2022

2022 End of Year

Classes are adjorned through the end of the year, beginning again on January 2, 2023. Happy Holidays, everyone!

2022-12-21

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Even though the YMCA closed early last night - halfway through class - I still had two students show up to train. Awesome! I had told everyone I didn’t really expect them to drive all the way to class for a 30-minute lesson, but two still did. I’m certainly not holding it against those who didn’t come, since I explicitly told them I wasn’t expecting them to do so, but it warmed my heart just a little bit that I’ve got students who love karate enough to show up anyway.

2022-12-20

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Three students showed up last night. We worked on advanced kihon amd rolled through all of the Heian katas and Tekki Shodan before moving on to several kumite drills for the last 25 minutes of class.

We started with a drill where, from heiko dachi or hachiji dachi, you jab with one hand while stepping back about 225° with the opposite leg. This really just gets you set up. From there, you reverse this position by stepping back up into heiko dachi with the rear foot while jabbing with the same hand and then stepping back with the opposite foot. The tricks here are 1) timing the jab so that it happens while the hip is moving forward, not while the leg is stepping backward, and 2) keeping your body off the center line for all but a fraction of a second.

Next we did a bit of “three-to-five” attack drill - a staple of my upbringing - where “partner A” is the attacker, driving “partner B” backwards across the floor, attacking with whatever techniques he/she wants, but concentrating on making light contact to the body and no contact to the face. For “partner A”, this is a targeting drill. Meanwhile “partner B” moves backward, does not block, and concentrates on staying just barely within range, so that he/she can be contacted by the other person’s attacks. For “partner B” this drill is all about maintaining distance and being a good target.

Finally, we did a bit of slow, controlled free-sparring. For this, I only gave them one piece of guidance: “No bleeding!” 😄

Last time we all met, I insisted that they all be able to recite the first precept of the dojo kun, in Japanese, today … and all were able to do so. So for next time (Thursday) I’ve assigned them the second precept. We’ll get there. My tenure as their ongoing sub will be coming to an end soon, but I know this is something Sensei Bracklow has been wanting them to learn, so I’ve been trying to work on it as time allows.

2022-12-19

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Another new student! This time I have a young man who’s trained elsewhere for seven years, joining my adult class after moving from out-of-state. We went though a full class, where I got to see some of his kihon, and a few kata, namely Tekki Shodan and Bassai Dai. He, his parents, and I spent a long time talking about teaching philosopy, differnces between schools and curricula, etc. Thankfully, the parents are informed karate “consumers” and understand that it’s not all apples to apples, even between dojos purporting to be of the same style. I’m really looking forward to having this young man in my dojo!

As a scheduling reminder for any East Valley YMCA students reading this:

• The YMCA closes at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, December 21 for a holiday staff party. That means the 7pm class is cancelled. The 6pm class will only run 30 minutes (and I’ll understand if you’d rather not make the trip, but I’ll be there to teach if you come).
• The YMCA will be closed December 25 through January 1. Classes resume on Monday, January 2.
• Classes will continue as normal next month while I’m on vacaton with Sensei David Bracklow from ISKF Tempe subbing for me while I’m gone.

As always, check out the calendar (where all of this has already been updated).

2022-12-17

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Today’s class was lightly attended (only two beginner-beginners and no mudansha) but we were joined by a visiting black belt from Tucson, so the second class was a treat. We ran the gamut of advanced kihon before starting to work our way though kata, comparing and contrasting methods of instruction and execution the whole time. Do you pivot the supporting foot for yoko-geri kekomi? Why or why not? Do you “re-chamber” the foot to the knee after yoko-geri keage? Why or why not?

The great thing about working with people who’ve learned differently is that you’re sometimes unaware there was a different way to learn in the first place. It exposes all of the assumptions you’ve been making for your entire karate career. Questions like “Is it this way or that way?” sometimes cause you to realize that you never knew there was another way to do something. To be sure, mudansha need to be taught “the way.” Barring physical limitations, each dojo has its own “right” and “wrong”, but as an experienced black belt you start to create your own way of doing things, and it’s good to keep a beginner’s mind, able to consider and incorporate new ideas if they make sense.

2022-12-15

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

This dojo includes a family consisting of a father and three children who all take class together. The father sometimes has to miss class because of work obligations, or to care for two younger children. As a result, he sometimes falls a bit behind when it comes to things like memorizing kata. Last week, when all of them were training together, I gave the kids a bit of a good-natured hard time about this.

The dad was having a hard time getting through Heian Godan, so I pointed at each of the kids in turn: “You can get through this kata by yourself, right?” Each of the kids, in turn, yelled, “Osu!” Then, I asked, “But you guys all live in the same house, right?” They all yelled, “Osu!” I continued, “So how come none of you are helping your dad memorize this kata?” The kids all looked around at each other for a minute before looking back at me.

I said, “If your dad has to miss class so he can work to pay for your lessons, or take care of your brother and sister, the least you can do is help him practice at home, right?” They all nodded, so I continued, “Okay then … your dad better be able to get through this kata next time, or all you kids are doing push-ups!” Dad thought this was hilarious and laughed, which was fine, but then the kids laughed too so I assured them, “I’m serious.” All of this took place last week, but today was the day …

We all did kata together, and when it came time for Heian Godan I asked the kids, “So, did you guys help your dad learn Heian Godan yet, or will you be doing push-ups?” There was a palpably awkward pause before the dad said, “Probably push-ups.” As it happened, he was right. 😈

Having said all of this, we all got a good laugh out of this, and these kids were all capable of knocking out 10 push-ups without breaking a sweat, so it wasn’t really “punishment” so much as it was just a good-natured reminder. I generally don’t give students physical punishment like push-ups. Push-ups are part of regular training, necessary for building arm and wrist strength, so I don’t want students to think of them negatively. I joke that push-ups and leg-lifts are the “broccoli” of karate training. You don’t have to like them, but they’re a necessary part of training.

2022-12-14

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Another new student! That’s great, but can get frustrating for existing students when constantly going “back to square one.” Some schools deal with this by only allowing students to join at a certain time, others do it by having a special “beginner-beginner” class, but I prefer to do it by giving similar, but level-appropriate, activities to all of the students in the same class.

For example, I may say something like this to my class:

Okay, listen up!

• If you’re brand new, put your hands on your hips and step across the floor in front stance. Everyone else will be doing more, but I just want you do step in front stance.
• White belts and yellow belts, I want you to do oi-zuki.
• Blue and green belts, you’re going to do age-uke, then gyaku-zuki.
• Purple belts and up, I want age-uke, mae-ashi mae-geri, then gyaku-zuki.

Everyone got it? Okay, here we go … Ichi!, Ni!, San!

This keeps everyone involved, at a level appropriate to their level of skill, while allowing junior students to see what they’ll be up against later.

2022-12-13

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Tonight we spent time differentiating between the different “arm flailing” manuvers in the Heian katas, because many students were doing just that … simply flailing their arms the same way every time instead of recognizing that these are four distinct techniques.

• Heian Nidan introduces the horizontal backfist (yoko-mawashi uraken-uchi).
• Heian Sandan uses a horizontal bottom-fist (yoko-mawashi tettsui-uchi) just before the first kiai.
• Heian Sandan also includes three dropping backfist strikes (tate-mawashi tettsui-uchi).
• Heian Yondan uses a dropping backfist (tate-mawashi uraken-uchi).

Really, these boil down to two things: The path of the arm towards the target (on a horizontal or vertical plane) and the orientation of the hand on impact (pronated for tettsui and halfway supinated for uraken.) We spent some time going over these differences, both in execution and in application, so students would understand not only how each technique is different, but how it changes the impact and target options.

2022-12-12

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Driving the hip forward sharply is one of the hardest things for students to learn, and not doing so results in what I call “reserving the hip.” This is when a student sort-of “tentatively” steps forward, placing the foot down and then moving the hip and front knee forward into position. Ideally, the foot should land with the knee and hip already in their final position. The only way I’ve found to correct this is encouraging students to drive the hip forward by pushing through the back heel and trusting that the floor will be there to catch them. I’d be interested in hearing how others fix this.

2022-12-10

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Sensei Bracklow came to watch class this morning. He’s not quite ready to resume teaching just yet, but it’s good to see him in a gi again!

As someone who’s had his share of joint surgeries (none of which were caused by karate injuries, by the way), I’m no stranger to having to deal with frustratingly long recoveries. In fact, I’m still recovering from a hip resurfacing two years ago. Doctors love to say “let pain be your guide” but, when you think about it, is an incredibly silly thing to say to people who kick each other in the head for fun. 😝

But here’s the thing about injuries … they’re just limitations, like aging, and ultimately they don’t matter. So you can’t kick as high as you could a year ago. Whether that’s due to an injury or just age, it doesn’t matter - it’s a limitation you need to work to overcome, but accept that it may not happen. That’s one of many reasons karate is great: We’ve got plenty of tools in our toolbox. If you can’t kick someone in the head, punch them instead (or foot-sweep them and then kick them in the head).

2022-12-07

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I started working on some impact drills with my senior student last night. We’ve punched and kicked things before, but this time was just the two of us, and I wanted to work on developing some power and learning how to “lock in” at the end of a technique. We worked on oi-zuki, mae-geri keage and tatte mawashi tettsui uchi (the dropping hammer-fist from Heian Shodan). I held a kick shield and had her apply those three techniques over and over again - no count - I just had her keep going, experimenting with what worked and what didn’t when it came to maintaining stability while feeling like impact force was increasing. As expected, all the little things we’re taught to do actually did appear to increase impact force when we actually do them. (Who knew?)

2022-12-06

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

We worked on Tekki Shodan again tonight, and I think most students have got it memorized up through the first kiai. It’s far from perfect, of course, but we may be far enough along to start talking about applications. (We’ll see how it looks on Thursday.) We spent the balance of the night working on yakusoku kumite using various stances, blocks, and counterattacks. I keep telling the students that they need a “plan B” when doing any kind of sparring drill. Sometimes you land too far away and a reverse punch just isn’t going to work … so you have to kick instead. On the other hand, maybe you land too close and you have to throw an elbow. The point I was trying to make is that you can’t just assume that “downward block/reverse punch” is going to work 100% of the time. You need to understand how things might go wrong and have enough tools in your bag of tricks to compensate.

2022-12-05

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I had two new students tonight! Hopefully that trend continues. I could have sworn one of them was a “ringer” - he was getting everything just a little bit too right the first time around. He wasn’t perfect, mind you, but he was much better than I’m accustomed to seeing, despite insisting that he’d never done any martial arts before. Oh, well … good for him, right? Unfortunately, I think his natural facility may have made the other new student feel a bit self-conscious about not getting things right the first time. Eventually, he needed to take a little break and calm down. After class we had a bit of a chat about feeling silly in karate class. I explained that of course you’re going to feel silly in karate class … we dress up in pajamas and yell funny words at each other! That got a laugh, so I hope she continues to come to class.

2022-12-03

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Tonight we started working on Tekki Shodan and, although it’s way above these students’ “pay grade” (they’re all 9th kyu), they seemed to get along just fine. Granted, they don’t have the skills they need to really understand the kata (heck, I’m not sure I do), but there’s certainly no harm in having them be familiar with it so they can take advantage of opportunities to learn more if and when they come along. As expected, much of our time was spent harping on maintaing a good kiba-dachi while rotating the upper torso to execute techniques. Unexpectedly, they all did very, very well at learning the haiwan nagashi-uke/gedan-uke/ura-zuki combination, the “signature move” of sorts of all three Tekki kata.

2022-12-01

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Class went well tonight, but I’m going to talk a bit about what happed while closing class. The student leading the recitation of the dojo kun made a mistake (he said “respect others” twice) and another student laughed. I held out my hand to signal them to stop and spun around to face the class. I said, “I’m not angry, but you shouldn’t laugh at other people’s mistakes. It’s rude, and it’s especially bad to make fun of others while saying ‘respect others.’” Message received - they understood. It’s one thing to laugh with someone when they make a mistake, but it’s another thing entirely to laugh at someone, and it’s contarty to “seeking perfection of character.”

2022-11-30

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight we started learning how to shift off-line during yakusoku kumite. Last week, having learned all five of the “basic” blocks, we started using all but shuto-uke in sanbon kumite. I’d mentioned that shuto-uke is a bit easier to use during ippon kumite since it generally requires shifting offline, and thus getting back into position for any repetitions after the first. Tonight we spent time on the very beginnings of tai sabaki … a bit of backward-diagonal yori-ashi.

