2026-06-29

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

It’s been a busy few weeks. We held our first-ever seminar and black belt exam on June 20, with one of our students passing his shodan exam. Then, last week, I went back to Illinois for a high-school reunion, so thanks to Sensei Barry O’Brien for covering class in by absence.

Since several students recently passed a kyu grading and are responsible for learning new kata, we spent most of the night working through the Heian katas and Tekki Shodan. Unsurprisingly, we spent a lot of time on stance training. We spend a lot of time correcting hip position, but oftentimes foot position is the real problem. With the rear foot pointed more than a few degrees to the side, it’s impossible to turn the hips fully forward. The same is true for stance width. Without a hip-width stance, it’s impossible for the hips to be fully forward - that’s just how geometry works.