form doing consecutive side kicks to the left (low then high), controlling and landing into a back stance and doing a reverse knife hand strike, then into a circular downward hammer strike, then do the same on the other side (Kwang Gae hyung).

After all that, we did a bit of sparring.

[bushido_man96]

5/8/2013

Now with my schedule changing, I get to teach a different class, and the instructor is letting me continue to have the leeway that the class on Wednesday is designed for, and not just sticking with traditional class routine. So, I took advantage.

I'd been wanting to do some side kick work, and did so today. Once we got to the side kick portion of basics, we did the regular side kicking drill down the floor twice, like always. This consists of students in a sitting stance, stepping back leg across and in front of their front leg, side kick and then down, advancing one sitting stance length. The tricky part is making sure they don't overstep, turning their body forward and not keeping it sideways, making too much work for them to turn back into proper position.

So, after that, I put them in a back stance, and had them bringing the back leg up for a back leg side kick chamber. I had the students keep the leg tight and bring it forward like a front kick chamber, then turn their bodies to the side by pivoting to the 90 degrees on their base leg, so the front kick chamber now faced to that 90, as well. From there, it was bringing the leg back down into another back stance, moving one stance length forward. No kick yet. I focused on landing controlled, as well.

From there, I went back to the sitting stance method, and worked on only chambers as well, foot tight to the knee. Up and down the floor. Then, I added the kick, focusing on pivot with the base leg to get the hip into the kick, and good drive. Then I went back to the back stance method, added the kick, focusing on pivoting the base leg, and making sure the chamber was around before the side kick went out. Otherwise, it becomes a round kick. The kids responded very well, and I was pleased with their efforts. Overall, a lot of good ground covered there.

Form review came next. I had one blue belt that was struggling with low rank material, but everyone else was spot on.

I also debriefed each student that went to tournament, and asked what they learned. If they sparred, I asked what they learned when they won, and when they lost:

The low blue belt teenager we have said from the match he lost, he learned he needed to keep his hands up better. I asked about the match he won, and he wasn't really sure, and gave me that funny "how do I learn from someone I beat" look. I asked, "what did you do to win?" He said he was aggressive, and the other student was really defensive and didn't attack hardly at all. Too tentative, perhaps. So I informed him that he did learn something, and although you may not notice, you do learn from all your matches.

Our high blue belt girl said she learned she needed to move sideways more, and not back up all the time.

After forms, we sparred, and I worked in with the kids, working on some of the things they mentioned for improving their sparring.

[bassaiguy]

We worked on self-defense in street clothes today. Specifically worked on evasion and response to push from the front, front arm haymaker, rear arm haymaker and grab to the body. Then we geared up one student and circled around and practiced attacking him at random in a group with basic street tactics to see if the responses worked (they did, but folks were surprised at how often they got hit).

Street applications of Shotokan - Osu!

[bushido_man96]

5/15/2013

Used class time to focus on side kicks some more. Did just line drills really, breaking the kick into its component parts. First drill was from sitting stance, our "side kick position" for basics. First, stepped over, chambered, and put foot back down. Then moved to adding in the pivot on the base leg and swiveling of the hips to get the "drive" into the kick. Next, added in the kick. Then I did the same set of drills from a back stance, using the back leg as the kicking leg. This forced the students to really pivot on the base leg to get the chamber into position to be a side kick and not a round kick.

[JusticeZero]

5/21/13

A footwork pattern to defend and slip around the side as a fakeout. Deep stepping using kick mechanics, using a kick to power a sudden lunge.

Focusing off the side of a person to watch them in peripheral vision. How to size up a room, how to watch people in a room, the predator mental drill for homework. Suggestions on distributing valuables to avoid crises from pickpockets.

[mal103]

Fast and furious!

Decided that my new Wednesday lesson has been going long enough with plenty of technical instruction, tonight was time to turn up the heat!

There were a few red faces on completion....

[sensei8]

Humility...I'm trying to teach myself because sometimes I do things that shouldn't be done. I don't ever want to fail those who expect more out of myself.

Sometimes...I disappoint those that depend on me.

SORRY!!