2022-11-29

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

I worked the class hard on kihon tonight, but spent a bit of extra time when it came to moving in kokutsu dachi. Whether to pivot on the heel or the ball of the foot tends to be a subject of much debate, but I tend to pivot on my heel in most circumstances. When moving forward in kokutsu dachi, pivoting on the heel makes it easier to avoid over-rotating the foot that ends up in back, making sure that its angle with the front foot is no greater than 90°. When moving backward, many students were having difficulty knowing when to pivot their back foot so it would end up pointing forward at the end of the step. To fix this, we went back to basics and broke the step down into two counts. At the halfway point, the feet come together (essentially heisoku dachi), so I suggested that students just continue to do what they already know. Rotate the rear foot so that both feet point forward at the halfway point … problem solved.

Moving on to kumite, we began with yakusoku sanbon kumite, then ippon kumite, and finally jiyu ippon kumite, with oi-zuki (jodan and chudan), mae-geri keage, and yoko-geri kekomi. Everyone did pretty well, but I noticed that everyone was looking at me when they made a mistake, so we talked about that a bit. Why look at me? I’m watching, and I already know you made a mistake. More importantly, you already know you made a mistake, so there’s no sense looking at me … just fix it. I describe bowing before and after kata or kumite like flipping a switch. Once that switch is turned on, and until you turn it off again, there are no distractions and no mistakes. Even if you make a mistake … no you didn’t … that’s exactly what you meant to do. If you want to beat yourself up about it, wait until after you bow out. Even then, why beat yourself up? The dojo is where you’re supposed to make your mistakes.

2022-11-28

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last night I introduced my students to mawashi geri. It’s beyond where they need to be in my curriculum, but I figured why not treat them to something different?

I started with two counts. Beginning in heiko-dachi with the right foot just barely off the ground, count number one had them rotate 90° to the left on the ball of the left foot. Count number two had them rotate back to the front. After practicing that for a while, and stressing the importance of keeping the supporting leg bent, we combined them into a single count - rotating and then immediately rotating back. Next we went to three counts by repeating the two-count drill, but inserting a low kick with the right leg in between the two rotations. After that, we combined counts one and two so the initial rotation and the kick were simultaneous. Finally, we did it all in one count: Rotate, kick, and rotate back.

2022-11-26

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is always hit-or-miss. None of the beginners showed up for the first half hour, but most of the yellow belts showed up on time for their class. We worked through the regular kihon to help burn off some of those extra calories and then spent a bit of extra time on mawashi-geri because, let’s face it, we all needed to. 😄

After kihon we worked through all five of the Heian katas, spending a bit of extra time on the finer points of each, and with extra emphasis on Heian Godan as that’s one of this month’s focus katas at this dojo. They all have the gross motor movements down, so we’re working on fine tuning at this point, and the last few moves of the kata have a lot going on … from nagashi-uke/uchi-komi in zenkutsu-dachi, to manji-gamae in kokutsu dachi, to heisoku-dachi … then changing sides. It’s a lot. Again, they have the gross motor movements. Now we just need to build confidence and speed.

2022-11-24

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

No class - Thanksgiving.

2022-11-22

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

No class - Thanksgiving.

2022-11-21

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight, following last Wednesday’s kyu exam, I promoted my “senior” student to 9th kyu. Her test was exemplary. As I mentioned last time, I delay results until the next class so I have time to prepare written feedback for each examinee. That gives us both a record of what the student did well and where we’re needing to see improvement in the future.

Tonight we introduced soto-uke and uchi-uke to our yakusoku kumite practice. Students begin blocking chudan oi-zuki with gedan barai, but since we now have all five of the “basic” blocks under our belt, it made sense to give it a shot. We didn’t try it with shuto-uke as that typically requires stepping offline, but I explained why, and promised we’d try it soon, along with starting to block mae-geri keage.

2022-11-19

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The Saturday morning classes at ISKF Tempe are two hours long with the first 30-ish minutes dedicated to the newest students, after which they’re dismissed, and the remaining 90-ish minutes is spent with the more experienced students. There were two new students in the first part of class today (a 5 year-old boy and his father) and they did quite well for their first day. Hopefully they join full-time and I can hand the class back to the regular instructor with a few extra students.

The second half of class was mostly devoted to Heian Godan again - that’s our focus for this month. In particular, we spent time on the very end of the kata - the part after the jump. Every dojo seems to practice the uchi-komi/manji-gamae sequence differently, and in a different number of “counts”. For now, we’re breaking it down into seven counts, figuring we can always combine them later. Starting from the morote-uke in straight-line front stance, facing kata “south”, it goes like this:

1. “Open” - Spread your hands, making what looks like an open-handed rising block with the right hand and an open-handed gedan-barai, parallel to the rear leg, with the left hand. (Very similar to the move in Heian Yondan after the second elbow strike.)
2. “Reach” - Pivot the feet without moving them, changing to north-facing uchi-komi in zenkutsu-dachi.
3. “Pull” - Pivot the feet without moving them, changing to manji gamae in kokutsu-dachi.
4. “Stand up” - Pull the front foot to the back foot, keeping the back knee bent, and then stand up into heisoku-dachi while maintaining manji gamae.
5. “Turn” - Pivot the feet to the north, maintaining heisoku-dachi, while bringing the left hand up as though chambering for soto-uke with the hand open, and making nagashi-uke across the face with the right hand. (i.e. Both hand end up on the left side of your body.)
6. “Reach” - Repeat step 2, but on the opposite side.
7. “Pull” - Repeat step 8, but on the opposite side.

2022-11-17

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Last night we walked through the first four Heian katas before beginning a “deep dive” into Heian Godan. Since it was new to everyone present, I taught it “Simon style” where we start with the first move, then two moves, then three, and so on. We used that method to build up to the first kiai. Then we learned the next section, from the first kiai to the jump, the same way. Then we did the same for the final few moves. That last bit is easily the most difficult for students (and instructors, since no two dojos seem to do it the same way), but by the end of the night everyone could get to the first kiai from memory.

The jump, itself, took a bit of extra time, so we broke it down as follows: I taught the hand moves in two counts (which is really quite easy since it’s just chambering and then a gedan ryoken juji-uke), then I taught the footwork (without a jump) just stepping into place in two counts. Then I put the two together, so that the hands and feet were both progressing with two counts. Finally we added a jump. Voila!

2022-11-16

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last night I held a small kyu grading for my “senior student” - the young lady who started with me a couple of months after my classes began. This was her second grading and, although I won’t release her results until Monday, she did quite well. She has a great attitude, and that certainly contributes to her ability to learn and apply what I’ve taught her so far. There are, of course “rough spots” - we all have them - but for a student with only a few months of training under her belt, she’s coming along nicely.

The other students in that class haven’t been with me as long, and aren’t ready for a grading yet, but likely will be soon. During class, before the test, we spent a good deal of time on “economy of motion” during kata practice. Yes, this is Shotokan, so everything is big, but we still don’t want any extra motion. In other words, we move our limbs from one extreme to the other, but they stay on course the whole time, because deviating from the course means a longer path, which means it takes longer to get where it’s going. So we make things large, but exactly large, if that makes sense.

2022-11-15

My karate “dance card” is going to be full for the next few weeks while I fill in for Sensei Dave Bracklow’s ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Last night we worked on kihon for about 30 minutes, ending with a little extra time working on mawashi-geri. Of course, the common problems were all rearing their heads: Trying to kick too high resulting in poor foot angle, not bringing the knee up to the side first, etc. But last night we chose to talk about the dangers of over-rotation. There are plenty, but the two biggest problems I see are that it reduces the impact of the kick and leaves your back exposed when you land. The latter is fairly obvious, but the understanding the former requires an understanding that the foot is moving towards the target fastest just before the leg reaches full extension. That means hitting the target before full extension ends up sacrificing some power. To put that another way, if you hit the target “early” you haven’t given your leg enough time and distance to build up speed.

We worked on Heian Godan for the second half of class, going through it step-by-step as several students are just starting to learn it. We spent a bit of time on the first six moves, with special emphasis on the footwork since so many people seem to end up with sloppy heisoku dachi after moves #3 and #6. Then we spent the balance of our time on the working towards the first kiai. Heian Godan introduces a lot of intricate hand work that students have never seen before. These include zenwan mizunagare no kamae, jodan ryosho juki-uke (or kaisho kosa-uke), and chudan ryosho juji osae-uke. Not only do students need to perform them, but they’re all strung together, back-to-back.

We ran out of time (as we often do) but I promised students we’d spend time on Thursday going over not just how to perform the moves, but how to apply them as well (their bunkai). Students already have a good idea how to apply many basic techniques in kata, but some of these more “esoteric” moves absolutely warrant additional time explaining how they’re used.

2022-11-14

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last night I introduced the class to “inside block” (uchi-uke), the last of the five “basic” blocks we need to cover. Fortunately, it’s also one of the easiest to teach. I intentionally taught shuto-uke first so we’d finish on an “easy win” and boost students’ confidence.

Later in class, while working on kata, several students seemed to be lifting their feet awfully high off the floor during turns, so I spoke a bit about the importance of reducing or eliminating extra motion. Yes, it’s necessary to pick up your foot when you move it, but you only need to lift it a bit … just a bit. After all, it takes time to lift your foot higher, and even more time to put it back again, so making the motion fast requires keeping the motion small.

Finally, we talked a bit about how you can control your speed in every direction except one: down. The speed at which you move in every other direction is controlled by your muscles, so you can choose how fast you want to move. If you want to move faster, push harder, etc. However, when it comes to moving down you’re at the mercy of gravity - your muscles have nothing to do with it. That’s why “up” is a very dangerous place to be in karate - you can’t come back down any faster than gravity will allow.

2022-11-09

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last time we’d met, I’d said something about the dangers of “anchoring” kata to the room where you learn it. For example, turning “towards the door” is a bad habit to learn since you’ll eventually be asked to perform the kata somewhere else, or even just facing a different direction. One student took that to heart and actually asked if we could turn out the lights when we practiced kata next time. How could I say no to that?

So tonight we began class with kata in the dark, and it went pretty well. I mean, it wasn’t totally dark, so students who were anchored to landmarks could still get through the kata, but that was only the beginning. Next we did it facing another direction, and then another, and the point was made. Yes, this kind of “anchoring” only affects kata, but it speaks to a broader issue of making assumptions.

Just as you can’t assume that the door is always going to be on your left for kata, you can’t assume that the attacker is going to start by stepping back with his right foot, making a downward block, and yelling “oi-zuki, jodan!” We need to be able to adapt to changes in our environment and the situation at hand. Kata helps with this, in a sense, because it often presents different solutions to the same problem, or similar solutions to different problems, but like everything else in karate, you need to take it to the next level - test it “live” - to be sure you can apply what you’ve learned when it really counts.

2022-11-07

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I introduced knife-hand block (shuto-uke) and back stance (kokutsu dachi) this evening. 🤯

The counter-rotation of the hips for shuto-uke is unintuitive for some students, but I have success comparing it to throwing a Frisbee. When you throw a Frisbee, you don’t just use your arm. When you want to throw it really hard, you tend to counter-rotate your hips. The same is true of shuto-uke (or gedan barai and uchi-uke for that matter). This counter-rotation improves blocking effectiveness, even if it doesn’t improve power, simply by reducing the exposed target area. Regardless, the analogy worked.

Next came explaining kokutsu dachi and that’s always a good time. “Remember everything I’ve been telling you about front stance? Yeah? Well forget that … now bend your back leg and make a stance with no width.” A few weeks ago, we discussed the oddness of stepping backward in front stance - how your hip only really moves for the first half of the motion, and they were able to liken that to stepping forwards in back stance. They sort-of bonded over their shared discomfort. Nevertheless, they eventually got that too.

With both of the building blocks out of the way, we moved on to talking about applying the block. The other basic blocks all work while standing directly in the “line of fire.” I’m not saying that’s where you want to stand, mind you … I’m just saying the blocks still work if you do. However, knife-hand block almost requires stepping off the attack line, in which case the block itself is merely “insurance”

And why are the fingers open? Because, after the block, we grab and pull the offending limb “hikite-style” as we execute our counter-attack, which leads to my old joke about why we block in karate. The white-belt answer is “so we don’t get hit”, but the black-belt answer is “to make it our turn.” 😈

2022-11-02

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

There were only three students tonight so, after warm-ups and kihon we did something a little different - we worked on impact and applications. I’m a big fan of using yoga blocks as punching targets for impact training because they’re small enough to demand accuracy, soft enough to prevent injury, and firm enough to get a good feeling of whether your wrist is strong enough to survive impact with a “real” target. To do this, I split the class into pairs and give each pair a yoga block. One partner gets in front stance and holds the yoga block firmly against his/her chest, making sure to keep his/her hands out of the way. The other partner then makes a front stance facing the block-holding partner and executes gyaku-zuki into the yoga block again, and again, and again. The points of focus for a drill like this are: 1) Keeping the wrist firm and straight so it doesn’t bend on impact, 2) Striking with seiken every time. 3) Proper penetration - aiming about an inch into the block rather than aiming for the surface or trying to bury your fist up to the elbow, and 4) Maximizing the timing and drive of the rear leg to fire the hip forward during the kick.

