Youth Karate - Tuesday, November 28, 2012

Four students with Jack assisting. We started off with the 10 and then worked on some application for the forms. We all went through Nihanchi together, then worked on the uppercut/downward backfist section to pads. We then did a similar thing with Seisan, but I had the pairs find their own section to work on, practice it a bit then present to the rest of the group.

We were a little more fragmented during Seiuchin and Wansu, but everyone was either working on their form sequence or an application for a section of their form.

We ended with an obstacle course that included some SD elements, and then basic trapping hands after that.

Arnis and Adult Karate class notes - Monday 11/26/12 - Sensei Chaisson

Monday's Arnis class went very well, though somewhat unexpected.  I had intended to continue on in empty hand form 5, though before class had started, I had been warming up with a staff and was joined by those who started coming in to the room, so we spent the class doing solo staff drills as well as some two person staff work.  The class consisted of Phil, Jack, Scott, Colleen, and myself.  A great group to work with and great energy by all.
 
The karate class also went very well.  we had 6 total including myself.  We ran through a set of the 10 exercises, did some crunches as well as some lunge/sidekick and speed roundhouse drills to warm the legs up.  After a little partner stretching we went in to some pad work.  We practiced jab/cross with our partners telling us what our tells were and then had our partners dance around while we followed and threw the jab/cross as we could.  We also worked sidekicks to a focus pad, practicing the difference between a sparing sidekick where we focused more on control, retraction, and striking more with the ball of the foot and a "true" sidekick, where we focused on hitting with the heel and getting the proper penetration energy and retracting from a point past the pad.  We then spent the end of the class with a few rounds of free sparring.  Great feedback happening in between rounds by all.  I'm told I have a strange style of sparring... not sure if that's good or bad yet.  At the very least it means I'm unpredictable :)

Studio Holiday Party - Saturday Dec. 1st - 10am-1pm

Yang Sau Chung, son of Yang Cheng Fu

Adult Karate 11-19-12

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 11/19/12 - Sensei Reid

Adult Karate Class Report 11-19-12
Angus Reid & Scott Miner leading, 5 other students attending

A good turnout for a Monday night- 3 black belts, myself included, two
brown, one green, and a new student. Mr. Miner and I took turns
leading through the basics and warmup; we then devoted most of the
class to training basic strikes to focus pads, with the upper ranks
taking turns working with the beginner. I gave the upper ranks the
option of doing combos or training the details of the strikes instead
of just pad-striking. We went from this into a few minutes of
basic-strike + stancework, with the padholder moving and presenting
the pad at different heights and distances, first with the striker
using just forward-leg roundhouse kicks, then a freestyle combination
of hand strikes. We cooled down with a few rounds of harmony sparring,
then spent the last 15 minutes on passive stretching as a group.

Modern Arnis Class Notes 11.19.2012

Luke led class (Luke, Phil, Scott, Colleen, Jack)

Walking warm up.

Spent most of the class on two person and bag drills of the opening application from anyo 5.

Wrapped up with a slow free form locking series.

Great class.

-Phil

T'ai Chi class notes - Saturday 11/17/12 - Sandy

Saturday Morning Tai Chi class was well attended. We had a quiet group this morning, many were feeling the stiffness of the cold. We began with our warm ups and went right into working with partners. Marty worked with Suzanne on part one of the solo form, Phil worked with Jack on part two of the solo form, Nancy and Karen worked on the dance starting with part one, working through part five, questioning part five and staying with it. They always work well together. I worked with Pat on the dance, reviewing parts one through three and then the beginning of part four. Then we finished with the solo form. It was a nice class. Thanks for the discussion of your practice at the end of class. This is all very interesting. Thank you and take care, Sandy

Modern Arnis Class Notes 11.14.2012

Private lesson Phil & Jack

Stick warm ups with some extra emphasis on double zero.

Worked out some details of the first line of the Tai Chi Cane form. Then added some of the second line.

Worked the offensive triangle tapi tapi drill.

Worked some free style tapi tapi.

-Phil

Modern Arnis testing 11.7.12

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 11.12.12 - Scott

Last nights class went well we had Angus, Colleen, Thomas, Jack, Hannah, and myself. We began with the 10 exercises and followed with a little core work. We then did partner work which consisted of trapping hands with variations, and a couple drills Ive been making up over the past couple weeks. It went very well, the energy in the room was perfect. We ended the night with joint locking drills and kata's.

Modern Arnis Class Notes 11.12.2012

Scott, Jack, Colleen, Luke, Phil

We had a small test debrief during warm ups.

