2023-04-12

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

This was my last class before going on vacation, and thank you again to Sensei Dave Bracklow from ISKF Tempe for covering for me while I’m gone.

Tonight in the youth class, everyone really surprised me with the ability to start (and finish) Taikyoku Shodan regardless of which way they’re facing at the beginning. That was awesome! I did “cheat” just a bit though. I have a portable kamiza that I use in class. It’s a folding frame photo frame that holds two 5x7 aluminum plates: One is calligraphy of the dojo kun and the other is a photo of masters Funakoshi and Nakayama. I set it on a box in the front of the class, so we have a shomen. For this exercise, I moved the box and the kamiza to the new “front” and had them all face that direction to begin and end their kata. So they are still “anchoring” to something, but not the entire room.

In the second class, we spent a lot of time on hip rotation. We moved up and down the floor doing basic block/counter combinations, concentrating on hip rotation. Then we stood in stance, in front of the mirror, doing those same block/counter combinations, very slowly. The things we talked about included:

• Minding which direction the hip was rotating in relation to the technique.
• Making sure the start and end of the technique coincides with the start and end of the hip rotation.
• Concentrating on the rear leg, bending it to pull the hip back and straightening it to fire the hip forward.

Our next kyu grading will be on May 24, about two weeks after I return from vacation, but everyone seems to be tracking very well towards their next grading, so I’ll see you all on the other side!