2022-10-22

The newly announced “American Shotokan Karate” (see my 2022-10-21 update) had its first fall clinic and dan grading today. It began with several hours of training, led by yondan candidate Brandon Cochrane, Sensei Rick Brewer, and Sensei Carl Hartter. Topics included teaching hip rotation to beginners, sparring footwork, and generating power with striking combinations. Later, the dan grading promoted two new shodans, two sandans and one yondan. Congratulations to everyone who showed up for training, and especially to those who passed their gradings.

2022-10-21

This weekend I travelled back to Illinois - my old stomping grounds - to attend my organization’s fall clinic at my old dojo, the Central Illinois Shotokan Karate Association, in Bloomington, IL. The schedule for Friday night included a bit of training (mostly a preview of the following day’s dan grading) and an announcement from our founding instructors, Carl Hartter and Rick Brewer.

That announcement was the rebranding of the Central States Shotokan as “American Shotokan Karate.” The change makes a lot of sense given the growth and geographic spread of our students over the decades. What started as two small karate clubs in Bloomington and Peoria, Illinois, is now a network of dojos and instructors across the country. Indeed, “Central States” is no longer an accurate description of the organization, but “American Shotokan Karate” fits quite well.

So what is “American Shotokan Karate”? To a large extent, that’s still being worked out, but it’s being founded on the premise that there are student-focused Shotokan dojos out there that can benefit from an inclusive, hands-off network of support from other like-minded instructors. All Shotokan stylists are welcome, without the need to leave any other organizations to which they may belong. It’s an addition to rather than a substitute for any organizational ties you may have. Anyone interested can reach out to me and I’ll forward more information when it becomes available. Suffice it to say that Desert Valley Shotokan will be affiliated.

2022-10-19, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I had another great question in class tonight: “How do we know where to block?” The question came up during yakusoku kumite, so my first answer was, “because your partner is telling you where they’re going to punch.” 😄 But seriously, it’s a good question. Unfortunately, the real answer lies somewhere between “experience” and “you can’t … that’s why you need to keep your hands up.”

This turned into a slightly longer discussion about the importance of establishing a non-threatening “fence” with your hands, that can be used to transition easily into mid-level or upper-level blocks, and the importance of situational awareness and de-escalation skills, before circling back to the topic of the blocks, themselves. Karate has dozens of blocks, but most beginners learn the same five to begin with: age-uke, gedan-barai, soto-uke, uchi-uke, and shuto-uke. Three of those are mid-level blocks, leaving one each for upper- and mid-level. That’s enough to offer variety without having too many choices. From there, it’s a question of what can be taught vs. what has to be learned on one’s own.

How to form the blocks is something that can be taught. In fact, we spend quite a bit of time on it. However, when to use each block is something that can’t really be taught … it has to be learned through experience. That’s why we teach beginners the shape of each block, and have them make each block with an exaggerated motion, as big as possible, to be sure that they understand the principles of body mechanics and power generation for each. But then, at a certain point, we cut them lose with free-sparring and let them lean which blocks work best against which attacks, and how that differs with the relative size and speed of the opponent.

2022-10-17, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I broke out the painter’s tape tonight while teaching Taikyoku Shodan. I find it helpful for helping students remember the path the kata takes across the floor ("embusen"). It’s cheap, and you can mark hard or carpeted floors without leaving any residue behind when peel it up later. As you might expect, I draw out a capital letter “I” on the floor, similar to the image below, but I also make sure to mark the “center” of the pattern, as shown below with the red dot. Why? I do that because, marking the pattern by itself helps students know which direction to _move_s, but marking the center point helps them remember which direction to turn as well. You see, you always turn towards the center point.

Think about it: If we begin the kata from the bottom center of the letter “I”, we go left first, but then have to turn 180° to go back the other way … but which way? Of course, we know that we turn clockwise, but notice how that’s also the direction you’d need to turn to keep that center dot in view. Then, after blocking and punching to the right, we have to turn counterclockwise to go “up the middle” of the pattern. Again, notice how that means turning in the direction of the dot. Now proceed with three punches up the middle of the pattern, ending with a kiai. What’s next? This is the 270° turn, ending up facing to the “right” of the diagram. If you turn clockwise (the “short” way) you’ll lose sight of the center dot. But if you turn counterclockwise (the “long” but correct direction) the center dot will stay in view the whole time.

2022-10-12, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

“Bend your knee!” I sometimes think this should be the unofficial motto of Shotokan. It came up several times last night, but two are worth mentioning.

First, when stepping forward to do almost any technique, several students were pulling their front foot back before stepping forward with their rear foot. One hundred percent of the time, this was because their front knee wasn’t over their front toes when they began the movement. In this situation, you’ve got two choices: bend your knee forward over your toes or pull the foot back underneath the knee. There’s no doubt which one is easier, but pulling the foot back robs you of both time and distance. It’s better to begin with the knee where it’s supposed to be anyway.

Second, when executing the 270° turn in Taikyoku Shodan (or any pivot for that matter), it’s important to have your center of gravity over your pivot point. In the case of the “long” turns in Taikyoku Shodan, that means the front knee must be bent deeply over the big toe, or there will be a tendency to fall “backwards” during the turn. Again, you can either start with your knee bent, take the time to bend it when you begin the turn, or fall on your behind when you lose your balance during the turn. The choice seems clear to me.

2022-10-10, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Class is up to five regular attendees now, and everyone seems “solid” in terms of attendance. That’s good. Now I just need more people in my adult class! I got another really good question from someone in the family class about hikite or, rather, the “pre-hikite” reach. Why do we do it? I explained both theories on hikite: The action/reaction theory (to which I do not subscribe) and the grabbing/clearing theory (to which I do). If you’re interested here’s a great (but understandibly one-sided) explaination from Iain Abernethy.

But the question was not “Why hikite?” - it was “Why do we reach before hikite?” and that’s much easier to answer. Indeed, if we agree that hikite is necessary (for whatever reason) then the need for “drawing” implies that the hand be “not drawn” first. And what does a hand look like when it’s not drawn back? Yep … it looks like it’s reaching. So no matter what theory of hikite you believe, you have to reach first.

2022-10-05, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I had a student ask me why we do a particular warm-up exercise today and, while I’ve never had that kind of question before, it was a good one. Specifically, she asked why we turn our ankles. For the exercise in question, we sit on the floor with one leg out, bend one leg over the top of the other, grab the ankle and toes of the bent leg, and rotate the ankle in circles, in both directions. Clearly the exercise is designed to warm up the ankle joint, stretch it out a bit, increase range of motion, etc., but why is that important for karate?

I often say that, if I could go back and talk to my yellow-belt self, I tell myself to forget about doing the splits and work on ankle flexibility instead. The ability to dorsiflect the ankle is important because it allows for a deeper stance while keeping more of the foot in contact with the floor. Likewise the ability to plantarflect the ankle permits mae-geri keage to be applied to higher targets than would otherwise be possible.

2022-10-03, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

What goes around comes around. I lost two students last week, but picked up two new students this week. The program continues to grow! My senior student was absent again, but that gave me a chance to go through opening and closing class with the newcomers in greater detail. I couldn’t quite get a read on whether or not they enjoyed the class, but that’s mostly my responsibility, so I hope to see them return.

2022-09-28, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I lost two students this week, but for the best of reasons. These two students, a mother and child, were having trouble making it to class on time. Eventually they mentioned that they were driving all the way across town “because the Tempe YMCA doesn’t have karate.” But the Tempe YMCA does have a karate program. It hosts ISKF Tempe with Sensei David Bracklow, which I attend on Tuesdays and Saturdays to help keep up with my own training.

To make a long story short, we got the mother and child transferred to the Tempe YMCA. So they’re still training, and they’re still training in Shotokan, but they’re closer to home and better able to make it to class on time. Of course I told them they’re always welcome to visit my class. Do I want to lose students? Of course not, but this was easily the best solution for them, and that should always be an instructor’s first motivation.

2022-09-26, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

My senior student didn’t attend class today, and that’s okay, because it forced the rest of my students outside their comfort zone. Who’s going to open and close class? Who’s going to lead the recitation of the dojo kun? etc. We ended up spending some time getting everyone more familiar with these things because you never know when you’re going to find yourself sitting at the head of the line - even as a yellow belt. After all, what is karate if not training for the unexpected?

2022-09-23, Friday

Tonight I taught a basic self-defense class at AT Still University. I was told to expect 30-40 participants, and arrived to find 3 waiting, but the group grew to about 15 by the time I got started. That’s fine - the smaller group was easier to work with. I began with a standard disclaimer - I’m not an attorney, a doctor, or a magician, so it’s up to you to use what I teach you legally and safely, while understanding that there’s no magic “always works” technique.

Next we talked about strategies for managing confrontations before they happen: Understanding the nature of criminal violence, awareness, de-escalation, and using your presence and your voice as deterrents. Then we skipped ahead to dealing with the aftermath of a confrontation: How to preserve evidence, who to talk to, and who not to talk to. Then we talked about how to manage the confrontation itself: Narrate the scene, make it clear that you’re not going to be an easy target, etc. Finally, with the time we had left, we practiced some basic escapes from simple wrist grabs. Everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation, and I closed with a shameless plug for my karate classes at the YMCA.

2022-09-21, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Today we spoke at length about the need to trust your training partners. Oftentimes I’ll tell students not to move before executing a technique in their direction and, while experienced karateka have no problem with this, beginners almost always do something: take a step, flail their arms, dodge, etc.

Because much of karate practice involves stopping a technique just short of the target (this is called “sun dome” 寸止め in Japanese) it’s important that you know where the target is and, when beginning, it’s important that the target not be moving. This requires trust on both sides. Uke (the “target”) has to trust that tori (the one executing the technique) has the control to stop the technique. Meanwhile, tori has to trust that uke won’t do something unexpected. After all, any motion on uke’s part will either make it difficult for tori to judge his accuracy or (possibly) result in injury.

Students need to build up a record of success and a “reputation” for accuracy because mistrust can be a vicious circle. No one wants to hold still for the guy who’s always hitting people by mistake. Likewise, students who lack the confidence in their own ability to stop short will often compensate by increasing the “buffer” distance or decreasing their speed, both of which have a negative effect on actual performance.

2022-09-19, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

It was a pretty normal day in class tonight, but I do have an announcement: I’ll be covering classes for ISKF Tempe while their instructor is unavailable, from mid-November through the end of the year. In return, he’ll be covering for me during a couple of trips I plan to take in the first half of next year. The take-away here is that it’s very important to cultivate relationships with other instructors in your area. If you’re the only instructor at your dojo, it’s really difficult to go on vacation, or even deal with illness, without cancelling class. If you can find other open-minded and similarly styled instructors in your area, build those relationships.

2022-09-14, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

And another new student! When it rains, it pours … in a good way. That brings the youth & family class up to six regular attendees. We need to get a few more people in the adult class, but I’m teaching a self-defense class at AT Still University on Friday that may pique some interest. Meanwhile, the young lady I’ve asked to stay for a few minutes of the adult class is able to do so. Since the adult class is so small, I think we’ll have an excellent opportunity to tailor the training to her needs.

2022-09-12, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We’ve got another new student! Let’s hope this momentum keeps up! Last week, while walking downstairs to grab the key to the exercise room, a family was standing at the front desk and the daughter said something about karate when she saw me. I put on my best “sensei face” and hollered at the front desk guy “Give that girl a poster!” He did … and the family showed up to class today. Hooray! That brings my “Youth and Family” class up to five regular attendees. Now I just need to get more grown-ups in the adult class.

Because we had a new beginner in class, we spent a bit more time on the basic-basics than we normally would, but it looks like she’s been pretty athletic and has a good sense of body movement (particularly for an 8-year-old) and is picking things up quickly. On the flip side, I’m concerned that my senior student, a 13-year-old, isn’t being challenged enough, so I’ve asked her to start staying 15 minutes into the adult class for a bit more of a challenge. Hopefully she’ll be able to do that.

2022-09-07, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Another new student! The mother of one of my current students has joined the family class and she’s doing great. We went back to basics (as if we ever really get away from them) and spent a good deal of time in front of the mirror practicing individual kihon before practicing the same techniques moving across the floor. When it came time for kata, I put the new student in the middle of the group, so there was always someone in front of her, and again … things went very well. The whole class spent quite a bit of time focused on using both hands when blocking during kata. Of course, everyone knows they should be using both hand, and everyone uses both during kihon training, but somehow adding the element of turning during kata makes students forget to extend the drawing hand before blocking during the turns.

