2022-03-30

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.