2022-07-11

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.