2022-09-05, Monday

Labor Day, no class.

2022-08-31, Wednesday

I’m sad to report that the class I was scheduled to teach at Mesa Community College for the fall semester has been cancelled for lack of enrollment. Actually, none of the martial arts classes made their quota this semeseter, so the Aikido and Tai Chi classes were cancelled as well. It’s too bad, but the class is scheduled again for Spring of 2023, so we can hope for a better turnout then.

2022-08-29, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We spent a loooong time on vocabulary in the youth class tonight, and a few students are having trouble. Amazingly, I’ve got a student who can recite the dojo kun, and can remember to say “oi-zuki, jodan” before yakusoku kumite, but can’t remember that “tsuki” is the word for “punch.” I’m not blaming the student - I just need to find a better way to teach this stuff. I’ve put together a glossary, but I don’t expect my 6-year-old students to be pouring over it online. I’m very interested to hear what techniques others use to teach vocabulary.

In the adult class, we went through a round of kihon drills before moving on to application work. Over the weekend, in my Aikido class, we started working on yokomen uchi ikkyo and I was struck by the similarity between the opening of this technique and the first two moves of Heian Yondan. We spent quite a bit of time playing with that, and it was well-received.

2022-08-24, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Class tonight was extrordinarily ordinary. Three students attended, and we made it through s, yakusoku kumite, and Taikyoku Shodan. Everything went pretty well, so I started teaching soto ude uke, and even that went well. There’s not much to say - sometimes things just go well. ¯\(ツ)/¯

2022-08-22, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Based on her performance, I’ve decided to promote the young lady who tested last week to a “9b” kyu. I suppose you could call that 3/4 of the way to a “full” 9th kyu grading. She knew all of the material, but her “polish” wasn’t quite where I thought it needed to be for a full kyu promotion. As I mentioned last week, I like to write up my feedback for each student when they take a test. That guarantees that I have to be intentional about my reasoning, and serves as a record I can go back to later to see how each student is progressing. I also read those evaluations to the whole class so that my reasoning is transparent and so students can learn what I do (and don’t) like to see in testing.

2022-08-17, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We had a “micro” kyu grading this evening for one young lady who’s been with me for a few months now and has shown really remarkable progress. Her exam went very smoothly, and was generally quite good, but I’m going to take the weekend to write up my thoughts.

2022-08-15, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We’ve added another new student to the youth class! Let’s hope they keep rolling in! In today’s youth class we began with in-place kihon in front of the mirror and then went directly into kata. Both of the newcomers are coming along nicely and the young lady preparing to grade is increasing her speed and confidence, as expected (and requested). I’m looking forward to her grading on Wednesday and I think she is too.

In other news, it’s getting closer to the start of the fall semester at Mesa Community College, and activity is ramping up. I can see that I’ve already got one student registered for the karate class I’ll be teaching, and the class is loaded into their online class resource system, so I’ll be loading content as time allows. There will be a lot more “rigor” around teaching karate as a for-credit class, but I’m looking forward to it.

2022-08-10, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Youth class went very well today, and I’m sure the young lady who’s testing next Wednesday will do very well. Her kata performance can be described as “accurate but safe”, so I’ve told her that I need her to work on her confidence and speed things up a bit. We only get better if we push ourselves, so I need her to push herself just outside of her comfort zone. The newest student is doing very well with kata as well, able to follow along when given verbal instructions.

The adult class is getting into its own groove. After warm-up exercises we use a fitness tube as a target for impact practice with gyaku zuki, mae geri keage, and mawashi geri. It has almost the perfect amount of “give” to be a solid target without being too solid. One person holds it upright, with one end resting on the ground, while the other person puts techniques on the target. As a side note, yoga blocks work great as hand-held punching targets, but in my experience they’re too small to be safe for kicking drills. After that we move on to partner-supported yoko geri and ushiro geri practice, where partners hold hands and each partner practices placing techniques on the other partner.

2022-08-08, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We got another new student in the youth class tonight - a 9-year-old boy. That brings us up to three “regulars” and a couple of other who show up from time to time. Things are growing, and that’s good. The young lady in the youth class is just about ready to take her 9th kyu grading. We just got her all the way through Taikyoku Shodan. Now we just need to add a bit more speed and confidence and she should be all set. We’re planning to do that next Wednesday, so that gives us a bit more than a week to polish all the edges.

The adult class began with warm-up exercises, targeted kicking drills with partners, and a bit of impact work with reverse punches, front kicks, and round kicks. That seems to be working well for us, so we may make all of that just part of our normal routine. Then we moved on to reviewing the applications we worked on last week, polishing them up just a bit. There are a few we just can’t get to work (or perhaps we can and we just don’t like them). Either way, we’re going through application drills in a staged approach. First slowly, with a compliant partner, then a bit faster, then we have the partner dial up the resistance a bit to make sure the application has a chance of really working if we need it.

2022-08-03, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The youth class continues to truck along with two students, both of whom are benefitting from the extra attention. In tonight’s adult class, we took a second look at the applications from the beginning of Heian Nidan that we started working on Monday. They’re getting a bit less “wonky” and viable with practice, as one would expect. Chances are we’ll make this a regular part of class going forward.

2022-08-01, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Youth class was straightforward tonight, and I was even able to get one of the newer students started with yakusoku gohon kumite. With younger students, I always feel the need to stress that kumite drills need to be taken very seriously because now you’re responsible for someone else’s safety as well. I’m not sure why yakusoku kumite encourages giggling from students under 10, but it does. In other news, my 13-year-old student is now making it all the way through Taikyoku Shodan without assistance, so we can now graduate to fine-tuning the gross motor skills she’s learned.

The adult class was interesting tonight, as one of the students brought Mark Cook’s “Oldman’s Bubishi”, which happens to be my favorite beginning bunkai book. Mark is a Chung Do Kwan instructor whose illustrations do a fabulous job of describing alternative applications for all five of the Heian katas. In fact, his illustrations are so good, there’s no need for text to describe the illustrations. Yes, this is a shameless plug. Yes, Mark’s book is worth it. If you feel like purchasing a copy of your own, using the link below will help support this site.

We worked through two of the applications for the first three moves of Heian Nidan and they were a bit “clunky” for us, but we expected that. After all, this was the first time we’d tried them. As with all things, they’ll improve with practice.

2022-07-27, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We had another new student in the youth class tonight, and may soon have two more! I also had an adult drop by later to ask about class. Slowly, but surely, classes are growing!

It didn’t take long to realize that the new student has trained in something before, because he was able to execute alternate punching and rising block with very little verbal instruction - even getting nuances like the rotation of the wrist correct. I asked his parents after class and, indeed, he’s been training elsewhere but they’re just “shopping around” to see what else is available. That’s good news, but it also means there are likely to be some “habits” from his other style that we’ll need to eliminate.

The adult class was pretty standard most of the way through, but towards the end we branched off and played with applications for the first few moves of Heian Nidan. We started with my favorite:

1. Step deeply, to the outside of the attacker’s lead leg, into on oncoming right-handed haymaker, blocking it with the front hand haiwan uke, just above the crease of the elbow, while striking the face with the “back” hand.
2. Execute a short punch to the abdomen, encouraging the attacker to lean forward. At the same time, “help” the attacker to lean forward by striking the back of the head with keito uchi.
3. Pass the left hand in front of the attacker’s body and use mawashi tettsui uchi to unbalance the attacker over your front leg.

But we also worked on a new application:

1. Step slightly inside the attacker’s stance and block the attacker’s left-hand haymaker with the back hand while executing tettsui uchi to the face with the front hand.
2. Grab the attacking wrist with the back hand and twist it downward with hikite, pinning it to your waist. At the same time, bring the front hand to your opposite ear in preparation for the next step.
3. Move the front foot to the outside of the attacker’s leg and drop the left hand onto the inside of the attacker’s elbow to execute a throw very similar to Aikido’s version of sumi otoshi.

Granted, those may be hard to follow from just the written word, but give them a go. Yes, the traditional Shotokan “bang, bang, bang” applications work fine, but I think there’s real value in exploring less “percussive” applications as well.

2022-07-25, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

In last night’s adult class, we spent a good deal of time on combinations that include a front-leg front kick between two other techniques. (e.g Age uke, mae-ashi mae geri, gyaku zuki) The problem we kept trying to solve was the placement of the front knee before the kick. When moving forward with any speed at all, the tendency is to “reserve” the front knee - to place it behind the front foot in anticipation of having to unload the front leg to execute the kick. However, when moving backward this doesn’t happen. (Incidentally, this is very easy to see if you use your phone to film yourself, in slow motion, from the side.) Why?

Unfortunately, it may just be subconscious laziness. When moving forward, it’s easier to move the knee less forward, which results in the knee ending up too far back. This causes the center of gravity to be too far back which, in turn, causes the hip to rock backward during the kick, resulting in a sort of “zero sum” scenario whereby the backward motion of the hip cancels out part of the forward motion of the leg. But when moving backward, it’s easier to move the knee less backward, which results in the knee being too far forward, and that’s not really going to cause a problem because it doesn’t affect the center of gravity. If anything it’ll cause the hip to rock forward, adding to the kick’s power.

So how do you fix this? Simple - slow it down and put a pause between the first and second techniques of the combination until the form of the front stance is perfect … and then launch the kick. If the second technique (the front-leg front kick) is the problem, don’t “rob” from the quality of the first technique to make it better. Instead, isolate and complete the first technique and then add the second technique. To put that another way, improve the second technique and add it to the first rather than “averaging out the bad” between both.

2022-07-20, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

We spent a lot of time on kata in tonight’s youth class. I put the students in a line with the new student in the middle so he had someone to watch no matter which way we were going, and then I simply talked through it. The more experienced students were jumping the gun a bit when it came to my count, because they probably didn’t need all of the verbal assistance I was giving to the newcomer, but if nothing else it helped to drive home some vocabulary. At the same time, the new student was probably struggling to keep up a bit, but had two visual examples to work with and my own verbal descriptions. This worked really well, and kept everyone just outside their own “comfort zone”, which is essential for growth no matter what.

After a few rounds of that, I had the newcomer sit down and watch while the two more experienced beginners ran through the kata without assistance. Importantly, however, I gave the new student a job to do. I had him watch both other students and make sure they only used one foot at a time, and used both hands on every technique. If you just have students sit there, without giving them a job, they tend to devolve into chit-chat, or other distractions, so it’s important to keep them involved in some way.

The adult class had only one student, so we worked on some “non-standard” stuff. We started with familar kihon, but soon branched into some line drills involving shuto uchi, haito uchi, and the various flavors of empi uchi … things that don’t come up that often in the “marching up and down the floor” portion of class. From there, we took those same drills and turned them into impact exercises, because we all know there’s a huge difference between “striking air” and striking something that provides resistance. Finally, we worked on some applications for the opening sequence of Bassai Sho.

2022-07-18, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Youth class had three students tonight, which was good as it gave me a couple of “experienced” people to use as examples while helping the new 6-year old student learn the ropes, particularly when it came to yakusoku kumite. We had to get past a little “listening” problem and underscore the importance of not moving when you’re not supposed to move. Specifically, despite being told several times “don’t move”, one student decided to step forward into the gyaku zuki counter at the end of 5-step sparring. Fortunately there were no injuries, but this led us to a very important discussion of what I consistently call the “second most important part of karate training”, which is doing nothing.

That probably bears a bit more explaination, so here we go: When the instructor tells you to do something, you do it, but otherwise, you should be doing nothing (except lisenting, of course). If part of your body is supposed to move during a particular technique, you move it, but any body part not required for that technique should be doing nothing. If you’re practicing kata with a count, you should move on the count, but between counts you shoul be doing nothing, etc. It turns out “doing nothing” is very difficult for some people, particularly small children, and is certainly worth practicing.

2022-07-13, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The youth class saw the same “usual suspects” this evening, the 13-year-old girl and the 6-year-old boy. The boy has a pretty good attention span for his age, but getting used to being “karate serious” is going to take some work. The girl is coming along nicely and, rather than working on gross motor movement, I find more and more of our time is spent on fine tuning things like plantarflecting the ankle on contact with mae-geri keage and timing the straightening of the back leg to coincide with the end of punching techniques. We’ve still got a few issues memorizing Taikyoku Shodan, but nothing practice can’t fix.

Tonight’s adult class got a new student - a gentleman who earned his shodan back in the late 1980s and hasn’t trained since. We spent the class on a laundry list of kihon and kata, getting a sense for which rusty spots need polish and which holes need to be patched. In general, the skills are still there, much like riding a bicycle. It may take a while to regain speed and confidence, but overall I’m quite pleased.

