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.