Sunday 3/27/11

Despite another rainy Sunday we had a pretty good turnout today. One month until Kyu test!! Everyone today looked really good. Push hard this month - come to class as much as possible and do some at home on your own. Today we went over your testing kata a lot. I also had everyone go one by one - with count - checking everything. A good slow kata is very helpful. You can make it exact when you go slow - checking stance, asking yourself 1. What am I doing in this technique - blocking or striking, how and where is my target? 2. How are my hips - straight for punch or angled for block? 3. Am I rising/floating up 4. How is my posture? 5. Are my elbows in? 6. Are my shoulders coming up - am I tight on top 7. Do I feel myself using the floor? Basics - we did mostly white to yellow(no rank to 8th kyu) belt basics. At the end I did a more yellow to green(7th to 6th kyu) and green to 2nd green basics(6th to 5th kyu). Kumite - basic sanbon kumite and green belt one step kumite Combinations - back and forth - we noticed that the basics were very solid one by one but when the combinations started all the basic stances were lost. When we went slower again and focused on the stances and techniques the form looked better. Something to remember and think about. Then offense/defense - trying to incorporate combinations Since a tournament is coming April 30th I'll start to do more and more sparring in class.