Adult Karate Class Report 2-25-13 - Sensei Reid

Adult Karate Class Report 2-25-13
Angus Reid leading, seven students attending

Had an excellent, high-energy class with pretty good attendance for a
Monday. After warming up with the basic 10 and the standing kicks, we
spent 20 minutes on high-intensity interval training using the Tabata
method: 4-minute sets of 8 intervals - 20 seconds active and 10
seconds of rest. I had a CD with the instructions to begin and rest at
the appropriate times, and with partners and pads we each did 2 sets:
first focusing on hand techniques, and next on kicks. The one thing I
hadn't counted on in preparing was that a room full of people hitting
pads sometimes drowns out the spoken cues on the CD; sometimes we
missed the cue to rest and had a solid 50 seconds of intense punching
or kicking.

With our bodies very warm we spent a few minutes in dynamic
stretching, including stretches for wrists and shoulders in
preparation for rolls on the mats.

We started with basic across-the-shoulder combat rolls, and everyone
had these fairly well. I then demonstrated how to do a front roll
using both shoulders, and we worked on that for a bit. Next was
kip-ups, and I would say most of the class made really good progress
on these. The focus here was on lifting from the hips, and not tucking
to pull up the shoulders prematurely. The next step was to join the
two techniques together and kip-up out of a forward roll, which was
more of a future goal for most, as it requires the two techniques to
be strong on their own first.

We finished off with trapping hands and independent stretching.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Three students today and four assisting. After we warmed up with the ten, Sensei led us through some kicking drills and stretching. Then we went through several rounds of free sparring with different partners. The students were able to get some advice from the upper ranks. To finish up, we did a few rounds of two-on-one sparring.

Modern Arnis Class Notes 02.18.2013

(Phil, Luke, Jason, Jeff, Scott, Colleen, Jack, Justice)

Quick warm up with some single and double stick twirling.

Unfriendly handshake locking series right and left side, followed by Rolland Rivera locking series.

Then spent the rest of the class on trapping hands, trapping hands with transition through locks, then trapping with locks to throws to limited ground work.

Worked a bit with Justic on backwards throw, center lock and arm bar. Then moved on with him to review the angels of attack.

Sense Kratz spent additional time with Justice on basic stick work.

Great to be back in the room with such great people.

-Phil

Adult Karate class notes Monday Feb. 11, 2013, Sensei Chaisson

  Monday night classes went well.  We had a new student who joined both the arnis class and the karate class by the name Justice.  He is an acquaintance of Justin Lively.  The arnis class had four students plus Sensei and myself.  Sensei took Justice the first half of the class and worked on basics while I worked with the others on forms and then we swapped duties half way through.  The karate class had six students.  We spent the majority of the class working on basics.  Vertical punch, low/middle/high blocks, back-fist, jab/cross, snap kick, thrust kick.  We ended working in pairs on rank forms.  Justice had a chance to work with each of the black belts in the room.

Happy Chinese New Year to all - Welcome to the Year of the (black water) Snake!

Copied from Sifu Ken Cohens Blog: http://kenneth-cohen.blogspot.com/


"February 10, 2013 is the first day of the Water Snake (Gui Si) year. However, each animal is also associated with an element. Because Snake is Fire, this is a Water Fire year. The first element (water) symbolizes heaven and spirituality. The second element (fire) symbolizes the physical world, especially the environment and economy. Elements may be either in harmony or conflict. For example, water produces wood. If this year were a water wood year, it would be a good omen. However, water and fire are in conflict because water puts out fire. There will be even more polarization this year between the spiritual and the mundane, between, on the one hand, those fighting for social and environmental justice, and, on the other hand, corporate and governmental powers. Markets and plans will all be unstable, not a good year to take risks, but a good year to move slowly, methodically, and carefully towards your goals. Sometimes water and fire are a dynamic polarity: complementary rather than conflicting opposites. But I do not sense that this is the case for 2013.

The elements of the year also effect health. In Chinese medicine, water rules the kidneys; fire rules the heart. The kidneys are adversely affected by a quick pace of life and by stress. Nurture the kidneys by slowing down; mitigate the effects of stress by practicing Tai Chi (taiji quan) and qigong. The heart is damaged by excess (lack of moderation, especially in the emotional realm). Heal the heart by finding mental and emotional equilibrium. Practice peace.

The snake is intuitive, energetic, and-- no surprise-- close to the earth. Among the animals, the snake is the major Chinese symbol of qi, life energy. A great year for wilderness retreats and qigong as well as other yang sheng (life nurturing) activities such as poetry and art". 

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 2/4/13 - Sensei Reid

Adult Karate Class Report 2-4-2013
Angus Reid leading, Sensei Kratz, Colleen Golrick &, Scott Miner
assisting, four other students attending.

Had a good class with much support from other black belts in the room,
assisting in helping the new student Steven with his basic techniques.

Warmed up with the 10, standing kicks, endless pushup, and shuffling
roundhouse kicks. For technique, we worked on a series of strike
combos to focus pads and body shields, working on building and
controlling torque from the core on hook and roundhouse kicks,
harnessing gravity while maintaining leg control on an axe-kick /
front snap kick combo, and controlling body line on a hook punch /
backfist combo.

We then geared up and spent 15 minutes sparring in pairs. Steven was
restricted to  slow harmony sparring due to his lack of mouthpiece and
cup; I told him he should get those asap. The last ten minutes we
stretched together, doing static, passive stretches.

Thanks for all the help from the other black belts.

Early Wu style Taijiquan (1937)

Wu Tai Chi Chuan of the Ma family.