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.