2022-07-11, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight was a small class - two, then three, then back to two again - a reminder that people have things going on outside of karate. As a new instructor, that was one of the hardest thing for me to understand - why other people don’t like karate as much as I do. “What do you mean you don’t want to stick around for an hour after class to work on front kick?” Now, I get it. I try to infer each student’s level of comittment and then try to push them just barely past that - enough to challenge them to improve without being pushy.

The two students who were there for the entire class were both beginners, though one has been coming for a couple of months and the other is on his second class. As with any skill gap, that creates challenges when it comes to keeping both involved. I let the more “experienced” white belt demonstrate for the “newbie” and offered corrections and advice based on what both needed to hear.

More good news: I’m told I have a couple of “prospects” for the adult class, so here’s hoping that pans out. I’d really like to grow the program overall.

2022-07-06, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

It was nice to be back teaching after a couple of weeks off, and big thanks go out to Sensei Dave Bracklow of ISKF Tempe and Barry O’Brien for subbing for me during my absence. One welcome surprise was a pair of new students - one 10 years old and the other 6. My classes technically start at age 7, but if karate teaches you anything it’s not to judge a book by its cover, so I let him participate in class to see if he could handle it and … I’m willing to take a risk. I’ve also got an adult looking to start next week, so - slowly but surely - the tribe is growing.

Since we had two brand new students, we went back to basic-basics: how to make a fist, how to form a front stance, etc. This sort of thing can be “boring” for students who’ve been there a while, so it’s important to include them in the review. I do this by allowing them to demonstrate proper form. This not only engages them in the lesson, it puts them “on their game” since they’re being asked to be the example for others to follow. Near the end of class, I had the new students sit and watch the others do kata, then led the whole class through the first four moves of Taikyoku Shodan before bringing the class to an end. We ended a couple of minutes early to give time for any questions before the second class. I think both newcomers are going to stick with it. I hope they do.

2022-06-15, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight was a pretty straightforward night - kihon, followed by some sonbon kumite, and then kata. We really spent a lot of time on kata, though. This group seems to be getting the techniques, themselves, down fine, but having trouble with doing the right number of them, and turning in the right direction. To help with direction, I put a giant letter “I” on the floor using painter’s tape and explained how it resembles the embusen of Taikyoku Shodan. To help with count, I had them count each direction starting with “1” and explained that every direction has an even number of moves, and you only kiai on number 4. This worked nicely once I got them to do the counting for themselves, first out loud, but then to themselves.

2022-06-14, Tuesday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

We had four people show up last night: A yondan and three white belts. As usual, that’s a challenge. But, as usual, I overcome that challenge by giving increasingly difficult versions of the same techniques to the students, each appropriate to his/her level. For example, while the white belts stepped forward with shuto uke in kokutsu dachi, the yondan did the same, but added a front-leg front kick and landed with nukite.

2022-06-13, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

It was good to be back “home” at my own dojo. We spent the evening reviewing everything we’d learned so far, and spent the bulk of our extra time working on distancing for yakusoku kumite. In particular, we spent time learning how to adjust distance by changing our angle with respect to our partners on the last count and, if absolutely necessary on the “middle” counts, by shuffling our feet a bit … but never by leaning forward. On the flip side, we also discussed the importance of making proper distance and always being in the “danger zone.” After all, if your punch can’t reach your partner, then the defender can’t practice good blocking skills. To put that another way, if you have to reach for the attack to block it, then it probably wan’t going to hit you in the first place!

2022-06-06 through 2022-06-08

Thanks to Sensei Dave Bracklow at ISKF Tempe for covering my classes while I was away for my stepdaughter’s wedding! Meanwhile, since I was in Bloomington, Illinois, I got the opportunity to teach both Monday and Wednesday night at my former dojo - the Central Illinois Shotokan Karate Association, located at the Four Seasons Association health club. As usual, it’s great to see all the familiar faces, and meet all the new beginners who will be carrying karate’s traditions into the future.

2022-06-03 through 2022-06-05

I had a great time attending the HDKI Summer Camp, hosted by Sensei Kevin Downard of Saisei Karate (formerly Kensho Shotokan) in Hamilton, Ohio. The camp was held at the Higher Ground Conference and Retreat Center in West Harrison, Indiana, and instruction was led by HDKI Chief Instructor Scott Langley and Sensei David Pope. In all, it was a great weekend of training, with food and accommodations included. It was great to see so many old friends and come away with new friends (and fresh bruises.)

2022-06-01, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Two students showed up tonight, one of whom took a kyu exam last week. I presented him with his new belt and a feedback form, outlining what he did well on his test, as well as areas for improvement. I think this is important - verbal feedback is good, but it’s very easy to forget. That’s why I give verbal feedback on the day of the exam, but prepare written feedback as well. Because of this, I hold off on announcing results right away as well. I’ve always belonged to clubs who give out results and belts on the same day, and I agree with that too. However, I’m just starting out so I’m going to try something different, perhaps teaching a bit of patience along the way. I’m not talking about weeks and weeks of waiting here - I’m just talking about waiting a couple of days so I can be very intentional about the results and feedback I provide.

After our little “award ceremony” was over, we got back to training. We’ve touched on gyaku zuki, insofar as it’s the final technique in yakusoku sanbon kumite, but tonight we practiced it on its own. We spent a lot of time discussing how and why to make hip rotation. The lesson boiled down to two major points: 1) If your stance isn’t wide enough - at least hip width - you can’t fully rotate your hip forward, and 2) If you don’t bend your back leg, you can’t fully rotate your hip back.

We started with gyaku zuki by itself, with the other hand just sort of reaching forward, but soon moved on to combining gyaku zuki with age uke and gedan barai. Since I stress rotating the hip back while blocking already, it was easy for them to add the block to the reverse punch. With the last few minutes of class, we touched on soto ude uke, just talking about the basic motion.

2022-05-30, Monday

Memorial Day - No class.

2022-05-25, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

As planned, we had a small kyu grading this evening for the two young men who’ve been with me from the start, and both did pretty well. Every dojo does rank exams differently, so I thought I’d share what I’m doing. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Every rank exam consists of five sections: Kihon, kumite, Kata, Fitness, Self-Protection, and Knowledge. Not every rank will have items in every category, but it was a convenient way to break down the totality of what I think needs to be covered. Also, for 9-7 kyu, I plan to break each rank into four “sub ranks” for youth students. In other words, when young students test for 9th kyu, I may award them 9d, 9c, 9b, or “full” 9th kyu, depending on their performance. This gives them room to advance without having to get absolutely everything spot-on every time. To put that another way, I’d much rather tell a student “You passed to 9c” than have to say, “I’m sorry, you didn’t pass.” Again, I only plan to do this for young students and only for the first three ranks. Adults should be able to cope with “I’m sorry, maybe next time”, and that’s part of what I’m trying to teach to young students … just not all at once.

For the 9th kyu test, I ask students to do the following:

• Kihon: Oi zuki, age uke, mae geri keage, and gedan barai.
• Kumite: yakusoku sanbon kumite - oi zuki jodan vs. age uke.
• Kata: Taikyoku Shodan
• Fitness: 1 good push-up, 10 seconds of leg lifts, balancing on each leg for 10 seconds, and sitting still and quiet for 15 seconds.
• Knowledge: Demonstrate zenkutsu dachi, understand basic vocabulary like “dojo” and “gi”, and be able to tie their belt by themselves.

Again, young students don’t have to get all of that right to pass, but that’s the goal. Admittedly, it’s a high bar compared to what I’ve seen on the syllabus of several other dojos, but I don’t make exuses for having high expectations.

2022-05-23, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last night’s classes were great! The first class had three students, two of whom I’m planning to test for 9th kyu on Wednesday, so we spent our time going over the test material: kihon, kata, kumite, vocabulary, and a couple of fitness items. Everything but the kata is spot on at this point, and I think both of them will do just fine if they can shake the “jitters.” If I had to nitpick their kihon, I’d say that the two young men getting ready to test both tend to make their stance too long. Adults tend to make their stances to short, but children make them too long, trying to “race” to get to the other side of the room. The problem, of course, is that they can’t move without either moving their foot (which wastes time), or destoying their posture.

The young lady who joined class a few weeks ago is doing very, very well. I just need to figure out how to get her to dial up her aggression just a notch. For instance, she knows kiai is mandatory, but she’s having trouble breaking out of what appears to be a bit of a timid shell. We’ll get there.

The second class had three black belts in attendance, so we hit it hard, interspersing kata and kihon for the first hour. We started with Heain Godan, and spent a good deal of time talking about the relationship between the back toes and the back knee in kokutsu dachi. Sometimes people will “buckle” the back knee forward, but having the back knee a smidge forward is fine as long as the back toes are too. Like zenkutsu dachi, the knee needs to be over the toes … wherever they are.

In Hangetsu, we discussed keeping the arms close to your sides when doing the uchi uke/gedan uke combinations after the first kiai. Many people let their arms flare out away from their bodies, but the arm postiion should be the same as if you were doing “normal” uchi uke and gedan barai - just like the double blocks near the beginning of Heian Sandan.

In Nijushiho, we worked on smoothing things out a bit. I called it “dialing the Shotokan back to about 8.” In kata with slower moves, like Hangetsu and Nijushiho, we have a tendency to “make kime” (though not really) at the end of slow techniques by adding a bit of a herky-jerkiness to the stop. It’s unnecessary and ruins the fluidity of movements that are supposed to show a more graceful kind of power. This is particularly true in Nijushiho, where we flip back and forth between “hard” and “soft” elements every couple of moves.

2022-05-18, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

For the first time in a long, long time, I grabbed two pairs of gi pants on my way out of the house and showed up to the dojo with no gi top.  So I taught “out of uniform” last night, but I used it as part of the lesson. We’ve been training for about three months now, and I’ve let everyone know that I’d like to have a small kyu grading for the students who’ve been with me from the beginning.  That means everyone has belts on the brain.  But is that a good thing?

Belts are a way to measure progress, and a good motivator, but sometimes it goes too far and the goal shifts from gaining the skills to getting the belt.  Since I wasn’t wearing a belt last night, I took that as an opportunity to talk about this and set expectations properly. I told the students, “I’m not wearing my black belt, but does that mean I forgot how to punch?”  They knew it didn’t.  “Does that mean I forgot how to teach?”  Again, they knew it didn’t.  Then I ased, “If I let you wear my belt, will that make your kick awesome?”  Again, they knew the answer.

This led to a discussion about the difference between learning skills, measuring those skills, and not putting the cart before the horse.  In karate, if you learn the skills, the belts will come.  Then I compared this to something more familiar to them: school. I told them that getting an “A” is great, but I’d rather know how to do math than get an “A” in math.  Likewise, I’d rather know how to play the guitar than get an “A” in music class.  The skills are what’s important.  The belt is just a tool to motivate and help reward the attainment of those skills.

Over the years, this has been a constant battle, not only with students, but with parents.  Parents often want us to teach their children patience and humility, but then want their children to be black belts immediately.  Things just don’t work that way, and teaching that, both to students and parents, is part of karate’s lesson.

A few years ago, I remember having this kind of conversation with a parent after class.  A father asked me how soon his son would be a black belt.  I told him that, since his son was only 8 and had only been training for a few months, it was going to be several years.  He was dismayed and told me that several of his son’s little friends at school were black belts at another school.  I refrained from rolling my eyes, but continued the conversation. I asked him where he went to college.  He told me.  I asked him what he studied.  He said it was computer science.  Then I asked him how long it took him to get his degree.  He said it took him four years.  Then I dropped the bomb on him.  I pointed to one of the other children in class and asked, “If I told you that 8-year old kid has the same degree you have, and he got it in six months, what would you say?”

Silence.  He got it.  Anything worth having is going to take time and effort to attain.  In other words, it’s supply and demand.  If everyone is a black belt, then the black belt has no value.  It only has value because it’s hard to earn.

2022-05-16, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight we tried yakusoku sanbon kumite for the first time in class, and I think it went pretty well. I know some people find no value in these drills, and say that whatever skills they teach could be taught in a better way, but I find value in them, particularly for building confidence when first starting partner work.

It was the students’ first introduction to working with a partner, so it was a good introduction to how “messy” karate can get when you’ve suddenly got a real person in front of you. When you’re just doing kihon in front of a mirror, you only have to worry about yourself. Your timing, speed, etc., is your own. But once you start working with a partner, everything changes. Shorter people have to take longer steps, and taller people have to shuffle a bit, to maintain distance.

There’s also a tendency to “reach” with blocks and lean into punches when first working with a partner. All of these things need to be discussed and explained. For me, at least at this level, this is pretty simple. First, never lean forward to punch. If you have to lean, it means your feet are in the wrong place. It’s not a punching problem, it’s a footwork problem. Second, never “reach” to block an attack. If the attack is that far away, it wasn’t going to hit you in the first place.

