2024-01-03

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

Today was the first class of the new year and attendance was pretty good in the youth and family class, so we took a picture. Next month will be two years since classes began, and classes have been steadily growning.

The youth and family class spent a lot of time working on the path and application of inside block vs. outside block (uchi-uke vs. soto-uke). We worked on the path of the technique in the mirror for a while before pairing up with partners. Standing across from each other in natural stance, one side would punch and the other side would block. We practiced just about all possible permutations of inside and outside blocks against same-side and opposite-side straight punches. The goal was to get students comfortable with intercepting a punch with either block, using either arm.

The adult class wasn’t as well-attended, so we’ll wait and take a picture when everyone returns from their vacations and illnesses. Nevertheless, we got right into it, returning to our tai-sabaki drill of shifting forward with a jab, shifting forward with a reverse punch, and stepping forward with a front kick. Meanwhile the other side shifts back with jodan nagashi-uke, shifts back with gedan-barai, and then shifts back at an angle with another gedan-barai to avoid the front kick before countering with a reverse punch and switching feet, ready to begin again. Everyone is making good progress with this, and I think we may be able to move on to a few variations in a week or so.

We also had a talk about being comfortable getting into other people’s space. Of course we don’t want to be the one instigating things, but if the threat is severe enough to warrant using what we’ve learned, then we have to be decisive about it. By definition, hitting someone requires entering their space. I recommended thinking of it like this: You’re not invading their space. It’s your space. It’s all your space. You’re just taking it back.