2024-02-21

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

Attendance in the youth & family class was light again today, but we spent the majority of our time in the adult class going over Heian Sandan applicaitons, particularly those of the furi-empi uke and both of the 180° turns.

• The furi-empi uke has to be executed with the elbows pointing directly sideways. Many students don’t have the flexibility to do this and end up with their elbows pointing slightly backwards, but this doesn’t allow the block to do its job.
• The first 180° turn can be expressed as an escape from a bear hug, dropping your center of gravity and then using your hands-on-hips as a wedge to open the bear hug. If needed, you can also drive the hips back and/or smash the back of your head into the attacker’s nose to create space.
• The second 180° turn is an extention of the “linear” elbow blocks. This time, instead of stepping foward into the block, you block and spin, landing the elbow in the attacker’s abdomen and the close punch over your shoulder to his face.