2025-08-18

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

Tonight’s adult class picked up where we left off last time, picking two of our eight “standard” attacks, making a combination out of them, and using those combinations as the basis for yakusoku kumite. For example, one such combination was side thrust kick followed by a spinning back kick with the opposite leg. One partner would throw this combination, alternating sides, while the other would attempt to defend and counterattack. Since we kept changing combinations, and partners, and since we had a broad cross section of ranks and sizes attending, it was a learning exercise for everyone … even me.

Yes, it’s a bit unrealistic, in that you know what techniques are coming, and in what order, but it can still be quite challenging to come up with defenses to neutralize both. Take, for example, a lunge punch to the face followed by a jab to the face with the same hand. Ordinarily we’d block the lunge punch with a rising block, but that makes it difficult to block the jab if it just “slips” under the block. It forced us to come up with (and collaborate on) different defences from our “stock” set, and to use both technique and position (angle & distance) to avoid attacks.