Then moved on to work abenico variations, balente walk striking and counters, and a review of striking style names.

We ended with the offensive/defensive triangle stepping tappi tappi drill.

Great focus and energy in the room.

-Phil

Modern Arnis rank evaluation results - Wed. 11/7/12

First of all, I'd like to thank the the Modern Arnis group of Black belts and students for a wonderful, skill packed, rank evaluation this past Wed. evening.

The Modern Arnis rank promotions are:

Phil Ringwood - 2nd degree Black belt (Lakan Dalawa)

Jeff Chaisson - 2nd degree Black belt (Lakan Dalawa) 

Scott Miner - 1st degree Brown belt - Honorable Mention for Anyo (Forms)

Thomas Perham - 1st degree Green belt - (high green)

Colleen Golrick - 1st degree Green belt - (high green)

Jack Fox - Green belt 

Many thanks to the Modern Arnis Black belt staff for being present and participating on the testing board:

Jason Kratz - 3rd degree Black belt

Luke Smith - 3rd degree Black belt

Justin Lively - 3rd degree Black belt

Phil Ringwood - 2nd degree Black belt

Jeff Chaisson - 2nd degree Black belt

Also thanks to Marcia Gobiel (Black belt) and Jessica Larkin (Brown belt) for their presence and energy....great to see you both in the room!!

I'd also like to thank Mike B. for the awesome calligraphy on the Arnis certificates!! Your all going to really like the way the certs turned out;^) 

Arnis Staff: The Certs are in my office and ready for signatures from the Black belt Staff. I'll officially hand them out next Wed. (11/28) night at class.

T'ai Chi class notes - Saturday 11/10/12 - Marty

The class was good size for what it has been, there were 7 and myself Jack,Jean,Wess,Phil,Pat,Gretchen,and Suzanne.

     I did the usual warm ups,for standing I did the 21,then the grand circulation.

     We did a little push hands then Phil worked with Gretchen and Jean on the end of part 2 and the beginning of part 3. Wess and Pat did the dance. I worked with Jack and Suzann on part 1. Finished class doing a round with you.

I think class went well.

Modern Arnis and Adult Karate class notes - Monday Nov. 5, 2012 - Sensei Chaisson

 We had a couple of smaller classes last night.

 

6 total for the arnis class.  3 black belts (Luke, Phil, and myself) and 3 upcomming testers (Scott, Colleen, and Jack) so the numbers worked out very well.  We had a small warm up followed by a quick run through of the forms.  We then broke in to pairs and each of the black belts worked with each other Scott, Colleen, or Jack for 15 minutes each on what ever they thought they needed help with before the test.  Good energy by all.

 

5 total for the karate class.  Ron, Colleen, Scott, Thomas, and myself.  Since we still had mainly folks who are going to be testing, I kept things more on the arnis side.  We went through the 10 exercises as well as some floor streches.  We worked the unfreindly hand shake on both sides.  We then moved in to knife work.  We practiced the heavy hand for checking, worked on the 5 disarms, ran through the flow drill (not sure what to call this one.  The attacker starts with a poke to the abdomen and follows up with another poke, slash, poke, and another slash as the defender reacts with an X-block followed by checks and passing and ends by taking the knife away).  We then moved in to a little free style playing and ended by practicing the two "knife held at throat" techniques.  I can't remember the last time I've seen those brought up in a class so I thought they'd be fun.  Again, great energy from all.

A letter from Youth Karate students parents that I recently received:

Good Morning Richard,

I just wanted to send you and all the other Teachers at the studio a heart felt THANK YOU for what you have done for our girls!!! Wednesday was such a special class (and all the the trainings and the classes leading up to it), I can not tell you how much this means to our family.  The training you are giving our girls is beyond anything we could have imagined. All i can say is thank you and thank you again!

Truly , Ryan and Linda



Sifu's comment:
This letter was sent to me by Skyler and Sailors parents. Sailor was able to perform Nihanchi Kata in front of the group last Wed.....she's been working on it for several years!!! Finally with the help of her big sister Skyler and the continued support and encouragement of her parents...she GOT IT!! It was so wonderful to witness and this kind of feedback is truly what keeps me going. Just when I think I've wasted my adult life teaching this "stuff" I get a letter like this....last week it was just in the nick of time as the small class size had me a bit down in the dumps. I can't tell you all how much this kind of positive feedback means to me.....but it's what keeps me going! Thanks to all of you the share with me how the meaningful the classes and training is to you....I ALWAYS appreciate the thanks and feedback...every single time!