2023-08-14

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

Classes were huge last night (huge for us anyway) with seven in the “youth & family” class and four in the “adult” class.

Everyone in both classes is working towards next week’s kyu grading. All the students have been given individual feedback on what they need to do better, and everyone has time to make those improvements, but the responsibility is ultimately theirs. We’ve had “the talk” about the need to spend time practicing outside of class. Two hours a week simply isn’t enough time to see much improvement. Ideally, you attend class to learn what and how to practice, and then spend time honing those skills on your own.

In the adult class we spent quite a bit of time looking at basic applications of kata techniques, particularly in Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan. My hope was that students will find it easier to remember and execute kata techniques if they know what they’re doing, beyond just waving their arms in the air and posing in certain “shapes.” Since their performance appears to have markedly improved on the portions of the kata we went over, I’d call that a success.