2025-12-08

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

We had twelve students in class last night, which may be a new record. That may seem like a lot, but it’s a lot more than the two I started with just a few short years ago, and I’m grateful for it.

We spent most of the evening working through kata using a method designed to reinforce what students already know, introduce them to new katas bit-by-bit, and give them plenty of time to work on their assigned kata. It goes like this:

1. Everyone does Taikyoku Shodan by the count.
2. Everyone does his or her own kata - no count.
3. Everyone does Heian Shodan by the count.
4. Everyone does his or her own kata - no count.
5. Everyone does Heian Nidan by the count.

And so on … all the way up through Tekki Shodan and ending with everyone doing their own kata one last time. That means everyone will do their own kata 8 times and every other kata at least once. This keeps the upper rank from getting “rusty” on the early katas and introduces the lower rank to the later katas with no presssure to do any more than get familar with them. To make sure that works, I count through the katas slowly enough to give everyone a chance to stay caught up and encourage the lower-ranked students to watch what the others do first and then do the techniques themselves.