2024-01-29

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

We had two new students in the youth and family class tonight. Classes continue to grow! The adult class spent a good deal of time on side kicks. We all grabbed chairs and used them for balance while we focused on the differences between side thrust kick and side snap kick. I teach side snap kick in three steps: Up, out and back (same count), down. Likewise side thrust kick is four steps: Up, out, back, down. Next we continued our deep dive on Heian Sandan. We spent quite a bit of time on the spin into the hammerfist strike in kiba-dachi just before the first kiai. It’s important to complete the turn before stepping out into stance or your angular momentum will end up throwing you “off course” to the right of embusen. Fortunately, we’d been talking about exactly the same thing while working on Taikyoku Shodan. It’s not a “turning step.” It’s “turn and then step.”