This week at the dojo

Erm, sorry, been a slack poster which is not good with my memory. Monday, I don't know! I think Chris was here! Maybe that was last week?

Wednesday, I was here. Sempai Phil took the class. There were lots of beginners which is always fun. We split the class into those who could fall & those who couldn't. I took the ones who couldn't & taught them how they can & Phil took the others for a throw. We combined the class for a basic takedown & worked on how perfecting our footwork could make a world of difference. Then we did some pad work.

On Thursday I promised Sensei I'd work on stuff for the grading in a few weeks and with a bit of imagination you could relate what we did to something that might happen in the grading ;-) We went through some of the routines picked up at camp. It'd be too easy to let them go and as they addressed very basic body positioning it's something the newbies should work on from early on. We then played with a leg block drill we also did on the weekend. It feels like a very short session finishing for 6:45!

On Friday Chris was finally well enough to take a decent class! Announcement: Chris's Friday class is back on! Megan was the only hopeful so she got a bit of one on one (& at times two on one) coaching in spinning kicks. We had a major breakthrough and by the end (I don't know how many kicks she did, poor thing) she was kicking like a pro! We spent a lot of time working out what was wrong with her technique because it was absolutely typical of most students when they first try a spinning kick. What we noticed was the problem was in the upper body. We're so used to using our upper body for contra balance when we kick roundhouse that our instinct is to do the same for a spinning kick which is all bad. If that doesn't make sense have a quiet look at those that can & those that can't.

Another 'rule' I've adopted since Taupo that might help beginners work out what's wrong with their kicks is "foot-butt-foot" ie. in almost all cases your bottom/hips should be between your support foot and your kicking foot. It's just another way of saying put your hips into it. Ugly kickers almost always 'sit down' to kick ie. have "butt-foot-foot". Again if that doesn't make sense check out your average class doing front kicks.

On Saturday Chris took the 10&11am sessions. We started with the monastery run (one set of steps - I know, soft), then did pyramid training, Lynford Christies ab workout & finished with butts. Some of us non-committed types broke Sensei Paul's rule while he was away & joined in some tourny training. It was a not too intense look at spinning kicks as well as Chris's freaky inside crescent kick. I bet I wasn't the only one who needed a nap on Sat arvo!