Of course, it’s not as simple as “never” - there are exceptions. We lean into attacks in Bassai Dai and Nijushiho, and we “reach” to block in Nijushiho and Gankaku, but these students are long way from there. Beginners need to spend their time learning the “rules.” Black belts get to learn when it’s okay to break them.

2022-05-11, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

There were only two students last night, a “regular” who’s been with me since March, and the elder of the two young girls who showed up for the first time last week. As I mentioned last time, it’s a wonder the difference that a few extra years can make when it comes to keeping everyone’s attention throughout the entire class. With older children, it’s also possible to get into a bit more of the “why” we do things, which I think is important to the overall learning experience. In general, kihon training went very well.

When we moved on to kata, we encountered a common issue. It’s hard for beginners to use the same hand and foot twice in a row, but that’s exactly what you do on moves 3 and 5 (and their later analogs) in Taikyoku Shodan. After doing the initial downward block the left, followed by a right-side lunge punch, you have to use the right hand and right foot again to turn 180° and block. That’s really hard for most people, since most people are accustomed to walking with one foot and then the other. The only “fix” I’ve found for this is ceaseless repetition, sometimes without moving the arms or legs at all and just pivoting on the back foot. Once we’ve got that, then we go back and add the preparatory drawing of the arms for the downward block.

2022-05-09, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The two young ladies from last Wednesday were back again today. This time both of them, along with their mother, all participated in class, though it appears only the older of the two daughters will be sticking with it for the immediate future. That’s okay! We made it through the “core” for new students: alternate punching, front stance, lunge punch, rising block, and downward block. We even made it through the first four moves of Taikyoku Shodan. It’s amazing how much you can cover when the students are just a couple of years older.

After class, the mother remarked that “This is a lot harder than Zumba”, and we ended up talking about that for a while. I argued that learning a new Zumba dance routine is fundamentally no different from learning new karate “moves” except for two things: combative intent and expectations of precision. In other words, either way you’re learning to move your body in a whole new way to which you may not be accustomed, along with all the feelings of self-consciousness that brings. However, in karate, every “move” has to lead towards ending a self-defense encouter and every move has a “just so” quality of precision. In other words, the margin of error between “right” and “wrong” is much narrower.

2022-05-04, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

It’s official! We’re going to be ending the youth class 15 minutes earlier, bringing it down to 60 minutes, and starting the adult class 15 minutes earlier, bringing it up to 90 minutes. I announced this to the parents and got a round of cheers, so I think this is a move in the right direction. I also had two new students tonight - two young ladies aged 10 and 13 - and I’m thrilled. The class has been all boys so far and it’s great to see some girls in class. Even better, when I asked them why they joined the class, one of them said, “I just love karate!” How awesome is that?

With two first-day students in class, things naturally gravitated towards getting them going. That meant reviewing a lot of “first day” basics that might ordinarily cause continuing students to be bored, but the trick to keeping them engaged is keeping them involved. Instead of demonstrating techniques for the new students myself, I had the “experienced” white belts do it. When walking around making corrections, I’d frequently say “new students, look at how so-and-so is doing this and try to copy him.” Using more experienced students as an example when teaching basics gives them a sense of pride and ownership in their technique.

2022-05-03, Tuesday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The regular instructor had a last-minute work committment pop up, so I got the opportunity to sub for the first class of the month. That means new katas! For May, this class is working on Heain Godan, Hangetsu, and Nijushiho. Two black belts and a green belt showed up to class and, while the latter two kata are way beyond what I’d expect of a green belt, the class was small enough that I could afford to have him follow along.

In Heain Godan, we spent extra time on the last few moves. Different schools do these differently, some do these in a straight-line stance and some change from full-width front stance to back stance. Some pivot on the left heel after the manji-gamae and some switch to kosa-dachi and “unwind” the feet. We talked through them all, but ultimately practiced it in a straight-line stance with the switch to kosa-dachi.

For Hangetsu, we got through the kata a couple of times, and then worked on the stances. For Hangetsu-dachi, we make a regular front stance, shorten it up just a smidge, pivot the front foot inward about 45°, and then let the knees bend together naturally. Far too many people are told to create inside tension by forcing the knees inward. Don’t do that! Once the feet are pointing in the right direction, simply bendng the knees naturally will cause them to come together and create the tension you want. For neko-ashi dachi, we start with back stance, shorten it up by one foot length, pivot the back foot forward 45°, and “sit.” A common error here is to have the front leg too close to the back leg, causing the angle of the front shin to be either vertical or even bent back towards the back leg.

We didn’t have much time left for Nijushiho, but we got through it twice. With the time we had left, we went through the final move a couple of times, stressing that it is not the same as the admittedly similar-looking technique at the end of Unsu. Yes, they’re both a combination of tekubi makiotoshi-uke and tesho awase-zuki, but the “Unsu version” has both hands winding all the way around, crossing your center line, while the “Nijushiho version” has both hands remaining on their respective sides of the body, barely (if at all) crossing your center line.

2022-05-02, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The first class was a bit rough tonight and the students were really struggling to keep going for the full 75 minutes. I think it’s time to move forward with adjusting class times. I’m going to propose shortening the youth class by 15 minutes and adding that time onto the adult class.

Regardless, the class went pretty well and the students’ skills are progressing as I’d expect, given that we’ve only been at this for a couple of months. One student can get almost all the way through Taikyoku Shodan without assistance, and he may be ready to test later this month. The others are still coming along, but need a bit more work. (Don’t we all?)

We spent a lot of time on outside block (soto ude-uke) tonight, trying to eliminate the tendency to block the attack downwards instead of sideways. Two techniques I use for this are: 1) Have them actually block something: “Air blocking” is fine, but it’s hard to get a feel for pushing an attack to the side without actually doing it, so I either punch at the students myself or use a pool noodle to poke at them while they practice pushing the attack sideways. If that doesn’t work, I move to the next level. 2) I have them stand up straight and make a finished outside block with both arms at the same time (imagine the first move in the Goju-ryu version of Sanchin). Then I poke at them with a pool noodle and have them block without moving their arms, solely by rotating their waist side to side. That isolates the sidways motion of the block and, once they’e mastered that, we add the movement of the arms.

2022-04-27, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

There were only two students in class tonight, but that meant extra attention where attention was needed. Outside block (soto ude-uke) is troublesome for most. It’s a complicated motion and most tend to drop the arm into a sort of scooping motion (not unlike move 16 in Heian Nidan). With adults, I draw an analogy to the motion of putting on your seat belt, where you reach back behind yourself to grab the buckle tab and then draw it down and across your body. That doesn’t tend to work with children though, so instead we just practice the motion over and over again in the mirror. We concentrate on the starting position of the fist and the elbow because once those two points are right, everything is right.

Kicking is another source of frustration for some, since it’s difficult to get all three necessary steps in order, and do so at speed: Knee up, snap out and back, foot down. Oftentimes the leg snaps out before the knee comes up, resulting in a “scoop kick” or the knee doesn’t come up at all, resulting in a kick that’s maybe ankle high. The only way I’ve found to combat this is simply repetition. Up, out & back, down. Up, out & back, down. There’s no secret - just repetition. Everyone eventually “gets it.”

Kata is coming along nicely as well. Both students were able to get through the gross motor motions of Taikyoku Shodan - their arms and legs end up in the right spot. They don’t have it completely memorized yet, but they remember the consituent pieces and can generally make the “shapes” required to get through it. Now we’re moving on to fine tuning and tonight’s focus was using both hands every … single … time.

2022-04-25, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Three students came to the early class, and all are doing very well. We worked our way through the kihon we’ve done so far (choku-zuki, oi-zuki, age-uke, and gedan barai) before spending a good deal of time on outside block. I wrote last week about the three methods I use to teach outside block, and we went through all three of them again. Everyone seems to be coming along nicely, though I do have difficulty getting them to pull hikite back to the hip. For those having trouble, I find that standing right in front of them and acting as their mirror image helps. (i.e. Looking at themselves in the mirror doesn’t help if they don’t know how to do the technique in the first place, but standing in front of them and having them “mirror” your motion seems to help quite a bit.)

For the second half of class, we all went through Taikyoku Shodan a few times together before taking turns doing it individually. All three students wanted to give it a try without help, but all three still ended up needing some degree of assistance. Some only needed me to count and some needed a bit more instruction. Still, there was good progress, I expect everyone will be able to get through the kata without assistance in another month or so, and that may be a good opportunity to hold our first rank exam.

I an extra surprise at the end of class. Because this class is full of brand new beginners, I’ve been giving the “commands” to open and close class, including reciting the dojo kun (in English) for them to repeat. This time, one of the students started parroting the dojo kun along with me, and he almost got it all right! I was pretty impressed, and I think he may have it in another week or two.

2022-04-23, Saturday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Turnout was pretty good today, but it was a mixed bag in terms of rank: One beginner, one white belt with a bit more experience, a green belt, and a couple of black belts. As usual when this sort of thing happens, it’s important to have drills that can cater to different levels so nobody feels overwhelmed or bored. For example, I might have the white belts do rising block, the colored belts do rising block/reverse punch, and the black belts do rising block/front-leg front kick/reverse punch.

The white belts left a bit early, so the rest of us continued with kata practice. We spent a good deal of time on Heian Yondan, particularly the side kick/elbow strike combinations and the shuto soto mawashi uchi just before the first kiai. For the kick/elbow combination we concentrated on stepping down “offline” to land in an appropriately wide front stance and making sure to elbow the hand instead of slapping the elbow. For the shuto uchi, we discussed making the path less of a wide circle and closer to a straight line. It still curves, but you certainly don’t want the arm straight before it’s almost reached its target.

2022-04-20, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA

Tonight’s class had four participants. Everyone made it through the kihon we’ve done so far, so we added soto ude-uke to the mix. As expected, the hardest part is getting the blocking hand to the “halfway” point - beside the head, ready to come down and across to block. I teach this three different ways and let students choose which one makes the most sense for them.

1. Imagine you’re doing a rising block to the side.
2. Imagine you’re drawing a bow, then just flip the drawing hand over (“Avatar style”) and then raise it up a bit.
3. Imagine you’re a marionette, with strings attached to your elbow and wrist, and someone pulls both strings straight up.

Most students are able to latch onto one of those analogies and make something resembling an outside block in short order.

Later, the students all practiced going through Taikyoku Shodan, one at a time, by themselves. I asked each student if they needed help or wanted to go it alone. A couple tried it on their own, but ultimately (and rather expectedly at this stage) everyone ended up needing some degree of assistance. Still, everyone got all the way through, which I think is great for the short amount of time we’ve been at it.

2022-04-18, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The first class is coming along nicely. Three students showed up - two youths and a father. I still think the 75-minute class may be a bit too long for this group, but part of karate training is mental discipline and focus, so we’ll continue playing the cards we’re dealt for now. Regadless, everyone is making good progress. The father has been having a lot of trouble coordinating his hands for gedan-barai, but he nailed it today, so there were high-fives all around. Everyone worked through oi-zuki, age-uke, and gedan barai before we moved on to spend a significant amount of time on front snap kick. I teach mae-geri keage in three counts: 1) Pull the knee up and point it towards the target. 2) Snap the foot out and back. And 3) Put the foot down. I’m certainly not unique in teaching it this way, but I probably spend more time than most explaining why each count is important and why all three steps have to happen in order. In my experience, moving from three counts to one count prematurely results in a mish-mash of low kicks and goose steps - habits that just need to be unlearned later.

The advanced class was excellent. One black belt showed up, so the time was focused entirely on his needs. We started with reviewing some footwork and limb control before moving on to a review of kata Empi. As I mentioned in my 4/11 update, there’s no consistency with the way different Shotokan organizations perform the footwork on the first four moves, so we spent our time elsewhere. The “signature” sequence in Empi (starting with the age-zuki and ending with the 180° turn and gedan-barai) is repeated three times, so we figured it was worth some study. Current JKA practice after the rising punch is to open the hand and hold it flat before plunging into the downward punch in kosa-dachi, but many organizations still rotate the wrist, as if grasping something. The problem I have is that holding the hand still seems stylized and “flat” while grabbing and pulling leaves the opponent at the wrong distance for the subsequent attack. Therefore, I take the best of both worlds. I move the hand but, rather than grasping, I drive the opponent backward (typically with an eye gouge) so the distance is correct for the dropping punch. I’m always curious to hear how others approach this sequence.

2022-04-13, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Four students showed up for the first class, and things went really well. We started with kihon, as always, and added a few thoughts about how punching works. Now that most folks have got the basic coordination of both hands, stopping at the same time, and in mostly the correct place, I asked them to think more about the path of the technique. It needs to go straight from the chambered position to the target, along a straight line.

