2023-11-08

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

Today’s youth and family class spent a lot of time working on turns in Taikyoku Shodan … a lot. The best way I’ve found to do this is to start with a 90° turn, then work on a 180° turn, then move to the 270° turn. By pulling the turns out of the context of the kata and just working on the turns by themselves, we build that skill in isolation. Then we put it back in the kata.

In the adult class we worked on punching fast and controlling our distance. I’m of the opinion that students tend to regulate power by slowing down rather than punching fast and controlling power with distance. Students also tend to be “afraid of the ball” when allowing other people to punch at them. So we worked on both. We started by lining up against the wall in kiba-dachi and punching at the wall, trying to get as close to the wall as possible without hitting it. Then we did the same drill with a partner, where one partner played the part of the wall. We added a few more variations (which will be in a forthcoming blog post) but I think everyone understood the two points I was trying to make: 1) Punch fast and control power with distance, and 2) Trust your partner.