2024-02-28

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

I had two insights while teaching tonight, and I share them here in the hope that other instructors will find them useful in their own teaching.

First, the gedan-uke/uchi-uke combination in Heain Sandan: It’s hard for students to “dial in” because it generates power by lifting the hips, unlike anything they’ve done in prior kata, and it requires breaking the habit of having the “other” hand come back to hike-te. My first instructor taught me to pretend I had a piece of chewing gum stuck to the crook of my downward-blocking arm, and to scrape it off as my inside-blocking arm passed by on its way to downward block. That’s a fine way to address the path of the technique, but what about the cadence? Tonight I had the idea to liken this technique to snapping ones fingers. When snapping your fingers, there’s a buildup of pressure, but the “snap” doesn’t happen until that pressure is suddenly released. This block is the same way. You build up pressure between your arms and then “snap” them past each other to create the blocking force.

Second, the jodan haiwan nagashi-uke from Tekki Shodan: This is also unlike anything students have done before. The “textbook” rising block in Shotokan presses the inbound attack up and away from your head, while this block draws the attack up, aside, and past your head, almost pulling it past. We stood in front of the mirror with students mimicking my motion for a few minutes before I noticed one student doing this block with their hand open instead of closed. It looked like he was saluting me and that gave me an epiphany. The position of this block at the moment of contact with the attack is virtually identicaly to a military hand salute, but with the hand in a fist instead of open. Once I explained it that way, everyone got it, so I’ll be adding that to my arsenal of analogies.