2022-08-01

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.