2023-02-15
Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.
Our first class spent a good deal of time on turning during Taikyoku Shodan. This is proving really difficult for about half the class, so we started by going over the “rules” related to turning in this kata:
- Always put your chin on your punching shoulder. That’s the way you’re going to end up facing (even if you turn the opposite direction to get there).
- You block with your front hand, and step with your front foot, unless you just kiaied, in which case you use your back hand and back foot.
But even then we had difficulties, so my plan is to address each of the three types of turns, individually. They are:
- A 180° turn, from right-side oi-zuki to right-side gedan-barai.
- A 90° turn, from left-side oi-zuki to left-side gedan-barai.
- A 270° turn, from right-side oi-zuki to left-side gedan-barai.
Tonight, we focussed on the first one.
We had a kyu grading for my senior student in the second class tonight. She’s curently 9th kyu, grading for junior 8th kyu. Her test went very well and, as usual, I’ll prepare written feedback to share with her and her classmates next week. Sharing each examinee’s feedback with the whole class helps the class understand the expectations on each exam. Likewise, it publicly congratulates the examinees for things they did well while helping hold them accountable for improving where it’s needed.