I always describe the path of a straight punch the same way. From a proper chambered position, the forearm is like a rocket with the engine pointing out the back of your elbow. Point the forearm at the target and let it fly. Rockets don’t “wiggle around” on their way to the target. (We’re talking about “fire-and-forget” rockets here, not guided missiles.) They go straight from A to B.

The three most common errors I see here are 1) The fist comes around front, roughly to the belly button, before moving forward. 2) The fist rises up, almost to the armpit, flips over, and then moves forward. And 3) The fist “scoops” upward, like trying to punch someone in the groin, changing course at the last minute to reach the intended target. Tonight we worked on the last of those (“scooping”) because it’s usually the easiest to fix. First, I start with a positive message, saying “That’s a really good rising punch, and that’s a technique you’ll learn later, but it’s not the one I’m asking you to do right now.” Then I move to corrective action.

The easiest way to stop a “scooping” punch is to give it a target. Usually, I just hold out the palm of my hand and ask the student to punch straight at my hand, without touching it. Poof! The scoop is gone. If that doesn’t work, I get out a spare belt and hold one end at the “target” - right where I want the student’s punch to end. Then I have another student stand behind the “puncher” holding the other end of the belt so that the belt touches the elbow of the punching arm. Then, I tell the punching student to follow the belt to the target. If the punch “scoops”, it’ll graze the belt, and the student will have tactile feedback correcting the punch along the desired path. Have the student throw a few dozen punches like that and then remove the belt - problem solved!

2022-04-11, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

There were three students in the beginning class tonight, but we also had a family come and watch the first half of class, so that’s good news. We spent more time than usual working on balance today - this class really needs it before kicking practice goes much father. Nevertheless, we did some three-count mae-geri keage practice, in place, standing in heisoku-dachi in front of the mirror. 1) Knee up. 2) Kick and snap back. 3) Put your foot down. Then we did the moving version of the same drill, stepping across the floor in zenkutsu-dachi with three-count kicks. They’re all white belts - we’ll get there. We finished up the class getting through the first 8 counts of Taikyoku Shodan - up to the first kiai. As this is a beginning group, we all sat down at the end and went over my “rules” for Taikyoku Shodan:

1. You only use one foot at a time.
2. You always use both hands.
3. Turn in the direction of the punching arm, unless you just kiaied.
4. Turn by picking up the front foot, unless you just kiaied.

A pair of black belts showed up for the second class, including a newcomer. (I knew him, but he’d never come to my class before.) We spent our time going over this month’s kata selection: Heian Yondan, Empi, and Tekki Nidan. In Heian Yondan, we discussed making “fast” look faster by going slower when you’re supposed to go slowly. Heian Yondan is the first kata to include deliberately slow motion, so it’s best to be deliberately slow and controlled. In Empi, we talked about the footwork on the first four moves. Suffice it to say there’s no consistency, even among publications from the same source, but we went over both of the “prevailing” methods: Keeping your feet in one line vs. slight steps back on moves 1, 3, and 4. (This may turn into a blog post some day.) For Tekki Nidan, we spent a good deal of time talking over applications of the first four moves, including a wrist lock application of moves 3 and 4. Everyone seemed to really enjoy this, so we may spend more time going through this sort of thing once attendance stabilizes.

2022-04-06, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The first class only had two students tonight, but it was still pretty good. During warm-up exercises, I asked both students how their day was going. One student said, “Okay.” The other student said, “Amazing.” Wait, what? Say that again? “Amazing!” Okay, awesome. I guess I’ve got the bar set pretty high for me then. We spent the first half of the class going through basics, as usual: making a fist, choku-zuki, oi-zuki, age-uke and gedan barai in place, and then moving across the floor. Repetition can get old for students, so the trick is changing it up just a little bit each time.

Things were going really well, so I decided to move on to kata. But first, I broke out my secret weapon - painter’s tape (the blue stuff). I always keep a roll in my gi bag, and it’s an excellent tool for helping students visualize the embusen of kata. We start with Taikyoku Shodan, so the embusen resembles a capital letter “I.” Most students understand that when you explain it to them, but can’t hold onto the idea while they’re actually working their way through the kata. They’re so busy moving the correct arm, turning the right way, etc., that remembering the letter “I” is the last thing on their mind … so I put it on the floor. But I also add something special - a little piece of tape halfway up the stem of the letter “I.” Why? Because it helps students remember which way to turn. Every time you turn, you have to keep that little extra piece of tape in view. (This doesn’t work for all katas, but it does for Taikyoku Shodan and Heian Shodan.)

2022-04-04, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

I had four students in the first class, including the father-and-son pair, and that worked out really nicely. His son was having a high-energy day, and it helped to have another grown-up who could tell him to “chill” when necessary. We made good progress on basics, but “dad” was having particular trouble with coordinating his arms for gedan barai when standing in place in front of a mirror. It’s pretty common for particular students to hit a sort of “road block” trying to learn a given technique in a given way. That’s why it’s so important to know more than one way to teach the same thing.

For in-place downward block, I have students start with a completed block. Then I tell them to put their back hand (the one on their hip) on the opposite shoulder. I specifically avoid using “right” and “left” at this stage, because it changes every time, but (at least in this drill) you always use your back hand and students seem to have better luck remembering that. So step 1 is “back hand to shoulder” and step 2 is “block.” Standing in front of a mirror, this works pretty well. If a student is still having trouble, I’ll stand in front of them, facing them, perform the motions very slowly, and have them “mirror” me. Most importantly, I have everyone repeat the words, “Back hand to shoulder … block! Back hand to shoulder … block!” This forces them to engage their brains to verbalize what they’re trying to do. Eventually we stop saying it out loud, but by this point they’ve built up a sort-of automatic internal monologe that reminds them what to do if they forget.

In the second class, I had a single shodan, so we worked on his needs, specifically. First was timing - this particular student has a bit of difficulty synchronizing his body so that everything stops at the end of the technique. Specifically, his back leg continues to straighten after the rest of his body has “landed.” We isolated this to his thinking about how he steps forward, starting with the “traditional” (scare quotes) one-leg pull/push way of thinking and ending with a discussion of what it meant to have “outside tension” in a stance. Just thinking about it differently made a world of difference right off the bat. We spent the balance of our time working through Nijushiho.

2022-03-30, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

As expected, I had a dad join the first class with his son and it was pretty awesome. He raised the energy of the class for the kids and helped keep his son on task. Win-win. We had a pretty good chat after class and I think they’ll be with me for a while. His gi came in over the weekend, so he should be squared away by the end of the week.

We started working on kicking and it went about as I expected as well. Everyone wants to learn how to kick (because kicking is wicked-cool) but nobody appreciates how much balance and strength it takes. After all, if you can’t maintain your balance standing still on one foot, you can’t possibly hope to stay balanced while kicking something. We started with the basics - standing in heisoku dachi, raising one knee up so the knee points straight forward, and holding it for five seconds. I ended up assigning everyone “homework” to practice this at home, holding onto something for balance if necessary.

I am a bit concerned that some of the kids start to “burn out” towards the end of class. Class runs from 6:00 to 7:15, so I don’t think it’s too late, but I think it may be too long. Back in Illinois our children’s classes lasted 45 minutes and that worked well. My classes now are 75 minutes long and I think that might be a touch too long for a few of the students. Yes, it’s entirely on me to keep them active and engaged, but I’m hoping some of you will respond with your feedback for “optimal” class length for 7-10 year olds.

2022-03-27, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

As mentioned last time, we’ve decided to go with the “Youth & Family” concept for the first class, with parents allowed to enroll with their children. In fact, we’ve already had a dad sign up to join his 7-year-old son. I’ll probably also have one of the students in the second (adult) class transfer to the first class to train with his son.

The first class began with two students, but a latecomer joined a few minutes after warm-up exercises. Class went well, and we got through a review of all the kihon we’d worked on so far: choku-zuki, zenkutsu-dachi, oi-zuki, age-uke, and gedan-barai. With the balance of our time, we worked on the first half of Taikyoku Shodan. As expected, moves 3 and 5 were difficult, because people are accustomed to alternating hands and feet as they move and both of those moves require stepping with the same foot, and blocking with the same hand, as the previous move. I find myself saying, “Pick up your front foot. No … your other front foot.” To fix this, I have them tap their front foot first. I’ll say, “Pick up your front foot and tap, tap, tap it on the ground so I can see which one it is!” Then, once everyone’s front feet are tapping, we all move together. After we successfully made our way to the first kiai, we called it a day on kata and finished class by practicing our balance - standing on one leg with the knee pointed forward, as if preparing for mae-geri keage … (because we are).

2022-03-23, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last night’s youth class was great! Everyone showed up and we even got a new student - record attendance! We worked on the basics (no shock there) starting with making a fist, then choku-zuki, then making zenkutsu dachi, then moving across the floor, and finally putting it all together to make oi-zuki. Everyone appeared to have a great time - high fives all around!

A note on class composition: The first class is billed as “youth”, but we’re considering changing it to “youth & family”, meaning parents would be allowed to train with their children. To be clear, adults couldn’t train in this class unless they also have a child in the class. (i.e. No solo adults in the “youth & family” class.)

The adult class had two attendees, a white belt and a black belt. The white belt was a bit late to class, so the black belt and I went over some of the applications we’ve been working on in both classes for the past several weeks. Once the white belt joined we went over the same basics we did in the youth class, but added soto ude-uke to the mix.

With only two in class, it’s easy to shift focus according to the students’ needs, so we ended up doing a partner drill similar to yakusoku kumite, but standing in place. Partners stand face to face, at punching range. Partner 1 extends a punch at jodan level while partner 2 executes a rising block, then partner 1 begins alternating punches, all to jodan level, at a slow and predictable pace, while partner 2 just practices receiving those punches with age-uke, stressing timing, wrist-to-wrist contact, and keeping the body rotating along a vertical axis.

We then did the same drill with soto ude-uke, but this required a bit more correction. A common tendency among beginners is to execute this block in a way that drives the attack down and to the side, rather than just to the side. After all, the arm starts up to the side of the head, and you bring it down across the body, so shouldn’t the resulting block drive the attack down and to the side? No … not exactly. To fix this, we altered the drill so the “defender” just stands there with both arms up, as though both arms had just finished soto ude-uke. (Think of Jion just before the ryoken jodan juji-uke.) As the attacker begins punching, the defender blocks without moving his arms, simply by rotating his upper torso left and right, isolating the blocking motion along a horizontal plane. Once the defender is comfortable with this, he can add the “wind up” motion of moving the blocking arm up to the side of his head.

2022-03-21, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

The first class had only one student tonight, and he was brand new. That was actually good, as it gave me a chance to give him plenty of attention without taking anything away from the other students (because there weren’t any). As you’d expect, we started with making a fist, then alternate punching towards a mirror. Next, we worked on how to make, and step forward in, front stance. Finally, we put it all the pieces together and made oi-zuki.

This particular student has a lot of extra movement. The best word for it is “fidgety”, but I don’t see it as a negative thing. It’s just something that we need to work on, so I told him my big secret: The most important part of karate training is trying hard and doing what your sensei says, but the second most important part of karate training is doing nothing. After all, when sensei’s not telling you to do something, what are you supposed to do? Nothing! In between counts of a drill, what are you supposed to do? Nothing! Every time you’re not doing something in class, what are you doing? Nothing! The ability to stand still like a statue is a learned skill, and an important one, so we practice it like everything else.

The second class was just a yondan who also shows up to the ISKF Tempe classes where I’ve been subbing for a couple of weeks. Since I’ve been teaching different kata applications in both classes, and this student had seen them all, we did a review of everything. We practiced cross-side wrist grab escapes from Heian Sandan, Tekki Shodan, and Bassai Dai, then same-side escapes from Heian Sandan and Tekki Nidan. We also threw in some lapel grab, tackle, and bear hug escapes from Heain Sandan. Towards the end, we finished with a bare-hand strangle escape from Jion and an application of the first sequence of Sochin. Once we got through it all, we just worked them over and over until class was done. Slight variances in foot placement, orientation, and the partner’s degree of compliance mean no two “reps” are ever the same in partner drills.

2022-03-19, Saturday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The regular instructor was back from vacation, but suffering from a touch of jetlag, and asked me to teach anyway. We had about nine people in class, which is a good turnout for that group. We warmed up with mixed-level kihon (beginners do rising block, kyu grades do rising block/reverse punch, dan grades to rising block/front-leg front kick/reverse punch, etc.) for about 20 or 25 minutes before moving on to kata.

