2024-04-24

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

In tonight’s class, I continued introducing the new 8th kyu students to Heian Nidan, and we made it all the way through the kata. We spent quite a bit more time on the side kick/backfist combination I discussed last time, and it’s looking better. Then we moved on to Heian Sandan and worked our way slowly through to the end. It’s coming along. Across all katas, we talked a lot about proper foot orientation, particularly the orientation of the back foot (which I feel often gets ignored). I rounded out the night with a brief talk about kata history, where the Heian and Taikyoku katas come from, who developed them and when, and why they’re in the order they are.