The beginners were having a lot of difficulting turning far enough to land with sufficient stance width after the 180° turn in Taikyoku Shodan ("Kihon" Kata). This is common - beginners often don’t rotate far enough and land, at best, in a straight line stance. To fix this, I have them imagine a line from their front heel to their back heel and then have them imagine continuing that line behind themselves. Then, when they turn, I tell them they have to turn far enough to put their heel on that imaginary line. If this doesn’t work, you can actually put lines on the floor using painter’s tape, a piece of string, or even a spare belt. Then we turn - again, and again, and again - until they can do it without looking down.

The beginners were dismissed with 30 minutes to go, and the balance of the class was reserved for dan grades, where we continued to work on Heian Sandan, Jion, and Sochin. Heian Sandan is coming along nicely. There was a bit of variance in the orientation of the fist on the last two moves, but folks have been taught to do this differently over the years. I was taught to do this with the palm facing the shoulder, but I know at least two senior instructors who make a case for orienting the back of the fist towards the face. However, in neither case should the elbow be held parallel to the floor - it needs to stay pointing down, as if guarding the solar plexus.

In Jion, we worked on the part, about 3/4 of the way through the kata, where the uraken/tsuki-uke/uraken combination leads into the 270° turn before uchi-uke, etc. I find this part seems to “lumber” for a lot of people. The combination before the turn is fast, primarily because you don’t have to move your legs, but then the turn is slow and labored, taking almost twice as long as it needs to. To fix this, I teach a drill where the preceeding combination doesn’t end with the second uraken-uchi - it ends with the turning uchi-uke. So, starting from the jodan juji-uke, it’s not a 3-count combination ending with uraken-uchi, it’s a 4 count combination ending with the turning uchi-uke. By incorporating the turning block into an otherwise fast combination, students tend to turn faster … which is the goal.

2022-03-17, Thursday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Tonight we had a great class with six students: four dan grades and four kyu grades. After warming up, we went straight into kata, spending almost the entire class working through Heian Sandan and applications. It’s funny, we get so accustomed to practicing kata as a solo form that we freeze up and lose our minds as soon as there’s a warm body standing in front of us. I kept finding myself saying, “Just do the kata!” and “What where would you do next if there wasn’t someone standing in front of you?” Yes, kata are solo forms, but we have to remember that kata are the record of karate’s underlying principles, expressed through a particular set of techniques.

Oftentimes a block is just a block and a punch is just a punch, but sometimes it’s good to examine the less “percussive” applications of the kata. Heian Sandan is rich with applications to counter different types of grabs. At least four are cross-arm grab escapes, but that’s intentional - it’s a scenario that comes up pretty often. The kata also includes defenses against same-side and two-handed lapel grabs, tackling, and a rear bear hug.

Towards the end of class we went through Sochin a couple of times. It was challenging for the kyu grades to keep up, but it’s good to keep students outside their comfort zone for a portion of each class. After all, if you’re not stretching your boundaries you’re not growing, right? Besides, the point wasn’t for them to memorize the kata - it was just to get them familiar with the first sequence (up through the first turn into manji-gamae) so we could examine one possible application.

I see this sequence as a defense against an attacker’s left-side punch to the head. The initial raise of the right hand isn’t just preparation for the downward block, it taps the punch towards the left age-uke, before falling into gedan tettsui-uchi, resulting in Sochin’s signature muso-gamae. Switching feet to adjust distance, you pull the attacker’s left arm to your waist with hikite while extending your right palm into his face to destroy his structure. From here, two rapid punches to the head either end things entirely, or significantly blunt the attacker’s resolve. Either way, you can pivot counter-clockwise into manji-gamae, with your left (lower) hand controlling his neck and your right (upper) hand still controlling his left arm, then step forward to affect a throw very similar to Aikido’s mune-tsuki kaitenage.

2022-03-16, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

In the first class, we spent most of our time with kihon, as you’d expect in the first couple of weeks of a new class. It’s hard for beginning students to coordinate foot and fist when stepping and punching or blocking, so that took a good deal of time. We start by breaking the techniques in half. On the first count, students bring their feet together without moving their arms - effectively giving their feet a “head start.” Then, on the second count, they finish the step and move their arms into the final punching/blocking position. We do that a good number of times before having students do the entire technique (both “halves”) without pause.

Students often continue to have trouble synchronizing hand and foot, but there are several ways to remedy this. One is to have them count the first half to themselves. In other words, instead of counting “one” for halfway and then “two” to complete the technique, I’ll just count “two” every time and have them count “one” to themselves, in their heads, at the halfway point. Another good way is just to tell students to delay moving their hands until the very end of their step - until they just can’t stand it anymore.

Having now practiced all of the necessary kihon, we ended the evening working on the first four moves of Taikyoku Shodan. Both students did pretty well, though one had the usual problem of trying to alternate hands to block with the wrong (left) hand for move 3. I solved that by having them switch hands and put their right hands on their left shoulders immediately after punching on move 2.

For the second class, I had two students, a yondan and a brand new white belt (albeit with a bit of training years ago). This class spent a lot of time on kihon as well, starting “from scratch” with how to stand, how to make a fist, how to do alternating punches, etc. It’s often hard to keep the whole class challenged when there are vastly different skill levels involved, but the yondan was an extremely good sport and pitched in to help with plenty of explanations.

Kata went extraordinarily well. As I said, the new white belt had trained in something before, so he was a bit less awkward than the average newcomer when it came to turning on the rear foot during kata, etc. I had only anticipated getting through the first four moves, but ended up getting through the entire kata. I was impressed.

We ended the evening with a bit of yakusoku gohon kumite. The difficulty synchronizing hand and foot isn’t limited to just children and, once given a “live” target, even students who can get foot and fist synchronized during line drills tend to “rush” the hand. We spent quite a bit of time refining this timing before finally calling it a night.

2022-03-15, Tuesday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Four students showed up to class last night - two yondans, a sandan, and a brown belt - so we dialed the kihon up a notch, giving extra attention to a couple. For the venerable soto-uke, yoko empi-uchi, uraken, gyaku-zuki combo, we spent extra time on the back-fist strike, making sure the arm snaps, the chest expands, the scapulae contract (together), and the hip counter-rotates quickly. Most people describe the hip as “vibrating” here, and that’s fine, but I think it’s important that the initial hip motion is away from the target (as it is with gedan barai). Next was stepping backward to age-uke, then forward with rear-leg mawashi-geri, landing with uraken, and stepping forward to oi-zuki. That one’s pretty challenging to begin with, but we gave some extra attention to the time between the mawashi-geri and the uraken-uchi, making sure the hand is in the ready position as the kicking leg is recoiling.

Just a bit more on the counter-rotating “vibration” on uraken-uchi: Not only does this help the chest expand but, when you do it this way, the return motion of the hip helps drive the hip rotation necessary to switch from kiba-dachi back to zenkutsu-dachi for the final gyaku-zuki of the combination. By way of contrast, when I teach the “ate” (smashing) version of uraken, I do it with forward rotation, with the hips following through as they do when swinging a baseball bat.

Next we went through the kata for the month, which are still Heian Sandan, Jion, and Sochin. For Heian Sandan, we spent more time on uraken-uchi, emphasizing the snap. In Jion, we talked about the teisho-uke/uchi performed in kiba-dachi. Some perform it as a strike along the direction of motion and some perform it as a block, orthogonal to the direction of movement. That’s fine, but in neither case should the elbow “flare out” away from the body. Just like every other thrusting arm technique, the elbow “hugs” the body throughout. In Sochin, we spent more time on the bit leading into the first kiai, talking about how the hineri-uke must be performed with the forearm held vertically. Any other orientation destroys your ability to redirect the incoming punch. Many, many people tend to let the blocking elbow flare out away from the body, because they’re accustomed to the nagashi-uke in the Tekki kata, but this wrecks the vertical alignment of the forearm. The point to remember here is to keep both elbows pointing forward throughout.

We ended the night with a bit of kihon ippon and jiyu ippon kumite. Mawashi-geri isn’t normally part of this group’s yakusoku kumite routine, but I added it because I wanted to work on the same Heian Sandan application of moves 2 and 3 that I discussed before. Mawashi-geri is tricky, because it’s so easy for the attacker to “flip” it from low to high (or vice-versa), so I like to use a defense that provides as much coverage as possible. The combined low/high block on move 2 of Heian Sandan fits the bill nicely. If you turn into the kick with the hand closest to the attacker performing the inside block, you can block both low and high kicks. Then, proceed to move 3, using the reversal of the blocks to “crank” the attacker’s knee downward, forcing the attacker to spin and expose his back.

2022-03-14, Monday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA

Only one student showed up for the first class, and he hadn’t been there since the first week, so he got a private lesson, reviewing the basic basics: how to make a fist, how to make front stance, how to step and punch, etc. He did a really good job, and I told him so. Yes, karate lessons build on each other, and if you miss class it can be hard to catch up, but I figured since he was the only one there it made more sense to make him feel good about being there. Who knows? Maybe that’ll make him want to come more often. We even spent a few extra moments going over the dojo kun (in English), making sure he understands what it really means instead of just becoming “that thing we say.”

The second class was small too, so we spent time reviewing what we went over last week before moving into Heian Sandan applications. We started at the beginning and worked our way through the three empi-uke/uraken combinations, with some moves having several applications, depending on the attack. For instance, the initial uchi-uke, followed by alternating double blocks, can be applied as a cross-side wrist grab escape and elbow break, an escape from a same-side single-hand lapel grab, or a nasty and effective defense against mawashi-geri, starting with a block and resulting in a knee crank that turns the attacker around backwards. Likewise, the elbow-supported nukite in the first half of the kata can be used to escape a cross-hand wrist grab that exposes the attacker’s back, or as an effective escape from a double lapel grab by attacking the suprasternal notch.

2022-03-12, Saturday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

The beginner class had the usual suspects, but now included the father of three children already in the class - that’s fun. About five minutes into kihon drills, I called him out a bit. “You’ve trained before, haven’t you?” It showed. It turns out that, yes, he’d done some Kyokushin before. I sometimes joke that the most challenging beginners are those who’ve done another martial art because they’ve got so many habits to break. In any case, it’s great to have a parent training alongside his children.

For the second class, we spent the first half working on basics and basic combinations, with different drills for different skill levels. Then we moved on to more kata applications. This time we worked on an elbow hyperextension application from the middle of Tekki Nidan (the part where you raise the knee), working that over and over to refine the stance and distancing. In the kata this is done in place, but in application it’ll probably be necessary to rotate away from the attacker to keep clear of his free hand.

From there, we went on to a few “What if that doesn’t work?” options. Option 1 was to apply flexion to the captured wrist (i.e. press their palm towards their elbow). This is easy since the mechanics of the technique already result in wrist flexion - you just need to apply sufficient pressure to make it work. Option 2 was to apply a pronating flexion lock to the captured wrist. It turns out this results in an almost “textbook” application of Aikido’s tachiwaza gyakuhanmi nikkyo (ura version). The initial motion of the “elbow strike” sends the attacker forward and towards the floor. Their natural reaction will be to stand back up, which nicely serves to double the pressure on the wrist lock.

2022-03-10, Thursday

Subbing for ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Checking the instructor’s syllabus, I saw that the katas for the month were Heian Sandan, Jion, and Sochin. The students had a passing grasp of the first two, so we spent most of our time getting through Sochin.

As expected, remembering to default to fudo-dachi was a challenge, but that’ll be a long struggle. We also spent a good deal of time on the sequence leading into the first kiai (which is almost harder to count than it is to do), with particular emphasis on the blocks. These are, so far as I’m aware, the only appearance of hineri-uke in the Shotokan syllabus, so I figured it was worth going over how they’re different from … say … the similar (but differently directed) haiwan jodan nagashi-uke in the Tekki kata. The important part being, not the direction the arm is moving, but the twisting action along the way.

2022-03-09, Wednesday

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Tonight I had a brand-new 8-year-old beginner perform gedan barai correctly the very first time I showed it to him. I’ve been teaching a long time now, and I’ve never had that happen before. It usually takes several tries, and several different ways of explaining it, but this student just caught on right away, so that was a good feeling. I taught it by concentrating on the arms alone, while standing in front of the mirror, and using my usual imagary of one hand sliding down the opposite arm from the preparatory position on the shoulder to its final blocking position, parallel to the other arm.

In the adult class, we went over applications from the Tekki kata. We began by using the first two moves of Tekki Shodan as a same-side wrist grab escape and throw (what an Aikidoka would recognize as kokyu nage) before continuing on to the yoko-mawashi empi uchi, etc., if that doesn’t work.

Next we worked on using moves 3 and 4 from Tekki Nidan (the low, inward “scooping” forearm block and return) to defend against a cross-side kick, very similar to the scooping block before the dropping punch near the end of Kanku Dai. Yes, that leaves you very close if things go south, but Tekki are close-fighting katas, and that’s why we practice.